Question Corner: Do I need to attend my territorial parish? June 19, 2025By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner, Uncategorized While Catholics are free to attend Mass and otherwise be involved in the life of whatever parish they choose, in most cases, a Catholic’s official parish membership is determined by where they live.
Question Corner: Is the parish administrator the same thing as a pastor? June 12, 2025By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner “Parish administrator” is distinct from the office of pastor, but this distinction probably will not make much of a practical difference in your day-to-day experience of parish life.
Question Corner: Are Jewish marriages valid to the Catholic Church? June 4, 2025By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner Although we might tend to use different vocabulary in pastoral contexts, as Catholics we believe that marriage is at its core an exchange of consent, which is indeed a “contract” in the broad sense of the term.
Question Corner: When is it appropriate to say the St. Michael Prayer following the Mass? May 29, 2025By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner Though the St. Michael prayer is no longer mandated in our post-Vatican II Mass, it can still be a beautiful and spiritually beneficial custom to pray it after the final blessing as a community.
Question Corner: Are the Gospels made up, nonhistorical accounts? May 21, 2025By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner It seems unlikely that these men would have been willing to suffer so intensely and give up so much if they themselves did not sincerely believe in the truth of what they were professing. Reasoning it out, what would have been the Apostles’ motivation for making up a new religion if it meant that they had everything to lose but nothing in this world to gain?
Question Corner: Does a married person need their marriage blessed or ‘convalidated’ once they become Catholic? May 15, 2025By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner A person does not need to be Catholic or even Christian to have a valid marriage, provided that in their matrimonial consent they committed themselves to a union that would broadly match our Catholic understanding of marriage: namely, as a permanent, faithful, and exclusive union ordered fundamentally towards children and family life.
Question Corner: Without a pope, how do we fulfill the indulgence requirement of praying for the pope’s intentions? May 7, 2025By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner The general understanding among canon lawyers is that indulgences can still be earned during an “interregnum period” — meaning, during the period between the death or resignation of a pope and the election of his successor — because there does not need to be a reigning pope in order for the faithful to pray for the pope’s intentions.
Question Corner: What are my Easter duties? April 30, 2025By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Easter, Question Corner In broad terms, “the Easter duty” usually refers to a fully initiated Catholic’s obligation to make a good sacramental confession and receive holy Communion every year around the time of Easter.
Question Corner: How do God’s will and the Holy Spirit play a role in a conclave? April 24, 2025By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner The solitude and isolation of the conclave is meant to foster almost a retreat-like atmosphere, which should make it easier for cardinals to listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
Question Corner: Can my friend’s annulment case be sped up so she can enter the church at Easter? April 16, 2025By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner We should keep in mind that the church sees the process of Christian initiation as a spiritual journey, not as an academic year with a deadline for “graduation.”
Question Corner: Why do we need confession if Jesus’ death cleansed us from our sins? April 9, 2025By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner, Worship & Sacraments We know that God is totally loving and merciful, and is always ready to forgive. And this is why Jesus left the church with the sacrament of penance, to provide a means for reconciliation after post-baptismal sins.
Question Corner: Can I attend a non-Catholic wedding? April 2, 2025By Jenna Marie Cooper OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner If a Catholic attends a clearly invalid wedding in the normal festive spirit, they are celebrating something which is, at least objectively “on paper,” a falsehood.