Is it canonically possible for a layperson to "bless" a religious article, i.e., a rosary, a Miraculous Medal, etc. in the home and is there an approved "book of blessings" available?

In Christ,

Ben Nasca
Santa Ana, CA

Dear Ben,

Peace in Christ!

Sacramentals derive from the baptismal priesthood: every baptized person is called to be a "blessing" and to bless. Hence, lay people may preside at certain blessings; the more a blessing concerns ecclesial and sacramental life, the more is its administration reserved to the ordained ministry (bishops, priests, or deacons). (CCC no.1669)

The "Book of Blessings" is published by Congregation for Divine Worship and promulgated into law with apostolic authority (i.e., "the Vatican says so" — see Decree). It says that lay persons "may celebrate certain blessings, as indicated in the respective orders of blessings" (no.18). Examples of blessings that may be administered by lay people are the orders for the blessing of a family (no. 44), blessing of children (no.136), blessing of sons and daughters (176), blessing of engaged couples — (no.197), blessing of parents before childbirth (no.217), and so on. Some of these orders stipulate that when a priest or deacon is present, the ministry of the blessing more fittingly belongs to him (no. 176).

The Order for the Blessing of Rosaries stipulates that a priest or deacon may bless rosaries (no.1465).

United in the Faith,

Eric Stoutz
Information Specialist
Catholics United for the Faith
827 North Fourth Street
Steubenville, OH 43952
800-MY-FAITH (800-693-2484)

There are times when the priest in our parish omits the prayers of the faithful in the mass. Is it permissable to omit the prayers of the faithful in the mass?

Sol Magat
Philippines

Dear Mr. Magat,

Peace in Christ!

There are times when the prayer of the faithful, or general intercessions, are omitted, usually when there is another rite included in the Mass. The recently celebrated Chrism Mass, for example, omits the general intercessions. Generally, the prayer of the faithful is included in Sunday Mass.

The General Instruction of the Roman Missal, as it addresses the prayer of the faithful, speaks of its function as well as its use:

In the Prayer of the Faithful, the people respond in a certain way to the word of God which they have welcomed in faith and, exercising the office of their baptismal priesthood, offer prayers to God for the salvation of all. It is fitting that such a prayer be included, as a rule, in Masses celebrated with a congregation, so that petitions will be offered for the holy Church, for civil authorities, for those weighed down by various needs, for all men and women, and for the salvation of the whole world (no. 69).

Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy, (SC) states that "the prayer of the faithful is to be restored after the gospel and homily, especially on Sundays and Holy days of obligation" (SC, no. 53).

I hope this is helpful.

United in the Faith,

Eric Stoutz
Director of Catholic Responses
Catholics United for the Faith
827 North Fourth Street
Steubenville, OH 43952
800-MY-FAITH (800-693-2484)

My daughter has had a very challenging life during her 26 years on earth.

She was diagnosed with Leukemia when she was 13 and underwent chemotherapy and radiation therapy treatments for 2½ years. She is in remission and has been for the past 10 years but because of her chemotherapy, she developed an osteonecrosis in her knees and elbows and eventually had to have her knees replaced. Because the disease hit her during a very crucial developmental time in her life, my daughter has struggled to develop and maintain healthy personal relationships. My wife and I have done everything we can to help and be supportive and she has recently (a little over a year ago) found "the love of her life." He asked her to marry him and she accepted. They have tentatively settled on a date in May 2008 and for the first time since I can't remember when, my daughter is truly happy. Unfortunately, her fiancé is not a Catholic and, to make matters worse, he was married once before to another non-Catholic.

That marriage fell apart within 6 months because of infidelity on her part and the marriage ended in divorce. When looking to book our church for the wedding, my daughter was told that before she could be married to her fiancé in the Catholic faith, they would have to go through a very lengthy procedure to annul his previous marriage. I'm sorry for the long lead-in but here's my question: What is the procedure and the reasoning behind the lengthy process? Even though my daughter and her fiancé has scheduled a date over 13 months out she is being told that the annulment will take around 18 months and she will just have to push out her wedding date even further. Since her fiancé's previous marriage was not a Catholic marriage was it even recognized by the Catholic Church? Is there anything at all she and we can do to expedite this process so she can keep her date? Needless to say, she is very disappointed and depressed.

Sincerely,

Mr. Franz

Dear Mr. Franz,

Peace in Christ!

The process is lengthy because it must be thorough and diocesan resources are often not sufficient to quickly handle the number of petitions for annulment.

Your daughter's fiancé presumably exchanged consent with his first wife and, as the saying goes, consent makes the marriage. If a marriage occurs, in or out of the Catholic Church, on a sacramental or natural level, it is recognized as valid and protected by the Church as a holy union. Further, marriage "can be dissolved by no human power and by no cause, except death" (Code of Canon Law, canon 1141). The presumption is in favor of the marriage.

If your daughter's fiancé is not married, it is because consent was never legitimately exchanged due to at least one of the following reasons: (1) the proper form of marriage was not used, (2) one or both of the parties were incapable of exchanging consent, or (3) consent itself was not exchanged. In the annulment process, a marriage tribunal thoroughly examines the question of consent. Again, the presumption is in favor of marriage, so there must be a level of certainty that there was not a legitimate exchange of consent before a declaration of nullity is issued.

As far as expediting the process goes, cases are taken on a first come-first served basis. In some cases the absence of legitimate consent is so clear that the process might take only a few months. Of course, a complete application and documentation is a factor, as well as the responsiveness of witnesses. Marriage arrangements are not usually accepted as reasons for special treatment.

God brings good out of evil, and your daughter can take this time to better understand marriage, including what it means to have a sacramental marriage, and thereby have a much stronger and richer marriage than what she might have had otherwise.

For more information, please see our Faith Facts:

Marriage in God's Plan – Discovering the Power of Marital Love

The Annulment Process

Divorce and Remarriage: The Church's Perspective

United in the Faith,

Eric Stoutz
Director of Catholic Responses
Catholics United for the Faith
827 North Fourth Street
Steubenville, OH 43952
800-MY-FAITH (800-693-2484)

Our Pastor says that to receive Communion at the Saturday evening Vigil Mass and then at a next day Sunday Mass is not permitted since the readings are the same and this would be the same as receiving Communion twice in 'one day' which he feels is not ordinarily permitted. CCC 1388 does not make this distinction. Nor do I find this distinction in any of various answers on the Internet to this question.

Can you give a definitive answer?

Thanks,
J O Williams

Dear Mr. Williams,

Peace in Christ!

There is no explicit provision or prohibition for receiving at the Vigil Mass and then at the Sunday Mass. There are likely multiple opinions on whether one should, but here are two points I think should be considered.

During the two decades from Vatican II there was a broadening of the particular circumstances in which a person could receive Communion twice in one day. Then, the 1983 Code of Canon Law, without a list of particular circumstances, simply provided that the reception of the Eucharist is permitted a second time in one day as long as the person receives the second time during the celebration of the Mass (except in danger of death; cf. canon 917). It is clear that Communion twice in one day was not ordinarily permitted, but now a person can receive twice in one day.

The ideal is that a person celebrates the Mass of Sunday on Sunday. However, the Church established the Vigil Mass for Sunday, by way of concession, "to enable the Christians of today to celebrate more easily the day of the resurrection of the Lord" (Eucharisticum Mysterium, no. 28). It appears that a person who participates in the Sunday celebration normally does not attend the vigil as well.

From these two considerations one might conclude that a person can receive Communion at the Saturday evening Vigil Mass and then at Sunday Mass the next day. At the same time, a person might question consult with a spiritual director as to whether this should be a regular practice.

United in the Faith,

Eric Stoutz
Director of Catholic Responses
Catholics United for the Faith
827 North Fourth Street
Steubenville, OH 43952
800-MY-FAITH (800-693-2484)

I have been in communication with non-Catholics regarding religious matters, and, as is habitual for Protestants to do, they have pointed out a Bible verse to explain a belief that they held. For the majority of the objections they have, I have been able to find answers that I feel are conclusive evidence for the beliefs of the Catholic Church to be correct. However, there is still one passage that I have not been able to find articles that explain what the bible verse is actually trying to state. Some articles, like many Protestants, do jump around to other verses of the Bible to show the scriptural support of the Catholic idea on this issue, but I have yet to find an article that explains why the verses being analyzed are being incorrectly interpreted by these Protestants, and how these verses are supposed to be understood. The hesitancy of the Catholic Church in having an official interpretation of Bible verses does not exactly help my research either. I was wondering if one of you could help me with my predicament.

The verses in question are Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6 and 10. The entire Book of Ecclesiastes to me is difficult to understand, since sometimes it appears that individual verses contradict each other. The understanding of those Bible verses for my friends is that they show that the dead are in a state of sleep, they do not interact with the rest of the world, and they are simply awaiting the second coming before they can go to Heaven for ever or suffer punishment until their soul is consumed and dies again.

I realize that the verses that they point, if we take them to mean that the dead are asleep, feel out of place from the rest of the topic being discussed in chapter 9, but I cannot think of what else they are indicating. I have read that the writer was writing before Jesus' time so did not have the full understanding of what happens after death, but it is difficult for me to tell the Protestants that the writer of Ecclesiastes was simply wrong in his understanding of death, since they view the Scriptures as being all 100% true. Thank you very much for your time into this matter. I have been searching for a satisfactory and clear answer for quite some time, and feel frustrated with the lack of solid arguments regarding this specific verse.

Sincerely,

Alma

Dear Alma,

Peace in Christ!

God speaks in Scripture to reveal Himself and His plan of salvation. He writes using human authors and their abilities as writers who write precisely what God inspires them to write. This is why in the Catholic Church biblical interpretation begins with discovering what the human writer wished to express in his words (Catechism 110). This is because whatever the human writer wanted to say, we can be sure that God Himself is speaking to us.

The writer of Ecclesiastes was not attempting to answer our questions about the afterlife. Too put it perhaps too simply, the author was giving wisdom about how to live life well on earth ("under the sun"). The following commentary regards verses 8:16-9:10:

"The righteous and the wise and their works are in God's hands for him to deal with at his sole discretion. But no one knows whether God loves him or hates him, because happiness and adversity, coming as they do to the righteous and the wicked alike, are no indication of how a man stands with God. Everything (whether adversity or prosperity) in front of man (i.e. which man will experience) is vanity. That things happen alike to both good and bad has the effect of favoring the development of evil and misconduct in men while they live, and afterwards they go to Sheol, where they will no more participate in the activities that make up life on earth. Man is here and now to take enjoyment in and by his labor and to manifest exteriorly his interior contentment, for such is God's will. Moreover he is to engage in physical and mental activities while life lasts, for the activities of earth are absent from the abode of the dead."

(A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture, ed. Dom Bernard Orchard et al, New York: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1953, p. 494)

It is the opinion of at least this commentary that the human writer of Ecclesiastes is not attempting to answer our questions about the afterlife.  Sound interpretation of the Bible seeks above all to draw the true meaning out of the text (exegesis) and never to funnel meaning into it (eisegesis). The literary context of the ancient inspired author and the historical circumstances in which he wrote must be respected if his words are to be correctly understood (see Catechism 110).

For more information on interpretation of Scripture, please see our Faith Fact Making Sense out of Scripture: The Four Best Kept Secrets in Biblical Studies Today.

United in the Faith,

Eric Stoutz
Director of Catholic Responses
Catholics United for the Faith
827 North Fourth Street
Steubenville, OH 43952
800-MY-FAITH (800-693-2484)

Why can I not find the name of St. Joseph's mother and information on her?

Thank you,

Noreen C.

Dear Noreen,

Peace in Christ!

The Bible records very little information about St. Joseph. He first appears in the Infancy Narratives (Mt. 1-2 and Lk. 1-2) as the husband of Mary, and is mentioned in subsequent passing references such as John 6:42: "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?" By the time we come to Jesus' public ministry, Joseph is out of the picture, and the Church generally believes that Joseph died prior to that time.

All we know about Joseph's family background is that the genealogy in the Gospel of Matthew says that Jacob was his father (Mt. 1:16). In the Gospel of Luke, however, Heli is listed as the father of Joseph (Lk. 3:23). Through the centuries Church Fathers and Scripture scholars have come up with different plausible theories to explain this apparent discrepancy in the Gospel accounts regarding Joseph's father, but the fact remains that none of the accounts or other historical records identify St. Joseph's mother for us.

Actually, there are relatively few individuals in the New Testament whose mother was identified for us. Often their lives are not recorded in Scripture or other early Christian sources until they get caught up in the mystery of Christ during their adult years.

Despite the paucity of historical information, St. Joseph is one of the most revered saints in the Church, and has the august title of being "patron of the universal Church." One of the best magisterial sources for more information on St. Joseph is Pope John Paul II's 1989 apostolic exhortation Guardian of the Redeemer (Redemptoris Custos).

Sincerely in Christ,

Leon Suprenant
Catholics United for the Faith
827 North Fourth Street
Steubenville, OH 43952
800-MY-FAITH (800-693-2484)

I am currently in a dialogue with my pastor about using titles for God the Father that are not in the Sacramentary, i.e. Creator, Lord, Holy One. At times the prayers sound distorted and unnatural. He tells me he does this because some women have been hurt by their fathers and would stop coming to Mass if he always called God Father as written.

Last week he substituted "God the Father" with Lord and called Jesus Lord in the same sentence.

Is there a good and succinct explanation why he should stick to the prayers as written, other than just being obedient?

My personal opinion is that he is being patronizing and placating to women. This seems to distract and detract from worship which is why we are there at mass. He also adds "sisters" to any prayer that mentions brothers or brethren. But so does the bishop.

This seems too horizontal and not enough vertical.

Thank you for any help you can pass along.

Elizabeth McClintic

Dear Elizabeth,

Peace in Christ!

Principles for sticking to the text of the Mass are given in Chapter 1 of the Constitution for the Sacred Liturgy, (Sacrosanctum Concilium).

I would suggest including in your dialogue the following considerations:

"By calling God ‘Father', the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving care for all his children. God's parental tenderness can also be expressed by the image of motherhood [Cf. Isa 66:13; Ps 131:2.], which emphasizes God's immanence, the intimacy between Creator and creature. The language of faith thus draws on the human experience of parents, who are in a way the first representatives of God for man. But this experience also tells us that human parents are fallible and can disfigure the face of fatherhood and motherhood. We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God. He also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and standard: [Cf. Ps 27:10; Eph 3:14; Isa 49:15] no one is father as God is Father" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 239).

"Experience promotes the intelligibility of the Christian message. This corresponds well to the actions of Jesus. He used human experiences and situations to point to the eschatological and transcendent, as well as to show the attitude to be adopted before such realities. From this point of view, experience is a necessary medium for exploring and assimilating the truths which constitute the objective content of Revelation. Experience, assumed by faith, becomes in a certain manner, a locus for the manifestation and realization of salvation, where God, consistently with the pedagogy of the Incarnation, reaches man with his grace and saves him. The catechist must teach the person to read his own lived experience in this regard, so as to, accept the invitation of the Holy Spirit to conversion, to commitment, to hope, and to discover more and more in his life God's plan for him" (General Directory for Catechesis, no. 152).

To apply these paragraphs to his situation, your pastor has many opportunities in his homilies to bring the Good News of God's loving Fatherhood — communicated throughout the Mass in its carefully selected text — to the experience of those abused by parents. To simply change the words of the Mass to avoid offense, besides being misguided (cf. Chapter 1, Sacrosanctum Concilium) is not meeting the needs of these women.

United in the Faith,

Eric Stoutz
Director of Catholic Responses
Catholics United for the Faith
827 North Fourth Street
Steubenville, OH 43952
800-MY-FAITH (800-693-2484)

I have a question on corporate donors to Planned Parenthood. Is American Express still donating to them?  Also, what about IBM?  Thanks so much!

Gabriela Granados

Dear Gabriela,

Peace in Christ!

Apparently neither American Express nor IBM give to Planned Parenthood, although both financially support efforts to regularize the status of homosexuals in the corporate world. For example, both help fund the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

Life Decisions International conducts a "Corporate Funding Project," which includes a boycott list of corporations that support Planned Parenthood. 

United in the Faith,

Eric Stoutz
Director of Catholic Responses
Catholics United for the Faith
827 North Fourth Street
Steubenville, OH 43952
800-MY-FAITH (800-693-2484)

Can you please give me the history of the rosary-who started it and when? By answering this, maybe I could help some of those born-again Christians who do not believe on repeating prayers.

Thanks a lot,

Nelson

Dear Nelson,

Peace in Christ!

Any prayer from the heart, repetitive or otherwise, is acceptable to God. How many times should we repeat "I love you" to our Heavenly Father? The matter then is not simply repetition, but vain repetition (cf. Mt. 6:7). The Rosary is not a prayer of "vain repetition" but a meditation moved slowly forward by the familiar words of the Hail Mary and the Lord's Prayer. For more on responding to the charge of vain repetition, please see our Faith Fact Not in Vain: Repetition and the Rosary.

I also heartily recommend Rosarium Virginis Mariae, Apostolic Letter on the Rosary for a presentation on the riches of the Rosary.

It just so happens that this letter begins with an historical allusion:

"The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, which gradually took form in the second millennium under the guidance of the Spirit of God, is a prayer loved by countless Saints and encouraged by the Magisterium. Simple yet profound, it still remains, at the dawn of this third millennium, a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness…."

There are two major theories on the origin of the Rosary. The traditional theory attributes the origin to St. Dominic in the 13^th century. The Catholic Encyclopedia says that "the Feast of the Holy Rosary informs us that, when the Albigensian heresy was devastating the country of Toulouse, St. Dominic earnestly besought the help of Our Lady and was instructed by her…to preach the Rosary among the people as an antidote to heresy and sin." (The following is taken mostly from the Catholic Encyclopedia. An online edition is available at www.newadvent.org).

Like other devotional practices, the Rosary itself has developed over the centuries. It essentially consists of 150 Hail Marys and 15 Our Fathers. Other prayers and recitations such as the Creed and the Salve Regina have been added as part of the whole prayer. Even today, there are many methods used in praying the Rosary. Its use in Eastern Churches (Catholic and Orthodox) varies somewhat as well. As a private devotion, there is no particular method that the Church prescribes.

The use of beads has a practical significance. When we are praying certain prayers or Psalms, etc., to focus our attention on the Lord, the use of beads helps us to stay on track so as to not be distracted by counting. When monks or peasantry would work in the fields they would use pebbles, berries or cords with knots tied into them. For the monk, this also was a tool to use in following Paul's injunction to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17).

This eventually developed into putting beads on a string to aid in prayer. In fact, the word bead itself comes from the Old Saxon word bede, which simply means "a prayer." The term "Rosary" comes from the word rosarius and means "a garland or bouquet of roses." Thus, the prayer itself is the Rosary and the collection or "garland" of beads we use to pray it is likewise called Rosary.

The second theory is that, beginning in the 12 century, the Rosary developed in imitation of the 150 biblical Psalms that priests and religious were required to pray over a certain period of time. Some monks even prayed all 150 Psalms every day. The 150 Psalms made up the "Psalter," part of the Breviary, the Church's official daily prayers. According to this theory, the Rosary developed as a substitute for the Breviary for those faithful who didn't have the money to learn to read, but nevertheless desired a regular means by which they could express their devotion to Jesus and Mary through memorized prayers. Originally, the faithful would pray a psalter of the Lord's Prayer (i.e., 150 "Our Fathers" or "Paters"). The Paters were eventually divided into three sets of 50, with strings of beads, called "paternosters" (i.e., "Our Fathers") used to keep count. Marian devotion followed a similar trend, with a psalter of "Aves" or "Hail Marys" developing. The Rosary mysteries developed on a parallel course, beginning with the Joyful and progressing to the Sorrowful and Glorious.

Eventually, the two psalters were united, a Hail Mary following each Our Father. Then, in the early 15th century, a Carthusian named Henry Kalkar is credited with bracketing the 150 Hail Marys into decades (sets of ten), separated by Our Fathers. Shortly thereafter, the Hail Mary's were separated into five decades. The Rosary at that time resembled its current form, although there has since been further development. The latest is the addition of the five Luminous mysteries.

I hope this is helpful. May God bless your efforts.

United in the Faith,

Eric Stoutz
Director of Catholic Responses
Catholics United for the Faith
827 North Fourth Street
Steubenville, OH 43952
800-MY-FAITH (800-693-2484)

My daughter was married in the Roman Catholic Church. She divorced her husband who is Greek Orthodox. He had their marriage annulled in the Greek Orthodox Church and is now remarried and has a daughter by his present wife. My question is: Is my daughter free to marry?

Regards,

Joann

Dear Joan,

In answering your question, I will presume that your daughter and her Greek Orthodox husband were indeed free to marry in the first place and that the correct Catholic form was utilized.

The short answer is that she is not free to marry. In order for her to marry again in the Catholic Church, she must obtain a declaration of nullity through the Church.

This isn't to say that she doesn't have grounds for an annulment. Rather, it's simply the case that the Catholic Church, in fidelity to Christ, necessarily exercises jurisdiction when it comes to one's freedom to enter into the Sacrament of Marriage. See generally my article entitled "What God Has Joined."

The Catholic Church does not recognize annulments granted by the Greek Orthodox Church. Canon 1401 of the Code of Canon Law states: "By proper and exclusive right the Church adjudicates: 1) cases which regard spiritual matters or those connected to spiritual matters." More specifically pertaining to marriage, canon 1671 states: Marriage cases of the baptized belong to the ecclesiastical judge by proper right. In Dignitas Connubii, article 5.1 states: Causes of the nullity of marriage can be decided only through the sentence of a competent tribunal. Of course, the term "Church" in the above refers to the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church is larger than the Latin rite and certainly recognizes the decisions of Eastern Catholic Churches that are in union with the Roman Pontiff as they would enjoy legitimate competency in accordance with the above provisions. However, since the Orthodox Churches do not accept the supremacy of the Roman Pontiff, they sadly lack such competence.

The following is a citation from Dignitas Connubii — Norms and Commentary published by the Canon Law Society of America, which summarizes the matter:

Given that the Church accepts as authentic only those declarations of nullity that are issued by an ecclesiastical tribunal of the Catholic Church, should other tribunals or institutions declare the invalidity of a marriage the Church would not recognize the substantive outcome of that decision. This holds not only for Catholics who approach a tribunal, but also for those subject to other non-Catholic jurisdictions, secular and religious, from which a declaration of nullity might have been obtained. The declaration issued by an illegitimate forum would be without effect for the purposes of establishing the freedom of the spouses to exchange consent. The cause would have to be submitted anew to a legitimate ecclesiastical tribunal for consideration.

Therefore, should your daughter desire to marry again in the Church, she would need to get a decree of nullity with regard to the previous marriage. Her pastor should be able to help her with this and answer more specific questions she might have in this regard.

United in the Faith,

Leon Suprenant

Catholics United for the Faith
827 North Fourth Street
Steubenville, OH 43952
800-MY-FAITH (800-693-2484)