Friday 1st December 2023

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Priestly Celibacy: Unnatural? Or…Supernatural? The Biblical Foundations Of Celibacy

August 24, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Priestly Celibacy: Unnatural? Or…Supernatural? The Biblical Foundations Of Celibacy

By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM Part 1 Years ago in New Zealand I listened to a talk by Scott Hahn where he told the story of a conversation he had had with a young man from Steubenville University. The youth has shared his desire to go to the seminary to become a priest. Some time later, the same young man found a lovely young lady on campus and realized that priesthood was no longer for him, since he now wanted to marry his newly found love. Scott’s reply was masterly: If you attend Steubenville where you find a large number of virtuous, Godly young ladies, and you do not fall in love with one of them, there’s definitely something wrong…Continue Reading

The Creeds

August 23, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Creeds

By DON FIER In last week’s column, we laid the groundwork to begin an in-depth exposition of what the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) teaches that we, as Catholic Christians, are called to believe: the one, true faith we profess in the Creeds of the Church. For it is in the formulas of the Creeds that, “through the centuries, in so many languages, cultures, peoples, and nations, the Church has constantly confessed this one faith, received from the one Lord, transmitted by one Baptism, and grounded in the conviction that all people have only one God and Father” (CCC, n. 172). Why is this so absolutely essential? Precisely, it is because “communion in faith needs a common language of faith,…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

August 22, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Q. I saw a letter-to-the-editor recently that asked why, if a member of the Mafia is to be excommunicated for cooperating with murder, then why isn’t a member of any group that murders unborn children (or enables the killing, e.g., politicians who vote for abortion bills) also excommunicated? The editor made no comment, but how would you respond to this question? — R.A.C., Massachusetts. A. First of all, it was Pope Francis who said in Italy on June 21 that members of the Mafia, because they are involved in “adoration of evil and contempt for the common good,” are “not in communion with God. They are ‘excommunicated’.” He said that their evil “must be fought, must be expelled. It must…Continue Reading

Living According To The Word

August 21, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Living According To The Word

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Twenty-Second Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR A) Readings: Jer. 20:7-9 Romans 12:1-2 Matt. 16:21-27 In the second reading today, Jeremiah cries out to the Lord in his loneliness and pain, saying that the Lord duped him and that he had allowed himself to be duped. This is because the word of the Lord brought him derision and reproach. This is a common theme among those who take up the spiritual life. But the fact is that the Lord has not duped anyone; we dupe ourselves. In many places throughout the Scriptures the Lord tells us what will happen if we choose to live according to His word. Even in today’s Gospel, Jesus says that we have…Continue Reading

Memorial Of St. Alphonsus Liguori… Marian Catechists Strive To Imitate The Mother Of God

August 20, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Memorial Of St. Alphonsus Liguori… Marian Catechists Strive To Imitate The Mother Of God

By RAYMOND CARDINAL BURKE (Editor’s Note: Raymond Cardinal Burke is the prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. He delivered the homily below on August 1 at the Marian Catechist Consecration Weekend, held at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, La Crosse, Wis. (The readings for August 1, the Memorial of St. Alphonsus Liguori, were: Romans 8:1-4; Psalm 119:9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14; Matt. 5:13-19. (Cardinal Burke’s homily is reprinted with permission; all rights reserved.) +    +    + Praised be Jesus Christ, now and for ever. Amen. Each First Friday of the month, I offer the Holy Mass for the intentions of the members of the Marian Catechist Apostolate and for God’s continued blessing upon the…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World… How Catholics End Up As Practical Protestants

August 18, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World… How Catholics End Up As Practical Protestants

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK The Church is in the business of making Catholics, of proclaiming and calling all to the fullness of saving truth in Jesus Christ our Lord. Our mission to those who doubt or refuse some of our teachings is to call them to that fullness, whether Catholics already in our pews or Protestant brothers and sisters on our periphery. A confusion, sometimes called “ecumania,” has resulted in an inversion of the Church’s mission on the part of some Catholics, even among our Catholic leadership, as we see Walter Cardinal Kasper among those who would change Catholic doctrine on marriage to mirror what is already abundantly available among non-Catholic confessions. But our mission as Catholics is not…Continue Reading

Is Mary The Mother Of God… Or Only The Mother Of Jesus?

August 17, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Is Mary The Mother Of God… Or Only The Mother Of Jesus?

By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM Part 3 Responding to a common misconception among separated brethren and ill-informed Catholics: What did the Early Christians believe about the Catholic doctrine on the divine Motherhood? Those men, women, and children who sacrificed everything for the true faith in Jesus — even their very own lives? They were imprisoned, tortured, murdered. Some were burned alive, racked, beheaded. Others were crucified, flayed alive, and eaten by wild beasts. And they preferred to die rather than to deny Jesus Christ and their belonging to His Church. Let us see three examples, taken exclusively from those heroes who lived before the Bible was put together as we know it in AD 397: St. Ephrem, who died in…Continue Reading

I Believe — We Believe

August 16, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on I Believe — We Believe

By DON FIER Over the past three weeks of this series on the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), we have been reflectively examining the characteristics of the indescribably wonderful gift of faith that Almighty God has so generously availed mankind. As so adeptly summarized in the Compendium of the CCC, we know that faith is “the supernatural virtue which is necessary for salvation. It is a free gift of God and is accessible to all who humbly seek it. The act of faith is a human act, that is, an act of the intellect of a person — prompted by the will moved by God — who freely assents to divine truth. Faith is also certain because it is…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

August 15, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: Over the years, we have tried to correct columns in the Boston Herald by Margery Eagan because they have greatly distorted Catholic teaching. Now we learn that the longtime Herald columnist has joined the anti-Catholic Boston Globe as a writer for its new Catholicism website, Crux. According to the press release from the Globe, Eagan will focus on “issues of spirituality, contemplation, and devotion, drawing on her personal experience with her Catholic faith, as well as that of other Catholics and those of various religious traditions.” Teresa Hanafin, editor of the site, said that “there are many, many Catholics who engage in a very deep spiritual examination of their faith and their personal relationship with God. Margery is…Continue Reading

Jesus Is The Wisdom Of God

August 14, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Jesus Is The Wisdom Of God

BY FR. ROBERT ALTIER Twenty-First Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR A) Readings: Isaiah 22:19-23 Romans 11:33-36 Matt. 16:3-20 Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! These words begin the second reading today as St. Paul marvels at the way God works. As we know, God’s ways are not our ways. Those who seek only a worldly way of understanding will never come to grasp the wisdom of God. In fact, St. Paul told the Corinthians that the wisdom of God is foolishness from the human perspective. However, he also said that from God’s perspective, human wisdom is foolishness. This being the case, if we desire true wisdom we have to be able to…Continue Reading