I had a request yesterday to be interviewed by some folks for a podcast they do discussing big questions. She said she was an Evangelical Protestant. The other two interviewers were to be a “religious agnostic” and an atheist. They wanted to ask why I am Catholic.

The best answer if that the Catholic Church is One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic,

Last first: It is apostolic. It goes back 2000 years to the Apostles and therefore the Lord Jesus Christ himself. It was not founded by a 21st century TV preacher or an 18th century itinerant evangelist or even a sixteenth century monarch or reformist firebrand. It was founded on the lives and ministry of Christ’s own apostles and there is plenty of historical proof that this is so.

Secondly, the Church is Catholic. It is universal. It is found in the great cathedrals of Europe and a shack-church in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. It stretches from the heights of wealthy American entrepreneurs to a poor village in Africa and it embraces all people everywhere–the poor and rich, educated and ignorant of every race and nation, and this universality is not only geographic and cultural. It is historic. It reaches back 2000 years, and then through the Hebrew nation back into antiquity.

Thirdly, it is Holy. By Holy I mean it is supernatural in origin and supernatural in method and message. This is real religion–not the chic substitute of moralistic, therapeutic deism. It has to do with heaven and hell, angels and demons, life and death, sin and redemption by a supernatural intervention and encounter with the divine.

Finally it is One. Yes, we fight among ourselves and often we feel divided, but there is a deeper unity within all who call themselves Catholic. Despite our divisions we are united in a way the unbelievers cannot comprehend.

This is my explanation and I offer it even though it may be misunderstood and maligned.