Catholic Answers is an apostolate dedicated to explaining, defending, and spreading the Catholic faith. For over forty years, toward that end we have operated in many media: from live seminars to internet Q&A; from print books to digital courses; from radio and podcasts to one-on-one personal evangelization.
We have also sought to be on the cutting edge of new media: growing our website, Catholic.com, into the world’s number-one apologetics resource, harnessing AI as a tool for seeking truth, and tirelessly engaging religious and spiritual conversations on a variety of social media platforms.
And now we’re excited to be part of Substack, the premier social medium of independent publishing for serious readers.
This new project is especially dear to my heart, because I owe my own faith to an encounter with Catholic Answers via the written word.
Many years ago, when I was a college sophomore and, though a cradle Catholic, wholly disinterested in and even skeptical of the Church’s singular claims to truth and authority, I had two such encounters, in fact, that changed my life.
One was with an issue of This Rock magazine, as the flagship print publication of Catholic Answers was then called (in a reference to Matthew 16:18, where Jesus declares that Peter is the rock upon which he would build his Church). I had never seen anything like it. It was deeply faithful and full of knowledge, but it was also sharp, funny, joyful. It exuded—and transmitted like a virus—a countercultural pride in being Catholic. I had never experienced that feeling, but I knew I wanted more of it.
The other was the book Catholicism and Fundamentalism by Karl Keating, the founder of Catholic Answers. In the same tone and style that I found in This Rock, it took on the anti-Catholic personalities of its time and the anti-Catholic myths and falsehoods that had been around for centuries, and skewered them. And it didn’t just push back against all the errors and biases and accusations—it replaced them with well-reasoned Catholic truths, grounded in divine revelation and historical Christian belief and practice.
Both of those experiences with the written word from Catholic Answers switched on a light bulb in my soul that has never gone out since. I knew from that point on that my faith didn’t have to be afraid of my mind. There were answers in these words, and the answers made sense.
Later I learned that I was part of a long tradition of people who “read their way” into the Church, or into a deeper level of Catholic identity. Like the many thousands in southeastern France during the counter-Reformation who read the pamphlets of St. Francis de Sales and turned away from Calvinism. Or, like the “Tractarians” of the Oxford Movement in the nineteenth century, who wanted to make Anglicanism more Catholic and ended up… just making a lot of Anglicans, like St. John Henry Newman, into Catholics.
Or, like those who were inspired by the English-speaking world’s modern apologetics movement of the early twentieth century, led by giants such as Chesterton and Belloc, Sheed and Ward, Knox and Lunn. Their writings in defense of the Faith catalyzed conversions while counterpunching the era’s growing secularism and anti-Catholicism. And perhaps just as importantly, their witness emboldened Catholics in England, Australia, and North America, who for so long had suffered as second-class citizens in their Protestant homelands, to be proud and confident in their religion.
This is the same tradition in which Catholic Answers stands proudly today, the tradition that we hope to extend and make present to Substack users. Through the written word we will explain and defend Catholic truth in a way that engages minds and fortifies hearts. We will apply that truth to the tough doctrinal, moral, and social questions of our day. Where Catholic teaching permits different opinions or pragmatic approaches, we will seek to advance the conversation and stoke the debate.
If you’re reading this and haven’t subscribed yet, hit the Subscribe button below and become part of the Catholic Answers community on Substack.
We hope you’ll join us, wherever you are in your life. If you are Catholic, we hope this page will be an instrument for increasing your zeal, knowledge, and charity. If you are exploring Catholicism or just seeking to broaden your mind on matters of faith, we hope you will encounter ideas that provoke reflection and growth. If you arrive here hostile or skeptical—we welcome you most of all.
Substack is the future. Love seeing Catholic Answers here.
Welcome to Substack! Catholic Answers never disappoints!