May 9—DALLAS TWP. — Joseph Paglianite recalled being a youngster of about 10 years old when his oldest sister, Catherine, told their parents she wanted to be a teacher. Paglianite, 95, Grotto Pizza patriarch, remembered facing the challenges of a family of modest income, and Catherine applied to College Misericordia. He said their dad bought her a used car so she could commute from their home .
Pope Pius XII is pictured at the Vatican in a file photo dated March 15, 1949. (CNS file photo)
Church history is a very strange phenomenon. It does not matter whether your academic position classifies you as an historian. If you are a Christian you risk having the label “apologist” put on your work, if you defend any aspect of Christian history no matter how compelling and unassailable the evidence you advance. Conversely, if you are not regarded as an “apologist,” a glaze of impartiality protects you, even if your research is shallow and simplistic, hiding many errors, omissions and biases.
In fact, “apologists” can be right or wrong, good or bad historians, depending on their research and quality of analysis. Many gifted researchers and historians have been improperly assailed as “apologists,” because their rigorous and sound conclusions directly challenge the claims of Christianity’s ideological detractors.