Question Corner: Is Dec. 9 a holy day of obligation this year? November 20, 2024By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner, Worship & Sacraments The solution for competing solemnities is to transfer the liturgical celebration of the non-Sunday holy day to the first subsequent available date. Thus, in the year 2024, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is celebrated in our liturgy on Monday, Dec. 9.
Question Corner: What’s the scriptural basis for praying for dead and venerating relics? November 13, 2024By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner, Uncategorized The Catholic customs of praying for the souls of the dead, praying to the saints who have gone before us in earthly life, and of venerating relics are based primarily in the church’s long-standing tradition and theology rather than explicit scriptural “prooftexts.” However, the Bible does indeed allude to these practices.
Question Corner: What is an indulgence? November 6, 2024By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner Indulgences are deeply rooted in several key Catholic theological concepts, such as the nature of purgatory, the church’s authority, the spiritual power of prayer and sacrifice and the communion of saints.
Question Corner: Do most people make it to heaven? October 31, 2024By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner Jesus was trying to explain the goal and some possible pitfalls to avoid. He never suggests that he was giving us a breakdown of who attains salvation in terms of percentages.
Question Corner: What is church’s teaching on transgender issues? October 23, 2024By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner The church is against any “gender ideology” that would separate the concept of psychological gender from biological sex; or which would propose that one’s sex could be changed through medical or surgical means; or which would hold that one’s bodily sex could be somehow wrong or mistaken in light of one’s self-perception of one’s gender.
Question Corner: If most of us go to purgatory at death, are Catholics ‘saved?’ October 16, 2024By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner Although purgatory is not exactly a “punishment” in the way we would tend to use the term today, traditionally purgatory has been understood to involve a degree of suffering.
Question Corner: What are ‘non-sacramental’ marriages? October 9, 2024By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner A valid marriage is essentially a marriage where the wedding “worked,” and produced a true bond. In contrast, an attempted marriage where one of these necessary elements was absent would be considered an “invalid” or “null” marriage.
Question Corner: Why did God send Lucifer down to earth? October 2, 2024By Jenna Marie Cooper Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner While the devil was cast out of God’s direct presence in heaven, this did not happen because God actively wanted Satan to have sway over his creatures.
Question Corner: Why do Catholics emphasize the body more than the blood of Jesus in Communion reception? September 25, 2024By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Eucharist, Question Corner It is the consistent traditional practice in Eastern Catholic churches to administer Communion under both kinds as a matter of course.
Question Corner: Are fairies and leprechauns demonic? And what happened to Barabbas? September 18, 2024By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner The church does not have any current official teaching on fairies or leprechauns. However, in traditional folklore, fairies and leprechauns were not the sweet and playful creatures that they tend to be in our modern depictions, and they have an association with pre-Christian European paganism.
Question Corner: Is the annulment process just a way to get around the church’s prohibition on divorce? September 11, 2024By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Marriage & Family Life, Question Corner In order to ensure that declarations of nullity are not simply “rubber stamped” or “cop outs,” the church has a specific process, carried out through the ministry of diocesan marriage tribunals, for investigating whether or not a marriage was invalid.
Question Corner: Who can wear a clerical collar and is it sinful to eliminate animal pests? September 4, 2024By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner Some seminaries attach the wearing of clerical clothes to a specific stage of formation called “candidacy,” but candidacy can also occur at different times in different places.
