Q: A Catholic Church near me is named after a certain saint, but has “protomartyr” after the name. What does this term mean? A: My guess is that the church you’re thinking of was named “St Stephen,” since “protomartyr” is a title specific to him. “Protomartyr” is a Greek term that is usually translated as…
Q: My dad gives up chocolate every year for both Lent and Advent. I always tell him that this is weird and that we’re not supposed to give things up for Advent, only Lent. Which one of us is right? A: Strictly speaking, Catholics aren’t required to ‘give anything up’ for Advent. And even…
Q: From what I learned in history class, indulgences caused major issues for the Church in the 16th Century and was one of the main reasons why the Protestant Reformation happened. If indulgences were that much of a problem, then why does the Church still have them? A: I think a traditional Latin maxim applies…
At my parish, we pray “for vocations to the priesthood and religious life.” But at the other parish in town, they pray for “vocations to the priesthood, the diaconate, marriage, and religious life.” How many vocations are there actually? This is a tricky question to answer, because in our Catholic tradition the word ‘vocation’ can mean different…
Q: In an earlier column, you said that purgatory was a state outside of time and that we can’t talk about how long someone spends in purgatory in terms of years. But then why do you sometimes see old holy cards that say a prayer is worth “100 days’ indulgence” or something similar? A: Purgatory…
Q: At Mass we typically pray for the souls of ‘those in purgatory,’ often mentioning names of persons long since passed, sometimes 10 or even 20 years ago. Is there any way to know how long a person could be in purgatory? Could a deceased person still be in purgatory 20 years later? A: Generally,…
Q: In families that are suffering from generational curses or that are involved in a lot of occult practices, why doesn’t baptism free their infants from the power of demons? A: The short answer is that I wouldn’t be so quick to assume that baptism doesn’t do this. Often when people think of exorcism, what…
Q: I read online that a married Catholic needs their bishop’s permission to separate from their spouse. My husband abandoned our family to live with his girlfriend. How can I get our bishop to make him come back home? A: I’m sorry you’re going through such a difficult situation. I don’t know exactly where you were finding…
Q: My husband and I got a divorce because my husband had an affair. Why doesn’t the Church agree with me that it was his fault and grant my annulment? Why is my Church siding with him? A: I’m very sorry you went through such a painful experience. But with respect to your specific question, I…
Q: I’m one of the parents on a new ‘safety committee’ for our local parish school. One of the parents’ main suggestions is that, for our school Masses, we lock the church doors and keep the Mass private. To us, this seems like basic common sense. However, our pastor says we can’t do that. Is…