DOMINUS PARS HÆREDITATIS MEÆ

Hello,

Many of us have trust issues, in relationships. Even if people didn’t suffer abuse, going through life and seeing all the divorces and betrayals that other people go through, is enough to be wary of wanting to get married.

As for, “How will I be able to handle marriage?” I would respond that you have to be very careful. Even though you should marry only a person who you fall in love with, it is not necessary for a couple to stay in the crush, or “in love” state, to be happy in marriage.

So, in addition to finding someone you fall in love with, be on the lookout for compatibility. Observe people to see who you are able to get along with, agree with on the “most important” issues, and can go periods where they won’t resent you for being busy or having some “me time.”

When people tell me, “I’ve done that, and I still have really bad luck.” Maybe in that case, the person you think is the one God put in your path, is the person you chose for more superficial reasons.

Some who claim to be careful don’t realize when they are basing their search more on looks. Or they search for someone who agrees with them on all their political ideas, as opposed to their spiritual and familial values. Or they have an unhealthy attraction to a guy who is “damaged, like me.” Sometimes they want a guy who is excessively independent (selfish) or “loves only me” (e.g. like an obsession).

It could be that God sends someone to you who is very different than your expectations. At first, you are not in love, but then you surprise yourself and grow to love him. But compatibility is a non-negotiable--someone you can argue or fight with and then make up with because they have the maturity for forgiveness.

In closing, let me say that there is no rush. Even if God is calling you to the married life, there is no saying, exactly, when that is supposed to happen. It might be that God feels you will be quickly ready. It might also be that the Lord sees you have a few more things to learn in the school of hard knocks.

Hello, 

Keep a spiritual journal of sorts. During the week, jot down those moments when you are not your best self, with others. At the end of the day, ask yourself, “Could I have lived this day, better for the glory of God? Is there something I could have done better?”

You’ll find there are things that were out of your control. That call that was not urgent, but you did not return, was probably blocked out of your mind from the many other things that came up during the day.

But what about the things that were in your control? Were there behaviors you recognized that day, which you chose to do, but which you did not HAVE to do?

 For instance, was there a chore or a favor you were committed to do which you had time for? But instead of doing that, you chose to waste time doing something unnecessary? Were there attitudes in your mind or heart which were more judgmental or selfish, than what is true to yourself?

Hello,

The thought that comes to my mind is this: We can’t eat right and exercise for other people. They have to make that choice for themselves and live their own life for the sake of flourishing and wholeness. 

However, what we can do is once they are sick, is to get things in gear for “damage control” and do what we can, to advocate for them.

Thus, in society, we know that many people suffer because of the abuse they have heaped on their bodies and on their minds. But once they are in a broken state, we can do more than just say, “Sorry, you made your bed--now sleep in it.” From the teachings of Jesus, there is an urgent sense that we are, “our brother’s keeper.”

So, we advocate for those in physical sickness, who have no insurance. We advocate for those in substance abuse who need resources for rehab and counseling. We advocate for those who are dying, who need palliative care and end of life comfort.

We go to doctors, clinics, and hospitals. We go to state and federal legislators for help when the budget is being decided. We go to private groups and foundations to establish programs and community centers. We even go to big business and corporations and advocate for more benefits for their workers.

A lot of times, this advocacy falls on deaf ears, because most people do not see the urgency of illness and suffering until it affects them, personally. But sometimes, the advocacy reaps great results.

The calling of the Christian to “make reparation” is a spiritual form of “advocacy.” We do not go to a politician, or to a corporation, but rather we go to Our Lord Jesus, or appeal to the motherly prayers of the holy Virgin. And although they will not write us a big check, or give us money, they will do something more beautiful.

They will unleash grace and mercy. They will obtain from the heavenly Father a form of spiritual health insurance, or spiritual rehab, for the worst of sinners. The goal is that through our advocacy, the heavenly Father will aid fallen and unrepentant sinners to see His light. And seeing His light, our goal is that they turn from the path of perdition and hell toward the path of being in heaven someday.

Reparation is us, asking God, to obtain for the sinner what the sinner did not seek for themselves--a lessening of the effects of evil in their sin and an increase of grace to choose salvation, instead of damnation. We do not know the mystery of grace, and exactly how grace turns back the effects of evil and sin.

Hello,

Thank you for asking this, as it really made me stop and think. It is a deep question, because it gets to the area of how a wounded soul, or spirit, contributes to wounds in the body, or the nervous system of humans.

Mental and nervous challenges have many mysterious causes, and we haven’t sorted out totally what might come from genetic roots and what might come from our habits. For instance, we know that if people are highly stressed, live life at a frenetic pace, have little down time, or time for peace and meditation, and blame themselves deep down for many things which are not their fault, that they can develop certain problems of anxiety or phobias.

In Catholic teaching, original sin refers to a fallen state, or a rupture in our friendship with our heavenly Father, which has existed since the first humans.

This distancing ourselves from the Father, is like a wound in our makeup, our nature. We are still fundamentally spiritual creatures, who are fulfilled by contact with the divine, but the stubborn and proud nature of our will pushes God away. 

Without God’s grace, we are weak to fight the lower appetites of our cravings, but at the same time we are strong to harm ourselves, or others, in the search for power, control, greed, influence over others, etc.

I have never heard of the condition of schizophrenia being a result of our own bad decisions. That could be in some cases, such as when there is substance abuse and the pre-existing mental stress condition we have, is made worse. 

However, from what I have heard, and I might be wrong, there are also genetic factors that map out the chemical imbalances in the brain as we get older. As for original sin, that is a wounding of our human spirit and an unleashing of lust in our passions--but it is not directly connected to schizophrenia.

Rather, not having the peace of the heavenly Father’s love in our lives, has only a general effect on the psychosomatic connection between body and spirit. I would say that original sin makes us vulnerable to disease, mental illness, and physical suffering.

However, biology seems to tell us that specific diseases of our psyche, or our body, have other specific causes, while original sin is a general condition of spiritual pain. It’s always been a question to me, why some people have few mental or physical afflictions, while others are afflicted with illness after illness, through no real fault of their own.

Hello,

CMRI stands for the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen. They have a center near Spokane, Washington, and do outreach and ministry to Catholics who desire the Traditional Latin Mass.

For Holy Orders, they rely on bishops ordained from Archbishop Thuc, an elderly Vietnamese archbishop who ordained various bishops at one time or other. There is a reasonable doubt as to whether Thuc was in the proper state of mental health to be able to ordain.

The reason they sought out Thuc was because their first bishop was ordained by an Old Catholic of the Utrecht rite, who likely had valid orders but was not a Roman Catholic. At least with Thuc, they knew he was Catholic, even though an elderly man, who did not mind ordaining bishops who rejected Vatican II.

Not only did the CMRI bishops reject Vatican II, they believed that the popes who were responsible for Vatican II were heretics, which made them invalid and disqualified to be real popes. Therefore, from Pope John XXIII onward, they regard the Chair of Peter as vacant (”sede vacante”) since all these popes have taught from Vatican II.

It is known that as Thuc got older, he began to have dementia and acted out in ways that would have been completely foreign to him when he was a younger bishop. It’s possible for a bishop to change in matters of theology, but for Thuc to reject Vatican II and begin ordaining schismatic bishops was a radical departure from his earlier years, when he was fiercely loyal to the Pope.

This is why some, even very traditional Catholics, do not accept the Thuc bishops as valid bishops, or at least question the validity of their Holy Orders. 

On the other side of the spectrum, there are some who only accept the Thuc bishops and reject all other Bishops, even SSPX, because their bishops participated in Vatican II (like Archbishop Lefebvre) or went along with it by accepted the Vatican II popes.

My position is that I respect the CMRI Catholics as sincere people who believe they are saving the Catholic Faith in a time of 99% apostasy throughout the world, while they wait for a real pope to return to the Chair of Peter.

But in spite of respecting their faith and sincerity, I cannot in conscience agree with them or accept that they are exercising a legitimate ministry within the Catholic Church.

In the first place, they were founded as a “reaction” movement. The holy movements in the Church which God has blessed were founded in a state of peace and tranquility, by their Founders, who wished to make a positive contribution to building up the Catholic Church.

CMRI, on the other hand, was founded by men who preached first, what was wrong with the Church and why they believed that the entire Church was in apostasy. That’s another way of saying that they were “pissed off” and disgusted with how things were after Vatican II.

My question is, “How can it be possibly that you are in a state of anger and disgust with the Church, and at the same time be in a state of peace and tranquility in your soul?” And if someone has lost the inner peace of their soul, how can they truly receive a message from the Holy Spirit which is valid, holy, and in line with the Church?

Scripturally speaking, and logically speaking, I cannot reconcile these two stances: 

1) for someone to say the entire Church has gone over a cliff, with everyone falling away from Faith, from the Pope all the way down and yet 2) God has given us a calling from within the Church to exercise a new ministry in the Catholic Church, which supposedly doesn’t hardly exist because everyone has apostated.

The claim of CMRI is to have received a calling from Jesus and Mary, from within the Church, so that they can preserve the Church--even though technically it is a Church that no longer exists.

Because if even though the Pope and bishops are in apostasy, who gives the blessing to this new spiritual movement--the CMRI? And how can the Founders of this movement be in spiritual peace?

I mean, let’s be honest. Claiming that the entire Church has apostated is like the aftermath of a nuclear war that wipes away all the leadership. And yet your movement, the CMRI, is now going to rebuild the Church from ground zero? Jesus and Mary wants you to “start over?”

The whole concept of “starting over” is not Catholic--at all. It completely contradicts the Biblical promises of Jesus, to be with His Church all days, and to send the Holy Spirit to confirm the Church always in the truth (John 16:13).

At least Martin Luther and the Protestant heretics were honest enough to say that they were no longer Catholic, because the Catholic Church is apostate. They didn’t pretend to say that their breakaway movement was the same thing as Catholicism. Rather, the heretics taught that there was a “spiritual Church” out there that was Bible believing and had always existed.

Also, the premise that the Pope can be judged as a heretic simply does not accord with Catholic teaching on the Papal Primacy. If Catholics believe the Pope is the SUPREME visible head of the Church, who can ever occupy the judge’s seat, in order to indict him, judge him, and convict him of heresy?

There was no mechanism that Jesus left behind for this to be done. Anyone in the Church can be deposed by declarations of the Supreme Authority, except for the Supreme Authority himself. Even if we think the Pope is a heretic, and we can quote documents to allegedly prove this, no one can publicly declare him removed.

What CMRI members have told me is that they have not declared the Vatican II popes to be removed, or deposed. They tell me that by embracing heresy, these popes have “self removed” or “self deposed” themselves. 

They are out of office, and invalid, and even though they have been told this, they refuse to pack up and leave the Vatican. Sorry. That is not how it works in Catholic theology. The Pope cannot automatically invalidate himself. 

Canonically speaking, any authority figure in the Catholic Church has to be declared invalid by an outside authority. That person has a right, legally and morally, to due process of Church law. They have a right to be given a warning. They have a right to appeal that warning.

They have a right to present evidence in their defense, and be informed of the specific accusations against them. There has to be a fair amount of time between accusation, and the time that the appointed judge passes final sentence of removal from office. 

But there’s a catch--this process can be applied to any person in the Catholic Church, except the Pope. There is no one who can sit in the judgment seat, and remove him from office.

There is no provision, and there has never been any provision, for some Catholics living in Idaho or Washington state, to inform the pope that they have put him on trial for heresy and have sentenced that he has now “self removed” himself from office. 

This is what CMRI has done, and it is a non-canonical, non-Scriptural, and non-Catholic way of processing anger towards the Pope. It is not even Christian behavior, because Jesus said when we are offended by an adversary, we must go and speak to them in person (Matthew 18:15).

For these and other reason, I regard CMRI as operating in the state of schism and propagating teachings and attitudes about the popes which have no claim to validity in Catholic Faith, nor as a valid movement founded by God.

Hello,

I love foreign movies, and artsy cinema houses, because most of what comes out of Hollywood just doesn’t appeal to me.

However, I haven’t researched the different ways of accessing such films. I am told that some people who live far from metropolitan areas have subscriptions that give them access.

Is there something through Amazon Fire Stick, Hulu, Infinity, Dish International, MHz Choice, or IndieFlix, to name a few?

The other option I’m thinking of is to research the services, that might be offered in that country--such as an internet service in India that would allow you to access the Bollywood movies?

The easy thing to do is to simply find internet sites where pirated movies can be watched. However, I would not recommend that, because pirated movies deprive the workers in cinema of revenue that they need to support themselves or their families.

Hello,

There are various vocations that are very connected to our Faith, but which do not involve being a priest or nun. 

For instance, there is involvement with church youth work. This could be acting as a principal or teacher in Catholic education--either a school run by the church or one of the private or charter schools that are Catholic but are not controlled by the diocese.

There is training and work in religious education. This can be running the religious ed formation for a high school or a Catholic college. This could be doing work in a religious education office of a bishop or for a large parish.

Catholic people trained in theology have also begun filling positions in prison chaplaincy. Here in California, these positions at one time were filled only by priests. However, with the shortage of Catholic priests, many prisons and correctional facilities have hired lay Catholics, paid for by the state. I’m not sure if the same jobs exist in other states.

A special need for pastoral care can also be filled in hospital ministry. This work involves interacting with families as well as patients--consoling them, hearing them out, making sure they get visits or that a priest is contacted. The difficulty with hospital ministry is that one has to be in an environment of suffering, and this ministry also deals with reaching out to many non-Catholic patients.

Of course, there is a calling for lay people to teach theology at the college level, especially for colleges that are working on becoming “more Catholic” and need to strengthen the Catholic identity for the students. The difficulty with theology and philosophy at a Catholic college is that there is a lot of competition for jobs.

One could also go into psychology and therapy for studies, to prepare them to be a mental health professional. Many Catholics find it hard that when they need a mental health professional, there are not too many who are also well trained in the Catholic Faith, to give some spiritual perspective.

One of the rewarding ministries, for instance, that priests have, is being able to counsel with spiritual direction. The fact is that Catholics who take theology at a Catholic college, but also prepare for a major in psychology, are in demand. When they get the license for marriage and family therapy, they are a great resource for the local parish.

Although the license for therapy, or the study of psychology, is a branch of medicine, that does not mean that a good Catholic cannot bring their Faith to bear in how they help people who struggle with mental illness. There are Catholic therapists and psychiatrists out there who have literally saved people with a faith-filled outlook of mental health treatment.

There are Catholics who also go into the different programs, clinics, and rehabs, that deal with addiction. There are centers of addiction recovery, or drug rehab, that need people with an outlook of Faith. I don’t know how this could be done, but Catholics need to operate more rehabs for drug and substance abuse. 

So many of our Catholic people need treatment, but a treatment which is done within an environment of Faith. In other Catholic countries, they commonly set up treatment centers and rehabs run by the Church or by devout Catholics who look at that work as a true ministry.

Hello,

Jesus our Lord would not have needed a guardian angel, because although He is human, He is also God. The angels do not need to be guardians to God, but rather adore Him and do His bidding as messengers.

Angels watch over people, and help us in our battles against temptation and sin. Since Jesus as God is sinless, He does not have that need we have to be spiritually “guarded” by an angel.

Hello,

Thanks for the greetings! My only comment on St. John of the Cross is that I found him difficult to read at times. However, he is considered one of the greats lights of ascetical and mystical theology (the literature which studies contemplation and Christian austerity).

Also, don’t be too hard on yourself. Some people read a great mystic and think, “How come I can’t pray like this? Why am I not holy yet?” Those are good questions as long as we don’t go all hermit in our lives and try to live like a Carthusian monk.

Hello,

I’ve never heard of Padre Teo. But the anxiety you feel from the talk at the religious gathering is not surprising.

One of the problems with exorcism ministry, and the reason the Catholic Church has kept exorcisms private, is that there is too much of an element of “spooky.” A Catholic exorcism is a rite of healing and consolation, to a person who has been possessed by demonic power.

The ultimate “exorcism” is the sacrifice of the Lord on Calvary, which brings to an end the burdens of the Law of Moses and replaces them with the Law of Grace which comes to us by Faith in the Name of Jesus.

By the atonement of His Precious Blood, our Lord Jesus has delivered us from the repression of guilt and brooding. Jesus has replaced the accusations of the devil (against us) with His mercy and peace. Unfortunately, something gets lost in the message about exorcism that causes people to think the opposite. Instead of focusing on a person who is healed of oppression and abuse by satanic powers, they think about “how scary” this is. They think, “Oh no. What if the demon is going to come into me?”

Instead of focusing on the peace beyond all understanding that comes with having friendship with Our Lord and Savior, they think, “Are my sins a reason for me to be punished with a possession?” This is very sad, and our Hollywood ideas from exorcism movies do not help.

Exorcism is not a Catholic “mini-Halloween.” It is a reminder to all of us that if we repent and believe in the Good News of Jesus’ free gift of salvation, then the Kingdom of God which is at hand, will be ours.

Hello,

This is Tumblr. Let that sink in. 

Hello,

Please accept my apology for taking so long. I can see this message came in the earlier part of June.

As for what your sister thinks, about supporting or hating others, I would advise her to calm down. That is a very black and white, rigid way of seeing the world. Between supporting or hating, there is not only middle ground, there is a lot of “in between”!

First, we have to understand ourselves, and then we can understand others. Then there is the next step. 

What is the next step? It is deciding whether we can support *all* of the behavior that others do, EVEN when we understand them. I don’t expect gays to support everything I do, even if they understand where I am coming from.

Likewise, if a gay friend of mine goes to a pride parade, dressed as a “slutty nun,” I don’t have to support this behavior, even if I understand where he is coming from.

If she is into pride events, Pride Month, and homosexual fanfiction, maybe she is still searching about her self-identity in sexual matters. Maybe she is gay and hasn’t come out yet. I don’t know. 

Maybe she perceives others as oppressing the gay community, and feels called to defend a certain agenda in that community. But I have always asked my siblings, whatever crusades and causes and movements they join, to give me the space and the respect to judge for myself whether those will be something I want to join.

When we are young, (and when I was young) we can get really preachy with people about how they should live their lives. Then, we wonder why people think that we are overbearing and begin to be annoyed with us and wanting to tell us where we can go.

From the point of view of Catholic Faith, we follow the path of Jesus, as that path has been lived in the lives of the Saints for 2000 years. 

We believe it is the path of wisdom, of wholesome love and respect, and the path of generous service. In our sexual morality, wholesome love and respect means having a certain theology of the body. We cherish marriage between a man and a woman, and the offspring they conceive from their sexual union.

There comes a time when, among siblings, that we arrive at a fork in the road. One decides to take another road, while we stay on the road of Scripture and Apostolic Tradition, as we interpret the path of Jesus. This causes a division and a loss of a common faith, or a common philosophy of life.

That is sad, isn’t it? To not be able to have a unity in the same Catholic Faith with even members of our own family. But no matter how much we explain or defend the Catholic Faith, it is also inevitable that some will say, “I don’t want the responsibility of walking in the Catholic way and I choose a different way.”

As we Catholics see it, there is a way to embrace the gay members of the Church, and to honor their dignity as children of God, while at the same time challenging aspects of their sexual beliefs when they do not align with the Faith once delivered to the Saints. 

That doesn’t mean that heterosexuals are “converted” and gays are “unconverted.” We believe a gay person can stay within the Church, and have certain gifts appreciated and welcomed, while at the same time struggling to incorporate Catholic sexual teaching into their lives. 

All members of the Church struggle with what the Faith tells us about leaving sin, being converted, and entering the Kingdom of God. Conversion for each person, in any given moment, is not 100%. It’s not perfect. All are in the path of continual conversion from sin, from sins of one kind or another. 

We come to the point where we have to agree to disagree, without being disagreeable. 

Hello,

I would only say, first, that ordained ministry is not a “career” but a service of fatherhood to the faithful of Christ. 

With the Word of God and the Sacraments, the priest nourishes, takes care of, heals, guides, and encourages people toward their human potential, so that God is glorified and begin to life joyfully in Christ.

Now, having said that, I would answer “yes,” that those who are servants of the Church as priests, may also engage in a “career” or profession. However, this work, whether it be academic, medical, technical, legal, etc. is carried out only for the sake of ministry. 

A priest might work in a ministry that provides legal aid to the poor. He might work in a church clinic where there are few doctors or nurses in the area. He might be trained academically to run a school, or teach in a school. He might be licensed in a trade so that he can teach trades out in the mission territories or in a church trade school.

In other words, whatever job a priest does outside of the priesthood, it is something which is supposed to help the people he ministers to. The priority is the Catholic faithful, and leading them to holiness. 

If the does not have saving souls as his priority, and submit his skills and learning to forming disciples for Christ, then why did he become a priest?

Because of the overwhelming time and energy that must be dedicated to the faithful of Christ, it is very difficult for the vast majority of priests to have a professional career and be dedicated priests at the same time.

A man who is now a bishop was trained as a dentist before entering the seminary. When he became a priest, he completely let go of his dental practice and his license. When people asked him why, he responded, “I could either work hard to keep up on the science and skills of dentistry, or I could work hard learning how to confer the sacraments and studying the Gospel. I decided that the sacred ministry was more important for me. I couldn’t fix people’s teeth and do the things that need to be done by a priest.”

Another worry that priests have is that if they engage in certain careers, like medicine, the Church incurs liability for whatever goes wrong in treating people.

 A full time doctor can afford to pay the malpractice insurance and the lawyers. But a priest relies on the Church to legally protect him, and extra cost is not fair to the Church.

So, the answer to your question is “yes” that priests can be priests and also have a career in some other field.