The death of a loved one, even when it is expected, is always a traumatic event. The Church has understood this very well for two millennia and has provided for Her children the funeral rites. The funeral rites (rituals, or liturgies) consist of three parts. The wake service (or Vigil), the Funeral Mass, and the…
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Learn Your Faith/Aprenda Su Fe: Anointing Mental Illness
Learn Your Faith: Anointing Mental Illness (Aprenda Su Fe: El Sacramento de Unción de los Enfermos a Personas Discapacitadas). We were recently queried about whether the Sacrament of Anointing may be administered to those who are mentally ill as well as to those who are physically ill. To answer this question...
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Learn Your Faith/Aprenda Su Fe: The “Hail Mary”
In honor of the Feast of the Annunciation (March 25th) we turn our attention to the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s commentary on the “Hail, Mary” (See CCC 2676). This twofold movement of prayer to Mary has found a privileged expression in the Ave Maria: Hail, Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee.…
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Learn Your Faith/Aprenda Su Fe
My previous assignment as Spiritual Director and religion teacher at Kolbe Cathedral High School in Bridgeport offered me many opportunities to discuss the Catholic faith with my fellow faculty members and my students, Catholic and non-Catholic alike. During one Lenten season one of my non-Catholic Christian students wanted to discuss a sermon she had heard…
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Learn Your Faith: Lent/Cuaresma
It is not often that we enter the realms of higher mathematics in our column on the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. However, the forty days of Lent pose a thorny arithmetical “story problem” for our consideration. If we calculate the number of days in Lent beginning from Ash Wednesday (celebrated this year on…
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Learn Your Faith: Matrimony and Annulment
Pope Benedict XVI, in an address to a group of Italian priests some years ago, encouraged parishes to continue to welcome divorced, civilly remarried Catholics to the celebration of Mass even though those Catholics may not receive Holy Communion. The Pope’s address reminds us of the painful situation which exists for those Catholic parishioners who…
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Aprenda su Fe: Planificación Familiar Natural
Esta semana nuestros estudiantes de RICA y Educación Religiosa están estudiando el Sacramento del Santo Matrimonio. Con esto en mente, ofrecemos una breve reflexión sobre las enseñanzas de la Iglesia acerca de la planificación familiar natural (PFN). Con el acto de la creación del mundo, el Dios Trino, el Padre, el Hijo y el Espíritu…
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Learn Your Faith: Euthanasia/La Eutanasia
One of the fundamental moral precepts of the Catholic Church, derived from Revelation and the Natural Law, is that the direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being at any stage of life from conception to natural death is always gravely immoral. Euthanasia, or “mercy killing” as it is sometimes called, is “an action…
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Matrimony and Happiness
“Happiness is anyone and anything at all that’s loved by you.” So say the words of a song from the musical You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown. While this definition of happiness may elicit a warm, fuzzy feeling from those who see the musical, it was not particularly useful during a debate in my theology…
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Learn Your Faith: Theology and Language
Learning the Faith necessarily includes not only thinking about God in new ways, but also learning new words and terms. Learning to use these words and terms properly is essential because using them incorrectly can lead to philosophical and theological errors of the kind that have divided Christians for almost as long as there have…
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