Organization:Catholic Answers

From HandWiki
Short description: Non-profit organization in the US
Catholic Answers
Catholic Answers logo.jpeg
FounderKarl Keating
Websitecatholic.com

Catholic Answers is a Catholic advocacy group based in El Cajon, California . It purports to be the largest lay-run apostolate of Catholic apologetics and evangelization in the United States. It publishes Catholic Answers Magazine,[1] a bimonthly magazine focusing on Catholic outreach, religious formation and apologetics, as well as the website catholic.com. It also produces Catholic Answers Live,[2] a radio show answering callers' questions on a variety of topics related to the doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church. Catholic Answers Live is syndicated on the EWTN radio network.[3]

Catholic Answers operates with the permission of the Diocese of San Diego.

History

Catholic Answers was founded in 1979 by Karl Keating in response to a fundamentalist Protestant church in San Diego that was distributing anti-Catholic propaganda in the form of tracts placed on the cars of Catholics attending Mass. He first started by writing a modest tract titled "Catholic Answers" to counter the arguments he saw in the anti-Catholic tract. He distributed it on the windshields of the cars in the fundamentalist Protestant church's parking lot. Due to the feedback he received from that tract, he published 24 more tracts. In 1988 he quit his law practice and turned Catholic Answers into a full-time apostolate, with an office and full-time staff.[4]

The Catholic.com website receives approximately 471,000 visitors per month in an October 2012 estimate.[5]

Views

Before the 2004 US presidential election, Catholic Answers published the Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics which opined that issues pertaining to abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem-cell research, human cloning and same-sex marriage are "non-negotiable".[6]

While "The Voters Guide for Serious Catholics" made no endorsements of any candidate or political party, the organization came under strong attack by liberal organizations and Democratic Party candidates as a partisan and right-wing publication. In 2004 complaints were filed by Catholics for a Free Choice with the IRS claiming that it was in "blatant violation of its charitable status" in an attempt to revoke Catholic Answers' tax exempt status.[7][better source needed]

Catholic Answers claimed that the IRS had eventually ruled that the Voters Guide for Serious Catholics could be safely distributed by religious organizations because it did not qualify as political intervention.[6]

In May 2022, Catholic Answers defended the barring of Nancy Pelosi from Holy Communion.[8]

Staff

Apologists who have worked for Catholic Answers include Trent Horn.[9]

See also

  • Lighthouse Catholic Media

References

External links