“The mandatum is fundamentally an acknowledgment by Church authority that a Catholic professor of a theological discipline is a teacher within the full communion of the Catholic Church” (http://www.usccb.org/bishops/guidelines.shtml ). The mandatum is a relational reality between a Bishop and a Catholic person teaching Catholic theology within the diocese. A Catholic teaching Buddhism, or a non-Catholic teaching church history are not given mandatums. The Bishop is expected to give the mandatum to the theologian (“If all the conditions for granting the mandatum are fulfilled, the teacher has a right to receive it and ecclesiastical authority has an obligation in justice to grant it. (Cf. http://www.usccb.org/bishops/guidelines.shtml…

St. Nicholas, upon whom the figure of Santa Claus is based, was the bishop of Myra (today called Demre), on the Mediterranean coast of modern-day Turkey. He lived from 270-346. Nicholas was renowned for his generosity and also revered as a miracle worker, although little is known about his life. According to legend, Nicholas secretly tossed bags of gold into the window of the home of a poor family whose three daughters had no dowry; by providing them the means to marry he saved them from a life of destitution. Nicholas was also said to have left coins in shoes left out for him as he passed by. Out of this legend grows the tradition in which children set out their shoes on the eve of his feast day, December 6, in the hopes of…

Catholics liked him…a lot. And rightfully so since, even though he was a Hindu and not a Christian, he embodied much about what the Church stands for in her moral teaching. As the Second Vatican Council said in Nostra Aetate, the Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions:
“The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men.”
Ghandi’s use of non-violent civic disobedience was especially revered. Ghandi…

Tell them the church is a hospital for sinners, not a showcase for saints. The transformation that begins at our Baptism is, for most of us, an affair of one step forward, three steps sideways, two steps back, and two steps forward. The human condition is characterized by original sin, the truth that things are not as they should be. The good news is that God comes to save us from the sinfulness of our lives and times.
Also, challenge those who will eschew the church because of the hypocrisy of some members. Sure there are some hypocrites, but what about the millions of Catholics of good character who authentically integrate the practice of the faith into their lives of love and service? Do other institutions (education,…

To recap the story from Matthew’s Gospel:
When Mary and Joseph were betrothed, but had not yet lived together as man and wife, Joseph learned that she was with child. (At this time, according to the Jewish marriage customs, a couple was betrothed for several months before moving in together and having marital relations.) Naturally, he assumed that she had been unfaithful to him with some other man. The evangelist Matthew describes what happened next: “Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to…

Although Thanksgiving, with its roots in early colonial harvest festivals, is observed as an American civic holiday, the very idea of giving thanks points toward religious celebration. It is to God, first and foremost, that we give thanks. For Catholics, the most appropriate way to observe Thanksgiving is to go to mass: celebrating the Eucharist (a word which means “thanksgiving”) is our great way to offer thanks to God for our many blessings. Other Christians also observe thanksgiving with worship services.
But gratitude to God is a common theme across religious traditions.
For Jewish people, the seven-day fall harvest festival of Sukkot entails giving thanks to God for the gift of the harvest. Though…

There are three principle ways in which one can be involved in the ecumenism, the cause of Christian Unity.
The first is Prayer. On the night before he died, Christ prayed for his disciples, “May they all be one…so that the world may believe that you sent me.” (Jn 17:21) So first, we must join our prayer to that of Christ. Since all Christians share a common baptism, we can pray for unity as individuals, in groups, and even in certain liturgical settings such as the Liturgy of the Hours. Sadly, because of the very real differences in faith and understanding, we cannot yet share the Eucharist with other Christians.
The second way to be involved in ecumenism is to work with other Christians in projects or programs…

The answer is “No.” And many people wonder why. I have met many men who would gladly serve as deacons, but they cannot promise to remain unmarried if their wife should die. Most cogently say, “How could I deny my children a women who would love them as their mother did if she died? They would need a new Mom.”
It is little known, but a married deacon whose wife dies can petition Rome for permission to remarry. See Deacon Greg Kandra’s cogent comments on this issue.
On some different lines, a married protestant minister can now be ordained a deacon and then a priest. His wife and children attend his ordinations. There are dozens of such married priests serving in the Roman Catholic church in the USA today…

Quick answer: no.
Backstory: in 1988, a young woman at St. Maria Goretti Parish in Scottsdale, Arizona, reported having received prophetic visions of and messages from the Virgin Mary. She also told her parish priest that she had had a vision of nine other young-adult parishioners who would become a circle of visionaries and locutionists (locution is when a person receives ideas or words directly from an outside spiritual source). The nine parishioners did in fact report mystical experiences of various degrees to their parish priest, and he in turn started receiving what he described as ongoing locutions from Jesus and Mary. Prayer groups at the church became extremely popular, with hundreds showing up to…

St. Teresa of Ávila, who lived from 1515-1582, was a Spanish theologian, writer, and mystic. She entered the Carmelite order as a teenager and, as she deepened her vocation and commitment through a dedicated practice of contemplative prayer, was dismayed by the laxity and worldliness that surrounded her even in religious life. In response she shepherded a significant reform of the Carmelite order which led to the founding of the Discalced Carmelites. She was especially known for her writings, including The Way of Perfection, The Interior Castle and her autobiography. These striking examples of mystical literature trace her own experiences of faith and illustrate how the discipline of contemplative prayer…

On the night before he died, as he instituted the Eucharist, Jesus prayed for the unity of his disciples when he said,
“I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.”
- Jn 17:22-21.
Jesus prayed for a unity in the Church. We must take this prayer very seriously. For if we do not take seriously the Son who suffered and died for us, then we do not take seriously the Father who raised Him up in the Spirit. The credibility of the gospel depends on a unified witness.
Well, quite frankly, we blew it. Over the last 20 centuries, the Church as seen several major…

Question: I have had to be away from my wife of ten years and our children for several weeks as I am taking a Christian course but my sexual urge is driving me “crazy” now. It’s almost all I think about and I am not happy about that.  I need to focus on other things but sex is almost all i think about! Would it be a sin against God if my wife and I were to masturbate with each other over the phone?

Our contemporary world presents us with possibilities and choices never thought of in previous times.
On one level, I wonder if you should strive more to control your sexual appetites and not allow your sexual urge to drive you “crazy.” Easy for me to say. And I’m the guy who cannot resist eating an extra Tastykake…

Reported Marian apparitions do sometimes make the news, but I don’t know of any actual apparitions caught on camera. There are no “recorded” images of Mary captured on live TV or film.
That said, there are several videos showing the visionaries of Medjugorje allegedly experiencing apparitions of the Virgin Mary. You don’t see Mary herself in them, but you do see the visionaries smiling, praying, and reacting (you can see these on YouTube). As regards the authenticity of these apparitions, the Church has not made a definitive statement on Medjugorje, and will not do so until the apparitions stop. More information on Medjugorje can be found here.…

Stigmata, from the Greek word for “marks” or “signs,” refers to the physical manifestations of the wounds of Jesus on the hands, feet, side, and brow, accompanied by intense suffering. These are called visible stigmata. When someone experiences the sufferings without any outward marks, these phenomena are called invisible stigmata. Although a small number of saints over the centuries have been known to bear the stigmata as a means of participating in Jesus’ suffering, no reliable list exists. Certainly no one in Scripture was known to have the stigmata. Saint Francis of Assisi, one of the best-known examples of a saint bearing stigmata, is considered the first to bear these…

St. Jean de Brébeuf, SJ, who lived from 1593-1649, arrived in what was then part of New France, in the region of modern-day Ontario and upstate New York, in 1625.
For many years he lived and worked among the Huron people. In spite of his great strides in learning the Huron language and culture, he and the other European Christian missionaries in the region encountered fierce resistance; it was only in the late 1640s that significant numbers of indigenous people began to convert to Christianity. The missionaries, who had established themselves among the Huron people, were caught in the middle of the ongoing conflict between the Huron and the Iroquois people, their ancestral enemies. Jean de Brébeuf was captured…

Yes, indeed, the two most notable in the United States are Islam and Judaism. In Islam the daily prayers and recitation of the Qur’an is most properly done in Arabic. This is because Muslims believe that the Qur’an was revealed to the prophet Mohammed in that language. However, sermons and instructions are almost always given in the local language. The practice is more varied the Jewish world, depending on what strand of Judaism one belongs to. According to halakha, the collective body of Jewish religious law, all individual prayers and virtually all communal prayers may be said in any language that the person praying understands. Nevertheless, most Ashkenazi Orthodox synagogues use the Ashkenazi…

An apocalypse is a revelation or prophecy about the ultimate divine purpose. As such, the word apocalypse is associated with the end of the world, when God’s ultimate purpose will be revealed. Contrary to popular opinion, the Bible does not contain a list of 7 signs of the apocalypse per se. However, the Book of Revelation, beginning with Rev 5:1, describes a book with 7 seals. As each seal is opened, an event or series of events occur. The first four seals are associated with the “four horsemen” and are accompanied by the signs of 1) religious deception and persecution (Rev. 6:1-2), 2) war (Rev. 6:3-4), 3) famine (Rev. 6:5-6), and 4) pestilence (Rev. 6:7-8). The opening of the fifth seal is accompanied…

Mike Hayes, one of the editors at Bustedhalo® opined in response to this question, “I think kissing WITHOUT passion might be a sin.”
Mortal sin is “deadly sin,” sin that separates us from the community and God on a deep and real level. To persist in mortal sin, knowingly and will full intention of the will, cuts us off from the life of grace, the power of God to save us and bring us to eternal life.
It is difficult to argue that passionate kissing by itself could rise to the level of mortal sin. Now if you’re kissing another person’s spouse or your close relative, consequences may be more complicated.…

The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopalian Church is the Most Rev. Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori, previously Bishop of Nevada. Dr. Jefferts Schori was elected at the 75th General Convention on June 18, 2006 and invested at Washington National Cathedral on November 4, 2006, as the twenty-sixth Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church. As Presiding Bishop, she is chief pastor to the Episcopal Church’s 2.4 million members in 110 dioceses in sixteen countries. She also enjoys the title of “Primate,” along with the leaders of the other 38 Provinces in the Anglican Communion.…

Just as we have All Saints Day (Nov 1) in the Catholic Church where we celebrate those who have gone before us who we consider saints, we take an additional day (Nov. 2) to pray for all of those who have gone before us who may not yet be saints in heaven with God.
While All Souls Day is not a Holy Day of Obligation, it is an opportunity that many take to pray for the souls of those who have died over the past year. While we have hope that all those we love are with God in heaven, it is not a certainty. So we pray for those in purgatory especially on this day, that they might soon be joined with God forever.…