It started with anti-Catholic flyers on the windshields of cars in a Catholic church's parking lot. One could argue that the modern post-Vatican II Catholic apologetics movement started with that act. San Diego businessman Karl Keating became so upset about these flyers, he felt called to take action. He subsequently started Catholic Answers and one of his first employees was Patrick Madrid. For over 25 years, Catholic Answers has been providing Catholics with answers about their faith along with Scriptural, Catechetical and other faith enhancing materials. My book, The Tide Is Turning Toward Catholicism, tells the stories of many individuals who have had their own epiphanies and decided it is up to them to help spread the Faith handed down from the Apostles.
Some say that Vatican II itself was the ultimate empowering agent for the Catholic laity. While that may be true, it has been those Catholic men and women who have supported the Church's teachings and adhered to orthodoxy that have helped the Church grow and prosper. By the 1980s, many Catholics, especially those born in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, had come of age lacking the basic understandings of much of their faith. As the group born in the 1950s began having children, they craved a better understanding of their faith for themselves and their children.
Bible and Catechism studies were needed to help explain the faith, but establishing these programs in parishes was often derailed by opposition. As the 1980s and 1990s wore on, Catholic lay people began to become involved in other means of understanding and spreading the faith. In 1996, Catholic radio had a paltry 30 stations compared to nearly 2,000 Protestant, mainly Evangelical, stations. However, because of more Catholic lay involvement over the last decade, more that 200 Catholic radio stations can now be found on the air.
EWTN is a giant in Catholic mass media. It is hard to imagine where Catholic teaching and learning would be without the faith and perseverance of Mother Angelica. Without the hundreds and thousands of lay employees and volunteers at EWTN and other Catholic apostolates, one can hardly imagine where the Church would be. Shows like Mother Angelica Live and Marcus Grodi's The Journey Home would not be possible. Who knows how these shows have affected the countless millions who have stayed faithful to the Church or have come home to the Faith?
A shining example of Catholic lay involvement is the Internet and specifically the Catholic blogosphere. While Catholicism has been playing catch-up in radio and television, that is not the case with the Internet and the blogosphere. Catholic laity are in the forefront of evangelizing and defending the Faith. While there are thousands of Catholic websites that zealously defend the Church, there are but a handful of heterodox or liberal Catholic websites questioning the Church's teachings. Pope John Paul II's call for a springtime evangelization of the Church has been answered. Indeed the tide is turning!
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