Theologian finds ‘family’ in Catholic Church

		THE INTERVIEW a regular feature of The Catholic New World, is an in-depth conversation with a person whose words, actions or ideas affect today’s Catholic. It may be affirming of faith or confrontational. But it will always be stimulating.

Catholic New World staff writer Michelle Martin talks with Scott Hahn.



Scott Hahn, 44, became a Catholic in 1986. Before that, he was an ordained Presbyterian minister with 10 years in ministry experience. Since then, he has made his mark as a prolific author and speaker. He now serves as a professor of theology and Scripture at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, where he is also the founder and director of the Institute of Applied Biblical Studies. He and his wife, Kimberly, have six children. He was in Chicago Feb. 23 speaking on “First Comes Love: Finding Your Family in the Trinity,” part of St. Thomas of Canterbury’s Lenten lecture series on “The Sacramentality of Sex.”



The Catholic New World: I read a lot of your personal history about why you decided to become Catholic; how has your appreciation of the Catholic Church changed since you’ve been Catholic?

Scott Hahn: I would say it’s more of the same. I remember Cardinal Newman being asked if he had any regrets. Essentially, I would say the same as he said, and that was, I only wish I’d come in sooner, and I only wish I could internalize it more deeply.

Once you have a sense of homecoming, then all you want is more of what you’ve found. I think there’s also an appreciation on my part of, since I’ve been a father, how much my own family depends upon the “familia Dei,” the family of God. It’s not only what made sense of the church for me, having a family, but it’s also what makes family life the joy—and the struggle—but something that works in a way that it would never work if you were on your own.



TCNW: Today you were talking about finding your family in the Trinity, the model of the divine family. How has that changed the way you see your family?

SH: As drastically as any discovery I could ever make. It’s hard to even describe without getting emotional. It’s where the head and the heart are fused. In some ways, I would say, people like me who grew up in a family like mine—it was good enough, but we weren’t close and we weren’t religious. We did a little bit of church stuff as Protestants but not much. We were kind of a broken family, and I helped to break it. Whereas my wife’s family was really strong and still is.

I found this incredible hope that people like me who come from a family that’s breaking often are led to discover why God allowed that. I had this deep need for family that my wife never had. So it was like a rubber band: when you pull in the wrong direction, and you finally let go, you can fly farther and faster than people who were content with whatever home life they had. It took her a while for the Catholic faith to really scratch where she itches. Then she discovered the reason she didn’t need any more family in the church was because her family was so strong and so wonderful. Then it opened up her eyes to say, “This is just more of the same.” When she finally came in four years after me, in some ways, she came in with greater simplicity and depth. I came in like, “I found myself a home.” She was like, “This is more of what I grew up with.”



TCNW: What can people who have come into the church as adults teach to people who are cradle Catholics and vice versa?

SH: I think sometimes immigrants have a distinctive perspective when they come to a country like the United States. They might know the Constitution better or they might appreciate the freedoms, the customs, the distinctive traditions more. I think that’s what converts can bring to cradle Catholics.

On the other hand, I would say to cradle Catholics, thanks for holding down the fort, thanks for keeping that fire lit. Ultimately, it doesn’t depend upon the enthusiasm of converts. I think in my case and in others, too, I think of the adage, “still waters run deep.” Converts sometimes are babbling brooks. They’re all excited, but they have to grow and deepen. Then you run across cradle Catholics who might not be all enthusiastic, but if they’ve really been living it, you might find that they have depths that it would take converts years to discover. So there’s a complementarity; they both need each other.



TCNW: Two of your recent books, “The Lamb’s Supper” (Doubleday, 1999) and “Hail Holy Queen” (Doubleday, 2001), are largely based on the Bible’s Book of Revelation. Why do you think so many people and so many Catholics are afraid of that book?

SH: Because of what so many people do with it. I gave a talk last night at Holy Family (Parish) in Inverness, and I was explaining that when I first became a Christian in the ’70s, I went to Bible studies where everybody was rushing into the Apocalypse, but nobody was coming up with any real clarity. There were all these broken promises. We were told that if we just kept our eyes on the TV, the news would report Armageddon and the rapture or whatever, and after a couple of years, we got disenchanted, and after three or four years, I had been through all the interpretative options and said it doesn’t make any sense.

Ten years later, after I’d read the early Fathers (of the Church) and I’m trying out a Mass, still as a Protestant, I just had this sense in the middle of the Mass that not only is the Lamb celebrated in the Mass like he is in the Apocalypse, but you have all of these candles and chalices and books and you have the Amen and the Alleluia and the incense and the white robes and the vestments and the saints and the angels and the altar.

Where else on the planet can you find what John saw in the Apocalypse? It just came together. This is why. John was to show the church that in the Mass is where we experience this heavenly glory, this heavenly liturgy.

I have found through the years not only that this was not a new discovery—the early church Fathers got it—but I’ve also found that the Catechism teaches it, and Vatican II especially. In “Scarosanctum Conciliam,” in the Constitution on the Liturgy, it says we participate with the angels and saints in the heavenly liturgy. I joke about how Protestants are studying the menu while we enjoy the meal, but I think there’s something serious to be said for getting Catholics to study the menu and memorize the recipe and ingredients so they can help people and so they can also come to a greater appreciation for receiving the Eucharist themselves.



TCNW: You’ve been on both sides. What is it about Catholicism that creates the biggest problem for Protestants? What makes them so mad?

SH: I think two things in particular. One is Mary, because we tend to think that God’s glory is a kind of tug-of-war, what is called a zero-sum game, that if Mary gets glory, that can only come from Jesus losing it, and so the more you attribute to Mary, the more you detract from Jesus.

In fact, that doesn’t make any sense. You can increase God’s glory. He glorifies himself by sharing the glory with us. Mary’s the proof that he’s not only willing but able to share his glory with us. Far from taking the glory away from Christ, Mary reflects the glory of Christ more perfectly than anybody else.

The other part is the pope. I can understand why anti-Catholics are anti-Catholic, because if the pope isn’t what he claims to be, the infallible vicar of Christ who teaches with divine authority to bind a billion Catholics, he’s a dictator. He’s a spiritual tyrant. But if he is what he claims to be, his role is indispensable to reuniting God’s family. I’m convinced now of what I wasn’t convinced of earlier, that in fact he is the vicar of Christ, only because Christ gave the love and power that made him such.



Two lectures remain in “The Sacramentality of Sex” series. Mary Beth Bonnaci will give a talk aimed at teenagers at 10 a.m. March 9 on “Sex and Love: What’s a Teenager to Do?” At 1 p.m., Bonnaci will give a talk open to all entitled “We’re on a Mission from God,” addressing the issue of living for God in an over-sexed culture. Katrina Zeno, co-founder of Women of the Third Millennium, will give a special post-Lenten lecture at 7:30 p.m. April 26 on “The Genius of Woman: Understanding the New Feminism of John Paul II.”

All the talks are at St. Thomas of Canterbury Church, 4827 N. Kenmore. For information, call (773) 878-5507.

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