Dr. Ray Guarendi, a national radio and television host whose radio show “The Doctor Is In” is heard on over 440 stations nationwide, opens the fourth season of the AIP Speaker Series at St. John’s Resort in Plymouth with his talk “The Logic of Being Catholic” on August 27. (Photos by Gabriella Patti | Detroit Catholic)
Popular radio host “Dr. Ray” opens the fourth season of the AIP Speaker Series in Plymouth with a talk on “The Logic of Being Catholic”
PLYMOUTH — A fierce storm raged outside, but even greater was the laughter and conviction of the message during Dr. Ray Gurendi’s keynote lecture to kick off the fourth season of the AIP Speaker Series on Tuesday evening, August 27, at St. John’s Resort.
The AIP Speaker Series (AIP stands for “Anything is Possible”) has been held monthly for the past four years and features free lectures by world-renowned speakers to “inspire and empower” Catholics to live as missionary disciples in today’s changing world. Past speakers have included Father Mike Schmitz, Andreas Widmer and Scott Hahn. All lectures are open to the public and can be streamed on YouTube.
Dr. Ray Guarendi is a father of 10 adopted children, a clinical psychologist, author of nearly 20 books, professional speaker, and national radio and television host. His radio show, “The Doctor Is In,” can be heard on more than 440 stations and on Sirius XM channel 130. His television show, “Living Right with Dr. Ray,” can be seen on EWTN Global Catholic Network and is broadcast in 140 countries.
Dr. Guarendi’s lecture, “The Logic of Being Catholic,” addressed his eight-year withdrawal from the Catholic Church and how logic led him back to the heart of the Church.
The audience listens to Dr. Guarendi’s lecture on August 27 at St. John’s Resort in Plymouth.
People are not leaving the Catholic Church because of popular tenets of the faith, such as giving to the poor or prohibiting violence, Dr. Guarendi said. Most are leaving or turning away because of issues related to human sexuality and life, including abortion, contraception, adultery, fornication and homosexuality.
While some denominations have deviated from these teachings over the years, Dr. Guarendi explained that the Catholic Church, based on the writings of the Church Fathers, is never contradictory and has a unified line.
The Catholic understanding of the relationship between Sacred Scripture and Tradition, for example, is inherently logical and forms the basis of the Church’s teaching, explained Dr. Guarendi.
As an example, Dr. Guarendi cited one of the pillars of the Protestant faith: only scripture — the belief that all Christian doctrine can be derived from the Bible alone. With the help of the Holy Spirit, this doctrine teaches, a person can read the Bible, understand it and then come to a conclusion about what Christianity is, Dr. Guarendi said.
But such a system inevitably breaks down when people’s interpretations differ, which is a logical problem, Dr. Guarendi said. For example, in the United States there are more than 30,000 Christian denominations and independent churches, each with its own understanding of the Scriptures and its own beliefs.
“When I told my non-Catholic friends about this, the answer they got was: ‘There may be many independent churches, but we agree on the fundamentals,'” Dr. Guarendi said. “(But) who decides the fundamentals?”
For Catholics, the answer to this question is simple, logical and straightforward, said Dr. Guarendi. Since Christ founded a Church, he wanted his followers to look to that Church when they had differences of opinion.
“Back in the second half of the fourth century, when the Bible was being compiled, the church came together and said, ‘OK, we need to figure out what the Scripture is.’ There were a lot of books floating around, and (they said), ‘We need to decide, ‘What is the canon of the Bible?'” Dr. Guarendi said.
In early Christianity, there were many gospels, epistles and writings circulating in the Christian community that ultimately did not become part of the Bible, Dr. Guarendi said. Different sects claimed that different books were inspired by God, but ultimately it was the Church, led by the Pope, that settled the matter.
While a non-Catholic might assume that the Holy Spirit guided the canon of the Bible – which is true – the course of history suggests a logical problem that non-Catholics must grapple with, Dr. Guarendi said.
“Here’s why: Catholics and Protestants agree that the New Testament is 27 books, and we both have the same New Testament — the Holy Spirit got it right,” Dr. Guarendi said. “We have 46 books in our Old Testament, (Protestants) have 39. Now, was the Holy Spirit wrong when the canon was compiled in the second half of the fourth century?”
Dr. Guarendi, father of 10 adopted children and author of nearly 20 books, said the beauty of the Church’s sound teachings brought him back to his faith.
Dr. Guarendi noted that the Protestant canon did not banish the seven deuterocanonical books from the Bible until 1,100 years later, at the time of Martin Luther.
“Now you can say that (the Holy Spirit guided such a change) and say, ‘Well, that’s what the Holy Spirit does. It’s a mystery,'” Dr. Guarendi said. “… And that’s what you have to believe, (but) my experience is that nobody thinks about it that way.”
People can read Scripture and come to different conclusions, but Catholics have the advantage, in addition to the Church, of being able to draw on the writings of the early Church Fathers to understand what truth and canon are.
These writings – including letters from some of the Church’s most venerated saints such as Augustine, Ignatius of Antioch, Irenaeus and Justin Martyr – contain teachings consistent with Catholic faith today, including on the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist, infant baptism, sacramental confession, praying for the dead and many others, Dr. Guarendi said.
Ultimately, the Catholic faith is founded on a pillar of truth, logic and coherence handed down from Christ to the first apostles and preserved in an unbroken line by their successors – the pope and the bishops, Dr. Guarendi said. And, more importantly, this coherence is easily demonstrable, he said.
“The early church was very, very Catholic,” Dr. Guarendi said. “There is only one reason to be Catholic, and that is because it is true.”
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