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Catholic Replies

March 25, 2022 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Q. Could you please expand and clarify your statement that the number of demons can grow because of people who choose Hell over Heaven? You used the example of a demon who claimed to be the father of a possessed girl, whom he had molested, but can we believe the master of lies? — C.M.B., via e-mail.A. One of the best sources on demons is the late Fr. Gabriel Amorth, former chief exorcist of Rome, who wrote two books on demonology: An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories. In the latter book, Fr. Amorth wrote that once Satan rebelled against God, he was cast out of Heaven and “dragged behind him a number of angels as numerous…Continue Reading

LGBTQ Is Not Catholic

March 24, 2022 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on LGBTQ Is Not Catholic

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK “And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them” (Gen. 5:2). “A man shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Eph. 5:31). “Go forth and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen. 1:28).For millennia the Church has received these and all of the Scriptures together, under the infallible guidance of the Holy Spirit, to lead us “into all truth.” In doing so, as Mater and Magistra, Mother and Teacher, the Church unfailingly communicates the love and plan of our true Father in Heaven.Thus the Church teaches that marriage is always and…Continue Reading

The Cross Is a Fruit-Bearing Tree . . . A Homily For The Second Sunday Of Lent

March 23, 2022 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Cross Is a Fruit-Bearing Tree . . . A Homily For The Second Sunday Of Lent

By MSGR. CHARLES POPE (Editor’s Note: Msgr. Charles Pope posted this column on March 12 and it is reprinted here with permission.) + + The Second Sunday of Lent always features the Transfiguration. The first reason for this is that the trek up Mt. Tabor was one of the stops Jesus made with Peter, James, and John on His final journey to Jerusalem. It is commonly held that He did this to prepare His apostles for the difficult days ahead. There’s a line from an old spiritual that says, “Sometimes I’m up, sometimes I’m down, sometimes I’m almost to the ground . . . but see what the end shall be.”That is what the Lord is doing here: He is…Continue Reading

Live As A New Creation

March 21, 2022 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Live As A New Creation

BY FR. ROBERT ALTIER Fourth Sunday of Lent (YR C) Readings: Joshua 5:9a, 10-122 Cor. 5:17-21Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 In the second reading today, St. Paul tells us we have become a new creation in Christ. He tells us the old things have passed away and the new things have come. None of this is our doing. In fact, St. Paul states emphatically that all this is from God. While we know this is accomplished through our Baptism, St. Paul reminds us of what happened so that we could be baptized: God has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus.This reconciliation has brought about a radical change in us. Just as St. Paul tells us that God made Jesus, who did not…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

March 18, 2022 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: This series on Apologetics is based on the book Catholicism & Reason. Please feel free to use the series for high schoolers or adults. We will continue to welcome your questions for the column as well. You can send them either to the postal mailing address or to the email address below, and we will interrupt this series to answer them. Special Course On Catholicism And Reason (Chapter 13) The Bible is a collection of seventy-three books — forty-six in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament — that was written over a period of more than a thousand years. It was the Catholic Church that gathered all these books into one volume and gave the…Continue Reading

“Led By The Spirit Into The Desert”

March 17, 2022 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on “Led By The Spirit Into The Desert”

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK “Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the Devil.”War, betrayal, propaganda. Christians on both sides led into death and destructive conflict by leaders with agendas for domination and expansion or corrupt puppets bought by and sold to the highest evil bidder. Good bishops fired while bad bishops are protected by the highest men in the Church on their way to conviction for heinous crimes. An innocent cardinal convicted and imprisoned while guilty men go free. Our world and our Church are replete with these and more examples of injustice and a world in need of God…Continue Reading

Cross Or Couch?. . . A Homily For The First Sunday Of Lent

March 16, 2022 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Cross Or Couch?. . . A Homily For The First Sunday Of Lent

By MSGR. CHARLES POPE (Editor’s Note: Msgr. Charles Pope posted this column on March 5 and it is reprinted here with permission.) + + In this desert scene, the Lord Jesus faces down three fundamental areas of temptation, all of which have one thing in common: They seek to substitute a couch for the cross.In a way, the Devil has one argument: “Why the cross?” His question is a rhetorical one. He wants you to blame God for the cross, and in your anger, to reject Him as some sort of despot.Well, pay attention, Church! The cross comes from the fact that you and I, ratifying Adam and Eve’s choice, have rejected the tree of life in favor of the…Continue Reading

A Spring Welling Up To Eternal Life

March 14, 2022 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Spring Welling Up To Eternal Life

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Third Sunday Of Lent (YR C) Readings: Exodus 17:3-7Romans 5:1-2, 5-8John 4:5-42 In the Gospel reading today our Lord asks the Samaritan woman for a drink of water. Since Jews would never use the utensils of a Samaritan, the woman is taken aback by this request. Jesus provides an even greater surprise by telling her that if she knew the One to whom she was speaking, she would have asked Him and He would give her living water. Not understanding the statement of our Lord and thinking it would keep her from having to make the daily trek to the well, the woman asks for the water so she would no longer feel thirst.What the woman…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

March 11, 2022 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: John and Sheila Kippley have authored another important resource for use by priests, deacons, and lay people in preparing couples for marriage. Entitled The Ecology of Christian Marriage, the 41-page booklet provides a soundly Catholic perspective on helping couples to achieve a happy and mutually beneficial interaction in their married life. Some of the important points stressed by the Kippleys include:First, breastfeeding benefits both mother and baby and is a natural way of spacing out children.Second, the correct use of Natural Family Planning based on the awareness of the female fertility cycle can be used both to achieve and to postpone pregnancy.Third, resorting to unnatural and immoral forms of contraception (condoms, the Pill, withdrawal, masturbation) contradicts the Creator’s…Continue Reading

Put Not Your Trust In Princes

March 10, 2022 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Put Not Your Trust In Princes

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK National Review magazine stood as a sort of literary key to understanding the world during my college years at Fordham. The safe reality of faith and attending Sunday Mass took care of the next world, but something more was needed as a bridge to sorting out this present reality. Praying was important, of course. Preparing for the next life could not by any means be neglected, that was certain. But “doing things” was important as well. Acting in the world and making change mattered. So politics mattered. Derring-do and all that.If politics was necessary, and it was, then certainly liberal politics wouldn’t do at all. And so, therefore, Republicans. And the National Review sort would…Continue Reading