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.”

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).

Even in an emergency, non-ordained laypeople are not able to confer absolution; nor can Catholic deacons, even though they are ordained.

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.

No Catholic is obligated to follow any of the devotional “rules” accompanying a particular private revelation or to take on any of the prayers urged by the seers of an apparition.

The final blessing is the official conclusion of the Mass, so — in that sense — once the final blessing is said, Mass is over and you may leave without technically missing any of the Mass.

If you have sacramental objects which you no longer need but which are still in relatively good shape, the best and easiest thing to do is pass them along to someone else who could use them.

Limbo is not included in our Creeds and is never mentioned in our current Catechism of the Catholic Church.

It can be a beautiful practice to go to Mass on a feast that isn’t strictly obligatory simply to enter more deeply into the spirituality of our liturgical year.