January 27, 2000
Defending the Catholic Faith
Apologist Uses 'Pope Chart'
BOCA
RATON, Fla.—Vinnie Cacace wants every parish
in Florida and the United States to know about a few simple tools he has
discovered for helping marginal Catholics appreciate their faith.
“When I
was in Rome in 1969, I came across this special chart at the Vatican
bookstore,” said Cacace, holding up a “Pope Chart,” a pictorial and
biographical history of the 263 successors of St. Peter created by Roman
artist Memmo Caporilli.
The
poster-sized illustration of the history of the papacy helps people see
the continuity and unity of the Catholic Church amid the countless
Christian denominations and other sects, Cacace said.
"I say
to inmates with whom I visit that these are the 263 successors of Peter,
who was given the job by Jesus," said Cacace, a retired brewery
executive and prison ministry volunteer. "They all inevitably say,
'Where can I get one?' They want to use them with their [fundamentalist]
friends who are trying to evangelize them."
Cacace likes
to say there are two Rs to knowing God: reason and revelation.
"Reason
can tell us God exists but it can't give us answers to the big questions
of life: Is there meaning to life and what happens when we die," he
told The Florida Catholic diocesan newspaper. "That is where
Revelation comes in."
When
he was a teen, Cacace said he went to a party where the hostess separated
quest into two groups and the leader of each was told to read a paragraph
and then verbally relay it to the next person and so on. The story changed
radically as it went down the line.
"What
came out is not what went in," Cacace said. Jesus didn't want
that to happen with the big questions of life so what he did was to
establish a Church.
"I
ask people,' Where do you find the Church that Jesus established?' Then I
show them the Pope Chart"
The
chart features a medallion-sized image of every Pope with a biographical
sketch below. It is 28 inched wide and 40 inches from top to bottom.
Cacace is hoping to get one in every parish in his home Diocese of Palm
Beach for a nominal fee.
"I
would like to go to all 51 pastors in the diocese, give them a free Pope
Chart and say, 'You want to start a fire, here is an item that will do it
for you," he said. "I have been to 22 parishes and the
reaction has been very positive."
He
said the chart "flabbergasts the people and really wakens them to the
treasure of the Church and it gives the priest an opportunity to talk
about our Catholic Church that goes right back to Jesus." (CNS)