Indeed, Jesus was accused of being “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” The phrase is found in Matthew 11:19 and Luke 7:34 where Jesus contrasts himself to John the Baptist who was known for his asceticism in both diet and drink. Opponents of the two managed to find fault with both styles of living.
Certainly the Bible, especially Luke’s gospel, portrays Jesus as someone who sometimes feasted well and enjoyed a good party — think of the wedding at Cana. However, except for the above accusation, the gospels don’t give us any evidence of Jesus acting drunkenly or inappropriately. There are also examples of Jesus abstaining from eating and drinking (ex; the forty days in…

The sacrament of reconciliation celebrates God’s boundless mercy and love — no matter what we have done, God always gives us a fresh start if we express sorrow for our sins and a desire to amend our lives. There is absolutely no place for recriminations during confession. The priest may ask questions to help you thoroughly examine your conscience, and he will encourage you to true conversion of heart. But he is not there to scold you because of what you have done. Instead, his words and his tone should convey that he wishes to welcome you back into God’s loving embrace.
If you begin a confession and feel you are not being treated well, it is best to leave and to seek another priest at another time. You are always…

The Catholic Church is pro-life, and this not only means “not killing” and “actively supporting” life, but it also means being open to new life as well. The Church therefore obviously wants to support the desire of married couples to be parents, but to do so in a way that is in line with God’s intention for how flourishing children come into the world. Thus all technologies which are designed to aid the mechanisms God has given us for procreation are perfectly acceptable, according to the Church. Women and men can take drugs or have surgeries to improve their fertility or their sexual capabilities, for instance.
However, the Church wants to push back against our culture’s understanding that children…

It might end up making you more committed to and active in your Catholic faith than ever. A study was done recently by a Church-related agency on the level of religious commitment among couples. It found that a high incidence of couples who were very engaged in the life of their parish were those in which one of the partners had been a member of another tradition of Christian faith and, over time, had become Catholic.
Why would that be? Perhaps because the fact that there were some differences there made each of the spouses more attentive to their faith and practice. Perhaps because through dialogue and seeking ways to pray together, a shared faith life came to mean all that more to them.
It’s easy to imagine the situation…

We don’t know for sure. The Gospel is silent about Joseph’s life prior to his betrothal to Mary. The tradition that he was an older man and a widower comes from apocryphal sources, namely the Protoevangelium of James, written around AD 150. This text is not considered to be divinely inspired and thus does not have the same weight as Sacred Scripture, though it’s certainly possible that parts of it could be true. Wherever the truth lies, this nonbiblical view of Joseph as an older man has had a profound impact on artists over the centuries, many of whom depict him as having gray hair. But the Scriptures themselves don’t reveal anything about either Joseph’s age or his past marital status, so there is no way…

Before even buying a book about the Bible, the first step is to buy a well-reputed study Bible. The Catholic Study Bible, the New Oxford Annotated Bible, or the Harper Study Bible are excellent Bibles for both prayer and study. The advantage these Bibles have is that they have well-documented footnotes and cross-references, introductory material before each book of the Bible, and they include maps and timelines.
An introduction to the Bible for very beginners is God’s Library: A Catholic Introduction to the World’s Greatest Book by Joe Paprocki. It teaches how to locate certain books in the Bible, how the numbering system and abbreviations work, and how to sort out “fact” from “fiction.” For something…

Thank you for your question, which shows great courage and faith and is already a step towards reconciliation. The Church is eager to welcome you and help you find healing and forgiveness. The best place to start is to talk to a trusted spiritual advisor. He or she will encourage you and support you as you work through the emotions surrounding your experience. When you are ready, one important step will be to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Preparing for that moment and moving forward with trust in God’s mercy afterwards will take time and you will need ongoing support.

In the abstract there is nothing wrong with this procedure, and it could be a beneficial and morally praiseworthy choice if it was directed at the benefit of the child. For instance, a couple worried that that they were particularly susceptible to having a child with genetic disease might need to save money to be able to provide medical care and otherwise prepare for this possibility. Their being prepared would not only benefit the family as a whole, but it would benefit the child as well.
However, in practice, this procedure is often used in a way such that is not aimed at the best interest of the child. Quite the contrary: many times it results even in the child’s death. For instance, over 90% of babies who are diagnosed…

For this answer, we look directly to the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy #279:
“The sacred vessels are purified by the priest, the deacon or an instituted acolyte after Communion or after Mass, insofar as possible at the credence table. The purification of the chalice is done with water alone or with wine and water, which is then drunk by whoever does the purification. The paten is usually wiped clean with the purificator.”
In common English, when you go to purify the chalice, you’ll put a little bit of water in the chalice, swish it around and then drink whatever is left in the chalice.…

Mary didn’t know everything that would happen to Jesus. She was human, not divine, so she did not possess God’s knowledge. We know that she did know that Jesus was the Son of the Most High (remember that the angel told her that at the Annunciation), but she did not know the details of how his life would unfold. In the Gospels, when she encounters the unexpected, we see her pondering it (see Luke 2:51), which implies that she is processing the unknown.
Even though Mary didn’t know exactly how her son’s future would unfold, there is evidence that she did believe that he could do great things. The story of the wedding at Cana, in which the adult Jesus performs his first public miracle, shows that Mary trusts in what…

Our feelings are always important things to take note of, and we can use them as a way to discern whether what we are doing is something that God would want us to do. In this case, feeling guilty might lead you to discern more deeply. Why are you watching the movie to begin with? Does focusing on sexually explicit scenes make you a more loving, faithful or hopeful person, or do they just objectify the actors in the scene and create a lustful image for you to swoon over?
That said; focus is the main point. We almost cannot help but watch images these days that are in some ways sexually explicit. The creators are responsible for them, but how we react to them is key. Might you become more engaged with how women, for instance, are…

There’s certainly no hard and fast rule in any Church documents that doesn’t allow priests to carry guns. Just as there’s not one that says priests can’t carry a bow and arrow either. But prudential judgment is what is called for here.
The question to ask ourselves is, “Does a priest need a gun to protect himself where there is a lot of violence — in an inner city, let’s say?” The further question is, “Would the gun actually cause undue harm in a situation and bring more violence into the situation than is necessary to subdue an enemy or to protect the general public?” In the general state of daily affairs, does the priest need to carry a handgun to defend himself? Probably not. Could carrying…

According to a survey by Forbes.com, an estimated 20 million pilgrims visit the shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City every year. And though this is the most popular site, it certainly isn’t the only one. Watch this video and take a virtual tour to and through some other famous Catholic sites around the world.…

Of course not! Both the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the U.S. Catholic Bishops recognize that sexual orientation is not a choice and is not sinful: “Generally, homosexual orientation is experienced as a given, not as something freely chosen. By itself, therefore, a homosexual orientation cannot be considered sinful, for morality presumes the freedom to choose” (“Always Our Children: A Pastoral Message to Parents of Homosexual Children and Suggestions for Pastoral Ministers,” U.S. Catholic Bishops, 1997).
Being gay is not sinful. It is another part of the great mystery of humankind, created in the image of God. But the Church teaches that sexual relations are reserved…

Deciding how to respond to a panhandler is one of the challenging aspects of urban life. He could use your spare change to feed his family or to feed his addiction, and you have no way to know which. But should you give money to your niece on her birthday? Or to your coworker who’s retiring? You don’t really know what either of them is going to do with the money either. Once a gift leaves your hands, it ceases to belong to you. In the grand scheme of things, given the bigger structural causes of homelessness, the dollar that you hand to someone on the street is not likely to make a significant impact in that person’s life or in yours. So if you are moved to give, please do so, but remember that it’s a gift.…

The Church is strongly in favor of stem cell research. Indeed, it has funded and even led conferences in attempts to find medical solutions via stem cells. The Church has almost always supported science, and even the Galileo affair was really an argument about whether he had actually proven his claims about relationship of the earth and the sun scientifically. (Many secular scientists believe he had not.)
The Church objects to killing fellow members of the species homo sapiens in order to get the benefit of embryonic stem cell research science. Nazi Germany showed us that science and medicine need to be disciplined by morality, and the Catholic principle that “it is always wrong to aim at the death of an innocent…

Jesus did not ask Peter this question three times because he was hard of hearing or slow to comprehend Peter’s answers. Watch the video to find out the reason behind Jesus’ “Do you love me?” triple-questioning, as well as an overview of biblical numbers.…

It is always better to root for someone than to root against someone. What you really hope for is your team’s success, not the opponent’s failure, even though the latter is a necessary consequence of the former. (An even better attitude would be to hope that the best team may win, but for many sports fans that’s too much to ask.) In any case, your question applies to healthy, friendly competition on the playing field. In that realm, as you’re perched on the edge of your seat lauding or lamenting, it’s okay to wish that every play go your way. It would be a sin to cheat or sabotage the game to put your team at an advantage. But just cheering for the outcome you desire is fine. And when the game…

It’s actually a misconception that the Church advises against the use of fertility drugs. The Church teaches that union and procreation are the twin purposes of sexual intimacy, and that sexual relations are reserved to a man and woman united in the sacramental bond of marriage. In evaluating a drug or technology, the question to ask is whether it helps a married couple to be united with one another and open to the gift of life, or, alternately, if it diminishes or bypasses that union or closes the couple to the gift of life.
Thus in Catholic teaching, the use of fertility drugs that stimulate ovulation is in fact permitted; these drugs can increase the possibility of a pregnancy resulting from normal marital…

The Church claims special authority to speak only about matters concerning faith and morals, but also asks Catholics (and all those of good will) to consider its arguments about other matters. Though it isn’t a question of faith or morals, the Church clearly and overwhelmingly sides with the scientists who argue that climate change is happening. Pope Benedict has written about this numerous times, and especially because of his focus on ecological concerns in Caritas in Veritate he is now being called “The Green Pope.”
On a moral level, the pope asks each of us to radically question our own consumerist lifestyles and have a concern for others first — and not just those that exist today,…