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Catholic Replies

June 29, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Q. In many local parishes, it is common to see people in the pews raising their hands or holding hands during the Our Father. In one parish, the congregation stands as the gifts are brought forward. Are these postures allowed, and where can I find what the proper postures are for each part of the Mass? — J.M., New York. A. You can find the proper postures during the Mass in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, which spells out the manner in which Mass is to be celebrated, both for the priests and those assisting him at Mass and for the congregation. For example, paragraphs 42-44 deal with “Gestures and Bodily Posture,” and paragraphs 274 and 275 refer…Continue Reading

Noted Theologian Says… Contraception Has Caused Damaging “Mutation” In Our Social Relations

June 27, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Noted Theologian Says… Contraception Has Caused Damaging “Mutation” In Our Social Relations

By DIANE MONTAGNA ROME (LifeSiteNews) — Failure to heed Blessed Paul VI’s “prophetic” teaching against contraception in Humanae Vitae has caused a damaging “mutation” in social relations, a prominent theologian argued recently. Speaking on Saturday, June 9, at a conference on Humanae Vitae held in the northern Italian city of Brescia, Italian moral theologian Msgr. Livio Melina delivered a talk on “The meaning of Humanae Vitae for social relations and the common good.” The conference, marking the fiftieth anniversary of Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical, was themed “Humanae Vitae: The Truth That Shines.” Its keynote speaker was Willem Jacobus Cardinal Eijk, archbishop of Utrecht, Netherlands, who recently made the news for his forceful response in defense of orthodoxy following the German…Continue Reading

Partakers Of God’s Life

June 26, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Partakers Of God’s Life

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Thirteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR B) Readings: Wisdom 1:13-15, 2:23-24 2 Cor. 8:7, 9, 13-15 Mark 5:21-43 In the first reading today we hear from the Book of Wisdom that God formed us to be imperishable in the image of His own nature. However, Wisdom goes on to say, death came into the world through the envy of the Devil. Being made in the image of God’s own nature tells us several things: We are persons, not objects; we have a mind and a free will; we have not only natural life, but we were created immortal. We need to make a clear distinction between immortality and the death that came into the world through…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World… Protect Childhood, The Border Of Life

June 25, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World… Protect Childhood, The Border Of Life

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK “ ‘Refugee children belong to their parents, not to the government or other institution. To steal children from their parents is a grave sin, immoral (and) evil,’ said San Antonio’s Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller June 14 via Twitter, the social media platform he has used to daily call attention to the situation. ‘Their lives have already been extremely difficult. Why do we (the U.S.) torture them even more, treating them as criminals?’ he continued” (CNS). To “steal” means to intentionally act to permanently separate another from his property. Surely the good archbishop does not intend to accuse others of such a sin? Such emotional hyperbole has been typical of the debate surrounding the well-being of the…Continue Reading

The Sacraments Instituted By Christ… More On Confession

June 24, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Sacraments Instituted By Christ… More On Confession

By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM Part 34 I do not know who said that “Repetition is the Mother of Learning” or “Repetition is the Father of Learning,” or even that “Repetition is the Key of Learning.” The fact is that repetition is most important to anyone who wants to learn something in such a way that will become part and parcel of his memory and life. It worked in the old days when we learned the arithmetic tables and it works today when we learn about the sacraments of the Church, especially Confession. By repetition of the essentials of Confession, we will be able better to profit from its effects and lead a life of friendship with God, free from…Continue Reading

Freedom And Truth

June 23, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Freedom And Truth

By DON FIER A preeminent truth that no man can deny is the universal desire for happiness — it is a goal that is common to all. This innate desire was identified and written of more than three centuries before Christ by the Greek philosopher Aristotle in his classic work entitled Nicomachean Ethics. At the same time, the pagan philosopher realized that not all agree on what constitutes happiness. For as St. Augustine wrote centuries later in his Confessions: “As one looks for his joy in this thing, another in that, all agree in their desire of being happy” (book X, chapter 21). The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) teaches that this desire is divine in origin. Our Creator…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

June 22, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Q. Following up on a recent question about a divorced and remarried non-Catholic adult who converts to the Catholic Church, you said that the conversion would not change the status of the person, that he would still be married to his previous spouse and could not marry again without a decree of nullity or the death of the first spouse. Would the situation be any different if the person had been married civilly before a judge or a justice of the peace rather than in a religious ceremony? — D.M., Virginia. A. No, because the Catholic Church presumes the validity of non-Catholic marriages, whether in a church or before a justice of the peace. “At the risk of some oversimplification,”…Continue Reading

None Dare Call It Treason

June 20, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on None Dare Call It Treason

By DEACON JAMES TONER (Editor’s Note: Deacon James H. Toner, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of Leadership and Ethics at the U.S. Air War College, and author of Morals Under the Gun and other books. He has also taught at Notre Dame, Norwich, Auburn, the U.S. Air Force Academy, and Holy Apostles College & Seminary. He serves in the Diocese of Charlotte, N.C.) + + + Treason is the only crime defined in and by the U.S. Constitution (article III, section 3). It is referred to, also, in the Holy Gospel (Matt. 26:20-25, Mark 14:17, Luke 22:21, John 13:21). The crime of treachery is so abominable, so heinous, that, often, none dare call it treason, preferring almost any euphemism to the…Continue Reading

The Glorious St. John The Baptist

June 19, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Glorious St. John The Baptist

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Solemnity Of The Nativity Of St. John The Baptist (YR B) Readings Isaiah 49:1-6 Acts 13:22-26 Luke 1:57-66, 80 Today we celebrate the birth of a man who is important to us in a variety of ways. St. John the Baptist is, according to our Lord’s own words, the greatest man born of woman. For this reason alone it is proper we should celebrate his birth. But, the reason his birth is celebrated is not because he was the greatest. In the Church’s calendar only three birthdays are celebrated: those of Jesus, Mary, and St. John the Baptist. These are the three people born without sin. Jesus is God, Mary was conceived without original sin, and…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World… Will Marriages Outside A Church Keep Couples In The Church?

June 18, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World… Will Marriages Outside A Church Keep Couples In The Church?

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK The Church makes exceptions to its own rules; this is well known. There are God’s rules, such as the Commandments, exceptions to which cannot be granted by man. And then there are the regulations promulgated by the Church, using the authority given her by the Lord, in order to better facilitate the pastoral work of assisting the faithful in living out God’s will for salvation. Rules made by men can be, and have been, changed by men. What is less well known is why and when doing so is appropriate. The highest law of the Church is the salvation of souls. In order to save one’s soul one must, under ordinary circumstances, do what is…Continue Reading