Is Excommunication Forever?
Excommunication does not mean, as seems to be commonly supposed, that offenders are kicked out of the Church. Rather, excommunication means that the offenders are deprived by Church law of certain rights.
Perspectives
How Can I Love and Serve the Lord?
I try to follow Christ and his teachings as a Catholic. At the end of Mass, I am advised to go in peace to love and serve the Lord. I have always been too shy to do such things. How can I do this apart from praying and receiving the sacraments?
How Much Should You Tithe to the Church?
A few weeks ago in our RCIA group, someone asked: “Do Catholics tithe?” This is a topic that generates some controversy. “Give generously,” I answered. “But generosity is very subjective,” the adult convert commented. “How can you be sure that everyone gives equitably to the Church?”
Pray with the Pope: September 2017
Faith and the Parish: Pray that our parishes may be places where faith is communicated and charity is seen.
Let Our Churches Be Works of Art
I’ve been thinking about how we in South Africa — like many other places —are struggling with what our churches mean and should look like. I’ve been thrown into this struggle in the last few years when I’ve become responsible for renovation and restoration projects that preserve and enhance our Catholic legacy.
Catholic Church is Journeying Back to its Nonviolent Roots
The Catholic Church preaches, teaches and practices total nonviolence. This statement is not true regarding the Catholic Church today. But it was an accurate and true description of the Catholic Church during its first 300 years.
Our Knowledge of the Bible
The Bible has never been neglected by the Catholic Church. This is because both the Old Testament and the New have only one core, one point of reference, and that is Jesus Christ.
How My Father’s Death Led to a Book
My father’s death, after almost a lifetime of absence, seems to close the yawning chasm between us. I feel him closer in death than when he was alive. The seed of an “inclination to look back on history” was planted the day I heard he had died.
Who Was Melchizedek?
I attended the ordination of a priest and heard Genesis 14:18-20 quoted wherein Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High, blessed Abram. Who was this Old Testament man and how can he be associated with Christ and the priesthood today?
