Unfortunately, there’s no tidy answer to this.  The Protoevangelium of James, an apocryphal text written around A.D. 150, tells an elaborate backstory of Mary’s childhood, portraying her as destined for holiness.  Of course, this text is not part of sacred Scripture, so it doesn’t offer a reliable answer.  It does, however, show that early Christians were interested in this very question.
Perhaps it’s best to focus on what we do know: first of all, that God made Mary free of original sin at the time of her own conception (the Immaculate Conception) in readiness for her role as Christ’s mother.  That said, we also believe that Mary was free to reject this role.   To quote the Vatican II document…

Burying the statue of St Joseph in your backyard offers no guarantee of the house actually being sold.  What it does offer is that St Joseph will pray for a successful sale of your home.
That sale may just take some time.  Perhaps he is looking for the right buyer, or the right time, or when the economy is better?  Who knows?  But suffice it to say that burying the second statue certainly can’t hurt your chances of it being sold–nor is it something that you shouldn’t do.  Burying the statue upside down is simply an old ritual that people developed themselves and that some have found success with.  But it’s not a magical formula that guarantees a sale–that would mean…

Miracles require faith and faith has no proof. Catholic tradition holds that Jesus’ multiplication of the loaves and fishes (the only miracle told by all four Gospels: Mt 14:13-21; Mk 6:32-44; Lk 9:10-17; Jn 6:1-13) was indeed a supernatural event, revealing Jesus as the Bread of Life. In the Old Testament, God fed the Israelites in the desert with “bread from heaven” – manna (Exodus 16). It was believed that this miracle would be repeated by the Messiah (the anointed one) when he came. By multiplying the loaves (and fish), Jesus provides for the needs of the people as the Father once did. It is no surprise, then, that the people want to anoint Jesus as their king following this miracle. It is natural for us…

Buddhism refers to a variety of traditions—Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana—whose source point was in Northern India 2500 years ago. Buddhism, like Christianity, comes from the name of its founder, Buddha, or “awakened one”, as Siddhartha Gautama was called. A primary difference between the two religions is that the Buddha remained silent on the question of God, whose existence, he felt, could not be proved. So he chose to focus his energies on what no one could deny: the presence of suffering.

This led to the Four Noble Truths: 1) All life is suffering. 2) The cause of suffering is desire. 3) To reduce your suffering, decrease your desire. 4) The Eightfold Path is a way to do this. By recognizing these…

This is more of a question of etiquette and personal taste than of religion or ethics!  Some people are more tethered to their techno-gadgets than others.  Some don’t want to be reachable every single moment.  And some are just unable to respond right away; maybe they’re actually busy, or on a plane, or in a dead zone.  Given the variety of ways people use technology, your expectations are unreasonable.
While the teachings of the church don’t offer much in a direct way here, think about it this way:  when you pray and God doesn’t respond immediately—at least in a way you understand or recognize—are you just as impatient?  Or when God sends you some sign and you don’t respond immediately,…

No.  Chastity calls us to undertake the often difficult task of integrating sexuality into our relationships with others and with God (CCC #2337).  At the end of one’s life God is going to ask us how much we loved one another.  The teachings of the church guide us, but at the end of the day, we will have to look God in the eye and say, “This is what I did with the time you gave me on earth.”  Always err on the side of love.
But remember, love is not simply whatever “I” want.  Stephen L. Carter, a Yale Law school professor and novelist, wrote: “Love is an activity, not a feeling – didn’t one of the great theologians say that?  …  True love is not the hapless desire to possess the cherished object of one’s…

The belief that a virgin could conceive a child is an unusual idea, to say the least.  You’re not alone in wondering whether it could really happen.
Both Matthew and Luke make a point of explicitly stating Mary’s virginity. Some writers get more graphic:  the early Christian text the Protoevangelium of James (around A.D. 150) includes a memorable scene where a woman physically verifies Mary’s virginity, right after Christ’s birth.  Obviously, this text doesn’t have the authority of Scripture, but I mention it to show that early Christians were also interested in “proof” of Mary’s virginal state.
The bottom line is that we’ll never have the physical verification of Mary’s virginity. …

Since Jesus has both divine and human natures the church has taught that Jesus is both “Son of God” and “Son of Mary.”  Your question as to how this could be was one that also puzzled Mary as she asks “How can this be since I do not know man?” (Luke 1:34)
The angel’s response tells us a bit of what an answer to your question could be:  ”The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.” (Lk 1:35)
However, you have asked a more biological question in which the Catechism of the Catholic Church helps to clarify:

485 The mission of the Holy Spirit is always conjoined…

First of all, Hinduism is not a religion as we tend to think of a religion. It is a name given to a range of practices, attitudes, beliefs, schools of thought, and the social and political systems connected to these. There is in Hinduism the idea of an enduring divine reality that never changes: Brahman. And “God” is the personalized form or manifestation of that ultimate divinity and takes many forms.
Interestingly, the Deity in Hinduism has a triple-form, and thus a certain resonance with Christian belief in the Trinity. There is Brahma, the Ultimate Reality, associated most with the transcendence of the Divine, remaining somewhat in the theological background as the revered but disengaged Creator.
Then…

Not being God, it would be really arrogant to claim to know God’s mind.  That being said, we’re taught by the church that love of neighbor—even in difficult circumstances—is fundamental to community.  Those responsible for the crisis opted for love of self, whether out of greed or laziness.  They prized profit so much that they took undue, ignorant risk with the funds entrusted to them.

It’s important to look at the big picture as well as the details.  Distasteful as they may be, the bailouts seem to be more about damage control and pain containment, lest those affected suffer further.  This doesn’t take away from whatever culpability these CEOs and companies have, and they may well answer for…

Mortal sin means “deadly” sin, the choice to so reject God’s love that the life of grace “dies” in a person.  The meanings of masturbation range over a variety of acts and life situations.  An overly “act” centered approach to sexual morality, in my humble opinion, fails to take into account the multiplicity of meanings and complexities of the human condition.  Masturbation by a 13 year old boy is radically different from masturbation by a person who is refusing to have sexual relations with a spouse because of unresolved anger and conflicts.  Overall, it is difficult to imagine someone using masturbation alone in such a manner that God is definitively rejected, with full consent of the will…

According to Church tradition, no.  Mary remained a virgin her entire life.
This belief is reflected in numerous early Church writings.  The Protoevangelium of James, written around A.D. 150, portrays Mary as a consecrated virgin who never had sex with Joseph.  Early Church Fathers, including Augustine and Jerome, spoke of Mary’s perpetual virginity.  Even Martin Luther himself affirmed this teaching.
Admittedly, this tradition is challenging for many modern Catholics.  It’s probably helpful to view it not as a repudiation of marital sexuality, but as a statement of the uniqueness of the Holy Family.  In raising the Son of God, Mary and Joseph had a lot on their plate.   It’s understandable…

They might not have been the ones carrying Jesus to full term but Catholic belief is that Joachim and Anne–the traditional names given to Mary’s parents–were holy people in their right.  (They are, by the way, the patron saints of grandparents.)   We don’t know much about them, if anything at all, other than they must have been devout Jewish parents.  And holiness need not mean doing anything as extraordinary as Mary did–holiness makes its home in humanity.  Moreover, holiness in the Gospels often includes imperfections, too–think of St. Peter, who denied Jesus, and St. Thomas, who doubted him.  Anyway, when it comes to the saints, Joachim and Anne are…

According to Catholic Tradition, the answer is a resounding YES! In fact, Muslim teaching holds that Mary was a virgin as well, but that’s another story. The Bible teaches us that Mary conceived a child by the power of the Holy Spirit. Matthew 1:18 says that she was “found with child through the Holy Spirit.” Luke 1:26:38 gives us a detailed account of Mary’s encounter with the angel Gabriel in which she is told that she will give birth. Mary asks how this will be possible “since I have no relations with a man.” (1:34) Mary’s virginity is crucial because it reveals to us that Jesus is truly the Son of God – “begotten, not made” – who entered into humanity. Her virginity is also a powerful sign of her…

The premise of a foreclosure auction is that you’re looking to purchase a home cheaply.  You get the low price due to the property repossessed for default then being resold to recoup whatever possible from the lender’s losses.  On one hand, you’re exercising good stewardship of your own resources.  On the other, the family moving out is clearly in distress, regardless of who’s to blame.
You apparently do profit from their pain… but you don’t know all the specifics of their situation:  Were they irresponsible with their money?  Were they exploited by the mortgage industry? Every party in this situation plays a role in the structural violence and inequities the socioeconomic system creates. …

Every diocese has an exorcist on staff.  You can feel free to call your local diocese and ask for the exorcist’s office.  You can explain the situation to him and then he can conduct an investigation to see if there is anything to your claim with regard to demonic possession. There is an excellent book that you can read called “The Rite” about an exorcist who gets trained in Rome and how he came to learn much about the process of exorcism.
With regards to your question though about people playing with witchcraft, etc…that indeed could have opened up the possibility of demonic entry–however it is fairly rare that a demon would stay around a house rather than stay with the people who…

The story is true but not necessarily fact. Huh? Catholic Scripture scholars tell us that some parts of the Bible use figurative language to express God’s truth. Figurative language can express truth without relying on fact. We use figurative language all the time. For example, if it’s raining very hard, we say that it’s “raining cats and dogs.” That statement is true but not fact. In the same way, we know now that some parts of the Bible employed figurative language. Why? Because the illiterate culture that the Bible came out of did not have the kind of science that we have today. They were concerned more with truth than they were with facts. Does this make the creation story and certain other Biblical passages…

While we are looking for common ground with followers of other religions, it is also good  to be aware of and not gloss over the differences. The differences between us will not disappear. They make us who we are.  But so does what we share, and what we share is all important for the future of humanity.
Incarnation: The big difference is what Christian theology calls “the Incarnation”, or the “enfleshment” of God as one of us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

Trinity: Closely related to this is the revelation of God as a community of relations—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If one looks at Jewish mysticism the idea of God being internally dialogical is not so strange.  Jewish mystical tradition hold…

The teachings of the Church about sexuality come from the same sources that the church consults to develop teachings on other matters like economics or liturgy, i.e., scripture and tradition.  What the church teaches about sexuality is rooted in understandings of what it is to be a human person in relationship with oneself, others and God.  Ultimately what the church teaches about sex is that we should be chaste.  Chastity is “the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man (sic) in his bodily and spiritual being” (CCC #2337).  Jesus became one of us “so that we might become God” (CCC #460).  In loving one another as Christ has loved us, we should realize that…

Mary is human, not divine.  She doesn’t have the power to answer our prayers as God does.  That said, she’s seen as a valuable intercessor, someone who prays for others.  If we ask her to pray on our behalf, Catholics believe that she will.
Because of her close relationship to her son, many believe that her intercession is particularly effective. This belief has a precedent in Scripture, during the Wedding at Cana, when Mary brings the needs of the young couple before Jesus (see John 2: 1-12).
The National Conference of Catholic Bishops, in their 1973 letter “Behold Your Mother: Woman of Faith,” say this:
“We believe that, having Christ, we have all things together with him.  However, it is part of…