Questions Answered

Questions Answered

Question: Can you define the sensus fidelium, and explain why it can’t be used to dissent from Catholic teaching? Answer: The term sensus fidelium (understanding of the faithful) has led to a great many difficulties in the Catholic C … [Read more...]

Questions Answered

Question: I see and read all the “opinions” on whether the SSPX Mass and administering of the sacraments is legal and licit. Good people are at variance with each other on this issue. Please, could you straighten this out from your sta … [Read more...]

Questions Answered

Question: I would like to study the problem of universal ideas in Thomas Aquinas.  Can you give me some insight into understanding this problem, and some sources on how to research this problem in Catholic authors? Answer: Pope Benedict i … [Read more...]

Questions Answered

Question: Could Jesus perform miracles of his own accord? Did he not empty himself and rely on the Father as we do by faith? We are to have faith to move mountains. What better way to make the point than Jesus praying in thanksgiving before … [Read more...]

Questions Answered

Question: A local priest has, on more than one occasion, preached that Jesus “became a human being.” Is that the same thing as he “became man?” Are the two terms interchangeable? Answer: This question takes up the famous issue of what the … [Read more...]

Questions Answered

Question: At the Easter Vigil, it is sometimes the practice that protestants are received into full ecclesiastical communion, and then receive Communion. Now, neophytes are baptized at the Vigil, with all their sins forgiven, but converts … [Read more...]

Questions Answered

Interpreting the Book of Job; Spiritual Communion: what it is, and what are its benefits.

Question: One of the more problematic books in Scripture is the Book of Job. Many Scripture scholars find it impossible to interpret. Is there some interpretation which might see a unifying theme? Answer: The Book of Job occupies a … [Read more...]

Questions Answered

Pope Francis seems to be placing a renewed emphasis on the teachings of the Church regarding the ethical pursuit of wealth and business. Are there practical norms for the correct use of economic power in a firm? Lumen Gentium was very … [Read more...]

Questions Answered

Pope John XXIII was recently canonized, but I have read that he allowed documents to be produced saying that Jews were Christians to save them during World War II. Is this not a lie? A father of teenagers recently tried to get me to … [Read more...]

Questions Answered

What are the arguments against giving Holy Communion to divorced Catholics who are remarried outside the Church? I have heard that the Eastern Church permits this practice. Same-sex marriage is being approved on a vast scale in many … [Read more...]

Questions Answered

Is there some Catholic teaching on the morality of the nanny state and its tendency to try to control all of life through federal law? Can you give me some guidance as to the use of the media? We used to have a Legion of Decency which … [Read more...]

Questions Answered

Does the Church endorse a school of philosophy? Is there only one standard for all justice? Question: I have heard that the Church does not canonize any particular philosophical school. Is there any guidance given from recent … [Read more...]