Question Corner: Do Catholics pray for the souls of the dead to save them from hell? May 3, 2023By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner Catholics believe in a state called purgatory, which is a place of purification specifically in preparation for heaven.
Question Corner: Reconciling Adam and Eve and evolutionary science April 27, 2023By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner We could describe the beginning of the Book of Genesis as a sort of “theological history,” because it tells us, in narrative form, some real and important things about the nature of God and his relationship to creation.
Question Corner: Does a prenuptial agreement invalidate a marriage? April 19, 2023By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner Since as Catholics we believe that marriage is for life, obviously the church does not recommend having a prenuptial agreement, which seems like a pre-plan for an eventual divorce.
Question Corner: Jesus raised the dead. Where were their souls? April 11, 2023By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner When Jesus was “resurrected” in the proper sense of the term, he moved totally beyond death and could never die again.
Question Corner: Did the authority to absolve sins expire at Jesus’ death? April 5, 2023By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner When we confess our sins to a priest in the sacrament of penance, we can know with confidence that our sins are forgiven, because of Jesus’ own words.
Question Corner: How can I contribute to every charity that asks? March 28, 2023By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner Rather than demanding a specific percentage of our income, the church leaves the dollar amount of our charitable giving up to our own good-faith discernment of what we can realistically afford.
Question Corner: Jesus became man so I could become God? March 20, 2023By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner Even in the heavenly life of the world to come, we retain our human nature.
Question Corner: Do we relax our Lenten fasts on Sunday? March 14, 2023By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Lent, Question Corner The time of Lent is not meant so much to provide us with a literal 40 forty days of penance, but rather to recall Jesus’ 40 days of fasting in the desert.
Question Corner: Weekly Friday sacrifices: You mean they never went away? March 9, 2023By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Lent, Question Corner Our obligation to do some form of penance on Friday is identified in Canon 1250 in the Code of Canon Law, which tells us that “The penitential days and times in the universal church are every Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent.”
‘Question Corner’: What are miracles, and why do we need them? March 1, 2023By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner Calling something like an unlikely sports comeback a “miracle” is using quite a bit of poetic license, since there is a readily discernible natural explanation for the victory (namely, the skill of the athletes, which the athletes acquired through their own human efforts).
Question Corner: Can laypeople ever absolve sins? Chanting in ‘Novus Ordo’ February 22, 2023By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner Even in an emergency, non-ordained laypeople are not able to confer absolution; nor can Catholic deacons, even though they are ordained.
Question Corner: Infant communion and wandering minds February 15, 2023By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner The difference in customs regarding the Christian initiation of infants amounts to a difference in emphasis between the broad liturgical traditions of Christian East and West.
