Do Converts Have to be Rebaptized?

March 11th, 2010 by Cathy Caridi, J.C.L.

Q: My coworker is in an RCIA program, and is going to become a Catholic at Easter. She was raised Presbyterian. She told me that she doesn’t need to be baptized in the Catholic Church, because she already was baptized

 

Will the Woman Who Attacked the Pope Be Punished?

February 25th, 2010 by Cathy Caridi, J.C.L.

Q1: I read a Vatican news report that said the woman who knocked the Pope down at Midnight Mass on Christmas will be judged by a Vatican court. What will most likely happen to her? –Andrew

Q2: The papers say

 

Can a Bishop Forbid a Priest to Say Mass?

February 11th, 2010 by Cathy Caridi, J.C.L.

Q: Some women in our diocese have started a prayer-group, and somehow they got on the wrong side of the bishop, who has told them privately to tone it down. Among other things, they wanted a priest who’s not from

 

Does a Catholic Wedding Have to be Held in a Catholic Church?

January 28th, 2010 by Cathy Caridi, J.C.L.

Q: My daughter is getting married in June, to another Catholic. Our assistant pastor already agreed to perform the wedding, which will take place in our parish church. But now my daughter is thinking she’d rather have the wedding in

 

Canon Law and Donations to the Church

January 14th, 2010 by Cathy Caridi, J.C.L.

Q: My elderly mother is thinking about making a big donation to the parish school, or maybe leaving it in her will. All of her children went there and some of her grandchildren. Lately they’ve been complaining that the school

 

Canon Law and “Catholic” Organizations

December 31st, 2009 by Cathy Caridi, J.C.L.

Q1: How come the pro-abortion group “Catholics for Choice” gets away with calling itself a Catholic organization? Why doesn’t the Church stop it from using this name? -Dale

Q2: There’s a school in our diocese that is run

 

Bishops, Archbishops, and Cardinals

December 17th, 2009 by Cathy Caridi, J.C.L.

Q: What’s the difference between a bishop and an archbishop? And why are some archbishops addressed as “Cardinal” but others aren’t? -Jackie

A: On the surface, it certainly can seem that members of the Catholic hierarchy fill identical…

 

Can Catholic Children Receive the Last Rites?

December 3rd, 2009 by Cathy Caridi, J.C.L.

Q: Some years ago, a good friend’s two-year-old daughter died of a congenital problem. Only recently she told me that when the priest came to see them all in the hospital when the girl was dying, they asked him to…

 

Can a Priest Ever Return to the Lay State?

November 12th, 2009 by Cathy Caridi, J.C.L.

Q: I thought once a man was ordained a priest, he is always a priest. So how is it that some priests get permission to leave the priesthood and get married? Sometimes you hear about somebody being a “former

 

Confession by Appointment and Face-to-Face

October 29th, 2009 by Cathy Caridi, J.C.L.

Q1: We just moved, and our new parish doesn’t have set confession times. The bulletin says “confessions by appointment.” My wife doesn’t think that’s a violation of our right to receive the sacrament, since the priest will hear our confessions…

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