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Why We Haven't Succeeded
in Abolishing Abortion
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Gerald Christian Matatics
is known throughout the English-speaking world as one of the most exciting
and intellectually gifted defenders of the Catholic Faith in our time.
Formerly an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA)
and a vigorous opponent of Catholicism, he spent three years researching and
attempting to refute the Catholic Faith to prevent friend and former
seminary classmate Scott Hahn from embracing it. Finally convinced by his
studies that Catholicism is the original and authentic form of Christianity,
Gerry, together with his wife and children, entered the Catholic Church in
1986. He was the first PCA minister ever to become Roman Catholic; several
have since followed him.
Gerry is Founder and President of
Biblical Foundations
International, a ministry that demonstrates to Catholics and
non-Catholics alike the scriptural case for Catholicism. He has held
hundreds of seminars, addressed huge audiences of several thousands at major
conferences, and publicly debated well-known critics of Catholicism
throughout North America, Great Britain, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
He has spoken in countless Catholic and Protestant churches and seminaries,
colleges and universities (including Oxford University, Boston College,
Harvard, Princeton, and Yale). He has offered retreats and training sessions
to priests and religious such as Mother Angelica's Missionaries of the
Eternal Word. In addition to being a frequent guest on Protestant, Catholic,
and secular radio and television worldwide (such as Mother Angelica Live!,
Fr. Kenneth Baker's Review of the News, and other shows on EWTN and WEWN
shortwave radio), he served for a number of years as a co-host with the late
Dr. William Marra of the nation-wide weekly radio program Where Catholics
Meet.
Gerry's work has brought him into contact with entertainment superstars such
as Mel Gibson, Gloria Estefan, Keanu Reeves, and Rush Limbaugh, royalty such
as King Kigeli V of Rwanda and Prince Henri de Bourbon-Parme of France, and
noted authors such as Michael Davies and the late Malachi Martin. His work
has been praised and endorsed by many bishops and cardinals such as Bishop
Myers of Peoria, Cardinal Law of Boston, and the late Cardinal O'Connor of
New York, who wrote, "You have not only accepted the gift of faith but now
bring it to others in a unique way. Yours is a rare gift and your
willingness to give it freely to the service of the Church is both a
challenge and inspiration to us all."
Mr. Matatics graduated with distinction as a scholarship student from the
prestigious preparatory school Phillips Exeter Academy. At the University of
New Hampshire he designed a major in Classical, New Testament, and Patristic
Greek and, taking double the normal course load, earned his B.A. in two
years instead of four (the only undergraduate ever to do so), graduating Phi
Beta Kappa and magna cum laude. He received a Master of Divinity from
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, at the time he entered the Church was
ABD (all but dissertation) for a Ph.D. in Biblical Interpretation from
Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, the top-ranked
conservative Presbyterian seminary in the world, and has taken graduate
courses in Sacred Scripture at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary of the
Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
Prof. Matatics has taught on the faculties of Westminster Theological
Seminary, St. Joseph's University, the University of San Diego, the Notre
Dame Pontifical Catechetical Institute, Aquinas College, and Christendom
College, and, most recently, served for three years as Professor of Sacred
Scripture and Apologetics at Our Lady of Guadalupe International Seminary of
the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He is a
member of the National Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society, the Society of Biblical
Literature, the Catholic Biblical Association of America, and the Fellowship
of Catholic Scholars.
Gerry and his wife Leslie homeschool their eight children. Learn more
about Gerry, his family, his teachings, and his speaking schedule at
www.gerrymatatics.org
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