I have always enjoyed teaching, especially teaching the Catholic Faith. I did a few talks years ago and have had the opportunity to do a couple this month for those in the RCIA at my parish. I’ll do another one in March. I did not record the live talks that I did, but in an effort to prepare, I recorded a practice round of each talk and decided to make it available for download as an MP3 if anyone is interested.
Dignity of the Human Person and Sanctity of Human Life
Although I didn’t get a handout made in time for the talk, I made one with my references that i used. It’s available here.
Catholic Social Teaching
The handout for this one is here. After giving this practice round, I realized a missed some important points that I added to my notes before I gave the talk. They are:
- Racism and sexism are both sinful. However, recognition of natural differences in men and women is not sexism. In fact, it would be sexism not to recognize those differences because it denigrates the feminine gifts and tells women that they have to become men in order to be equal in worth to men.
- To love your neighbor is to will the good of your neighbor. Some people view love as just thinking nice thoughts or feeling nice feelings about someone. We need to will the good and do the good for one another. This applies to love of God, too, but God is perfect so doing his will is always loving him.
- Health care is a basic right.
- We have a duty to pay just taxes.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy these talks. I look forward to doing one more teaching in March on the Four Last Things (Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell) and also Purgatory (which isn’t a last thing because it won’t exist for all eternity). I’ve been wanting to do that one for years, and I finally have the opportunity!