Then we need to take a fresh look at what the church really believes and teaches by taking time to study the Catechism itself. Moral Conversion Intellectual conversion, of course, is not enough. It is not my intention to cast aspersions on the character of anyone who has trouble accepting a particular Church teaching while at the same time sincerely seeking the truth. Yet I do want to point out the age-old wisdom of the Church that moral integrity is a necessary condition for fully sharing the faith of the Church. A word, in any event, it not truly received until it passes into action, until it is put into practice.
Faith is a decision involving one's whole existence.
It is an encounter, a dialogue, a communion of love and of life between the believer and Jesus Christ, the Way, and the Truth and the Life. The abandonment of a sinful way of like was seen as a prerequisite for hearing the Good News. Catechetical instruction most often began with the commandments seen as past of the perfect law of love revealed by the Lord Jesus. Indeed, it remains true that so long as sin has an iron grip on one's life, that person cannot be really open to the Good News that the Lord Jesus has conquered sin and death. A truly wholehearted acceptance of the Church's faith demands continual purification of the mind and heart.