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Q u i c k Q u e s t i o n s
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This Rock
Volume 12, Number 8
 October/November/December 2001 
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Did Adam and Eve Have Ribs?
Q: Do men have one rib missing because of the Adam and Eve story?
A: No. Men and women have the same number of ribs. They both have twelve pairs of ribs (twenty-four ribs each). The idea that the Genesis account is meant in part to explain a difference in the number of ribs in men and women is nowhere suggested in the text and is not based on anything in reality.
Q: A Mormon recently challenged me: Where in the Bible does it say that polygamy is wrong?
A: Be careful of falling into the trap of thinking that every point of faith and morals has to be explicitly attested in Scripture. That isn’t the case. It’s an advantage if one can show Scripture clearly supporting a position, but it isn’t required.
On the subject of polygamy, Scripture indicates that for a time God did tolerate this practice during the Old Testament. However, it was portrayed even then as a negative thing. When Scripture describes the domestic life of polygamists, it brings out consistently the negative effects of polygamy—jealousy, taunting, conflict, favoritism—as different wives and children struggle for position within the family. (Take for example the strife between the wives of Abraham, Jacob, or Elkana; see Gen. 21, 29–30, 1 Sam. 1).
The problems were so clearly recognized that, even if there was not then a flat-out prohibition on the practice, there had to be special legislation concerning polygamy. Thus a husband playing favorites among his wives was not allowed to deprive the children of his first wife their inheritance rights in favor of the children of a more recent wife (Deut. 21:15–16). Kings in particular were forbidden to multiply wives to themselves (Deut. 17:17). Unfortunately, this prohibition was often not followed.
As time progressed, the problems with polygamy became more and more obvious, and it stopped being practiced.
The clincher came in the time of Christ, when Jesus indicated that marriage was to be restored to the state God had intended in Genesis 2. Thus Jesus prohibits divorce (Mark 10:2–9) on the grounds that it was not provided for in God’s original plan. God made one man and one woman to be together. Polygamy is ruled out by the same logic. God’s plan was for Adam and Eve to be together, not for Adam to be married first to Eve and then later to Barbara, and certainly not for Adam to be married to Eve and Barbara at the same time.
Q: What is the Church’s view on using a highlighter to mark Biblical passages for personal study?
A: Go ahead and mark. You aren’t doing anything wrong. (Assuming it’s your Bible, of course—marking up somebody else’s Bible would be rude.) All you’re doing is making it easier for you to learn God’s word better, and that’s something both God and the Church would be in favor of.
Q: Do you have to be a practicing Catholic—meaning, attending Mass on a regular basis and receiving Holy Communion—to be a sponsor to a child receiving the sacrament of confirmation?
A: People are often unclear about the requirements for sponsorship in general, so let’s take a moment to look over them. The Code of Canon Law states that the requirements for being a sponsor at confirmation are the same as those of being a sponsor at baptism (CIC 893 §1). The requirements for being a sponsor at baptism are as follows:
"Canon 874—§1. To be admitted to the role of sponsor, a person must:
"1º be designated by the one to be baptized, by the parents or the one who takes their place or, in their absence, by the pastor or minister and is to have the qualifications and intention of performing this role;
"2º have completed the sixteenth year, unless a different age has been established by the diocesan bishop or it seems to the pastor or minister than an exception is to be made for a just cause;
"3º be a Catholic who has been confirmed and has already received the sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist and leads a life in harmony with the faith and the role to be undertaken;
"4º not be bound by any canonical penalty legitimately imposed or declared;
"5º not be the father or the mother of the one to be baptized.
"§2. A baptized person who belongs to a non-Catholic ecclesial community may not be admitted except as a witness to baptism and together with a Catholic sponsor."
The Code also notes, "It is desirable that the one who undertook the role of sponsor at baptism be sponsor for confirmation" (CIC 893 §2).
The requirement that applies to the questions of regular Mass attendance and reception of Communion is in 874 §1, 3º where it states that the person "leads a life in harmony with the faith."
Since Catholics are only bound to receive Communion once a year, normally during the Easter season (CIC 920), unless a person has been leaving this precept deliberately unfulfilled he would not seem to be living a life out of harmony with the faith and would not be disqualified on that ground. (Bottom line: Regularly receiving Communion for purposes of this requirement would mean annually receiving Communion.)
On the other hand, Catholics normally are bound to attend Mass on all Sundays and holy days of obligation (CIC 1247). If a person has been leaving this precept deliberately unfulfilled then he would seem to be living a life out of harmony with the faith and would seem to be disqualified.
Note, however, the including of the word deliberately in both of the above. Many people are poorly catechized and do not realize the existence nor seriousness of these two precepts. In such cases the failure to fulfill the precepts would be inadvertent and it would be more difficult to say that the person is living a life sufficiently out of harmony with the faith to be barred from serving as a sponsor.
Q: I know Catholics refer to Protestants as "separated brethren." Does this apply to those Protestants who were once Catholics but left the Church to become a member of another denomination?
A: This question probably was not raised at the time the language came into use. However, in using the term "separated brethren" the Church has not made a distinction between those Christians who have never been Catholic and those Christians who were formerly Catholic.
One can argue that this makes sense because they are all brethren by baptism and they are all separated—either because they never entered the Church or because they separated themselves from it.
That doesn’t mean the moral status of the two is automatically the same. Leaving the Church is objectively more grave than not entering it. However, the term would seem to fit in both cases.
Q: What does CMI mean at the end of a priest’s name?
A: It means he belongs to the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate.
Q: I work as a preschool teacher at a Lutheran school. I am the only Catholic on the faculty. I sometimes join my coworkers at their service during a school event. Before I enter the pew, I always turn to the altar and genuflect and make the sign of the cross. My question is, in a Protestant church, is this still proper to do? I've been thinking lately that because there is no tabernacle, maybe I should just enter the pew and sit down like everyone else. I have always tried to be careful to show my Protestant friends my Catholic ways.
A: Standing up for your faith by maintaining your Catholic practices even among non-Catholics is a good thing—as long as it is the actual Catholic practice that you are following.
Here’s what the Catholic practice is: "A genuflection, made by bending only the right knee to the ground, signifies adoration, and is therefore reserved for the Blessed Sacrament, whether exposed or reserved in the tabernacle, and for the holy cross from the time of the solemn adoration in the liturgical celebration of Good Friday until the beginning of the Easter Vigil" (Ceremonial of Bishops 69).
Since the Blessed Sacrament is not present in a Lutheran church—Lutherans not having preserved the apostolic succession needed for a valid celebration of the Eucharist—one should not genuflect in such circumstances. Christ is not eucharistically present in a Lutheran church, either on the altar or in a tabernacle (the latter of which, as you noted, Lutherans don’t use).
Q: I am trying to sell my home. I have been told to bury a statue of St. Joseph, but it has to be in a specific location on the property. Can you tell me where it needs to be buried?
A: What you have been told is a superstition, which is a violation against the First Commandment (CCC 2110). Burying statues to sell your house is not an approved Catholic practice. If you want to ask St. Joseph for his intercession in selling your house, that’s fine. But don’t go burying statues of him for this purpose.
Q: Please explain the logic as to why Jesus would say to his disciples, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23). This was said before Jesus had carried his cross. It was written in Matthew, Mark and Luke. How would the disciples know what he was talking about?
A: This is an example of foreshadowing. The disciples may not have known that Jesus would die on a cross, but he did, and he referred to it ahead of time, foreshadowing the kind of death he would have.
At the time they didn’t understand that this is what he was doing, but they didn’t understand a lot of the things he said until afterwards (Luke 18:34). They probably had an idea what he meant at the time the saying was first given to them, but it was only after the Crucifixion that they understood it more fully.
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