Catholic Replies
Q. My church is one of five in a cluster. The two bigger parishes have regular Sunday Masses, one at 8:30 and one at 10:45 a.m. The third largest has a 4:00 p.m. Mass on Saturday, while the two smallest have a 6:00 p.m. Saturday Mass once a month. Some people are upset at having only one Mass a month and are talking about a Word Service every Sunday. We have two deacons. What are the rules on this? The distances between the parishes are too much for older people, and our priest is no spring chicken. — D.H., via e-mail.
A. You have described a dilemma facing many older Catholics who still desire to go to weekly Mass, but find it difficult to travel any distance, although you seem to have more opportunities to attend Mass than some Catholics do. The problem, of course, is lack of priests in some parts of the country for several reasons, and we don’t see the situation improving in the near future. We need to pray for more vocations to the priesthood and encourage young men to consider such a vocation.
In his apostolic letter Dies Domini, Pope St. John Paul II might have been talking about your situation:
“At the pastoral level, therefore, everything has to be done to ensure that the sacrifice of the Mass is made available as often as possible to the faithful who are regularly deprived of it, either by arranging the presence of a priest from time to time, or by taking every opportunity to organize a gathering in a central location accessible to scattered groups” (n. 53).
But we don’t think that the long-term answer is Communion services in those places where Masses are scarce since people would become comfortable with this solution and would not pray hard for more priests. As we have mentioned in the past, Communion services are not to be conducted in a parish where there has been a Mass on the previous Sunday, or where there will be a Mass on the following Sunday (cf. Redemptionis Sacramentum, n. 166).
If there is a legitimate reason for a Communion service, and a deacon is present, he should preside since he is a member of the clergy. It would also be liturgically correct for him, not a layperson, to read the Gospel and deliver the homily.
If there is a valid reason for a Communion service, said Redemptionis Sacramentum (n. 165), “it is necessary to avoid any sort of confusion between this type of gathering and the celebration of the Eucharist. The diocesan bishops, therefore, should prudently discern whether Holy Communion ought to be distributed in these gatherings. . . . It will be preferable, moreover, when both a priest and a deacon are absent, that the various parts be distributed among several faithful rather than having a single lay member of the faithful direct the whole celebration alone. Nor is it ever appropriate to refer to any member of the lay faithful as ‘presiding’ over the celebration.”
Q. President Obama issued executive orders, as has President Trump. Why can’t President Trump issue an executive order abolishing abortion altogether? I would guess his order would definitely be taken up by the Supreme Court, which is where we want it decided once and for all anyway, right? — B.F., Iowa.
A. Presidential executive orders are only a temporary answer to a problem since succeeding presidents, as we have seen in recent years, can reverse the order of a previous president with only the stroke of a pen.
The voluminous use of executive orders certainly was not envisioned by those who created our Constitutional Republic as a way of setting policy or making laws. That role was given to the legislative branch, although it has been usurped many times by the courts, including the Supreme Court.
There is no guarantee that the highest court in the land, which over the centuries has invented rights that are not in the Constitution (abortion and same-sex “marriage,” for example), would uphold a Trump executive order banning abortion. Better to have such a ban go through the legislative process and then remove the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to hear any appeal of the law under Article 3, Section 2, of the Constitution.
Q. I know several women who strongly believe that no one goes to Hell. They think that people will die, but if they did not live righteously enough (or in sin) they will get another chance in another life here on Earth. Two of these had their history read to them by someone whom, they claim, can tell you what or who you were in previous lives. They claim as their source of this belief the answer the apostles gave to Jesus when He asked them, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” The apostles replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets” (Matt. 16:13-14). — L.H. Minnesota.
A. But what about the next question Jesus asked, namely, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Did Jesus tell Peter, “Well, not exactly. I’ve had many other identities?” No, Jesus accepted Peter’s words and told him that he could not have known this truth unless His Father in Heaven had revealed it to Peter. Jesus was not the reincarnation of John the Baptist or one of the Old Testament prophets. He was the unique Son of God whose coming was predicted by Elijah, Jeremiah, and others.
The Catholic rejection of the theory of reincarnation is based on the words of the Letter to the Hebrews: “Just as it is appointed that human beings die once, and after this the judgment, so also Christ, offered once to take away the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to take away sin but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him” (9:27-28). We only go around in this life once, and then we are judged based on whether we truly loved God and neighbor.
If a person did not live righteously on Earth, and did not repent of mortal sins committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent, his destination will be Hell.
It might be nice to think that there is no one in Hell, but that denies the justice of God. Those who purposely chose to live unrighteous lives can hardly expect to receive the same reward as those who purposely chose to live holy lives. Don’t expect to see Hitler and Mother Teresa standing side by side in Paradise.
Those who think that Hell is empty haven’t been paying attention to the warnings of Jesus. The truth is that He spoke more about Hell than about Heaven. He didn’t use the word “Hell,” but rather the word “Gehenna,” a valley near Jerusalem that had been a place of idol worship and child sacrifice and, in Jesus’ time, was a fiery garbage dump. In the Sermon on the Mount, for example, the Lord said that anyone who called his brother a fool “will be liable to fiery Gehenna” (Matt. 5:22), and that it would be better to have one’s eye gouged out or one’s hand cut off than “to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna” (Matt. 5:29).
Christ referred to Gehenna as “unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43). He said that at the end of the world, He will send His angels to round up all the evildoers and “throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth” (Matt. 13:41-42). At the Last Judgment, said Jesus, He will say to those assembled before Him: “‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels’” (Matt. 25:41). For “‘what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life” (Matt. 25:45-46).
Also in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus implied that Hell would not be lacking in occupants when He said, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few” (Matt. 7:13-14). In the parable of the wedding banquet, the king told his servants to take a guest who was not properly dressed (i.e., one who had refused to wear the robes of righteousness), “Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Many are invited, but few are chosen” (Matt. 22:13-14).
Since there are no second chances after death, and no reincarnation either, we had best live holy and righteous lives while here on Earth.
