People have enormous desire to learn about church, says priest

Published: 2005-07-08

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Catholics have an enormous desire to learn about their church, said Father John Dietzen, who since 1968 has been writing a weekly question-and-answer column as a way to help them better understand the church and their faith. His "Question Corner" column, carried by Catholic News Service since 1975, is the most widely used Catholic column in the United States, and a new edition of "Catholic Q & A," a collection of his readers' questions and his answers was recently published by Crossroad. People write in asking about any number of things pertaining to the Catholic faith -- anything from matters of personal morality to questions about interpretation of Scripture. Father Dietzen answers the questions the best that he can, drawing on resources throughout the world. "I do an awful lot of research. ... I have people who are authorities on certain subjects and I call and talk to them," he explained in a telephone interview with CNS July 5.

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