Friday 26th April 2019

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Catholic Replies

March 22, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: Regarding a recent reply about giving Holy Communion to everyone at a funeral or wedding, J.C. of Ontario, Canada, sent along the following comments: “I appreciate the clear answers which were given to E.B. of New York. . . . I as a non-Catholic who is a Baptist am well aware that Protestants cannot participate with Catholics in Communion, which is made clear in the Church’s teachings. . . . I am not in any way offended by this clear teaching. I have attended Catholic weddings over the years as I rejoice with my Catholic friends. . . . But I remain in my seat in acknowledgment of the clear rules the Catholic Church has pointed out on…Continue Reading

Empty Chalice At Consecration Time… Could Signal A Grave Violation Of Canon Law

March 20, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Empty Chalice At Consecration Time… Could Signal A Grave Violation Of Canon Law

By Fr. Edward McNamara, LC (Editor’s Note: Following is a Q-and-A from Fr. Edward McNamara’s regular column published by ZENIT News Agency. The date of this column is March 12, 2019. (ZENIT holds the copyright to this article. All rights reserved.) + + + (Legionary of Christ Fr. Edward McNamara is a professor of liturgy and dean of theology at the Regina Apostolorum University.) + + + Q. A few years ago I attended Mass (did not concelebrate) where it became obvious that the chalice had nothing in it. This was obvious when the priest lifted the chalice to drink from it, looked around, and handed it to the server. I asked in the sacristy afterward, and indeed it had…Continue Reading

Heaven, The Promised Land

March 19, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Heaven, The Promised Land

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Third Sunday Of Lent (YR C) Readings: Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15 1 Cor. 10:1-6, 10-12 Luke 13:1-9 In the readings today we hear about both the justice and the mercy of God. The first reading is all about God’s mercy. The people of Israel had been enslaved in Egypt for 430 years, but in that time they had grown from 70 people to 600,000. By nature they would not have wanted to leave, even though they had been promised a land of their own. They knew the culture, they knew the language, and they knew the people. Even if God had come to them in some extraordinary way, the people would not have wanted to leave. For…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World . . . Cardinal Pell: The Pendulum Swings

March 18, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World . . . Cardinal Pell: The Pendulum Swings

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK The pendulum means nothing on its own and functions only by means of a power external to itself: the law of gravity. The swing of the pendulum is a symbol of the lack of balance, for the forces at work upon it which keep it in constant motion prevent its rest in a central position between two extremes. “A pendulum works by converting energy back and forth, a bit like a rollercoaster ride. When the bob is highest (furthest from the ground), it has maximum stored energy (potential energy). As it accelerates down toward its lowest point (its midpoint, nearest the ground), this potential energy is converted into kinetic energy (energy of movement) and then, as the bob climbs up again,…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

March 15, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: In his weekly bulletin at the Church of St. Michael in New York City, Fr. George Rutler, after noting that John Henry Cardinal Newman of England will soon be proclaimed a saint and Jozsef Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary will be declared venerable, said that “Mindszenty was not Newman’s intellectual peer, but his life was the most muscular testimony to doctrine. He was imprisoned and tortured by Nazis and Communists, by a logic easily understood once it is acknowledged that both Nazism and Communism are forms of atheistic socialism, vaunting the power of the collective state over individual dignity. “In our times, these malignant social theories are being propounded by culturally illiterate politicians whose eccentricity still has a centric…Continue Reading

The Church In The Midst Of The Storm . . . “Come To Me All Who Are Weary”

March 13, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Church In The Midst Of The Storm . . . “Come To Me All Who Are Weary”

By FR. SHENAN J. BOQUET (Editor’s Note: This article is reprinted with permission of Human Life International, www.hli.org. It first appeared at www.hli.org on March 4, 2019. Fr. Boquet is the president of HLI.) + + + “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still, and trust in me” (John 14:1). Holy Mother Church is in the midst of a dark night. Scarcely a day goes by where I do not read a news article about the Church and her ministers that makes me feel physically ill. I will not recite this information here. If you are paying any attention to the news, you know what I’m talking about. I confess that at times I feel frustrated,…Continue Reading

Our Citizenship Is In Heaven

March 12, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Our Citizenship Is In Heaven

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Second Sunday Of Lent (YR C) Readings: Gen. 15:5-12, 17-18 Phil. 3:17-4:1 Luke 9:28b-36 In the first reading God establishes a covenant with Abram and makes the promise by which the “Promised Land” is known: “To your descendants I give this land. . . .” A religious covenant is an agreement between God and His people. There are promises and stipulations that accompany a covenant but, in essence, God always makes the same promise: I will be your God, you will be my people, and I will provide everything you need and bring you into the land of promise. Every covenant also has three characteristics: permanence, fidelity, and life. The covenant with Abram states that he…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World… “In The Closet Of The Vatican”: Lost Distinctions

March 11, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World… “In The Closet Of The Vatican”: Lost Distinctions

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK Worldly folks don’t get it: Sinners in the Church, who are indeed practicing their faith, must teach what is right no matter their personal sins or weakness. Frederic Martel’s salacious new book, In the Closet of the Vatican, is just another example of a mundane spirit so easily manipulated by the evil one, another in a long line of such accounts of the sins of the Church’s members. And just like all those other books, it does not address, or affect, the billions of Catholic Christians who humbly and obediently live their faith each day, including Confession. In the Closet of the Vatican promises scandals galore and doesn’t disappoint. It would be significant if those…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

March 8, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Q. My husband has dementia and I am his caretaker. We are both in our late eighties. Are we required to fast from food for one hour before receiving Communion? — H.W., Minnesota. A. The answer is no if health considerations prevent you from observing the one-hour fast. Q. I have heard people say that the pro-abortion side treats abortion like a sacrament. Why would they use such a holy word to describe such an evil action? – J.J., via e-mail. A. We have also cringed to hear this comparison. It doesn’t accord at all with the traditional Catholic definition of a sacrament, i.e., an outward sign instituted by Christ to give us grace. Or even with the secular definition…Continue Reading

Reverence In The Sacred Liturgy: A Matter Of Love

March 6, 2019 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Reverence In The Sacred Liturgy: A Matter Of Love

By JAMES MONTI To have a sense of the sacred is to have a vivid and formative awareness of who God is, of His infinite goodness, His omnipotence, His holiness, and His transcendence, as well as a perception of the sacredness of man created in His likeness and image. Reverence is our response to the sacred. And it is a response of love. In keeping with the sublime mystery that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, that our God became incarnate, reverence has been “incarnated” in sacred words and actions, the words and actions of the sacred liturgy, words and actions that have developed and ripened across a wide span of centuries. And having been placed by God…Continue Reading