Attacks or criticisms of faith-based moral principles and beliefs have come from both outside and within the Catholic Church.

The Sun Journal recently had a prominent article about an atheist who spoke to all of 25 students at Bates College about the value of sacrilegious acts and boasted of his desecration of the consecrated host.

It has been the church’s fate to suffer abuse by nonbelievers who consider it valuable to society to mock and discredit religious belief. It’s not enough to have their own beliefs; they must also mock and even desecrate the church. This reveals not only disagreement, but also antipathy and insecurity.

Others, who are practicing Catholics, oppose and criticize Bishop Malone’s forceful defense of marriage as between one man and one woman. Either not being fully informed about this church teaching or being unable to accept it in faith can be causes of such dissent. Such opposition is dispiriting.

The church has endured and withstood attacks or opposition throughout its history because it has been entrusted with proclaiming the truth. As Pope Benedict XVI recently wrote in his encyclical “Caritas in Veritate,” there is no real love without the truth. It is in the full understanding and belief of the church’s teaching that is found the true compassion of Christ. The church was founded by Christ to speak for him and to lead followers to salvation, but it takes faith to accept that, and determination and grace to follow through in practice.

Maurice Theriault, Lewiston