Author Topic: Looking for a Traditional Catholic Apologist (Read 1395 times)

Anthem · « **on:** December 21, 2010, 08:59:13 AM »

I am involved with a conservative Catholic lay group (now a nonprofit corporation) that sponsored an apologetics seminar. We had the event this past autumn. Our keynote speaker was Tim Staples of Catholic Answers fame. The seminar went well, but that's all a topic for another day. I'm looking for names of traditional apologists. Tim Staples, while obviously conservative, is a VII conservative and has a lot of admiration for things that have happened within the Church post-VII. He said at the conference that we have seen some of the greatest popes of all time in the past 50 years. Again, I don't really want to debate Tim Staples or any of that right now. I do need some names/contacts for people who could come in and speak on apologetics from a truly traditional viewpoint. The speaker would be paid; this would not be a small event. We had around 400-500 attendees. If anyone has suggestions, I would love to hear them. Thanks in advance.

p.s. The speaker would have to be seen as fully in line with Rome or it won't fly. I don't know if someone from SSPX would work or not. That's no slam on SSPX at all. I have to work within the confines of the group. Anyone leaning sede would obviously not be acceptable.

I posted this over at Fisheaters and the suggestions I have gotten so far are John Salza, Robert Sungenis, Fr. Chad Ripperger, and Fr. Isaac Mary Relyea.

stevusmagnus · « **Reply #1 on:** December 21, 2010, 09:11:44 AM »

Decent list. I would add Chris Ferrara and Michael Matt to this list. Contact them through the Remnant. Also John Medaille who is a professor at University of Dallas.

Caminus · « **Reply #2 on:** December 21, 2010, 09:44:40 AM »

Aside from traditionally trained Thomistic priests, none of those laymen have any inkling about what constitutes "traditional apologetics" which is a branch of theology. They couldn't tell you the difference between Blondelian apologetics and traditional thomistic apologetics.

stevusmagnus · « **Reply #3 on:** December 21, 2010, 10:19:10 AM »

Fr. Chad Ripperger and Fr. Isaac Mary Relyea might.

Nevertheless, since the audience is mostly Neo-Cath layman, a very knowledgeable and articulate lay Traditionalist will probably be able to present the case in terms they understand and make headway. For instance, Michael Davies was a very good speaker who presented the case very well.

If it were a more high-brow intellectual audience of professors, etc., it might be more appropriate to have someone more clasically trained.

Caminus · « **Reply #4 on:** December 21, 2010, 09:03:39 PM »

Anthem, what's the subject-matter? Or is the talk actually about the meaning, scope and object of traditional apologetics or about its method as opposed to other methods?

Anthem · « **Reply #5 on:** December 22, 2010, 07:07:57 AM »

The conference we had was about how to go about defending the Faith to others, basic apologetics for "dummies" so to speak. We don't have any set topics, so the defense of any Church teaching is up for grabs. Of course, in learning how to defend a particular teaching, one learns more about that teaching himself. So, bringing someone from the more traditional side in will also serve to help pull the attendees back to Tradition.

For example, I like the suggestion of John Medaille. The case here is that the VII Church has focused on social justice, but not from a traditional standpoint. So we either get hyper-capitalism (prosperity gospel) or hyper-liberalism (welfare state mentality). Other topics are the same way, as you all well know.

I don't have much time to write this morning, so maybe later I'll post a little more about our group's aims, and also my hopes for the direction the group takes. I really appreciate everyone's suggestions and have already sent a list to our group founder. (I'm on the board of directors)