“Challenge need not be an angry war of words or debate, but challenge can be handled with dignity, respect in an honorable way so that only the desire for justice is the goal.
Challenging in sport is a challenge for skill. A challenge at war is a challenge of survival for a cause. Expressing challenge in dealing with one’s Faith in God is a challenge that should never be misunderstood. This challenge is one that should be handled with charity, honesty, reliability, and express generosity in its every mood.
Our innate Faith says to us God is Love, God is Merciful, God is Hope, in God we will always receive justice.
To deal with men who have openly ascribed to a vocation that says, ‘I want to teach all men about God,’ it is a vocation that bears with it a security in the feeling that such a man can be depended upon to direct the Goal of our Soul.
In the innocence of Faith there is sometimes an overconfidence in this man, never wanting to discredit him or to challenge his ideas so it will diminish him in the eyes of others, but we have reached a time in History, a time of honorable challenge in defense of our Faith, insisting that those who have ascribed to this vocation return the respect to us, as they feel they should have from us.
No man is a god. There is only One God. No man is immortal. No man is truly infallible.
Through the years we have been led to believe things that we have gone along with even when we did not agree with them, but these things were based on respect for the vocation even when we did not respect the men.
No one is asking that closets be opened to the world to divulge to the whole world the incompetencies, the idiosyncrasies, the misinterpretations, the conflicts, the power that was utilized to overpower individuals who were in positions of power in the administration area. But, as Roman Catholics, we, as all other men in the world, will have to face God for every thought, word, deed, act or action we perform, right or wrong.
With this responsibility facing us, we must not ignore the Judgment of our acts, of our behavior, and we must have the strength and the courage and the perseverance to stand up and be counted in this world, challenging those who ascribe to being the leaders of our Faith and morals.
Challenge is many times a healthy way to clear the air. Challenge takes sides: for purpose, for reason, to prove a point or to win a cause.
As Roman Catholics, with all this knowledge of the necessity for challenge in our time, we must see challenge in the dignity, respect and honor due our Faith, due our Soul, and due to the very fact that we are dedicated and committed Roman Catholics.”
