What No One Taught You in CCD: Steve Hemler on the Apologetics Gap

Steve Hemler traded a 33-year engineering career—including 13 years living inside a gated oil compound in Saudi Arabia—for full-time Catholic ministry, and the journey shaped everything he now teaches. In this conversation with Kaylee, he unpacks the apologetics gap in how most Catholics were formed, explains the "stages of faith" research behind his work, and shares how his newest book, The Busy Parent's Guide to the Catholic Faith, gives parents the tools they've been missing.

What We Talk About:

• How Steve went from structural engineering and Saudi Aramco to founding the Catholic Apologetics Institute of North America
• The two stages of faith—"searching faith" and "owned faith"—and why passing through the searching stage is the only path to a personal, committed faith
• Why Catholic parents feel unprepared to answer their children's big questions, and what The Busy Parent's Guide to the Catholic Faith does about it
• Three pieces of scientific evidence for God's existence: the Big Bang, the mathematical laws of nature, and the fine-tuning of the universe
• How the questions young Catholics are asking have shifted—and why "spiritual but not religious" is the new frontier apologetics needs to address

Chapters:

• 00:00: Welcome and Introduction
• 01:00: Steve's Engineering Background and Life in Saudi Arabia
• 04:33: Teaching CCD in Aramco and the Call to Apologetics
• 06:55: Founding CAINA and 600+ Presentations Worldwide
• 07:26: How the Books Came About
• 10:06: The Busy Parent's Guide: Imprimatur, Endorsements, and Who It's For
• 12:11: Searching Faith and Owned Faith—The Stages of Faith
• 14:02: The Saint Monica Problem: Preventing Children from Leaving the Church
• 15:16: Why Catholic Parents Feel Unprepared to Answer Hard Questions
• 17:05: How Faith Questions Have Changed Over the Years
• 19:28: Scientific Evidence for God: Big Bang, Laws of Nature, Fine Tuning
• 20:12: The Role of Grandparents, Godparents, and Catechists
• 22:21: Hope for the Next Generation and Online Evangelization
• 24:13: What Brings Steve the Most Joy

Resources Mentioned:

• The Busy Parent's Guide to the Catholic Faith by Steve Hemler (Scepter Publishers)
• Catholic Apologetics Institute of North America
• Paloma&Fig

Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Thank you for joining us for Resounding Yes Podcast. Rosanning Yes is a show center on Mary Tabia and reflects upon how we say yes to the Lord. We are podcast by Creative Agency. Woman Fake. Visit WomanFake.com to learn more about our Creative Agency, including lots of engaging creative content, all for Catholic and artistic lives.

SPEAKER_03 0:30

Welcome, friends. Welcome to a resounding guest. I'm Kayleigh School, and today I welcome with me Steve Hemler. Stephen is the president of the Catholic Apologetics Institute of North America and author of four published books on apologetics, including The Busy Parents' Guide to the Catholic Faith: Short Answers to Big Questions. Steve has a Master of Pastoral Studies from Laloya University of Chicago, as well as a bachelor's and master's degree in civil and structural engineering from Virginia Tech. He's been involved in adult and adolescent religious education for over 40 years, including developing and teaching online courses for Catholic International University Certificate in Apologetics. Wow, that's a lot of words. That's awesome. Welcome to the show today, Steve. It's a pleasure to have you with us.

SPEAKER_02 1:22

Hi, Kaylee. It's good to be here.

SPEAKER_03 1:25

Yeah, thanks so much. We're really excited to chat with you and get to know you a little bit, and I'm sure our listeners are as well. So before we begin, I'm just gonna do a quick prayer and then we'll have some questions for you. So in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus, thank you so much for all that you give us. Thank you for the joys that you give us. Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of what you are doing in this world. I pray that we would um just enjoy this conversation today, talking more about you and how we can know you more, understand you more, and live more like you. I pray this all through Mary. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Great. Well, thank you again for joining us. Um, our show is really centered around Mary's fiat. So, as always, we start here. We would love to hear about your own yes to the Lord and how it brought you to where you are today. Um, so we would we would love to know a little bit about your background in engineering. How did you end up with this new focus of writing and apologetics?

SPEAKER_02 2:44

And we only have 20 minutes or so, huh? So, yeah, I have uh engineering degrees, bachelor's and master's from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. We're from Virginia. And after I got those degrees, moved down to Tennessee, uh, worked for a chemical company there, uh, lost that job, and then our family in 1998 moved to Saudi Arabia. And uh we while we were in Tennessee, I was involved with youth ministry and teaching uh CCD. And then that continued when we were in Saudi Arabia. A lot of people are surprised. I worked for the oil company, the Saudi Arabian Oil Company. We lived in Dahran, and uh we lived there 13 years, really enjoyed it. The whole family was there. We had uh did a lot of traveling, uh Rome four times, Israel twice, uh Jordan, Turkey, uh all over Europe, India, Thailand, Egypt, you know, just a great, great place. Didn't have to mow grass for 13 years or clean house. You know, there were we had people do all that. So anyway, a lot of people don't know, but in Saudi Arabia or in Aramco, Saudi Aramco, we have um uh a uh Christian services, and uh we had a priest, and each of the compounds have a priest, each of the camps, and they we had mass uh in the school gym uh weekends, and we had CCD, and I we taught, my wife and I taught uh confirmation. And the schools in the compound there, the secure camp, uh kids really enjoyed it. It was like in the 50s. Uh they could ride their bikes all around, and it's it's gated, uh, guarded, fenced community, and uh it was a very safe place. And so um they the schools only go through the ninth grade. Apparently, they don't want teenagers there except in the summer, uh, causing trouble. So the they would pay to send your kids anywhere you want to go to boarding school. So our kids chose, or boys chose Woodbury Forest, which is here in Orange, Virginia, very close to where we live now, in Culpepper, Virginia. And our daughter went to Foxcroft, uh, up in uh that's a girls' school up in Northern Virginia, in Middleburg. And um and the priest there said uh, you know, that we're sending these kids off uh after confirmation at such a young age without their parents. Let's see if we can do something to prepare them for challenges to their faith and to their morals uh that they uh may face at such a young age by themselves. And so for years when I had gone on business trips working for the Chemical Company down to Texas and and California and different places, um I I would take books with me. You know, we all have these big questions. How do we know God exists? How do we know Jesus is the Son of God? Um, you know, why go to church? How are we saved? Uh suffering, you know, what about, you know, uh how do we know we have a soul and that just heaven and hell? And all these big questions. And so I did a lot of reading, and I would write up these one-page summaries of of what I had learned. I wasn't sure why, but I just felt called to write these one-page summaries, I guess, to help remember. And I called them my life's little learnings. So I had a bunch of these, and when the priest in Saudi Arabia said we should help equip our young people for these challenges, like how do we know God exists and why go to mass? I had these, and so I converted them into PowerPoint, and I had done a lot of video editing for our with our home videos. I converted our old VHS to hard drive and then to DVD, so I knew how to do videos. And I thought, wonder if, you know, kids like videos, so you know, put some of those into these PowerPoint presentations. And that was very well received by the adults and the youth there in Aramco. And for, I don't know, uh eight or ten years I went down to Dubai to their Docsen uh catechetical conference every year and gave these presentations, and it was standing room only. And so uh I felt, you know, like maybe God was calling me to uh, you know, I'd always felt called to serve God full-time. And working in Saudi Arabia, I could take early retirement and and be able to afford to do that. And so in in uh 2011, I walked away from a great job and and uh just started this ministry, and I felt called to take this message of equipping, I call it equipping the saints, equipping people to be able to explain and share why we believe what we believe, that's apologetics, and to dispel doubts and strengthen faith. And so uh we formed the Catholic Apologetics Institute of North America, and since then we've done over 600 of these multimedia presentations in 20 dioceses worldwide, and it's been very well received, and uh I can get into how the books came about. That was never my intention to write books, but uh I if you're interested in that, I can talk to how the books came about.

SPEAKER_03 7:49

Yeah, we'd love to hear about that, and especially your newest book. Um, it really feels fitting as we are coming up on celebrating Father's Day. Um, can you share a lot about your new book and um kind of yeah, how how this came to be?

SPEAKER_02 8:04

So well, a short story, those life so learnings I had before. Uh Catholic International University, they were called Catholic Distance University, approached me in 2012, wanted me to teach these apologetics, three-weeks long apologetics seminars uh for for the students, uh continue education. And so I had those uh life so the learnings and the speaker notes from the PowerPoint presentations, converted them to lectures, uh written lectures, and um and when I was done, I had a stack of papers, and I realized, shoot, you know, that could be a book. And uh so I worked on it a little bit, and that became our first book, The Reality of God, The Layman's Guide to Scientific Evidence for the Creator. Keyword there, layman. It takes, you know, these complicated concepts and puts them in plannings for regular people. And then uh more seminars led to more books. My second book, Search No More, The Keys to Truth and Happiness, builds on the first book. Well, now if you believe in God, what about Jesus? How are we saved? Why go to church? And why aren't we happy? And so that that's the point of the second book. It makes the case that the truth and happiness we're looking for in life are found in Jesus in the church. And then another seminar they wanted was on suffering. Uh, why would a loving God allow evil, pain, and suffering? And I still do these seminars. People can still take these. They're online three weeks long. And and um and so that led to the third book, Catholic Stories of Faith and Hope, How God Brings Good Out of Suffering. Well, I still had these layers of the learning sitting around. I wondered, well, what, you know, it seems like we should try to do something with those. And people, our son and others suggested that uh make these a book for parents. They're short, clear, concise answers to these big questions that busy parents, you know, could could read and communicate with their kids who have these questions. And so that became my fourth book, The Busy Parents' Guide to the Catholic Faith, Short Answers to the Big Questions, recently published by Scepter Publishers. And so these this book has the Impermato from our bishop here in uh Arlington, Virginia, which means that the content has been approved, reviewed, carefully reviewed, and is is uh it's acceptable to the church, so parents can feel confident that what they're reading is makes uh you know it's it's a kosher, it's it's it's uh correct. So there are clear, concise, correct, and compelling answers to these big questions that when they're asked, when parents, grandparents, godparents, teachers, uh catechists, it's it's really for a lot of people, if we're asked those questions, we we can go to the the book and and get a good answer to share. It's also worth sharing directly to the young people who have these questions. Uh if they have a question, why go to mass? Well, just give them that chapter in the book to read. How do we know God exists? Give them that book in the chapter. How do we know Jesus rose from the dead and is really the Son of God? And and you know, how do we know we have a soul and eternal life is real and how are we saved? And you know, all these questions. And so they could read them uh directly as well. So it's helped, it's meant to help uh parents, busy parents. All parents are very busy, as I'm sure you know. And uh it's it's uh it's not you don't have to read the whole book, just read you know the parts that are of interest.

SPEAKER_03 11:28

Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, as a mom of three, I'm like each of my kids is going through something very different right now, and we have to uh we we barely have time, so the ability to like go in and really dive into these topics that they're asking questions about each in different places is so helpful. That's really cool. And I'd also like to share that your book, um A Busy Parents Guide to Catholic Faith, has really garnered a lot of endorsements from people um like major Catholic voices like Mike Aquilina, Dave Armstrong, who's an apologist and author of 56 books, some professors from the Franciscan University of Stupenville and Christendom College, um, and Dr. Daniel Kubler. He specifically praises how your book equips parents to help children respond to challenges from peers and teachers and social media. We'd really love to hear what led you to write this specifically this book in this way. What was the major reason for pursuing it this way?

SPEAKER_02 12:34

Well, like I said, uh we felt like it was important to help parents be able to explain the answers to these big questions to their children. Uh Dr. Kebler, he's at Franciscan University of Steubenville, and he does great work, especially, he's a biology professor. He does great work on um, you know, especially evolution and creation, the compatibility. And the church doesn't hold that there's a conflict between evolution and creation. Uh that if if if our bodies evolved over time, so be it, that we weren't really human until God imparted that soul, like Michelangelo showed, uh that rational soul, into those first uh pair of humans that we call Adam and Eve. And this is important uh answering these questions because of what's called the stages of faith. Uh research has shown that we all go through certain stages of faith, and the two that are of most interest uh f uh uh later in you know in life, teenagers and and older, are what's called searching faith and owned faith. And searching faith is when you start having these questions, and I remember very clearly having these questions in high school, you know, how do I know God exists? And and and then having big debates in college, I'd be at a party in a dorm, and and somebody we'd get in this discussion, and the radio would be off, and everybody would be in this big discussion about how we know God exists. So that's searching faith. And that the research has shown is the only way to lead to owned faith. That's your own faith. It's no longer your parents, your grandparents, your culture. You personally can then commit. You're not just a cultural Catholic, you're a committed Catholic uh to that faith. So if we want our children to uh grow in the faith, to become uh more uh you know committed to the faith, then we need to be able to answer these questions and help them answer these questions to work through the searching phase stage to reach the own faith stage. And it's also important because uh we're finding uh a lot of uh whenever we give these presentations, there are a lot of what I call St. Monica's out there today, a lot of people whose uh children have left the church and they're very you know distraught about that. And so to try to help, you know, prevent that from happening by answering these questions. And and another thing that I think is important is grandparents. Uh Father's Day is coming up, and so this book makes a great gift for dads and also for uh grandfathers. And because I think in many cases, grandparents are in a better position to have these kind of discussions uh with their grandchildren. So, so and also it's important, I think, to help, like I say, equip the saints, help young people to be able to explain because they're gonna be challenged. They're gonna be challenged, certainly in college and at work and in school, uh, why they believe what they believe. So to be able to have them be able to share compelling and and clear answers uh uh is I think very important. So that's what led to, you know, I think it's it's f it's intended to fulfill a need that we see out there today, like our presentations and courses do.

SPEAKER_03 15:38

Yeah, absolutely. And I think one of the biggest things is um we're in an age of information, right? There's so much information. You can go and find whatever answer you want at any time. You can even ask an AI chatbot if you wanted to. But what why do you think that um Catholic parents in particular feel really unprepared to answer these big questions that their children are having right now?

SPEAKER_02 16:04

Yes, it's unfortunate, but the uh the the CCD or the catechesis that uh many of us went through when we were younger was did not address these questions. And uh that in the homilies they're rarely addressed. Uh but we all have them. And so uh the parents are not equipped, uh, even Catholic high school uh schools, you know, Catholic high schools now are starting to include apologetics, but uh that's only a fairly recent thing. And in apologetics, like I said, is the ability to explain and defend uh the faith and explain why we believe we believe. And so that was just not part of the um uh teaching in the church. Uh and and it's still not extremely widespread, but it's certainly more widespread than it was. And so it's just that uh people don't know the answers to these questions and and they have to do a lot of research. You know, I like I said, I read a lot of books and to to come up with these summaries and and people just don't have time for that sort of thing. So so and and I well of course I'm a parent and I we have three children and four grandchildren. And certainly I look at our our children and their you know, parents now and how busy they are, and it it's just uh it's just important, I think, to have uh answers to these big questions readily available at your fingertips.

SPEAKER_03 17:28

Yeah, absolutely. What are some of the most common questions that you've seen children and teens ask about their faith today? And and have those kind of changed over the years or have they kind of remained consistent?

SPEAKER_02 17:40

There has been a change. Of course, the biggest question is uh how do we know God exists? Everybody needs to answer that question. And there's scientific evidence of God's existence. If we have time, I'll go into that briefly. But uh there's there's there's the rest of the story that science actually supports belief in God. And so a lot of people don't know this. I'll I'll just mention three things real quickly. Uh the first is the Big Bang. Everything came from nothing. And nothing comes from nothing, so if everything came from nothing, there must be a cause for that. And the second is what did it for me in high school. Uh that is the laws of nature. E equals M C squared, Einstein, force equals mass times acceleration, Newton. All these mathematical expressions of these laws of nature that take the greatest efforts of the finest human minds to unlock must have come from a mind, capital M far greater. Where else could they come from? Where does this mathematical foundation to our universe come from? And then the third thing is a fairly recent scientific discovery about the fine-tuning of the universe, that our universe is finely tuned for life. There are these constants, these fixed numbers in the laws of nature, like C, the speed of light, and and there's all these numbers, gravitational force constants, strong nuclear force constants, all these, and they're all set to precisely what is needed for us to be here. It's like there's 20 dials on a wall, and they've all been set to precisely what is needed for life to exist. And so a lot of people think that this uh fine-tuning is pretty compelling evidence of a fine tuner that set all those dials just right for us to be here. So this is the kind of evidence we go through in the book. Um, like I said, we also talk about evolution. So the science, you know, especially in the mid-2000s with Richard Dawkins and and others, uh, there was a big challenge uh from the scientific community to faith. And so we and others have have been responding to that. And like I say, people still have those questions. But now it seems like the focus, people just you know aren't willing to. I mean, it seems like, okay, there's got to be a God out there, and because this is just too too perfect to have happened by chance. And so, but then the next step is, well, what about Jesus? How do we know God is a personal God? And uh, how do we know Jesus is the Son of God? And why was it necessary for him to die on the cross? And and how do we know he rose from the dead? And and why go to church? Why go to mass? So many people today, you've probably heard this, call themselves spiritual but not religious. They they uh f believe in God or at least some kind of higher power, but they don't feel a need to go to church. So uh those are the kind of questions I think that are more uh uh need answered today more than than the scientific ones. Um and so we we address all those in the book.

SPEAKER_03 20:35

Nice. That's amazing. And you you mentioned this grandparents are really crucial in this as well. Um what would you say um their role and on top of that, like godparents and confirmation seats, what role do they play in passing on the faith today?

SPEAKER_02 20:53

I remember clearly my grandmother was a very holy devout person. She was a convert to Catholicism, and this set a great example to me. So I think just the lived faith of the parents who are very busy, and and the grandparents who have more time uh to devote to prayer and and church activities. And and they have answered these questions, many grandparents have been through life. When I give these talks to students, I ask who is the better person, your sister or your grandmother? And the answer always comes back, it's your grandmother. There's something about life that just makes us a better person, a holier person, and uh it's these challenges that we go through. And this this deals with the question of suffering. You know, that's another big question. Why would a loving God allow evil, pain, and suffering? Many people become bitter rather than better when faced with suffering. They get angry at God instead of drawing closer to God. And so we address these uh questions in in this book, as well as my third book, Catholic Stories of Faith and Hope, How God Brings Good Out of Suffering. And so um Yeah, I think uh grandparents are can both by their words and actions set a good example, as well as godparents and catechists and teachers as well.

SPEAKER_03 22:11

Yeah, that's great points there. Totally agree with that. My kids love their grandparents.

SPEAKER_02 22:18

They're like, we love them. We love our grandkids.

SPEAKER_03 22:21

I'm like when you're at school. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:25

I was telling our uh our a daughter-in-law the other day, who was very busy, that um, you know, being a grandparent is great because you don't have to worry about feeding them, clothing them, basing them, you just go play with them and have fun with them. You know, and it's just uh I I encourage everybody to become grandparents as soon as possible.

SPEAKER_03 22:44

Yeah, that's amazing. I love that. Okay, um, our last question, um, and then we'll do a fun question. Uh, what gives you the most hope about the next generation of Catholics, even despite all these challenges that they're currently facing?

SPEAKER_02 22:59

You know, the last Easter vigil saw uh record numbers of people coming into the Catholic Church, and including in Europe, France, and England and Ireland, and uh these places that seem like the faith is dead. And I think uh young people, especially, they have these questions and they're finding answers in on a lot of times on uh online in the internet. And so they they can uh uh get these questions addressed, and that's drawing a lot of people into the Catholic Church. And uh Pope Leo just recently said that the internet or the online domain is is ripe for evangelization, that that should be our next focus uh to evangelize uh the internet uh more than we already are, and you guys are doing as well. And so we have a website, the Catholic Apologetics Institute of North America. That's Kana, C A I N A. That's uh that's our abbreviation. So the website is KanaWeb.org, C-A-I-N-A, W E B dot R G. And all of our presentations are there, PowerPoint slides, many of them have been filmed, and there's also a lot links to a lot of other videos that uh you know everybody, especially young people, they like watching videos, would uh would enjoy watching, science and these other things as well.

SPEAKER_03 24:19

Amazing. Okay, so a fun question. We're so thankful for your time today. But what brings you the most amount of joy each day, Steve? And I know this probably is a difficult question to answer, but um, we just kind of love to know what what brings you joy every day.

SPEAKER_02 24:36

Well, doing God's work, you know, like I said, I've always felt called to serve God in the church full-time, and and being able to do that the last uh 15 years or so has been uh very rewarding and and gives me a lot of joy. But I have to say it's the grandkids. I mean, there's nothing like these little kids, and they're just such a joy to be around. So yeah, it's it's uh both.

SPEAKER_03 24:59

Yeah, that's amazing. So thank you so much for your time today, Steve. It was just a pleasure to talk to you. Um if listeners would like to learn more about Steve and his work or purchase his newest book, you can click on the link in our show notes or visit Scepter Publishing website at scepterpublishers.org. We invite you to visit Ploma and Fig to explore more episodes of a Resounding Yes, along with thoughtful conversations and reviews centered on faith, literature, beauty, and the lives of the saints. We are publishing our first magazine entitled Rosona and invite you to attend the launch event with Hilbilly Thomas in Macon, Georgia, August 4th at Robin's Financial Capital Theater. For more information, um, check out our show notes or go to our website, which is also listed there. As we close this episode today, we especially encourage you to spend time with your friend who knows you the best, Jesus. Go to Adoration, Daily Mass, talk or sit with him. Even if it's just for 10 minutes, go for a walk outside, pray alongside reading books like a busy parent's guide to Catholic faith, or simply venture to sit with him among God's gifts in nature and pray. I challenge you to go out into the world and add more prayer into your day-to-day. You'll be amazed at how your heart will sing. Let us also pray for our young people so that they continue to seek the light of Christ in all that they do, seeking the truth. Knowing our team, or know our team will conclude this episode silently praying for all your intentions you hold in the silence of your hearts. And I invite you to do so as well. Thank you so much again from all of us that are resounding yes. We pray you have a joyful day and week ahead full of miracles.