PAUL KAIPARAMBADAN AND HIS KNOW THE TRUTH MAGAZINE
In the year 2006, an Indian priest published an apologetics magazine in the Philippines. PAUL KAIPARAMBADAN from Kerala, India. His popular magazine is known as KNOW THE TRUTH. Fr. Paul came to the Philippines for his doctoral studies. It was from friends that he came to know about an indigenous Philippine church, the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC),whi
ch denies the divinity of Christ. Paul went to the INC Central headquarters in Commonwealth, Diliman, Quezon City and witnessed firsthand the indoctrination of Catholics to the INC faith. Paul also sat through the 27 lessons of the INC’s Pandoktrina. With his interaction with former Catholics, Fr. Paul learned about the reasons why Catholics abandon the Church of their birth to join a new sect:
(1) Indisciple (sic) that they notice in the Church; may be due to its large number of population;
(2) Ignorance; many of them practice traditional Catholic customs without knowing why they do all those. Paul concluded that the ignorance created a fertile land where anti-Catholic sentiments get nourished. He revealed that an INC Minister indoctrinated him and expressed confidence that it took only 50 years for the INC to shake the foundation of the Catholic Church and after another 50 years, the Philippines will cease to be a Catholic country. It’s an empty boast, of course. Now that the INC is celebrating its 100th year of existence, the Philippines is still (and will continue to be) a predominantly Catholic country. The encounter with the INC minister made Fr. Paul reflect. That night, he looked at the picture of the Divine Mercy and asked the Lord, “Are we preaching a wrong faith which you don’t support, Jesus?” As tears filled his eyes and rolled down his cheeks, a thought suddenly came to his mind: “God knows how to lead His Church … but I have to write this [Know the Truth magazine] … for Catholics ‘to think’ … and anti-Catholics to ‘re-think.’”
As a budding Catholic apologist at that time, I was privileged to have met and known in person Fr. Paul. We had pleasant exchanges on how best we can defend the Catholic Faith. He intimated to me the things he learned from the INC when he was attending the sect’s Pandoktrina. Of course, I personally thanked Fr. Paul for the spark that he initiated in the Catholic apologetics movement. It took a foreigner, an Indian, to start something that we Filipinos should have done a long ago. The first issue of Know the Truth Magazine had the endorsement of high-ranking prelates of the Catholic Church in the Philippines. Among them were then Manila Archbishop MOST REV. GAUDENCIO CARDINAL B. ROSALES, DD; the Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines MOST REV. FERNANDO FILONI, DD; Caloocan Bishop MOST REV. DEOGRACIAS S. IÑIGUEZ, DD, and Novaliches Vicar General MSGR. GERARDO TAPIADOR . Know the Truth only had 2 issues. The first tackles basic attacks on the Catholic Faith. The second (and sadly the last) answers objections on the Marian doctrines of the Church. When Fr. Paul left for India, he turned over the rights to publish his magazine to a local Catholic publisher which however opted to publish its own magazine known as KNOW YOUR FAITH. When the CHILDREN OF LIGHT CATHOLIC COMMUNITY bought airtime in TV Maria, it decided to honor Fr. Paul by naming its TV show after Fr. Paul’s Know the Truth. The show has evolved into the present KNOW THE TRUTH Catholic apologetics TV show hosted by REV. ABRAHAM P. ARGANIOSA and myself (BRO. ATTY. MARWIL LLASOS, OP). Know the Truth airs on TV Maria in the following cable channels: Dream Channel 3; Destiny Cable Channel 93; Sky Channel 160 at 6:30 AM; 3:30 PM and 11:00 PM.
