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A Leaven In The World . . . Steve Wood On Midterm Report’s Lasting Damage

November 3, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World . . . Steve Wood On Midterm Report’s Lasting Damage

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK Many men marry the one woman they want their lives to center around. They go home to find and serve her, in addition of course to Our Blessed Mother, whom every Catholic man is called to love and serve in imitation of Christ. Catholic men don’t go to church to find a second atmosphere dominated by women to whom leadership has been ceded by a weak priest, as is sadly so often the case. Men will not readily follow a priest who does not lead as they are each expected to do in their homes and at work. Many of you know of Steve Wood, a Catholic convert, a husband and father, deeply and heroically…Continue Reading

Debunking The Sola Scriptura Myth… Unscriptural, Unhistorical, Unreasonable, Unworkable

November 2, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Debunking The Sola Scriptura Myth… Unscriptural, Unhistorical, Unreasonable, Unworkable

By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM Part 5 Sola Scriptura is wrong not only because it produced a cacophony of contradictory doctrines, creeds, sects, and denominations, where everyone, Bible in hand, defends his own interpretations. It is wrong not only because it is unscriptural from more than one point of view. It is also wrong because it is unhistorical, unreasonable, and unworkable. Why unhistorical? Because nobody ever taught this doctrine until nearly 1,400 years after the Church was founded on Pentecost Day. I mean really nobody. No early Christian writer ever mentioned, alluded to, or hinted at it until Wycliffe concocted the idea and a defrocked monk dogmatized it to justify his subjective moral choices. If Jesus and the apostles had…Continue Reading

Sacred Scripture And Sacred Tradition

November 1, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Sacred Scripture And Sacred Tradition

By DON FIER Over the past three weeks, our primary focus has been on God’s supernatural divine Revelation. We’ve examined how “by love God has revealed Himself and given Himself to man [and]…thus provided the definitive, superabundant answer to the questions that man asks himself about the meaning and purpose of his life” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 66). We’ve seen that in the fullness of time God established an everlasting covenant with mankind by sending His Son as the “Father’s definitive Word, so there will be no further Revelation after Him” (CCC, n. 73). The stage is now set for us to look at God’s master plan for transmitting His Revelation to mankind throughout the ages. In other words, how…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

October 31, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: Regarding our recent column on advanced medical directives and particularly the Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST), A.M.V. of Florida writes to say that the American Life League provides individuals with a document called the “Loving Will,” which corresponds to Catholic teaching. She said that this document was “crucial with my mom’s situation” when she was admitted into “a quality nursing home that had a special unit for female patients with advanced dementia. While there was not much that could be done to improve her condition at this point, I wanted everything possible done to make her comfortable and maintain her status. I often referred to the Loving Will she had and had several copies made so…Continue Reading

Temples Of The Holy Spirit

October 30, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Temples Of The Holy Spirit

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Feast Of The Dedication Of St. John Lateran In Rome Readings: Ezek. 47:1-2, 8-9, 12 1 Cor. 3:9c-11, 16-17 John 2:13-22 Today we celebrate the feast of the dedication of a church building that many people have never heard of and also have no idea of its significance. In Rome, there are four major basilicas; the dedication of each is celebrated universally. These four are St. Peter, St. Mary Major, St. Paul, and St. John Lateran. Each of these buildings is of significance, but St. John Lateran is actually the cathedral church of Rome. In other words, St. John’s, not St. Peter’s, is actually the Pope’s cathedral. It is, therefore, the mother church of all Catholics…Continue Reading

Message Of The Extraordinary Synod Of Bishops . . . We Ask You To Walk With Us Toward The Next Synod

October 29, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Message Of The Extraordinary Synod Of Bishops . . . We Ask You To Walk With Us Toward The Next Synod

(Editor’s Note: Below is the text of the concluding message of the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family, held October 5-19. This message was released on October 18. (See Fr. Kevin M. Cusick’s column in this issue, p. 2B, and the front page for reporting and commentary on the separate final document of the Extraordinary Synod.) + + + We, Synod Fathers, gathered in Rome together with Pope Francis in the Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, greet all families of the different continents and in particular all who follow Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We admire and are grateful for the daily witness which you offer us and the world with your fidelity,…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World… Redefining Marriage: Not About The Kids And The Picket Fence

October 27, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World… Redefining Marriage: Not About The Kids And The Picket Fence

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK Following the Extraordinary Synod and the rollback on confusing language about same-sex attraction and the divorced and remarried in the final version of the Relatio Synodi document, the predictable reactions are coming in. Those who continue to hold Church teaching that marriage is only between a man and a woman are labeled as “bigots,” while agitators for error are given a pass as they cloak their agenda in visions of white picket fences and mail-order children. All the commodities in the world don’t change the fact that the word “marriage” cannot be applied to any sexual expression outside of that between one man and one woman within the Sacrament of Marriage. Dignity USA is predictably…Continue Reading

Debunking The Sola Scriptura Myth… True Tradition And False “Tradition”

October 26, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Debunking The Sola Scriptura Myth… True Tradition And False “Tradition”

By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM Part 4 A classical objection: What Catholics call the “Apostolic Tradition” is just a human tradition, which Jesus clearly condemned in the Gospel, when He said to the Pharisees, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?…So, for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said, ‘this people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain they worship me, teaching the doctrines and precepts of men’” (Matt. 15:3-9). This objection is a classic example of taking a text out of context and making it into a…Continue Reading

Public Revelation Vs. Private Revelation

October 25, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Public Revelation Vs. Private Revelation

By DON FIER Our previous installment ended by citing a pair of remarkable verses from the Letter to the Hebrews, verses that concisely summarize God’s divine pedagogy, His master plan of divine Revelation: “In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by a Son, Whom He appointed the heir of all things, through Whom also He created the world” (Heb. 1:1-2). As expounded last week, God’s Old Testament revelation, mediated to mankind through the patriarchs and prophets, was gradual and partial — it was revealed in stages and progressively supplemented throughout successive epochs and ages of salvation history. But its culmination in the…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

October 24, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Q. I am certain that there are no inaccuracies in your recent reply about wholesale anointing of the sick. However, I would like to call your attention to an address by Pope Francis last February 26. According to the text reprinted in The Wanderer of March 6, the Holy Father said that “every elderly person, every person over the age of 65, can receive this sacrament.” Is this contrary to what you said? — J.C., via e-mail. A. In our recent reply, we quoted from a 1982 document entitled Pastoral Care of the Sick: Rites of Anointing and Viaticum, which was published by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and approved by the Sacred Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine…Continue Reading