Questions Answered – November 2022

Incomplete Consecration and its Consequences Question: At Mass yesterday, the parish priest forgot to bring wine in preparing for Mass. Instead of going to the sacristy to get some he remained in the sanctuary and consecrated the hosts — b … [Read more...]

Deferring Absolution in Clerical Abuse Cases

Deferring absolution is the key moment of decision on several key moral issues like contraception and relations with legal but not legitimate spouses, so it ends up being somewhat controversial. However, regarding clerical abuse, I think … [Read more...]

Forgive and You Will Be Forgiven

Is forgiveness a completely dispensable act, a gift we receive from God and others, or, is it something we all require and need? Is not forgiveness an act which originates in the mercy of God? And, if so, isn’t the act of forgiveness e … [Read more...]

Saint John Bosco

Spiritual Father and Friend of Penitents

In the two-thousand year history of the Catholic Church, there have been many priests who have distinguished themselves as renowned confessors. These priests are important models for confessors today to be effective ministers of mercy. This … [Read more...]

A God with Skin

Recapturing the Incarnational Nature of the Sacraments

And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth. (Jn 1:14) Since her beginning, the Catholic Church has been an incarnational institution, a B … [Read more...]

Questions Answered

Question: I’ve read, though not in any real depth, the two schools of thought: One that Jesus became man primarily so as to suffer as man, and die for the redemption of each one of us. The other being that the Son of God most likely would h … [Read more...]

Priests and Penance: Confession and Confessors

The Call to Confession “Let us place the Sacrament of Reconciliation at the center, once more, in such a way that it will enable people to touch the grandeur of God’s mercy with their own hands.”[1. Francis, Bull of Indiction of the Extra … [Read more...]

Who Am I to Judge?

We have all become quite familiar with those words of Pope Francis, quoted two years ago during an interview on his return flight from World Youth Day in Brazil: “Who am I to judge?”[1. w2. … [Read more...]

‘Til Death Do Thee Part

The necessary manifestations of love, to include self-sacrifice and self-giving, and an ongoing readiness to forgive, could only continue to be present in a marriage fueled by God’s graces. By the basic principles of neurology, we know t … [Read more...]

Attacking the Roots of Abortion

What is really required ... is to address the thought processes and motivations that prompt people to seek abortion as a solution to a personal problem that should not have occurred in the first place. Catholics, and our counterparts in … [Read more...]

In Praise of My Father

I write this article as a pause from the great sorrow of scandal which has wounded the Church, in order to bring to mind... the spiritual beauty of fatherhood present in our priests. Being corrected by a prince of the Church in the … [Read more...]

“You Can Always Give Them Kindness”

My Favorite Priest

Fr. Robert C. Cieslinski was a priest in the mold of St. John Vianney ... He was self-effacing and humble, but realistic. “It is unusual to see so many people at the funeral Mass of a diocesan priest, especially one of his age.”  So r … [Read more...]

Easter Is an Eight Day Feast

Aren’t the Sacraments of Confession and the Eucharist, in fact, the Sacraments of Divine Mercy? Since the Second Vatican Council and the Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year, the Church has been emphasizing the importance of c … [Read more...]

The Sapiential Character of Sacramental Reconciliation

Wisdom is not merely a final product of confession, but is diffused throughout the whole of sacramental reconciliation. Return of the Prodigal Son by Murillo Christ gave to his apostles a divine authority to bind and loose for the … [Read more...]