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Question Title Posted By Question Date
Was I wrong? George Monday, September 20, 2010

Question:

Brother,

I hope all is well. If you are not well I hope you are joyful :). Thank you again for this website. I have learned so much I actually feel a little sad because I know nothing lasts forever and I almost wouldn't know what to do if I couldn't ask you questions once in a while. That isn't a really healthy statement but I want you to know you have been helping me!

My father has a patient who is an ex-nun who had something really bad happen to her apparently (I won't mention it here ) but met a man and became Morman. Well she has been Morman for almost as long as I have been alive I guess. Anyways she still has a pleasant disposition and anyone would say she is a decent person even really nice.

Well my wife and I just bought our first home and it is in her neighborhood and her and her husband came by to give us a welcome basket. We gave them a tour of the home and at the end I think she knew my wife was not Catholic or felt more comfortable talking about it with another woman but gave her a little card she included with the basket about her church. Now I took notice of this little maneuver and politely joked that she didn't just preach mormanism to a devout Roman Catholic family right?

Well she went on with some bs of how its nice to learn about other churches and how they believe the same things! Imagine a nun for seven years saying this to me!

Well I told her I studied mormanism a little and it's different and all it did was re-affirm my faith. I then felt a big desire to share a quote from the bible where St. Paul said even if an angel of God were to bring another gospel we are not to believe it. So I told her when I learned about mormanism it reminded me of that quote ;). I was saying these things in a really polite way mind you and with a smile but to get a point across.

So I took the card at any rate and handed it back to her and rubbed her back and said I'm sorry but we are Roman Catholic and that will never change. So expectedly she just said her intentions were to open "discussions" like she has with so and so. But that was the jist. My wife said I was rude.

I took it as very rude to try to recruit MY family in MY own house and insult God almighty right infront of the statue I had of the Blessed mother and do double talk when the intention of recruitment was obviously the intent and yes I am still mad :).

So I guess what I am saying is was I wrong since I believe these people were welcoming us to the neighborhood on some level but I wanted to draw the lines right away?

Thank you for your answer brother. I can probably predict it but I kind of need to hear it and it's not to show to my wife! Although I might....

God Bless you and please pray for me not to give into severe temptations I have been having lately. I do not know if that nun took her perpetual vows or not but I will pray for her. Any advise of what to do with the contents of the basket will be appreciated too if there is any chance of danger.



Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OMSM(r)

Dear George:

Thank you for the kind words. I praise God that we have been helpful to you. As for "all things coming to an end" I have been informed by my Associate Director of the St. Padre Pio Center for Deliverance Counseling that I am not allowed to retire until I am dead. Laughing

Well, that may be true, but life on this earth does not last forever and I am in bad health. In fact, I had three "mini-strokes" about two months ago. No lasting damage, but it could be a warning.

There will always be someone around to answer questions. I am not indispensable. In the Bible, God says he can raise up rocks to proclaim His name. Perhaps that is what I am, a rock. I have been called "hard as a rock." Wink But even rocks crumble to dust eventually.

As for your question, I was not there of course, but you certainly have the right and even the duty to protect your family and your home from those who "preach another Gospel."

Mormons are not Christians. They believe Jesus and Lucifer are brothers, for pete sake, and a whole host of some of the weirdest beliefs around. It is profoundly sad that a Catholic Nun, or any Christian, would abandon Christ to go to a weird sect like the Mormons.

Our first pope teaches: (1 Peter 3:15) "Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence..."

While gentleness is a general instruction there are times when one must not be gentle. St. James called the people he was arguing with about justification "ignoramuses", Jesus, in Matthew 23 called people "white-washed sepulchers (one of the worst insults one can give to a first century Jew), and many Saints have been harsh in their dealings, especially with those hostile to the faith.

However, from what you have described you did not take a harsh tack. Perhaps a little sarcastic. Again, I was not there so I really don't know how you came across.

I do know that there really is no such thing as a "joke." All jokes tell either something about jokester's opinion of his target or reveals something about the jokester. No one likes being the target of a joke, or to have their beliefs joked about. It puts people unnecessarily on the defensive and places them in a position that if they respond to something that is "just a joke" that they will be accused or at least thought of as having no sense of humor. This is offensive.

Perhaps you could have said the same things to this Mormon, but said them as serious conversation?

I do not think it is a problem confronting someone who comes into your house under the guise of a neighborhood welcome committee and trying to proselytize. That is rude of them.

My primary advice is not to frame these things in a jocular manner. Jokes are too easily misunderstood and can easily be offensive when the same message spoken soberly, with a little light-heartedness, can be more effective and less offensive.

As for any literature they left you, just throw it away.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary


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