Catechetics

Can a Priest Administer the Sacrament of Confirmation?

by Cathy Caridi, J.C.L. March 25, 2010

Q: A friend’s husband is going to become a Catholic this year at the Easter Vigil. He wasn’t raised in any faith at all. My friend says that the pastor will administer three sacraments all at the Vigil Mass: baptism,…

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Do Converts Have to be Rebaptized?

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

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…

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Will the Woman Who Attacked the Pope Be Punished?

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

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…

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Can a Bishop Forbid a Priest to Say Mass?

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

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…

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

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

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…

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Canon Law and Donations to the Church

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

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…

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Canon Law and “Catholic” Organizations

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

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 by Catholic…

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Bishops, Archbishops, and Cardinals

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

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 roles but…

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Can Catholic Children Receive the Last Rites?

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

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…

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Can a Priest Ever Return to the Lay State?

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

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 priest,”…

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