Today I met with about 80 Catholics. Some were Priests, but most were lay people. One of the lay people was asking questions of the Catholics in the room. He asked that the Priests not answer the questions, but let the lay people answer. First, he asked for a show of hands as to how many of the people went to Mass every Sunday unless they were sick or for some other very good reason. All raised their hands. Then he asked how many were involved in their parish. All raised their hands. Then he said “OK, you’ve all been given a card with a number on it. That’s your number. I’m going to ask a question and then call the number of someone here. You answer.” With that he asked simple questions about the Catholic Faith:
1. What are the Ten Commandments? Several people tried. About the fifth person got them all.
2. What is Jesus’ greatest commandment? The third person who tried got the answer right.
3. How many Sacraments are there? Four people said they couldn’t remember. One finally said “I think there are seven, but I’m not sure.
4. What Sacrament(s) can only be received once? It took five tries to get the right answer.
5. What are the Precepts of the Church? Nobody got that one.
6. What is the Pope’s name? The third person got the name “Benedict”. It took two more to add “the sixteenth”.
7. What was the Pope’s name before he was Pope? “Some German name, I think.” Some tried at the word, nobody got it correct. These were just a few of the questions. I was amazed that Catholics who go to Mass and are involved in their parish don’t know these things. But instead of complaining about it and ranting about how awful it is, it’s better to do some instruction and begin teaching. Look over the questions above and see of you know the answers. If not, look them up. It’s good to know our faith. We’re going to need all the knowledge we can get as we enter into a very serious time in our Church.