Catholic Replies
Q. Sadly I have several family members who are baptized Catholics, but as adults attend Protestant churches. They were once obedient but pretty clueless Catholics, that is, they attended Mass and went to Confession occasionally. They are now very good Protestants, reading the Bible and trying to live holy lives. What does the Church say about their souls? Can they get to Heaven while Protestants? — D.H., via e-mail.
A. It depends on why they left the Catholic Church. The Catechism (n. 846), quoting from Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium (n. 14), says that the Catholic Church “is necessary for salvation” because Christ “himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door.”
In the same paragraph, however, the Catechism and Vatican II declare that a person “could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.” So, if your relatives left the Catholic Church, knowing with certainty that it is necessary for salvation, they cannot get to Heaven. But if they truly, through no fault of their own, did not know this when they joined Protestant churches, but “nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience — those too may achieve eternal salvation” (Catechism, n. 847 and Lumen Gentium, n. 16).
By the way, merely being a member of the Catholic Church is no guarantee of salvation. Even if one is formally incorporated into the Church, that is, one accepts “all the means of salvation given to the Church,” including “the profession of faith, the sacraments, ecclesiastical government, and communion,” but “does not however persevere in charity, [that person] is not saved. He remains indeed in the bosom of the Church, but ‘in body’ not ‘in heart’” (Catechism, n. 837 and Lumen Gentium, n. 14).
Q. Is there any real promise of a vaccine being available for those of us who cannot in good conscience accept the vaccines currently available because of their abortion connection? — D.H., New Jersey.
A. Not to our knowledge. If any reader knows differently, please let us know.
Q. When did the practice begin of the faithful extending their hands, along with the priest, during the praying of the Our Father? Isn’t this gesture something that only the priest should do and, if so, why do they permit the people in the congregation to do it? — B.B., Oregon.
A. The practice of the people extending their hands during the Our Father began back in the seventies. Yes, the gesture is reserved for the priest, but some liturgists over the years have encouraged the faithful to engage in many prohibited actions during the Mass. We can remember when some people joined in praying out loud with the priest at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer when he said, “Through him, and with him, and in Him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit….” Some priests do not allow the people to engage in unauthorized gestures during Mass, but other priests are either okay with it or reluctant to say anything.
Q. I occasionally hear people say that “we are all children of God,” and it seems that this belief is generally accepted by believers. If only it were true. If it were, then all of us would be brothers and sisters of Jesus, and also sons and daughters of the Blessed Mother. But observing the evil in the world convinces me that not everyone is a child of God. However, the good news is that John told us that to those who did accept Jesus, “He gave power to become children of God” (John 1:12). Your thoughts, please. — D.M., Virginia.
A. Jesus told us to call God “father,” which would make us His children and spiritual brothers and sisters of Jesus and our neighbor. Being a child of God is often associated with Baptism. Thus, the Baltimore Catechism says that Baptism is “the sacrament that gives our souls the new life of sanctifying grace by which we become children of God and heirs of heaven.” It says that “since it is God who gives us birth in this new life, we become His children.”
However, we find a more expansive definition in the Catechism (n. 270). Quoting from 2 Cor. 6:18, it says that “God is the Father Almighty” who reveals “his fatherly omnipotence…by the filial adoption that he gives us (‘I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty,’).” Paragraph 654 of the Catechism says that the justification brought about by Christ’s death on the cross “brings about filial adoption so that men become Christ’s brethren, as Jesus himself called his disciples after his Resurrection: ‘Go and tell my brethren’ [Matt. 28:10; John 20:17]. We are brethren not by nature, but by the gift of grace, because that adoptive filiation gains us a real share in the life of the only Son.”
And in paragraph 1709, it says that “he who believes in Christ becomes a son of God. This filial adoption transforms him by giving him the ability to follow the example of Christ. It makes him capable of acting rightly and doing good.”
Q. I have three questions for you. (1) Nazareth had a population of 300. How could such a small population support a synagogue? (2) It was a 300-mile trip from Egypt to Nazareth. How did Joseph manage such a trip with a two or three-year-old boy, and how many days would this have taken? (3) When Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the Temple for His presentation, Simeon told the Blessed Mother how her son would be tortured and crucified. How can this incident be considered a Joyful Mystery? — T.F., Kentucky.
A. 1) Every village and town in Israel had its own synagogue, and some towns had several of them. Different groups might erect a synagogue, or an individual Jew might turn his own house into one. According to Henri Daniel-Rops. “the synagogue certainly governed the daily life of its members, appointed the local magistrates, saw to the teaching of children, and even constituted itself a little university for the people; but it did so because it was primarily a…house of prayer, where men met to hear God speak by means of the words of His Law” (Daily Life in the Time of Jesus, p. 370). He says that “everybody, without exception, went to the synagogue, not only for the services, but also for all administrative and judicial business” (p. 375).
2) Joseph was obviously a very strong and capable man. He had walked nearly 90 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus and, after the warning from an angel, he took the Holy Family to Egypt, a journey that may have taken a week. They remained there for perhaps a year, or until King Herod died, and then made the even longer trek back to settle in Nazareth. By the way, those who think that Joseph was an old man need to explain how an elderly man could have made two lengthy journeys with Mary and the Christ Child.
3) Simeon told Mary only that “a sword will pierce” her heart. He didn’t say anything about Jesus being tortured and crucified. The Presentation is a Joyful Mystery because Mary and Joseph followed all the prescriptions of the Law by buying back their firstborn Son from God by offering two pigeons in the Temple.
