Communion: Who May Come Up?
Question: At a funeral service, the celebrant stated that practising Catholics could receive Communion, but non-practising Catholics could not. He also said that practising non-Catholics could receive....
Author: Michael Shackleton
Why the title Mary, Queen of Angels?
Question: What is the biblical basis for our claim that Mary is Queen of Angels? Answer: The title Queen of Angels is only one of the many...
Are Anglican Confirmations Valid?
A Catholic boy I know was confirmed in an Anglican church. Was this a valid confirmation? Didn’t Pope Leo XIII state in his encyclical Apostolicae curae (1896)...
Communion for the Divorced?
There seems to be a lot of confusion and opinion about whether a divorced person may receive Communion or not. In 1970 my wife left me for...
When are Ordinations Invalid?
When is a person’s ordination by a bishop to the priesthood invalid? Does the intention of the one who asks for ordination play a role in this?...
How Long is too long for Prayers of the Faithful?
In our parish, the Sunday prayers of the faithful seem to go on forever. Sometimes there are as many as 15 petitions, all of them long-winded. I...
Divine Mercy Sunday?
Our parish celebrated the Second Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday for the first time. We found, however, that there is a lot of confusion about...
Alcoholic Annulment?
Question: Can a marriage between two baptised Christians be annulled if one spouse is an alcoholic? Answer: Because all sacramental marriages are deemed valid unless proved otherwise,...
Mary’s Family Tree
Question: Please explain the family tree of the Virgin Mary. I cannot find it in the Bible and I’m not sure where it came from or if...
When was the Old Testament written?
A preparation pamphlet issued to parishes for Bible Sunday tells us that the Old Testament writings first began in the time of Kings Saul, David and...
Jesus called the bluff on sexist law
The bible tells us that a woman guilty of adultery was to be stoned to death. Yet adultery involves two people. I’ve yet to hear what happens...
Is it against canon law to switch parishes?
Is there a law preventing one from changing one’s parish? After changing to a new parish, my previous parish priest visited me and said that it is...
