The Arrow's Path

 

I had a query about the Seal of the Confessional, probably stemming from that new law in a West Coast state forcing priests to break the seal of the Confessional and report to authorities on certain sins like child abuse, etc. My general response is this: A couple of things to keep in mind (and I write this as a former Episcopal priest who heard confessions): firstly, the priest can attempt during the Confessional to ask the person's permission to talk to them outside the Confessional about a particular chain of events. The penitent can absolutely always say no to that. The priest can also strongly recommend that the person turn themselves in and/or go talk to a counselor outside the Confessional. So, it is not that the priest has no agency whatsoever within the Confessional to explore options with the Penitent on how the Penitent can proceed outside the Confessional. Again, the Penitent can absolutely refuse to do any of that, and that is his or her right. There is a r...

 

 We had another good question in the queue this morning: Why do people look at religion or treat the word like its dirty or a bad thing? I often see the accusation, "You follow a religion" followed up with "I follow Christ". Um....Jesus followed a religion. He was a devout Jew. He founded a religion - Christianity. So... why the argument?   I think there are multiple things going on here that you are alluding to in greater culture. There is a trend, particularly in the West in the post-Christendom world, for certain groups to disdain of organized religion. There are various reasons why that has evolved. Some of it is intentionally malicious, some of it is political. Some of it, I think, is legitimately grounded in heart felt reaction against things the Church teaches that don't jive with what the modern world wants to hear and some of it is reaction against bad things that have been done in the name of the Church.   I think we do have to acknowledge bo...

 I had a question posed: I have a question about the modern, updated translation we say in Mass. My daughter graduated French immersion high school and attended Mass in French often at her Catholic school. That was before the new translation (eg: "under my roof"; "and with your spirit"; etc). She's been attending English Mass in the 15 years since high school. She attended a French Mass today and noticed the Our Father was changed from when she was at high school. The French equivalent of "lead us not into temptation" now translates as "let us not fall into temptation". I've been asked by newcomers before why God would ever lead us into temptation such that we have to pray for it in the Lord's prayer, but this French translation seems more fitting. What the the original Greek say?   My response: The word to your specific question is πειρασμόν (phonetically in English: peirasmon ). The word is an interesting choice in Greek because it...

People often ask why I continue to moderate an online forum for Catholic Converts. Does it ever get old? Actually, this is one of the major reasons we long term admins of online Converts groups continue doing this year after year. (It's certainly not for the salary ). It is always fun to see this time of the year roll around and the real the joy that people have at finally being received into the arms of Mother Church. After the newness and the honeymoon wears off and you start getting into the nitty gritty of everyday life in the Church, it's easy to lose that sense of joy and wonder that new converts bring to the table. It's not so much that you necessarily get disillusioned (though that can happen-I mean we are all sinners after all, and the Church is not yet fully perfected). It's more that you just get into the routine of going to Mass, Lenten fish frys, etc. You meet new people in the Church, yes, but it's very easy to ghetto yourself all with other C...