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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 necessary 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
diocese 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.