Q. Every year our bank does a company-wide campaign to raise money for United Way. There is some push-back on supporting that organization this year. What’s your take on them? — Name and State Withheld.
A. United Way raises funds to support over 40 health and human services programs nationwide, and insists that no United Way funding “is provided to Planned Parenthood or any abortion program, and in our 75 plus-year history we have never provided United Way funding to any abortion program.” However, 2nd Vote, a watchdog group that tracks corporate spending, has reported that affiliates of United Way provide almost $3 million a year to Planned Parenthood.
In a statement issued last June, 2nd Vote spokesman Robert Kuykendall said that in 2015, the group conducted research on Internal Revenue Service Form 990 filings for United Way affiliates in tax years 2013 and 2014 and found that 76 of the affiliates (6 percent) had donated money to PP. He said that “financial support for Planned Parenthood from nonprofits like United Way helps fund an organization that engages in repulsive practices and is an advocate for policies that allow the destruction of innocent lives.”
Kuykendall said that his group found that “United Way donations to Planned Parenthood in certain swing states, such as Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, [and] Virginia, appeared significantly higher than others, in some cases around $100,000-$200,000 more a year.” He said that reports from the Federal Election Commission “show that Planned Parenthood has funded get-out-the-vote telephone calls and mailings in opposition to Republicans and in support of Democratic candidates in these states in the past. 2nd Vote believes that donors to United Way should understand that their charitable contributions could be helping Planned Parenthood’s public profile in critical swing states.”
Responding to this information, a United Way spokesman reiterated that “no United Way funds are currently used, or have ever been used, to support abortion services. Several local United Way partners provide professional family and individual counseling services, which include professional counseling on pregnancy-related problems.” This can be code for counseling for abortions, which is one way of getting rid of “pregnancy-related problems.”
Q. In a recent edition of The Wanderer, it said that the “Pope calls for concrete acts of mercy this Lent.” The author of that article, Ann Schneible, references the Missionaries of Mercy — priests with the faculties to pardon sins in cases otherwise reserved for the Holy See. What would be an example of such sins? It was always my understanding that any priest has the faculties to forgive any sin in the Sacrament of Confession. — B.O., via e-mail.
A. According to the Code of Canon Law (cf. canons 1367, 1370, 1378, 1382, 1388), forgiveness of the following offenses is reserved to the Holy See: violation of the Sacred Species, physical attack on the Pope, absolution of an accomplice, unauthorized episcopal consecration, and direct violation of the confessional seal by a confessor. However, if the penitent is in danger of death, any priest can absolve him from all sins and censures (cf. canons 976 and 1357).
Q. I read an excellent column by Fr. Kevin M. Cusick entitled “A Leaven in the World . . . Profile of a ‘Saturday Vigil Commando’,” and I wanted to reply for I am one of those Commandos. I am 81 years old and live about 1.5 miles from church and always walk to church. I go to the Vigil Mass because of the possibility of bad weather on Sunday. If push comes to shove, I could just start going to Sunday Mass at my church. I mention all the above because I agree with Fr. Cusick, but I read an article awhile back on the Internet about receiving Communion twice a day, so after reading Fr. Cusick’s article I have some questions. — W.B., via e-mail.
A. First of all, congratulations on your faithful attendance at weekly Mass. Many Catholics much younger than you and with cars available for transportation do not bother with Mass, so you are to be commended. Here are your questions:
If I go to the Saturday Vigil Mass and then go to Sunday Mass, am I able to receive Communion twice? Yes, canon 917 permits reception of the Holy Eucharist twice in one day, either twice on Sunday or at the Saturday Vigil and on Sunday, provided that the person is physically present at each Mass.
If I am able to go to Saturday morning Mass, then the Vigil Mass on Saturday followed by Sunday Mass, would I be able to receive Communion at all three Masses? No, the Church discourages multiple Communions lest it foster an attitude of superstition or misguided devotion. We mean an attitude that assumes if one reception of the Eucharist is good, many receptions will be better. But every Host is of infinite value, and one does not collect them like stamps.
If I went to the Saturday Vigil Mass and then Sunday Mass, could I treat the Saturday Vigil Mass as a Saturday Mass? No, the Vigil Mass on Saturday anticipates the Sunday celebration and is to be comparable in every way to the Sunday liturgy, including use of the same readings. In his Dictionary of the Liturgy, Fr. Jovian P. Lang, OFM, calls Saturday evening Masses a “gracious alternative” to Sunday celebrations.
Q. In the Nicene Creed, the Holy Spirit is described as the “giver of life.” In the Gospels, Jesus says that those who speak against or blaspheme the Holy Spirit “will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come” (Matt. 12:31-32). Are contraception, sterilization, and abortion blasphemies against the Holy Spirit, as giver of life, and thus unforgivable sins? — A.C., Georgia.
A. No, these sins against human life are not unforgivable if the sinner is truly repentant. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit means final impenitence, the obstinate rejection of God’s mercy and love even at the moment of death. In his encyclical On the Holy Spirit in the Life of the Church and the World, Pope St. John Paul II explained:
“Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, then, is the sin committed by the person who claims to have a ‘right’ to persist in evil — in any sin at all — and who thus rejects Redemption. One closes oneself up in sin, thus making impossible one’s conversion, and consequently the remission of sins, which one considers not essential or not important for one’s life. This is a state of spiritual ruin because blasphemy against the Holy Spirit does not allow one to escape from one’s self-imposed imprisonment and open oneself to the divine sources of the purification of consciences and of the remission of sins” (n. 46).
Q. When it is not possible for me to attend a Latin Mass, I attend an English Mass in my parish. To my dismay, when reading the English translation in the missalette, Christ is addressed as “he” rather than “He.” Also, “his” or “him” is printed in lower case. Please tell me when and why this change was made. It seems to demean Christ’s place in the Holy Trinity. — B.W., Iowa.
A. We don’t know exactly when lower-case pronouns began to be used when talking about Christ, but you are right to be dismayed by this usage. It definitely undermines belief in the divinity of Jesus and should be reversed.
Q. In the back of our missalette is the Thanksgiving After Mass prayer by St. Thomas Aquinas. It contains a request for “. . . the complete calming of my impulses, both of the flesh and of the spirit. . . .” To what was he referring when he asked for calming the impulses of the spirit? — P.C., via e-mail.
A. Impulses of the flesh would include what Aquinas called “carnal pleasures,” that is, those impulses involving improper use of God’s plan of sexuality. Impulses of the spirit would include sins of pride, anger, envy, lust, avarice, gluttony, and sloth, better known as the seven capital or deadly sins. These are really impulses or attitudes that lead us to commit mortal sins.
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