Catholic Replies
Editor’s Note: We are in the process of reducing our supply of books and are offering them to interested readers at a substantial discount. The books available, all in mint condition, are Catholic Replies, Catholic Replies 2, All Generations Will Call Me Blessed, Who Do You Say That I Am, Catholicism & Reason (Apologetics), Catholicism & Scripture (Salvation History), and Catholicism & Life (Commandments and Sacraments). The books retail from $10.95 to $17.95 but can be had for 50 percent off for 1 to 25 books, 60 percent off for 26 to 50 books, and 70 percent off for over 50 books. You can learn more about each of these books by visiting www.crpublications.com. Don’t order from the website, however, since it automatically charges full price. If you know pastors, schools, home schools, or parish Religious Education programs who would benefit from these books, please have them get in touch with us at the address below. All orders must be paid by check.
Q. During the Last Supper, did Jesus distribute the consecrated Bread into the hands of the disciples or place it in their mouths? — A.G., Maryland.
A. Matthew says that “while they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, ‘Take and eat, this is my body’” (26:26). The bread that Jesus blessed and broke was a flat, round loaf of unleavened bread. He broke the bread into pieces and gave some to each of the apostles. Since the loaf was broken into pieces, we would assume that the portions were placed in the hands of the disciples, not on their tongues, but Scripture doesn’t give us clear evidence of this.
Q. My pastor sprinkled some blessed salt at the doors of the rectory and prayed, “May the Precious Blood of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ seal this house from the power of the Devil and protect its inhabitants from all diseases, including the coronavirus. Amen.” He then said an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be to the Father. Do you know anything about this practice or the use of blessed salt? — T.L.H., via e-mail.
A. The prayer we have not heard of, but we know that blessed salt is a sacramental, that is, an object that brings us God’s help by virtue of our own devotion and the prayers of the Church. In his Dictionary of the Liturgy, Rev. Jovian P. Lang, OFM, says that “because of its qualities as a seasoning and a preservative, salt is a symbol used in religious rituals from early times. It is also a sign of integrity and wisdom. Until the new Rite of Baptism in 1969, a bit of salt was given to the person to be baptized. Today, blessed salt is used in ordinary holy water and in the water used for consecration of churches and altars. In some areas, blessed salt itself was greatly esteemed as a Sacramental.”
Blessed salt is also used in exorcisms. In his book An Exorcist Tells His Story, Fr. Gabriel Amorth writes:
“Exorcising salt too is beneficial for expelling demons and for healing soul and body. The specific function of this salt is to protect places from an evil presence or influence. When there is suspicion of evil infestation, I usually advise people to place exorcised salt across the threshold and in the four corners of the room or rooms that are affected” (p. 119).
Q. Some questions: (1) Why did God create snakes and mosquitos? (2) Does God create a guardian angel every time a person is conceived? Demographers estimate that 100 billion people have lived on Earth since the beginning of time. Does this mean that there are already 100 billion guardian angels? (3) Why are so many bishops and priests free to express their own views on sex and morals, contrary to the Church’s teachings, without censure or dismissal from the Pope? — W.K., New Jersey.
A. (1) Since everything God created was good (cf. Gen. 1:24-25), He must have had some good purpose, even for snakes and mosquitos, although snakes, because the Devil took the form of a serpent in the temptation of Eve, would subsequently be “banned from all the animals./ and from all the wild creatures;/ On your belly shall you crawl,/ and dirt shall you eat/ all the days of your life” (Gen. 3:14).
(2) No, God is not continually creating new angels; we surmise that He created at the beginning enough guardian angels for every human who would be born. We don’t know whether there are 100 billion guardian angels, or whether an angel could be assigned to another person after his original person had died.
(3) Those bishops and priests who do deviate from the Church’s teachings on sexual morality usually couch their dissenting views in ambiguous language so that it is difficult to accuse them of specifically rejecting Church doctrines.
Another problem is that the Pope himself sometimes make statements on moral issues that are open to different interpretations. For example, in his 2016 apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis said of those living in adulterous relationships that “every effort should be made to encourage the development of an enlightened conscience,” but added that “conscience can do more than recognize that a given situation does not correspond objectively to the overall demands of the Gospel. It can also recognize with sincerity and honesty what for now is the most generous response that can be given to God and come to see with a certain moral security that it is what God himself is asking amid the concrete complexity of one’s limits, while not yet fully the objective ideal” (n. 303).
Some bishops and priests saw in this statement a green light to give Communion to those living in adulterous relationships. While four cardinals sent a letter to Pope Francis, asking him to clarify what he meant, the Holy Father never responded. There are plenty of Church documents that clearly affirm the Church’s teaching on sexual morality, for example, the Catechism and Pope John Paul II’s encyclical on morality, Veritatis Splendor, so no Pope, bishop, or priest should be teaching anything that contradicts or confuses what is contained in those documents.
Q. Do you think God has made other creations or other worlds in the universe? All the sightings of UFOs makes one wonder if there are alien worlds that are so advanced they can travel between the stars. — P.P., South Carolina.
A. God’s Revelation does not require intelligent life only on one planet, so it’s possible that there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, but we don’t have any evidence of such a situation.
Addressing this question in his book Ask Peter Kreeft, the prolific author and professor of philosophy responds:
“There is not a scrap of scientific evidence for the existence of any other universe. (Actually, it is theology that makes it possible: the God who freely created this universe, not in time but in eternity, could have created others, with their own time and matter and space, just as a single author can write many books.) Other universes are only theoretically possible, both scientifically and theologically, i.e., the idea is not logically self-contradictory and meaningless.
“On the other hand, there is evidence of other universes. There are over seven billion other universes in existence. Every human mind lives in its own universe, in a sense, even while living in this common universe. When you sit and stand, my universe has you ‘down there,’ but your universe has you ‘up here.’ In your universe, you are the one subject or knower, and I am one of many objects known; in my universe, I am the one knowing subject and you are one of many objects known” (p. 213).
Dr. Kreeft says that “there is an actual multiverse, but everything in it — all seven-plus billion universes — depends on one Big Bang. And if there is a Big Bang, there must be a Big Banger. Whether you use the word ‘God’ or not, and whether you identify it with the God of the Bible, it must exist, unless something can come from absolutely nothing. And if you believe that, I have a time-share in Florida that I will sell you” (p. 214).
