Defending Your Faith : The Catholic Voices Way

by Lisa Fraser

“Oh, you’re one of the Catholic Voices, the people who spin things in the media?”, one of my friends told me. I laughed. If CV were about ‘spinning things’, I would not be interested. My path has been motived by one idea: how do I become a better apostle?  

I joined Catholic Voices because I wanted to ‘defend my faith’. Four years later, I see I’m not at all on the defensive: I’m learning to live in love and charity – it’s my personal journey; it is healing and fulfilling; and because I want everyone to experience this grace, I’m genuinely happy to talk about what I believe in. We’re not fighters – we do our best to live our faith, and we share openly about our experience, achievements and struggles.

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I thought Catholic Voices would give me a toolkit to become a Super-Apostle. Instead, they told me to read, learn, do homework: what a disappointment! As I look back, I see it was a blessing: it forced me to take my personal development in charge. I started doing research about ideas I felt uncomfortable with; I talked to people I disagreed with, for the sake of learning. Now, I no longer feel defeated by the things I don’t know: I trust I can seek answers. Catholic Voices taught me that lack of knowledge is a normal part of the journey. The question is: am I willing to grow?

 

Some say CV is about public speaking. I rather think it’s about listening first. After four years of going from parish to parish, I’ve come to realise that each question I hear arises from a deep and personal life experience. People who come to talk to us have their own lights and shadows. That’s why I often ask more questions than I give answers: it’s not a communication trick; it’s because I genuinely want to know you, and how I can be helpful.

 

Of course, Catholic Voices is also about developing skills in public speaking. I had done and given media trainings before CV: ‘smile, be mindful of your body language, don’t let down your guard’. However, the Catholic Voices I met were very different: they didn’t have the ‘marketing-smile’, they genuinely smiled at me. They smiled because they cared and wanted to make me feel welcome – not as a colleague Catholic Voice, but as an individual. It had such a big impact on me that I thought I could try…and now, I smile too. I want to welcome you, listen to your view, and see where we can go from there. Catholic Voices is not ‘a method’: it’s a journey with other people

 

Smile, love: good. But the truth is: there are tensions along the road. Some discussions will end with ‘let’s agree to disagree’, because there is no magic recipe to convince everyone – second disappointment! However, what I’ve learnt instead is more valuable: I’ve learnt to accept tensions without being upset, and without compromising with my beliefs. The more I spend time deepening my faith with the CV network, the more I understand what I believe in, and why I believe it. As a result, I’m more able to speak about faith without feeling threatened when people have different views. That’s the humbling part of the journey with CV: we support people to witness the joy of the Gospel but ultimately, it’s the Spirit that is at work in each one of usDo your best, let go, and let God.