In most parts of the world, Catholics and Protestants have come a long way from their history of bloody battles with each other. We now live, work, and play side by side in relative harmony.
Which is how it should be, although this doesn’t mean we’re supposed to give up on evangelizing our Protestant brothers and sisters. Jesus calls all of us to work to peacefully help Him gather everyone into His one Church.
Protestants have often outdone Catholics in their evangelization efforts. While Catholic apologetics has developed a lot over the past few decades, we still have plenty of work to do.
Here are a few ways you can pitch in to gently encourage your Protestant friends to consider the claims of the Catholic Church.
1. Suggest that they study the writings of the Fathers of the Church
The Fathers of the Church are early Christian leaders, preachers, and writers of the first several hundred years of Christianity. The reason they are so valuable is that they give us a window into what the early Christians believed in the time period following the Apostles. Some of these men even knew the Apostles personally.
Time after time, Protestants have gone to the writings of the Church Fathers to “prove” that the early Church was Protestant — only to discover very Catholic-sounding beliefs and practices. We have St. Clement of Rome at the end of the first century talking about the apostolic succession of bishops; St. Irenaeus of Lyons in the second century defending the authority of Apostolic Tradition; and St. Justin Martyr in the second century describing an ancient form of the Mass. And the list goes on.
Thankfully, many of the writings of the early Church Fathers are available to read for free online. New Advent has one of the best collections.
