In our lives as Catholics, we are not only obligated and privileged to partake in the Eucharist, but we are also called to maintain communion with the body of Christ, which is the church, which is united visibly under the teaching authority of the Holy Father in Rome.

if you personally feel that Friday abstinence during Lent is not enough of a sacrifice to be spiritually beneficial for you, you are certainly free to incorporate another penitential practice in addition to abstinence on Fridays.

An 80-something Catholic in good health who was capable of physically traveling to Mass would be just as bound to observe the Sunday obligation as their younger counterparts.

Pope Benedict clearly manifested his intention to step down; his resignation announcement was made at a meeting of the College of Cardinals and in front of several journalists.

The practice of administering Holy Communion by intinction — i.e., where the minister dips the host in the precious blood, which the communicant then receives on the tongue — is certainly “legal” and is an established option for receiving communion under both kinds.

A true fully, conscious and active participation in the Mass is understood to require our literal, physical presence at the liturgy. Because of this, watching Mass on a screen would not fulfill the Sunday obligation.

The smoke that rises from the burning of incense has for millennia been understood by the Christian community as a symbol of the prayers of the faithful rising up to God.

Jesus’ baptism truly is a major “turning of the page” in Jesus’ life, since, after his baptism at the hands of John the Baptist his quiet, hidden life became one of public ministry, wherein he actively sought to make his saving mission and identity known and proclaimed.

The Catholic Church does not recognize any Protestant denomination as having the Real Presence in the Eucharist.

The point of religious art and imagery is not so much to give us a perfect, historically accurate picture of events that occurred in the life of Jesus.