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Degrees Of Holy Orders — Episcopacy

October 28, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Degrees Of Holy Orders — Episcopacy

By DON FIER Both the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) and the documents of Vatican Council II are unwavering in proclaiming that “the whole Church is a priestly people” (CCC, n. 1591). All members of the faithful, through Baptism, share in the one priesthood of Christ and are called to participate in His mission of priest, prophet, and king. This baptismal vocation, as we saw last week, is called the common priesthood of the faithful or the universal priesthood. Likewise, “based on this common priesthood and ordered to its service, there exists another participation in the mission of Christ: the ministry conferred by the sacrament of Holy Orders, where the task is to serve in the name and in…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

October 27, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Q. I have a non-Catholic friend who doesn’t understand our belief about Purgatory. Can you provide me with a good explanation to pass on to him? — J.M., Missouri. A. First of all, what do we mean by Purgatory? It is a place or state where persons who died in God’s friendship are detained for a time before going to Heaven. They will eventually go to Heaven, but they will have to undergo a period of purification because of unforgiven venial sins on their soul or because they had not made up completely for the temporal punishment due from mortal sins that had been forgiven. For example, a person who had been in serious sin, but repented and received forgiveness…Continue Reading

Priests Must Teach The Truth

October 26, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Priests Must Teach The Truth

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Thirty-First Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR A) Readings: Mal. 1:14b-2:2b, 8-10 1 Thess. 2:7b-9, 13 Matt. 23:1-12 As the saying goes: “The more things change the more they stay the same.” I am amazed when I read the first reading and the words God addresses to the priests. What was happening a couple of hundred years before Jesus came into the world is happening again. While the circumstances are different, the pattern remains the same. God condemns the priests for not giving glory to His Holy Name, for turning aside from the way of the Lord, for giving poor instruction, and for voiding the covenant of Levi. For this reason the Lord turned their blessing, their…Continue Reading

Fr. Thomas Crean, OP… Amoris Laetitia Is Not A Thomistic Document

October 25, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Fr. Thomas Crean, OP… Amoris Laetitia Is Not A Thomistic Document

By DOROTHY CUMMINGS McLEAN LONDON (LifeSiteNews) — Fr. Thomas Crean, OP, one of the first signers of the Filial Correction, has had a thorough grounding in the philosophy and theology of fellow Dominican St. Thomas Aquinas. After earning a BA in philosophy and theology at Oxford University, Crean took a lectorate at Blackfriars, Oxford’s Dominican college; an STL from the St. Thomas Aquinas Institute in Toulouse, France; and a doctorate in sacred theology from the International Theological Institute in Austria. LifeSiteNews contacted Fr. Crean to settle a burning question: Is Amoris Laetitia, as Christoph Cardinal Schönborn has assured us, Thomistic? + + + Q. First, what school of Thomas do you follow? A. I would sympathize most with what is…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World… Faith For The Tribulation

October 23, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World… Faith For The Tribulation

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK “My enemies have often troubled me from my youth up: Deliver me, O Lady, and vindicate my cause from them” — St. Bonaventure, The Psalter of Our Lady. Enemies without, enemies within: The Church is attacked by the world, but also weakened by the sins of her members and by those who would change the faith itself in a misguided attempt to help souls. What’s a Catholic to do? We stand on the shoulders of giants because of our ancient faith. The saints faced many disasters and temptations to discouragement in their own day. In every age of the Church the greatest threat for any believer is the loss of personal faith. No disaster could…Continue Reading

The Sacred Liturgy… Where Thy Glory Dwells

October 22, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Sacred Liturgy… Where Thy Glory Dwells

By RAYMOND DE SOUZA Part 4 Yes, the liturgy of the Church must be sacred. The Church did not institute the liturgy for our Sunday entertainment, but to give glory to God. Because of its sacredness, it cannot be celebrated just anywhere, as in parks, beaches, or backyards. Today, there is a weird trend — to put it charitably — whereby people choose to celebrate their weddings outside of the church buildings, for reasons of convenience or simply because of a whim. But our Lord Jesus Christ deserves much more than that. He honored the Temple of Jerusalem, and as soon as the Church obtained her freedom in the Roman Empire, the early Christians started to build churches or simply…Continue Reading

The Common Priesthood Of The Faithful And The Ministerial Priesthood

October 21, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Common Priesthood Of The Faithful And The Ministerial Priesthood

By DON FIER The priest-king Melchizedek, as we saw last week, is a type, or figure, of Christ. He appears only briefly in the Old Testament and his figure is shrouded in mystery. Yet he is the first person in the Pentateuch to explicitly be called a “priest,” he is the only figure in the Book of Genesis to be identified as a priest of “God Most High,” and his sacrificial offering of “bread and wine” (Gen. 14:18) can be seen to prefigure the Holy Eucharist. “Despite the brevity of his canonical appearance,” affirms Dr. Scott Hahn, “[Melchizedek] can claim the exalted roles of first king of Jerusalem (long before David), and first priest (long before Aaron), whose legitimacy is…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

October 20, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: In a recent issue, we addressed the problem of pornography addiction by an 84-year-old man. At the end of the column, we invited readers of the column to pray for this man. The following note from the man’s wife illustrates the power of your prayers: “I’m writing to thank you for asking your readers to ‘pray for this man.’ Two days after the September 28 issue of The Wanderer arrived in our mail, my husband had an almost miraculous awakening while watching a video on fly fishing out West. He says that tears flowed for at least an hour, and he felt completely healed of his porn addiction. He cleaned up all his dangerous websites and says he…Continue Reading

Love God And Neighbor

October 19, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Love God And Neighbor

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Thirtieth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR A) Readings: Exodus 22:20-26 1 Thess. 1:5c-10 Matt. 22:34-40 In the second reading today St. Paul reminds the Thessalonians about the nature of their conversion. They had turned from idols to worship the Living and True God. By itself that is wonderful, but it becomes extraordinary when we hear that their conversions took place in the midst of great affliction. Even more, these people were filled with joy from the Holy Spirit. As we watch so many fall away from the one true faith, we need to make sure of where we stand in our own relationship with God. Do we need a greater or deeper conversion? The word conversion…Continue Reading

Sinner, Please Don’t Let This Harvest Pass

October 18, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Sinner, Please Don’t Let This Harvest Pass

By MSGR. CHARLES POPE (Editor’s Note: Msgr. Charles Pope is the pastor of Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian, Washington, D.C. Monsignor kindly gave The Wanderer permission to reprint this essay from his blog of October 7. All rights reserved.) + + + There is an urgency and clarity about Sunday’s Gospel that is often lacking in modern Christians, including the clergy. The message is urgent, provocative, and clear: There is a day of judgment coming for every one of us and we must be ready for it. The message is a sobering one for a modern world that is often dismissive of judgment — and certainly of Hell. Jesus clearly says that the Kingdom of God can be taken from us for…Continue Reading