Duterte’s taunts

So, you think you know the faith

How lacking are Filipinos in faith knowledge? Let’s have a quick survey. Which of the following statements is true,

1) There are three Persons in one God: the Father, the

2) The original sin committed by Adam and Eve was lying to God.

3) God gave the Ten Commandments to Abraham on Mount Sinai.

beings in the Bible.

5) After the birth of Jesus, His mother Mary had other children with St. Joseph.

6) Jesus is human, but Christ is divine.

7) In the Bible, God inspired only the Gospels.

8) The Sacrament of Baptism makes the baptized a dear friend of Christ.

9) The Mass commemorates

His Apostles.

10) Mortal sin is a grave offense committed with full knowledge and seen by others.

11) There is no hell, because God is merciful and forgives all sins.

12) At the end of time, souls of good people will come back to life and enter Paradise.

Every one of those statements violates Church doctrines. And if most, if not all believers who are asked about these statements think any of them is doctrinally correct, that’s exactly the problem with Filipino Catholics.

Why have so many Catholics missed basic truths about the faith? Part of it is the lack of Catholic instruction, especially for the majority of Filipinos who go to public schools. There’s also a dearth of faith information in mass and social media, flooded with entertainment, sports, news, chatter and ads.

A third reason for faith ignorance is, perhaps, the Church’s focus on its social mission, especially in the last half- century, giving less attention to doctrinal matters. Thus, most Mass homilies cover Church preaching on concern of the poor and the oppressed, admonitions against corruption and violence, and even the obligation to vote wisely.

But when was the last time one heard a priest at Mass talk about hypostatic union, the dogma that Jesus Christ is both God and man, or the Immaculate Conception, by which Mary, not Jesus, was conceived without original sin? Jesus’ Last Supper with

Instructing the ignorant

Whatever the reasons for widespread ignorance of the faith, the task is clear: Everyone in the Church must perform one spiritual work of mercy: Instructing the ignorant. And such evangelization imparts knowledge crucial to salvation — surely, at least as important as reading, writing, arithmetic and making a living.

What should the Church do to better school the faithful on the faith? For starters, inject catechism in Mass homilies.

For instance, in expounding on today’s Sunday Gospel reading about the call of Simon Peter to apostleship, the