The new apologetic

To quote one of my students -- "I just want to throw this out there."

Back from the NCEA convention and it was a whirlwind day; I was once again reminded how small this world of Catholic education really is in some ways when I ran into my grade-school principal along with two of my grade-school teachers within five minutes of arriving onsite. Plus, the new president of the NCEA was working at my college when I was a student there.

I'll post a bit later about the two sessions I attended -- they were both substantive and reaffirming of the ministerial nature of Catholic educators. While it's still fresh in my memory, though, I'd like to say a bit about Bishop Braxton's keynote address this morning, titled "The New Apologetic."

It's my hope that the full text of his remarks will be made available online sometime in the near future, but he issued a call and a challenge for a new apologetic in the twenty-first century. Acknowledging the reality that our young people are more willing to ask their questions in the chat room than in the classroom and more apt to do their research on the Web than in the library, he challenged those who are committed to the strong formation of young Catholics to have a bold and compelling presence in cyberspace (Catholic bloggers, unite!)

The four points that this new apologetic needs to address are the new atheism, the lack of substantive instruction in Scripture and Tradition, the rise of Islam and what it means to Christians, and...argh. Drawing a blank on the fourth point, and I know it was a good one.

In a world that is so often hostile to the message and messengers of Christ, the only thing that will effectively arm us to defend our faith and our hope is reason coupled with deep knowledge, which means that we who teach in Catholic schools need to communicate the Gospel and to catechize our students at all times. We teachers also need to be aware of what's out there in the world around our students so that we can effectively address their questions.

The day reminded me yet again why I'm proud to teach in a Catholic school.

(Lest you think, though, that all was sunshine and roses, the session on liturgical music was run by none other than David Haas. Grrr. I did not attend.)