The Catholic Standard & Times - Apologetics series focuses on sacraments

Apologetics series focuses on sacraments

By NADIA MARIA SMITH
CS&T Staff Writer

OVERBROOK — The International Institute for Culture is starting off the new year with a lecture series explaining the essentials of the Catholic faith — a series that was requested by members of the laity who want to explain the faith more effectively, according to John Haas, the institute’s president.

Haas said the apologetics series will focus on the seven sacraments because it is through them that Catholics “share in the divine life of God, Himself, which has been bestowed on them in Jesus Christ.”

The five-part series will be offered at 7:30 p.m. on the second Friday of every month from January to May at Ivy Hall, the institute’s headquarters in the Overbrook section of the city.

In the opening lecture on Friday, Jan. 11, Haas explained that the sacraments flow out of the mystery of God the Son taking on humanity. Because of the Incarnation, priests can forgive others with the power of Christ, and they can change bread and wine into the actual Body and Blood of Christ, Haas said.

Further, it is Christ’s Incarnation that “allows ordinary men, women and children to be lifted up higher than the angels, themselves, and taken into the life of the Trinity by being made one with Jesus Christ in baptism,” Haas continued, laying the groundwork for a deeper study of each sacrament in the coming months.

The next lecture, on Feb. 8, will focus on baptism and confirmation. It will be presented by Msgr. Michael Magee, chairman of the systematic theology department at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary and a former official of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments at the Vatican.

On March 15, the mystery of the Eucharist will be explored by Msgr. Daniel A. Murray. Now the pastor of St. Rose of Lima Parish in North Wales, he is a former rector and director of Scripture at St. Charles.

The April 11 lecture will feature the Catholic convert and apologist Tim Staples. The author of Nuts and Bolts — A Practical How-to Guide for Defending the Faith, he works for the Catholic Answers organization in San Diego, Calif.

Staples will discuss the sacraments of confession and the anointing of the sick.

The last lecture of the series, on May 9, will examine the sacraments of marriage and the priesthood, and the ways in which both are meant to witness to others. It will be presented by the author and teacher Donald DeMarco, an associate professor of philosophy at St. Jerome’s University in Ontario and an adjunct professor at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Conn.

The lecture series costs $20 for adults and $15 for students with I.D., which helps defray the cost of putting together such a powerhouse event. However, the Order of Malta, which is sponsoring the series, will pay for anyone wishing to attend who is unable to afford the cost.

For more information visit www.iiculture.org or call (215) 877-9910.

CS&T staff writer Nadia Maria Smith can be reached at npozo@adphila.org or (215) 965-4614.

Parish organizes series on Catechism

NEWTOWN — The director of faith formation for adults at St. Andrew Parish wants to help grown-up Catholics become apologists for their faith.

“In order to live it, believe it and proclaim it, you really have to be well anchored. So it’s time to go back to Catholicism 101,” said Mai Pham, who works closely with St. Andrew’s pastor, Father Michael Picard.

She and Father Picard have coordinated a series based on the teachings in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Pham said. The idea is to help Catholics relearn what they’ve forgotten about the rich faith that is their legacy, and to be able to explain it to others, she added.

The next lecture in the series, at 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 21 at the parish, will focus on the celebration of the Christian mystery of the Mass and the sacraments.

“This lecture will explain the climax of our Christian life, which is the liturgy,” Pham said.

The speaker will be Father Daniel Mackle, pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Philadelphia and former director of the archdiocesan Office for Worship.

Father Mackle will also give the final lecture, on Christian Prayer, on Tuesday, Feb. 5 at the same time and location. That talk will examine different types of prayer, with a special emphasis on the Lord’s Prayer.

The lecture series began in November with the Nicene Creed, and was followed by a talk on Christian morality.

“We’ve gotten a great response,” Pham said, adding she hopes the remaining lectures will draw even more people — including Catholics outside St. Andrew Parish.

“If we don’t know what we are and what we believe in, then it is very easy to relativize everything,” she said. “[Now] is a great time to proclaim the faith that has been handed down to us.”

For more information visit www.standrewnewtown.com or call Mai Pham at (215) 968-2262, ex. 36. — Nadia Maria Smith

To subscribe now, click here.