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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

There have been many canonized saints who were treated very badly by church leaders of their day, through no fault of their own.