|
|
May 18th, 2008
I've found nothing in the Code of Canon Law of the Catholic Church indicating that Protestant spouses cannot be buried with their Catholic spouse in a Catholic cemetery. The only hitch would be if burial ...
|
|
|
May 18th, 2008
The Catholic Church recognizes the validity of other Christian baptisms if they involve water by immersion, pouring or sprinkling, and if they are done "in the name of the Father and of the Son and ...
|
|
|
May 18th, 2008
I just read an article on a website which spoke of women deacons and female priests. If Christ is the Bridegroom and the priest is in persona Christi, how could a female fill this role in the Church?
The matter of women deacons is in a different state in the Catholic Church from that of women priests. Pope John Paul II stated that it was not possible for women to be ordained as ...
|
|
|
May 18th, 2008
The answer is: much later than we might think!
The early church seems to have avoided any titles for Christians, except for the egalitarian "brother" and "sister." Matthew's gospel, which is very concerned about the ...
|
|
|
May 18th, 2008
I'm not sure I completely understand your question, but I can certainly understand the sadness and frustration in your experience of wanting to minister the Sacraments and not having your desire supported by the Church. ...
|
|
|
May 18th, 2008
When I was growing up, my mother didn't belong to any church. When I was in high school, after a long period of seeking and questioning, she decided to become a Catholic. Her older sister, ...
|
|
|
May 18th, 2008
The practice of cardinals electing a new pope has its origins in the tradition of the early church for a local church to elect its own bishop. St. Ambrose, for example, was chosen as bishop ...
|
|
|
May 18th, 2008
The idea of the infallibility of the pope was defined at the first Vatican Council in 1869. The Council was trying to describe the teaching authority of the pope at a time when the pope's ...
|
|
|
May 18th, 2008
The word pope is an English adaptation of the Latin word "papa" (a child's affectionate word for father). From the third to the fifth centuries words like papa or abba were used of bishops to ...
|
|
|
May 18th, 2008
Thank you for your question about the Creed.
Basically the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed came into being around the same time though the earliest forms of the Apostles Creed are in evidence around ...
|
|
|
May 18th, 2008
So many Catholics go to Sunday Mass and are not Christ-like during the week. So many "good people" do not attend a formal church service every Sunday. Where in the Bible does it require weekly attending of the Mass? Can a very good Christian or Catholic be a holy person in action and deed including prayer and not be attending the ritual of Mass every Sunday?
One of the ten commandments is "remember to keep holy the sabbath day. Six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord, your God. ...
|
|
|
May 18th, 2008
Actually, a complete celebration of the Mass should engage the whole person--including the mind, the emotions, and the body. Even the simplest Masses, for example, involve a procession to and from the communion station, and ...
|
|
|
May 18th, 2008
For example, 'May the body and blood of Christ bring us all to everlasting life." Wouldn't it be more true to say "The body and blood of Christ BROUGHT us all to everlasting life?
It's true that the Mass is a remembering of the death and resurrection of Christ. But it's a particular kind of remembering that involves an encounter with past, present and future. In the acclamation of ...
|
|
|
May 18th, 2008
I recently met someone who attends Latin Masses and believes that they are still allowed. I also heard that Latin Masses were no longer held and that Masses must be said in the language of the people. Who is correct?
To answer your question I have to provide a little history.
Up until 1965, Mass was celebrated everywhere in the Catholic church in Latin according to the "rite" (order or ritual or worship) determined at the ...
|
|
|
May 18th, 2008
Devotion to Mary goes back a long way in the Catholic church. But Catholics do not believe that Mary is divine and we don't pray to Mary. God, made flesh in Jesus and present in ...
|
|
|
May 18th, 2008
The Immaculate Conception is a teaching of the church that Mary, the Mother of Jesus, was preserved from original sin from the moment of her conception. This is not a teaching found in the New ...
|
|
|
May 18th, 2008
My husband and I got married in a civil ceremony. We always knew we were going to do it in a Catholic ceremony though. Nobody knows but us. We already have a marriage license obviously, what sort of certificate does the priest need to sign? We dont want him to know either....is there any way to keep it a secret and pretend we were never married through the courts?
Thank you for sending your question to "Ask Fr. Joe."
First of all, let me say that there will be no problem with your getting your married "validated" in the Catholic Church. I'm assuming ...
|
|
|
May 18th, 2008
I'm assuming from your note that you were divorced and have remarried without receiving an annulment of your first marriage from the Church court. If so, your priest is following the practice of the Church ...
|
|
|
May 18th, 2008
This is a hard question to answer, and I appreciate the anquish with which you must ask it.
If you were married in a Catholic ceremony, you would promise to do all within your power ...
|
|
|
May 18th, 2008
Yes, it's true that Jesus' own prayer was directed toward God as Father. The prayer which Jesus teaches his disciples in ths gospels of Matthew and Luke is addressed to "our Father" and does not ...
|
