(LifeSiteNews) — On this episode of Faith and Reason, Deacon Frederick Bartels joins Deacon Keith Fournier to discuss his remarkable reversion story from a fallen-away Catholic to a devout deacon. The panel then analyzed the relationship between faith and reason and encouraged listeners to cling to the Catholic faith during the current cultural crisis in the Church and the world.
Deacon Keith opened the episode by asking Deacon Fred to share his conversion story. He explained that while he was raised Catholic, he wasn’t well catechized and began to drift away from the faith as a teenager. Eventually, he began searching for the truth in other religions.
“I think at a very early age, truth was very important to me. And so I wanted to know what religion was true. And I wanted to know, did Jesus Christ literally found the Catholic Church? Is that really true? Now, in my early upbringing, I wasn’t well catechized, so I wasn’t faith-literate. And so these questions at first posed a kind of an obstacle for me,” Deacon Fred said.
The deacon then emphasized how he began looking at Catholic writings, where he ultimately found the truth.
“And I began diving into the divine and Catholic faith: reading the Catechism and reading works from the saints and diving into Scripture more and meditating on Scripture. And I began over time to see the truth of the Church, its truth, goodness, and beauty. I began to make sense of the doctrines of the Church on faith and morals,” he said.
“I studied them, and I realized that there was this continuity of doctrine from Peter and the apostles, the teachings of Jesus in Scripture to what the Church teaches today. … So that really grabbed a hold of me, and more and more my faith life increased, and it deepened. And I began to cherish this relationship, this personal, intimate relationship of communion with Jesus,” he added.
Later in the episode, the panel discussed the current crisis in our culture, with Deacon Keith underscoring that this is a particularly challenging period in the world and especially in the Church.
“We know we’ve gone through other difficult times, but this is a pretty bad one. And the Church is in great need of an intervention from the Holy Spirit. Also, we know that in this nation … we’re in a difficult time, and all you have to do is wake up every morning and to see the challenges we face in the Church and in the nations,” Deacon Keith said.
The host then asked Deacon Fred how the faithful could survive these difficult times. The deacon first highlighted Christ’s promise that the gates of hell will not prevail against His Church.
“But the Church prevails because our Lord promised that the gates of hell will not defeat it. The gates of hell will not prevail against the Church, and He promised to lead the Church into all truth. Which is why St. Paul can say that the Church is ‘the pillar and bulwark of the truth.’ So we need to know, through faith and with faith, that our Lord is in charge and the Holy Spirit is still guiding the Church,” the deacon said.
“And while some of the members of the Church might do some bad things or some terrible things, we know that the Church is more than just her members. The Church is the body of Christ, [the] Mystical Body of Christ, and that God has a plan for all of this and that in His providence He is going to work these things out,” he added.
Turning to the crisis in the world, Deacon Fred stressed that we are not called to retreat from these issues but evangelize our neighbors to convert our nations.
“We are called to evangelize and to live the truth, to promote the language of truth, to make a difference in people’s lives, to love God and to love our neighbor, and to do what we can to again elevate and ennoble our culture. And if we’re going to elevate and ennoble our culture, the way to do that is to bring Christ into culture,” he said.
“And if you think about it, that’s one of the gifts we receive through baptism. We share in Christ’s offices of priest, prophet, and king. We are to be prophets, and we are to be kings in terms of bringing our family, our neighborhood, our wider community, and even our nation under the rule of the kingship of Christ,” he added.
For more discussion on combating the current cultural crisis, the relationship between faith and reason, Deacon Fred’s full reversion story, and more, tune in to this episode of Faith and Reason.
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