Where is truth? Panelists say look to the Catholic Church

Jim Ennis, executive director of St. Paul-based Catholic Rural Life, didn’t always place Christ at the center of his life. He grew up Catholic in California, but even as a youngster found himself attending Mass “just in case.” Then came college, and the drift grew a little wider.

What helped draw him firmly back into the Catholic Church was a desire to learn its teachings and its history, and a growing faith in what he found, Ennis told an online audience Jan. 20 in the first of four Faith and Culture sessions produced by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Titled “Sources of Catholic Teaching (Scripture, Tradition and Magisterium),” the 90-minute session also featured Barbara Heil, a former Pentecostal minister who converted to the Catholic Church after years of study, and Bill Stevenson, associate professor of dogmatic theology at The St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul. Stevenson described the roots and depth of Catholic teaching through Scripture, tradition that has been built through centuries of honing an understanding of God, the human condition, faith and morality, and the magisterium, the teachings of bishops in communion with the pope.

Ennis spoke about his experience along with his wife, Sally, who grew up as a Presbyterian in Kentucky who was hungry to know more about Jesus. Now the director of admissions at a local, private Christian college, Sally said that as a Protestant curious about the Catholic faith she struggled with Catholic teachings about the primacy of the pope, the intercession of Mary, the canonization of saints and the Eucharist.

In the end, realizing the reality of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist most strongly drew her to the Catholic Church, she said, and she entered the Church in April 2002. Christ is present in the Eucharist in every way that Catholics believe, she said with wonder in her voice, “in body, blood, soul and divinity. He is present in the Mass — in every Mass.”

There was time for questions, too, with one person asking if to be a good Catholic one needs to believe everything the Church teaches. “What if I doubt certain teachings?” the person asked. Stevenson helped answer the question by recognizing that the Church does speak with authority and the truth “is not divisible. The truth is one.”

Heil suggested that asking questions is a good thing.

“I investigated things I did not agree with,” she said. “I would learn the ‘why’ behind the hard teachings. … It is good to ask questions. We can be a good Catholic so long as we’re trying to get at the truth.”

Archbishop Bernard Hebda introduced the session, which is archived and will be available for viewing the evening of Jan. 21 at archspm.org/synod, by noting that it was being held on the same day President Joe Biden was inaugurated into office in a divisive and difficult time in the nation’s history.

“It is coincidental, not intentional, but perhaps providential that we begin this series on this day in history,” the archbishop said. Even during a time of political rancor and fake news, “through the faith, objective truth can be found,” he said.

The Faith and Culture series was inspired by 30 Prayer and Listening sessions held in 2019 and 2020, Archbishop Hebda said, as the archdiocese prepares for an Archdiocesan Synod on pastoral priorities in 2022. More than 8,000 participants in those sessions and 35,000 written comments pointed to a desire to learn more about Catholic teaching, particularly on difficult subjects, the archbishop said.

Three more Faith and Culture sessions will be held. The next event is Jan. 27, titled “The Church’s Teaching on Sexual Morality and the Family;” Feb. 4 will focus on “The Church’s Understanding on the Dignity of Women;” and Feb. 9 will explore “The Priesthood (both baptized and ordained).”

Tuning into those sessions either live or listening to the archived recordings at archspm.org/synod will help ground the faithful in Church teaching as preparation continues for the Synod, the archbishop said.