An Interview with Rev. Peter M. J. Stravinskas | March 31, 2005
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Reverend Peter M. J. Stravinskas is a noted scholar, author, and apologist. He has written and edited many
books, including The Catholic Church and the Bible, Understanding the Sacraments, The Catholic Encyclopedia
(available on CD-ROM), and many others. He is the founder of the Priestly Society of the Venerable John Henry
Cardinal Newman, the Newman House Press, and The Catholic Response. IgnatiusInsight.com recently spoke
with Father Stravinskas about his work, The Catholic Response, and apologetics in general.
IgnatiusInsight.com: Many readers are familiar your name and work, but for those who aren't, will you tell them a
bit about yourself, your education, and your path to the priesthood?
Reverend Peter Stravinskas: I am the only child of parents who did not practice the Faith yet insisted on sending
their son to a Catholic school, which resulted in my receiving the gift of faith and my vocation from the Sisters
and, even more remarkably, re-evangelizing my parents. My parents were always most supportive of my priestly
vocation, which hit me on the very first day of kindergarten; they always believed that the most important thing they
had done in life was to give their only son to the priesthood.
My entire education from kindergarten through doctoral studies was conducted in the bosom of the Church,
reflective of the various moments of life in the Church. Thus, my grammar schooling was rock-solid; the secular
elements of my secondary education [1964-1968] were superb, while the theological aspects mirrored the
beginnings of confusion in the Church-at-large. I entered the seminary at Seton Hall University right out of high
school, in fact, three weeks after Humanae Vitae. The priestly formation for my first three years [my
undergraduate studies] was rather good, while the three years of theology were marked by nothing short of
lunacy. I suppose the great miracle is that any of us stayed the course, given the upheaval.
At any rate, going on twenty-eight years in the priesthood, I feel compelled to say that I have no regrets about my
vocational decision and, yes, in spite of all the problems, I would do it all over again.
IgnatiusInsight.com: When did you first become interested in apologetics? What sort of work have you done in
apologetics?
Rev. Stravinskas: My father was a tremendous apologist. Although only possessing a high school diploma, he
attended formal theology classes at St. Peter’s College in Jersey City, New Jersey. He was also an avid reader
of thinkers like Newman, Chesterton and Belloc. Whenever a door-to-door preacher arrived at our house, my
father would invite him in, listen to his spiel, and then work a deal: "I’ll read your material this week if you’ll read
mine. This time next week, let’s get together and discuss what we’ve read." If the individual returned, my father
would work with him for a few weeks and then introduce him to one of our parish priests.
We also had a phenomenal parish library which was open every weeknight and manned by the priest on duty
that day (we had seven full-time priests, who were extraordinary men, by the way). The priests were there to
answer any questions on the Faith and to direct people to authors and works that would enable them to learn
how to feed themselves, theologically and spiritually.
Apologetics, then, was really a part of the air I breathed as a youngster. With the craziness we were fed in the
seminary, it also became necessary to seek out sources for sound doctrine on our own to counteract the
heterodoxy being served up to us. In fact, not a few of us seminarians found ourselves using apologetics against
our seminary professors to defend the Catholic Faith!
I never did anything formal with apologetics, however, until the 1980's, when I served as the public relations
officer for the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. At that time, Jimmy Swaggart was holding forth
quite forcefully in various media. When he penned his (in)famous "Letter to My Catholic Friends," Father Virgil
Blum (the League’s founder) suggested that I produce a rebuttal, which I did in collaboration with a young
assistant of mine, William Sweeney (who had just graduated from LeMoyne College in Syracuse). The series
ran in Our Sunday Visitor for sixteen weeks. It was so popular that it became a book, The Catholic Response.
That became the launching pad, and the rest is history.
IgnatiusInsight.com: When and why did you decide to create and publish The Catholic Response?
Rev. Stravinskas: There is a long pre-history to our current periodical, The Catholic Response. Around 1985, Bob
Lockwood, the then-publisher of Our Sunday Visitor, was intrigued by my suggestion that a new springtime could
be in the offing for the Church, comparable, I said, to the Oxford Movement. What, he asked, made the Oxford
Movement take off and fly? Their tracts, I replied. I went on to say that if we wished to achieve similar results
today, we needed a print vehicle to accomplish the task. In March of 1987, The Catholic Answer was born and for
seventeen years, I served as its editor.
In the fall of 2003, Greg Erlandson, the current publisher of OSV, informed me that they were planning changes
in their periodicals; one of the changes was that I would no longer be the editor of The Catholic Answer, with my
tenure ending with the March/April 2004 issue. Many people encouraged me to strike out on my own and by July
of that year, we had the first issue of the new magazine, The Catholic Response. The name, coincidentally, is
what I wanted the original magazine to be called since I saw it as continuing the mission of the book of the same
name.
IgnatiusInsight.com: What is the format and focus of The Catholic Response? What is unique about The
Catholic Response compared to other Catholic apologetics magazines?
Rev. Stravinskas: The Catholic Response is published by the Priestly Society of John Henry Cardinal Newman,
which I founded some years ago. The managing editor is Father Nicholas Gregoris, a member of our Society.
The format is much like my earlier endeavor. About a third of each issue is dedicated to responding to the
questions of our readers, covering the full gamut of theology: Scripture, liturgy, morality, Church history, doctrine,
pastoral problems, Catholic practices. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of inquiries deal with the Sacred Liturgy
since it is such a "hot-button" item in the contemporary Church. We try to cover the same fields in our articles
each time around. For this first year, Father Gregoris has been offering a series on the Faith of the Early Church
— who the Fathers of the Church were, what they taught, and what their relevance is today. That series would
actually be quite worthwhile for use in a Catholic high school religion class or to provide some substance in an
RCIA program.
The approach of TCR is somewhat different from other apologetics magazines currently on the market, in that
the material is presented in a more catechetical manner, rather than in an explicitly apologetical fashion. In other
words, in many ways we are providing the ground-floor data, which would equip a potential apologist with the
basics; he can then take that information and mold it according to his needs.
We have also tried to incorporate at least one article by a bishop in each issue; the premier issue actually
featured three! My reasoning is that the primary responsibility of a bishop is to teach; many of them are seeking
to do so, but they need a forum, beyond their own diocesan papers. I am happy to provide one possible forum for
them.
Speaking of our authors, we have assembled a rather interesting stable of contributors: lay men and women;
Sisters; priests; a permanent deacon; a Protestant minister; a rabbi. What is so enjoyable about this gathering of
minds is how people with such varied backgrounds and vocations come to the same conclusions. Naturally, that
is precisely the way it should be since all truth is one. In other words, any honest seeker of the truth, although
coming at the goal from a unique perspective, will arrive at the same spot.
IgnatiusInsight.com: What are some of the topics that The Catholic Response has recently addressed?
Rev. Stravinskas: We’ve covered myriad topics: a Catholic take on fashion; religion and politics; Marian doctrine
and devotion; the priesthood; the relationship between faith and culture; liturgical development. In upcoming
issues, we have pieces ready on: biblical interpretation; virtue; prayer; church etiquette; Jewish-Catholic
relations; ecumenism.
IgnatiusInsight.com: What is the current state of apologetics in the United States, especially compared to 30 or
40 years ago? What are some of the most pressing challenges faced by Catholic apologists today?
Rev. Stravinskas: Apologetics has undergone a sea-change in my own lifetime, starting with just who the
apologists are today. This only hit me rather recently as I was being introduced at a conference; the host
observed that I was one of only a handful of priests currently identified with the apostolate of apologetics. Forty
years ago, aside from Frank Sheed, one would be hard-pressed to bring forth any apologists but priests. I’m not
sure if that’s either good or bad, but it is surely a sociological fact of life. I must say that I find seminarians and
young priests much more interested in apologetics than most of my generation were/are.
The key players in the field over the past decade have done a splendid job of entering the lists, doing so with
intelligence, conviction and charity. I am thinking of people like Karl Keating, Rosalind Moss, Steve Ray, Marcus
Grodi. Serious efforts in apologetics have been greatly assisted by the publication of the Catechism of the
Catholic Church. Prior to its appearance, it was much easier to dismiss certain teachings as hold-overs from a
by-gone era. From the Catechism, we not only know what is taught by the Church but we also gain some idea of
angles to use to present the various doctrines. Another major asset — without which I wonder how effective our
outreach would be — is the very existence of EWTN, as well as the emergence of other Catholic media outlets.
Classical apologetics, at least from an American point of view, consisted in responding to attacks on Catholic
teaching by anti-Catholic Protestants. While that source has not dried up, it is by no means as threatening as it
was. The new conversation is significantly more challenging because it involves an audience we have not been
used to engaging — atheists and secularists. Now, there is some precedent for this kind of work; St. Thomas
Aquinas was pretty good at it, but it is, relatively speaking, terra incognita. In fact, in the seventies, Pope Paul VI
asked the Jesuits to pick up this responsibility; I don’t think much of a response has been forthcoming from that
source.
Another novel aspect of apologetics today is that all too often effort must be directed toward those who are
actually baptized Catholics, due to the poor quality of catechetics over a forty-year period. In other words, not
infrequently we find even "practicing Catholics" who haven’t a clue about the basics of the Catholic Faith. This is
a very hard nut to crack because so many of such folks think that they know and are thus less than apt students.
Usually, they have been fed a diet of pap or "Catholicism Lite" and have mistaken that for the full-course meal.
Some are genuinely dissatisfied with the poor substitute, while a majority of them (in my experience) are quite
content and don’t want to be upset with the full story.
IgnatiusInsight.com: What qualities must a good apologist possess? Who are some apologists from the past
that deserve to be studied and read more? Why?
Rev. Stravinskas: A good apologist must be a model disciple. One cannot be a teacher without first having been
a student. Such a person should be absolutely convinced of the truth claims of the New Testament and the
Catholic Church, for being convincing requires being convinced. Knowledge is essential. It is sometimes
forgotten that the act of faith is, primarily, an act of the intellect. It is not an accident that St. Paul encourages his
readers to "put on the mind of Christ." Also necessary is the capacity to "sentire cum Ecclesia" (to think/feel with
the Church). Personal agendas get in the way. While the energy and enthusiasm of converts/reverts can be
captivating, humility is also needed. Cardinal Newman was fond of saying that he had entered the Church not to
teach but to learn. It can be somewhat off-putting to be lectured by neophytes, especially when they may not yet
have lined up all their own ducks properly.
An apologist should have a thorough grasp of the Catholic Faith. At times, I am distressed to hear would-be
apologists expound on various aspects of Catholic doctrine and getting it wrong. This is a tremendous
disservice and the stakes are high: Wrong information on the Faith has eternal consequences. Once again,
humility comes into play; there’s nothing wrong with saying, "I don’t have the answer at my fingertips but will get
back to you as soon as possible." An apologist must also be able to offer the testimony of his own life. In
Evangelii Nuntiandi, Paul VI noted that contemporary man is not too easily swayed by teachers and if he is at all,
it is only because these teachers are also witnesses. One virtue that should be apparent throughout is that of
joy. If we are to be evangelists, that means we are sharing "good news." Glum faces, sarcastic barbs and a
"gotcha" attitude don’t communicate Christian joy.
The first apologists who ought to be studied are the Fathers of the Church; these were masters of theological
insight and presentation at one and the same time. They were — and still are — such effective communicators
of Catholic truth that they have been responsible for bringing thousands upon thousands of people into the
Catholic Church. Cardinal Newman referred to them as "the ladder" by which he made his move into Catholic
communion. Of course, one ignores Newman himself only at great personal loss. I would obviously recommend
the other apologists to whom I have alluded in the course of this interview as well.
IgnatiusInsight.com: What is your response to those Catholics who criticize apologetics and say it is either
divisive or is a "pre-Vatican II" practice?
Rev. Stravinskas: First of all, apologetics — properly practiced — is not a divisive activity; in fact, it is a unitive one,
for it puts people into touch with truth, the Truth, Who is Jesus Christ. That said, there is a divisive element in the
following of Jesus, and He did not shy away from saying that He came to bring division. Why? Because not
everyone can accept the truth and such a one can even begin to feel threatened by it. So, at a rather fundamental
level, the science of apologetics is no more and no less divisive than Christianity itself.
Secondly, how could explaining and defending the Catholic Faith be labeled "pre-conciliar"? One can make the
very opposite case since Blessed John XXIII declared that his primary purpose in convoking the Second Vatican
Council would be to present the ancient truths of the Catholic religion in a contemporary key. And isn’t that the
very heart of apologetics? Taking Catholic truth and making it comprehensible and palatable to one’s
contemporaries.
Thirdly, on numerous occasions Pope John Paul II has called for a revival of apologetics, most notably in his
blueprint for evangelization found in Tertio Millennio Adveniente and Novo Millennio Ineunte.
