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Catholic Answers- A.K.A Catholic.com

Reachable URLs-http://catholic.com http://www.catholic.com/
                   Forums     http://forums.catholic.com http://www.forums.catholic.com
                      Encyclopedia   http://oce.catholic.com/ http://oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Home
Reviewed By Marc Aupiais- See Review here: Catholic Answers Reviewed

Let according to site/according to the site denote

Mission statement

Their mission statement, is listed as this-
"Catholic Answers is an apostolate dedicated to serving Christ by bringing the fullness of Catholic truth to the world. We help good Catholics become better Catholics, bring former Catholics “home,” and lead non-Catholics into the fullness of the faith. We explain Catholic truth, equip the faithful to live fully the sacramental life, and assist them in spreading the Good News." http://www.catholic.com/home/about.asp

History

Catholic Answers is a Lay Apostolate (Lay: not an official church operation/entity, Apostolate: position of the apostles,  or an organisation or mission of spreading religious beliefs).

It started in Santiago in 1978, when Lawyer (at the time) Carl Keating responded to a pamphlet attack by a non-catholic church, by himself pamphleteering the "offending" church, having opened a mail bag by the name of Catholic Answers. This resulted in 24 articles over several years, having had good responses from members of the church that had originally pamphleteered his own church with anti-catholic propaganda. Having responded to the charges, successfully, by 1986 he launched a monthly newspaper, having already written articles for the Catholic press on the issue of Protestant Fundamentalism, and having been convinced of a need for Catholic Apologetics and education.

Ten years after the start (1988 A.D.) it became a full-time apostolate, with Lawyer Carl Keating closing up his law practice and opening offices, and employing staff.

It soon (1990 A.D.) was replaced by magazine format, in the form of the Apostolate's current magazine, called "This Rock", which published 10 issues a year. It was successful and now comprises an online website, which has archives of almost all the Apostolate's tracts, and articles, "Catholic Answers Live", a radio program, and further runs conferences for others aiming at it's purposes, and is currently the home of a version of the Catholic encyclopedia, and Catholic Answer Forums (CAF).

Physical Site

Catholic Encyclopedia

see it online- http://oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Home

The site has a version of the Original Catholic Encyclopedia as taken from the 16 volume 1907-1914 "Catholic Encyclopedia". This is a pre-Vatican II work, of which more may be found out at - http://sites.google.com/site/catholicaffiliates/the-affiliate-review/new-advent#TOC-The-Catholic-Encyclopedia

Catholic Forums

see it online- http://forums.catholic.com/

With over 80,000 members, 1.2 million visits a month, and 7 million pages created, Catholic Answer forums, is one of the larger Catholic online communities.

This Rock Archives

see information online- http://www.catholic.com/magazines/thisrock.asp

The magazine, as listed above- goes back to 1990 A.D. Information, and archives from the magazine are available online from it's inception in 1990.

Booklets

The site has three orderable booklets listed-
http://www.catholic.com/library/Pillar.asp
http://www.catholic.com/chastity/pure_love.asp
http://www.catholic.com/library/12_ways.asp
these may be purchased from the company.

Copyrighting

see it online- http://www.catholic.com/home/permissions.asp

It is copyrighted, from 1979 to 2008 (present day) , and apart from their acceptable use policy (permissions), content may not be used without written permission. They allow private printing, and saving of articles, posting onto what seems to be- forums, or newsgroups, and also small quotations, where the information must not be plagiarized.

Special Reports

 

Special reports include- Pillar for the Military, Angels and Demons, Sacrament of Charity, Wolves in Sheep's Clothing, How You Can Help Kids Stay Catholic in College- from 2007.

Contact

they have listed contact details here- http://www.catholic.com/home/contact.asp

Advertising

The site's "sponsors" are Catholic organizations which are listed on the side of their pages, so as to link to other sites.

Catalogue of Catholic Books

The site makes money via sales at it's shop - http://shop.catholic.com.
Many of the books are Ignatius Press.

Catholic Answers Live

The site is also linked to the two hour a day Catholic answers live, which may be seen at - http://www.catholic.com/radio.asp

Our verdict of the site (or other media)

It is of use for apologetics, and has had great impact via such, it is further often the quoting spot for Catholics online, and has been listed as the tenth most busy Catholic site online, by New Advent.

Faults

While the site itself is known for accuracy, some previous employees have been accused of Feeneyism after leaving the apostolate

(Gerry Matatics was accused of such in an Article by Michael J. Mazza in the December 1994 issue of "Fidelity" accessable at http://www.ewtn.com/library/answers/extreccl.htm)

While the site itself strictly rebukes Feeney, and those who follow him. This however is an area over which the organization cannot be said to have control, and their response to the accusations is as yet unknown (to our knowledge). The warning lies in not simply accepting a persons word apart from a well-known organisation, simply because they once belonged to the given organisation.

Strengths

As mentioned in this article.

This Page is an attempt at Co-operation (a civic virtue), on the internet by Scripturelink.