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 and Catholic Replies 2 (both $17.95), All Generations Will Call Me Blessed and Who Do You Say That I Am? (both $10.95), and Catholicism & Reason (Apologetics), Catholicism & Scripture (Salvation History), and Catholicism & Life (Commandments and Sacraments), each $14.95. The books 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. In a column some time ago, you published a letter you had sent to the Catholic bishops of Massachusetts disputing a letter they had sent out promoting the climate change hysteria. Did you ever hear from any of the bishops? — E.W., via e-mail.
A. No, we never heard from any of the four bishops to whom we sent the letter. We didn’t expect them to write back and say that we were correct, but a simple acknowledgment that they had read the letter would have been nice. Interestingly, the alarmist propaganda that the bishops so easily accepted has been debunked once again, this time by a former climate change activist.
According to the blog C-Fam, Michael Shellenberger, a one-time hero of the movement, recently published a column at Forbes.com, rejecting many of their claims. The column, which was quickly removed from the site, said that “humans are not causing a sixth mass extinction, the Amazon is not the lungs of the world, climate change is not making natural disasters worse.”
Saying that he had been a skeptic for some time, Shellenberger kept quiet for fear of being ostracized by friends and seeing monetary grants disappear. He said that “the most important thing for reducing air pollution and carbon emissions is moving from wood to coal to petroleum to natural gas to uranium,” that is, nuclear energy.
He said that his new beliefs come from “the best available scientific studies, including those conducted by or accepted by the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change], the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN, International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and other leading scientific bodies.”
Shellenberger’s debunking of the notion that climate change is an existential threat to humanity will be explained in greater detail in his new book Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All.
Q. On the feast of St. Mary Magdalene, our priest said that Jesus drove seven demons out of her and saved her from a life of prostitution. Is that true? — T.K., via e-mail.
A. It is true that Jesus cast out seven demons from Magdalene (cf. Luke 8:2), but there is no evidence in Scripture that she was a prostitute. That perception apparently stems from the fact that the first mention of her name occurs in Luke 8:2, just two verses after the story of the sinful woman who bathed Jesus’ feet with her tears, dried them with her hair, and anointed them with an ointment that she carried in an alabaster jar.
That woman was publicly known in the city as a sinner, and presumably her sin was prostitution, but there is nothing in the Bible that would equate her with the woman from Magdala. The Church has long recognized Mary Magdalene as a great saint, naming many churches after her and celebrating her feast day on July 22.
Q. Can you explain to me Jesus’ comments when He was told His mother and brothers were outside looking for Him, and He said, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” and then added that “whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother” (Matt. 12:47-50)? — L.C., Nebraska.
A. Jesus is not saying that natural kinship is not important, but rather that obedience to God is more important. He is not downplaying the role of His Mother — after all, she was the first and the greatest of all His disciples — but is revealing, in the words of the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament, “the true greatness of her divine maternity. After all, she was not merely his natural mother through generation, but she became the Mother of God precisely by embracing the Father’s will (Luke 1:38, 43). Her relationship to Jesus — physical and spiritual — is thus magnified by Jesus’ statement.”
The Catechism says that “believers who respond to God’s word and become members of Christ’s Body become intimately united with him” (n. 790).
At the wedding feast in Cana, the Blessed Mother emphasized the importance of doing the will of her Son when she said, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5).
Q. What do you know about the “hermit of Loreto” and his alleged prophecy back in 1983 that the “hand of God” is on a man named Donald Trump and that God is going to use him in the future? — D.M., Virginia.
A. According to John-Henry Westen of LifeSiteNews, a priest from Rhode Island, Fr. Giacomo Capoverdi, began circulating in 1997 a video about an American named Tom Zimmer, who told a friend that he had received a premonition that Donald Trump would “lead America back to God.”
The friend, Dr. Claude Curran, who is now a practicing psychiatrist in Fall River, Mass., said that Zimmer told him in 1983 that “right now, in the United States, there’s a man who has the hand of God on him. He has the IQ of a genius and a first-class education. And everything he approaches he attacks with blinding efficiency….His name is Donald Trump.”
When Curran told Zimmer that the man he was referring to was actually a high-flying, jet-setting millionaire who dated models, Zimmer responded: “No, Claude, I’m telling you, the hand of God is on him, and God is going to use him in the future. Claude, I am so convinced about what I’m telling you that I have bought a memorial brick for Donald J. Trump. I put his name on it, and he will now benefit from all the Masses and prayers in the Vatican for as long as that brick remains in the Holy Door.”
John-Henry Westen said that further clarity concerning the prophecy can be found in a recent open letter to President Trump from Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, which the president retweeted and spoke of his thanks and admiration for Viganò. In the open letter, the archbishop, who was the apostolic nuncio to the United States during the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI, wrote:
“For the first time, the United States has in you a President who courageously defends the right to life, who is not ashamed to denounce the persecution of Christians throughout the world, who speaks of Jesus Christ and the right of citizens to freedom of worship. Your participation in the March for Life, and more recently your proclamation of the month of April as National Child Abuse Prevention Month, are actions that confirm which side you wish to fight on. And I dare to believe that both of us are on the same side in this battle, albeit with different weapons.”
Q. I understand that Black Lives Matter gets endorsements and tens of millions of dollars from corporate America. Can you list some of their supporters? — M.W., via e-mail.
A. According to Calvin Freiburger of LifeSiteNews, the following corporate brands are backers of Black Lives Matter: Amazon, Apple, Chick-fil-A, Coca-Cola, Facebook, Gap, Google, HBO, Home Depot, Hulu, Kroger, Levis, McDonald’s, Microsoft, National Basketball Association, National Football League, Netflix, Nike, Peloton, Starbucks, Taco Bell, Target, United Health Group, Viacom, Walmart, Warby Parker, Warner Bros., and Wendy’s.
“At the bottom of all the virtue signaling,” says William Kilpatrick of the Turning Point Project, “is the fear of being on the wrong side of the mob — not just the mob in the streets, but the media mob, the academic mob, and the corporate mob. It’s not the insurrection itself, but the cowardice in the face of it that may spell the end of America.”
