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Catechesis In The Twenty-First Century

February 28, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catechesis In The Twenty-First Century

By Don Fier “In order to arrive at a systematic knowledge of the content of the faith, all can find in the Catechism of the Catholic Church a precious and indispensable tool. It is one of the most important fruits of the Second Vatican Council.” With these words in his apostolic letter Porta Fidei announcing the upcoming Year of Faith (October 11, 2012-November 24, 2013), Pope Benedict XVI stressed the incalculable importance that the Catechism needs to play for the faithful to truly understand what our precious Catholic faith professes. With the Holy Father’s words to serve as a fitting backdrop, this column is the introductory installment of a long-running series of articles by which The Wanderer intends to take…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

February 27, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Q. As a longtime subscriber to The Wanderer, I am puzzled that your writers don’t hesitate to criticize and disagree with bishops and cardinals on particular issues, but when it comes to the Pope you automatically close shop, yet he is human just like the bishops and cardinals. There is no teaching in our Church that says one cannot disagree with a Pope, except when he speaks ex cathedra [infallibly]. Some of the writings and pronouncements of the post-Vatican II Popes are in direct contradiction to the writings and statements of some pre-Vatican II Popes on certain issues. So who is one to believe? Both groups can’t be right. All these Vatican II Popes reigned over a Catholic Church that…Continue Reading

God’s “Foolishness” Is Wisdom

February 26, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on God’s “Foolishness” Is Wisdom

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Sunday Sermon for March 8, 2015 Third Sunday Of Lent (YR B) Readings: Exodus 20:1-17 1 Cor. 1:22-25 John 2:13-25 In the Gospel reading today, we hear about our Lord cleansing the Temple because the people had turned God’s house into a marketplace. The people, naturally, were appalled at this action because the buying and selling in the Temple had become the norm. Beyond that, it was providing a real service because not everyone in Israel had livestock that they could offer as a sacrifice to the Lord. The services provided by the merchants were filling a definite need. Such is the human rationalization. In the second reading St. Paul tells us that God’s foolishness is…Continue Reading

Pope’s Message For 30th World Youth Day . . . “Blessed Are The Pure In Heart. . . .”

February 25, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Pope’s Message For 30th World Youth Day . . . “Blessed Are The Pure In Heart. . . .”

VATICAN CITY (ZENIT) — Here is the Vatican-provided text of the Holy Father’s message for this year’s World Youth Day, which will be held on Palm Sunday, March 29, 2015, at the diocesan level. ZENIT News Agency published the text on February 17; all rights reserved. + + + Dear Young Friends, We continue our spiritual pilgrimage toward Krakow, where in July 2016 the next international World Youth Day will be held. As our guide for the journey we have chosen the beatitudes. Last year we reflected on the beatitude of the poor in spirit, within the greater context of the Sermon on the Mount. Together we discovered the revolutionary meaning of the beatitudes and the powerful summons of Jesus…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World . . . Lent: Season For Deeper Conversion From Death To Life

February 23, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World . . . Lent: Season For Deeper Conversion From Death To Life

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK Italians, when the subject of marriage and therefore also of children comes up, are quick to say, “Due è basta,” meaning, “Two children are enough.” Young people decide long before they even meet the person they will marry that it will be thus also for them. If you’ve learned to love Italy and the Italians as I have and haven’t fallen for the lies of overpopulation, contraception, and abortion, then you plead as I have with them to change their minds and hearts. I entered a classroom of young children in faith formation once at a parish in Bacoli, outside of Naples on the peninsula which forms the west end of its famous bay, and…Continue Reading

Are Statues Idols? The Meaning Of “False Idols”

February 22, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Are Statues Idols? The Meaning Of “False Idols”

By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM Part 2 “I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall not have other gods besides me. You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or worship them. For I the Lord, your God, am a jealous God” (Exodus 20:2-5). In this classical text, God our Lord begins by reminding the Hebrews who were gathered around Mount Sinai that He, God, had brought them out of the land of Egypt. And He adds a specific trait…Continue Reading

The Implications Of Faith In One God

February 21, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Implications Of Faith In One God

By DON FIER Over the past three weeks, we have reflected on but an infinitesimal fraction of all that the faithful affirm when they reverently and genuinely say the first four [or five] words contained in the Creeds of the Church: “I believe in [one] God.” In saying these words with heartfelt sincerity, one is acknowledging his belief in who God revealed Himself to be — I AM WHO AM — and all the unfathomable attributes that are part of the perfection of His being. One is admitting that God is Truth and God is Love, and that He is also Justice and Mercy and Beauty and every good that exists. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) now makes…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

February 20, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: We have in the past addressed the question of how late one can arrive at Mass and still fulfill one’s Sunday obligation. Is there a certain point in the Mass — before the readings, before the Offertory, etc. — when one could be late and still satisfy the canon law requirement to participate in Mass? Canon lawyer Dr. Edward Peters, however, said that such questions “miss the key point,” namely, that the Mass is “an integrated, sequenced order of prayers and actions organized by the Church to render fitting worship to the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Miss any of that, and you have missed that much of ‘it’.” The real question, Peters said in…Continue Reading

Transfiguration And Transformation

February 19, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Transfiguration And Transformation

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Second Sunday Of Lent (YR B) Readings: Gen. 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18 Romans 8:31b-34 Mark 9:2-10 In the second reading today, St. Paul asks the question, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” While we know that there are many people who are opposed to the teaching of the Church, the point St. Paul is making is not whether or not there are people who oppose us; rather, it is the point that nothing can come between us and God as long as our hearts remain fixed on Him. So, the real question we each have to ask is whether we love God so much that our attention remains fixed on Him in…Continue Reading

In Order To Meet Islam, We Must First Go Back To Christ

February 18, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on In Order To Meet Islam, We Must First Go Back To Christ

By FR. PIERO GHEDDO (Editor’s Note: Fr. Gheddo is an Italian missionary, author, and a journalist. In the following essay, provided by AsiaNews, he gives his perspective on why we must go back to the roots of the West, to the Gospel of Jesus, to face Islam without arriving at a total clash with the provocation of Muhammad’s followers. (Fr. Gheddo comments that “to meet and engage in dialogue with Islam, we must return to God and the Ten Commandments, Jesus Christ and His Gospel, not only in our personal lives, but also in that of the family, society, education, mass media, etc.” (AsiaNews is a news service of PIME, The Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions. All rights reserved.) +…Continue Reading