Given from the Catholic Broadcasting Station 2SM Sydney Australia
Choose a topic from Vol 4:
I can quite understand your position. I fully admit that it is quite reasonable to be predisposed favorably towards the religion one has always taken for granted, and the truth of which he has not had occasion to doubt. Such an attitude in no way implies bigotry, nor unreasonable inclinations to think that other religions are not so good as one's own. But the attitude you describe also does not hinder one from making allowances for any new information one receives, and adjusting one's position accordingly, even though breaking with one's past position is not without some distress psychologically. All sincerely religious people find the transition from one religion to another both painful and consoling. Religion is not very deep in the man who can make such a change with callous indifference.
It should not be taken for granted that such a position would necessarily arise. It has been said with some truth that our worst troubles are those which never happen. In the first place, the man who feels drawn to the Catholic Church will have a few months of instruction and preparation before taking the actual step. During that time he can gradually dispose his family towards a more sympathetic outlook; and it is quite possible that he will not find them so inflexible as he anticipated. Nor, should they insist on remaining Protestants themselves, would they necessarily take his becoming a Catholic so badly as to ruin his marital happiness. However, if the worst did happen, and if after due instruction the man were absolutely convinced of the truth of the Catholic Church, he would have to become a Catholic eventually despite the protests of his family. I say eventually, because where there are grave difficulties a person convinced of the truth of the Catholic Church might be justified in postponing his actual reception into the Church for a time in the hope of smoothing out the difficulties to some extent. But eventually he would have no choice but to become, a Catholic. For that would be a duty to conscience and to God, a duty which comes before duty to any human beings on the face of the earth. No claims of parents, or of husband or wife or children, relatives or friends, can come before one's duty to God. One may do his best to dispose all things as peacefully as possible; but if fidelity to conscience means the cross of suffering, one can but take up that cross.
If, in order to please his family, such a man persisted in refusing to become a Catholic, and died still refusing, he would have no chance of salvation. After all, our Lord foresaw such difficulties. "Think ye," He said, "that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation. For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided; three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother-in-law against her daughter-inlaw, and the daugther-in-law against her mother-in-law." Lk., XII, 51-53. It is of course always possible that a man who delays longer than he should in becoming a Catholic may become a Catholic before he dies, or at least get the grace of repentance for not having done so on his deathbed. There are innumerable cases of people who have sent for a priest at the last and have begged to be received into the Church. But there is always a risk that the abuse of present graces might not deserve sufficient time or grace in the future. I would certainly advise any man who is convinced of the truth of the Catholic religion to become a Catholic in actual fact as soon as it is reasonably possible for him to do so.
"THAT CATHOLIC CHURCH
A Radio Analysis"
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