One of the signs of faith is conviction. That might seem obvious, but truly it isn’t. Let me explain. One of the great challenges in the church today is apathy. In these days where the church focuses so much on evangelization, we do well to consider how strong our convictions towards our Catholic faith really are. I write this on the weekend of the great American “holy day” better known as Super Bowl Sunday. I can’t help but consider the intensity the passion and level of convictions so many have about this admittedly wonderful American game. Then to consider the level of convictions many of us have about the doctrines, morals and devotions of being Catholic we see quite a contrast. Truly, we all, but especially those of us involved in Catholic education need to consider how we are instilling strong convictions into the hearts and minds of our young people about our doctrines, morals and devotions. In light of the great football weekend, we need to see something that G.K. Chesterton saw as one of the primary reasons he converted to Catholicism. In his wonderful book, The Catholic Church and Conversion he makes a powerful point about the church as he points out the reason the Catholic church uses the term “Roman” in its title. “It is simply a fact that the Roman Catholic church is THE church and not “a” church among many churches. It may be a good thing that the Roman Empire broke up into many nations, but The church was certainly NOT one of the many nations it broke up into.” Catholic truths are fit for every nation. The Catholic spirit outshines every national pride or any jersey, cap or team credit card we can wear.

We do our young people no favors if we only instill in them an appreciation of the church along the lines of our loyalty to teams or a generic sense of being nice to others. A pleasant memory of almost everyone who attended a Catholic school is the pride we had in wearing our school colors and embracing our school mascot. But such conviction or loyalty passes quickly. Move to a different school or to a different city, and that kind of conviction evaporates. In the world of sports, this can be almost a virtue. A long time Bear fan friend of mine, now living in Florida has deep convictions for the Buccaneers. Chesterton’s insight about the breakup of the Roman Empire can escape the minds of even a cradle Catholic. As the Empire broke up into nations, people gathered around people of similar cultural qualities. Their language, their art, their food and games acted like a magnet towards fragments of iron. These clusters of people, known as nations, makeup the characters of the history of the Western world. American threw the world a curve ball, because it stated that “we” shall organize our nation around ideas, not around ethnic identities. I don’t have explain that this very conviction is being tested to the point of no return. So, what’s the point here? The point is that our Catholic convictions must be grounded on the unique doctrines, morals and devotions that span all cultures and nationalities. It isn’t enough that our children are proud to wear their gym uniform. In my humble opinion, this is one of the reasons I admire the Polish culture so much. Polish Catholics, if they are deeply convicted about the faith, have adapted and assimilated in many different lands. Praise God, there are so many of them here in the USA.