Questioning Faith

The Church and Religious Freedom

feeds@yuku.com (JustinMartyr) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:10:13 GMT

I have a friend who, although he is a practicing Catholic, is somewhat intrigued and enamoured of the arguments put forth by various schismatic sects--Society of Pope Pius the Xth, and Sedevacantism, for instance--in regard to the status of Vatican II. One of the points he brought to my attention is a seeming inconsistency between the Council's declaration on religious freedom, Dignitatis Humanae, and the condemnation of religious freedom by Pope Pius IX in his Syllabus of Errors. Pius IX...

Did Vatican II mess up the Mass?

feeds@yuku.com (Stratford) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:58:23 GMT

There is a very interesting exchange over at the Catholic Herald about this. Make sure to read Fr Aidan Nichols's reply to the questions.

Did God 'create' the world?

feeds@yuku.com (Stratford) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:17:57 GMT

The Telegraph newspaper reported that Prof Ellen Van Wolde has re-analysed the original text of Genesis and concluded the Hebrew verb "bara", which is used in the first sentence, does not mean "to create" but...

How do we know Jesus is God?

feeds@yuku.com (Stratford) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:10:49 GMT

I was asked this recently. When I get a chance I'll write an answer here - but if anyone else wants to start feel free.

Priests and Confession

feeds@yuku.com (NMCoonradt) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 07:14:34 GMT

My question is about what happens when a priest is told by a criminal in confession about a serious crime. I known priests are not to divulge what happens in confession, but what about a situation where the person tells the priest that s/he plans to commit more crimes? Is the priest ever obligated to prevent crimes or help solve a murder mystery? Wouldn't *not* doing so be a sin of omission? What if it were about a crime involving children or a kidnapping or terrorism? Does it not...

Who suffered on the cross?

feeds@yuku.com (Mall) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:37:59 GMT

It is a teaching of our faith that God is immutable: "we firmly believe and simply confess that there is only one true God, eternal, immense, unchangeable." (Fourth Lateran Council) Thus God is impassible and feels no pain.

We also believe that Jesus Christ,...

Condoms/ AIDS

feeds@yuku.com (Stratford) — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:24:26 GMT

I just found this excellent article on the whole subject by Michael Czerny SJ, Director of the African Jesuit AIDS Network:

http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20090325_1.htm

Damnation - what does it mean?

feeds@yuku.com (Stratford) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 23:51:00 GMT

God is Heaven and Hell.

The following is taken from St Maximus the Confessor (Quaestiones ad Thalassium, 59), in the early 7th century:

For [human] nature does not have the essential principles [logoi] of what is above nature, just as it doesn't have the laws of what is contrary to nature. Now, by "above nature," I mean the divine and incomprehensible delight that God is naturally apt to produce in the worthy when He is united by grace...

Forgiveness

feeds@yuku.com (Stratford) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 00:10:01 GMT

Here's a tough question. Can you forgive someone who doesn't ask or even want your forgiveness?

Let's say a family member who has hurt you deeply, or even abused you, but shows no sign of even recognizing what they did was wrong, or has forgotten it, or would not admit it, or in any case has no use for your forgiveness. How do you ever heal such a wound?

I am not sure even God can forgive - in the sense of absolve - such a sin, which is why hell remains a...

WE ARE LOOKING FOR TOUGH QUESTIONS

feeds@yuku.com (Stratford) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 05:10:54 GMT

The idea here is to challenge people to come up with really hard questions. If we can't answer them 'in house', as it were, we have access to some of the best Christian apologists around, and we will persist in trying to find answers. Eventually we will choose the best questions and answers and put them together in a book.

Why do Catholics have to go to Confession?

feeds@yuku.com (Stratford) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 11:52:55 GMT

Can a non-Christian receive absolution? And non-Catholics sometimes ask to go to Confession. Why not?
The sacrament of reconciliation was instituted to enable the forgiveness of sins committed after Baptism, so for those already located within the Body of Christ, and to make it possible for them to receive Holy Communion worthily. That would exclude non-Catholics from the actual sacrament. Catechism...

What if Mass is boring?

feeds@yuku.com (Stratford) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 04:11:46 GMT

The Mass is not like a movie or a play that has to keep us entertained. True, it is subtly different each time, with variations on the main prayers and readings, and a different homily, perhaps a different priest, but by and large it can seem pretty...

Why the Trinity?

feeds@yuku.com (Stratford) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 23:03:24 GMT

Q: How can we make sense of the Trinity? God as Father I can understand, and maybe I can believe He has a Son, but how can they both be God, and where does the Spirit fit in?

We can't "make sense" of it except by realizing (a) that it is taught both by the Bible and the Church, and (b) it is not NON-sense. In other words, the obvious...

The Atheist Bus

feeds@yuku.com (Stratford) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 07:15:05 GMT

The newspapers have been reporting on the placing by atheists (including Richard Dawkins of Oxford) of a message on the sides of buses around Britain: There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life. It was the advertising standards authority that insisted on the "probably", thus at a stroke converting the atheist bus into an agnostic bus, and planting the seeds of worry in the minds of many who had not given God's existence a second thought for many...

I have trouble holding on to my faith

feeds@yuku.com (Stratford) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 08:14:54 GMT

Q: I would like to be a Catholic like my family, but I don't really believe in it any more. I just seem to be going through the motions.

Faith is not under our control. How we behave is one thing (and that we can control, to some extent), but why we do what we do, and how we feel about it, is quite another. A lot of people...

Sex and Marriage

feeds@yuku.com (Stratford) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:52:29 GMT

There are two very different ways of viewing ourselves and our sexuality. The secular view (derived from Darwin, Freud and others) is that sex is an intense pleasure, a bit like a combination of sneezing and eating, for which there is a natural appetite, the frustration of which is unnatural and harmful, and the indulgence of which - as long as it is not forced on anyone and does no harm - is beneficial in almost any circumstances, for example by releasing tension or...

Authority

feeds@yuku.com (Stratford) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:49:52 GMT

How come the Pope is supposed to be infallible?

Well, look first at what "infallible" is supposed to mean. The First Vatican Council in 1870 said the following: "We teach and define as a divinely revealed dogma that when the Roman pontiff speaks EX CATHEDRA, that is, when,

Eating God's Body and Blood

feeds@yuku.com (Stratford) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:46:46 GMT

How on earth can we "eat God"? It doesn't make any sense.

True, there is not only something bizarre about this claim - as the Jews noticed (see John's Gospel, chapter 6) - but it does not even sound possible. Nevertheless, Jesus replied to the Jews who objected to the idea of eating him in...