United States Catholic Catechism for Adults

32 THE EIGHTH

COMMANDMENT: TELL THE TRUTH YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST YOUR NEIGHBOR —CCC, NOS. 2464-2513

THE BISHOP TOLD AND DEFENDED THE TRUTH

The Catholic Church will always need a vehicle for telling the truth to the public and to her members about her positions on problems in society, her hopes for people’s happiness, and her fresh insights into the eternal Gospel of Christ. This becomes acutely nec essary when forces outside the Church distort her teachings, misrepresent her intentions for society, and attempt to diminish the Church’s life and integrity.“In Jesus Christ, the whole of God’s truth has been made manifest” (CCC, no. 2466).

One man who understood this need was Fr. John Francis Noll. Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1875, he knew early on he wanted to be a priest. After completing studies at St. Lawrence College, in Mount Calvary, Wisconsin, he attended Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio. Bishop Joseph Rademacher ordained him a priest for the Fort Wayne dio cese in 1898. Within two years, Fr. Noll became a pastor in the Fort Wayne area. A man of prodigious energies, he not only served his people with zeal, but he also found time to respond to the larger issues affecting the Church of his time. He discovered he had a special talent for journalism, a gift for writing that he put at the service of the apostolic needs of the Church.