How I defend my faith to my Protestant relatives?
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What do you mean by that? You mean he try to convert you? Personally I would just listen to them straight and offer my own spiritual experience. Experience by means, not the “my gospel is true and you can pray and ask” emotion. But a more deep, profound and alternative prespective so they can share theirs too.
I mean you talk to him in deep to understand the real reason behind his own conversion. It’s not something you can say and done for it. He might or might not listen. But until you do, you don’t know for sure
One Catholic (same faith) even blocked me out and grew attached to me, that she had no other emotion and I had to unfriend her. She felt more like an emotion magnet and I have to up till now to get her crap out of the way. Crap happens. But hopefully most of the time it’s not as extreme as mine.
Blocking: “this is my faith and you keeps yours.”
Non-blocking: “I got a lot to talk about and here’s my experience”
I had a long talk long ago with a nun. I learned a lot about how she treat her faith even we had talked only once.
Good luck
Listen to “Catholic Answer Live” Podcast/Radio show and watch some of Trent Horn’s debates on YouTube. He is great at keeping calm and remaining respectful while defending the Faith.
Is there something in particular you have a question about? Like why Protestant Bibles only have 66 books or where we got the Bible in the first place? Where chapters and verses came from? Or something entirely different?
I’m not into ecumenism because I don’t believe in putting God to the test and by this I mean that protestants can set traps, are militant and basically who wants the hassle.
I would be nice to them from a distance; either that or wear earplugs and pretend you are hard of hearing.
Why do you feel like you have to defend your faith against Protestants? Do they drill you like a drill seargant?
I respect your point of view, but I like to learn about what/why others believe what they do. And I am pretty well-grounded in what/why I believe what I believe. Ecumenicalism to me should only go as far as sharing with one another in what/why we believe what we believe.
I do not want to see lesbian Anglican Bishops celebrating alongside Catholic Priests in the Sacred Liturgy!
I once attended a Lutheran Church Service in a Catholic Church on a small Island where there were only two Churches (a Catholic and an Episcopalian Church). The Catholic Church would allow the Lutheran Pastor from the Mainland to hold Lutheran Services in the Church on Sunday afternoon’s. This is a very touristy Island. I was camping and my alarm clock ran out of battery during the night and I missed Mass. I knew that Lutherans usually have the same Readings as us, so that is better than nothing. The lack of reverence though, really saddened me. I don’t know if it was because the Island is touristy and maybe the Pastor was trying to be more ecumenical and relaxed or if that is just what ELCA Lutheran Services are like, but it made it was bothersome. I of course obtained during Holy Communion, even though the Pastor emphasized that anyone is invited to receive, no matter their disposition.
so yeah, in the context of the Sacred Liturgy, I am 
percent against ecumenicalism, but in relationships with fellow Christians, I have no problem finding common ground and discussing our differences respectfully.
That is what ecumenism is maybe meant to be about, supposedly…? Problem is, St. Paul instructs us to be genuine in our communication with others and yet I know that if I were in a room of other denominations I wouldn’t be because I would just be there thinking, “So, why don’t you all just become Catholics!”. And I know full well that the Catholic present would be the elephant in the room. If they believe in God, then they must have been given that grace in the first place and so belief in God is the genuine bit; over and above, I don’t see it.
The reason is to find areas of discussion yet as said before many protestants are militant and the only real discussion going on is an inner one in the hearts of each individual present and exactly as described above. By agreeing on the points to which everyone concurs is tantamount to just being agreeable whilst agreeing to disagree and so keeping people where they are. There may be the odd sheep who converts over to the Church from those meetings but if so then that can be the only good outcome and furthermore if such instances do occur then this points to the intention behind such meetings being the opposite to the disposition St. Paul tells us to have.
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If you’re having to “defend” your faith, I can presume your relatives are either attacking your faith or hostile towards your faith.
I don’t feel a need to defend my faith to anyone, but I rather do explain what I believe and WHY I believe it.
“Why do you go to a priest for confession when you can just go to the big guy directly?”
“Do you really believe Jesus is really in the bread?”
“Why do you worship Mary and the Saints?”
“What’s up with the bones and relics?”
“Once saved, always saved” (Fails to understand the difference between redemption and salvation.)
“Why do believe the Pope can’t be wrong?”
“Why do you pray before statues?” Followed by accusations of idol worshiping, golden calfs and sinfulness.
The attacks are usually aggressive and confrontational. My suggestion is not to argue with them. It just makes them dig in and want to prove how smart and right they are. In these moments, they lack humility.
I need to be careful not to respond. I find short declarative sentence that I am Catholic because I love God and I want to be with Him for eternity. I pray with Saints and Mary because it pleases Him. I go to Church because it pleases Him. I practice the sacrament of confession because it pleases Him. I receive the Eucharist because he told me I have to eat his body and this is how he makes it available to me. They soon get tired of trying to get a rise out of you and they’ll respect you for your strong beliefs. There are probably other ways, perhaps even better ways to handle it. There are conversations on the this site that answer these questions.
I went to Catholic School from 6th Grade through College - and not once did we study the Catechism. Not once was I did we read and discuss the Imitation of Christ. So I get your frustration around not being able to defend the Faith when attacked. (We did read Aquinas). Father Mike Schmitz through ascension press offers both Bible in a Year and Catechism in a Year, both excellent presentations. I would also recommend two of Fr. Mark Beard’s sermons on YouTube: “The Mass” and “Are you Catholic?” Fr. Beard was a convert to Catholicism from protestant. He answers a number of the questions you have been asked directly.
Good luck with your relatives. Be steadfast in your beliefs, and perhaps someday, they’ll all become Catholic by God calling them through you.
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Sounds like your method works well.
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What many anti-Catholic Protestant and Evangelical Christians do not understand is that when they ask these ignorant questions with an assuming tone that they are actually leading an individual who may not have ever questioned their Faith to find out the answers to these questions and grow in their Faith. They are actually blessing the individual with this gift of knowing what we actually believe and why we believe it.
When I left my Catholic Faith after High School one of the things that brought me back were well-meaning Protestants who mistook my sign of the Cross to mean that I was practicing Catholic. They threw all these same assumptions that they have been told Catholic Christians believe and I did not know the Faith that I had left well enough to defend it, but I knew that what they were saying was not accurate.
I did not go seeking the answers though, the answers found me. Rather the Holy Spirit led me to discover the depth and beauty of the Faith I had fallen away from. And the answers to these questions, thanks to a radio show I stumbled upon called Catholic Answers Live.
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