“What if I told you the Catholic Church has done more to serve the needy / than any other group in history?
“Our cathedrals, priests and nuns / are serving in those slums. / Open your Eyes! / It helps you get things done / when you’re organized.”
Stefanick is also co-author of a 2008 book “Do I Have to Go? 101 Questions about the Mass.”
He explained in a Jan. 15 exchange with CNA that his book touches on the same questions. Jesus does not treat sacred rituals and sacraments as things that interfere with a genuine relationship with him, he noted.
“If he thought such things would come between us and him then he clearly wouldn’t have given them to us. He wouldn’t have told his apostles to celebrate Mass (Luke 22:19) or to baptize every person on earth (Matthew 28:19).”
“All Christian denominations at least agree on baptism, and no one can make a really good case that baptism isn’t a religious ritual … try as you will!”
Rituals help relationships, Stefanick added, and religion has rituals just like marriages do.
“People can fall into just going through the motions in marriage just as in faith. Would a marriage counselor propose that a couple whose relationship is on the rocks stop celebrating Valentine’s Day? No!”
Stefanick stressed in his video response that religion is a gift from God.
“The heart of religion is relationship / Jesus didn’t come to get rid of it. He gave us Baptism, Eucharist, Last Supper, apostolic structure.”
“Hatred of religion is a modern man-made invention / Playing pure spirit is angelic pretension.”
(Story continues below)
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Kevin J. Jones is a senior staff writer with Catholic News Agency. He was a recipient of a 2014 Catholic Relief Services' Egan Journalism Fellowship.