I am often recruited to speak at Confirmation events around the Midwest and, in the past, I would offer a “test” to check the candidates’ understanding of Confirmation. Unfortunately, nearly every student provided an incorrect definition. What is worse, sometimes priests and catechists could not provide a correct definition either. What is the sacrament of Confirmation?
Doctrine
Infallibility and The Pope: Does The Pope Speak With God’s Voice?
Today there is no shortage of confusion about the pope’s level of authority and the doctrine of papal infallibility. Just when do statements made by a pope rise to the level of formal, infallible pronouncements? Rarely.
The Christian Life and Keeping The Door Firmly Closed on Evil Spirits
There are many paths or portals through which evil spirits are enabled to gain personal access to our lives in extraordinary ways. These doorways provide evil spirits with a kind of “permission” or “right” to oppress, obsess and even possess people. Christians would do well to carefully avoid them.
The Most Holy Eucharist: Catechizing Children and Others on The Distinction Between Substance and Accidents
Here are a few helpful suggestions to use when teaching children and others about the reality of the Eucharist as the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ.
Pope Paul VI and The Prophetic Witness of Humanae Vitae
Pope Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae, promulgated three years after the close of the Second Vatican Council, rapidly became at the time of its release the most intensely mocked and reviled Church document in centuries, perhaps amassing more derision than any other solemn teaching of the Church in the entire history of Christendom.