Give a Reason for the Hope that is in Them

"No amount of pious training or pious culture will protect the faithful, or preserve them from the contamination of the age, if they are left inferior to non-Catholics in secular learning and intellectual development. The faithful must be guarded and protected by being trained and disciplined to grapple with the false systems of the age…. They must be better armed than their opponents - surpass them in the strength and vigor of their minds, and in the extent and variety of their knowledge. They must, on all occasions and against all adversaries, be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in them. "

Orestes Brownson (1803-1876)
from Catholic Polemics (as quoted in The Catholic Book of Quotations by Leo Knowles - Our Sunday Visitor)