The Catechism of the Catholic Church readily acknowledges that original sin is not the same as a personal choice to commit some evil act on our part.

Catholics believe in a state called purgatory, which is a place of purification specifically in preparation for heaven.

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.

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.

When Jesus was “resurrected” in the proper sense of the term, he moved totally beyond death and could never die again.

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.

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.

Even in the heavenly life of the world to come, we retain our human nature.

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.

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.”