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Q u i c k Q u e s t i o n s
Can Catholics Celebrate Halloween?
Q: Some families in our parish don’t allow their children to celebrate Halloween. Should Catholics celebrate Halloween?
A: The word Halloween is a contraction for All Hallows Eve, which, before the reform of the liturgical calendar following the Second Vatican Council, was the vigil of All Saints and All Souls Days. As such, Halloween can be considered a Christian holiday. As with many Christian holidays, the secular world has attached its own traditions to the day (costumes, trick-or-treating, parties) that are not intrinsically wrong but can become problematic when the religious meaning of the holiday is set aside or forgotten.
Celebrated in the right way, Halloween can be a reminder of human mortality and the need for Christians to prepare themselves to face God. The festivities attached to the holiday can—like Mardi Gras for Lent—prepare Christians for All Saints and All Souls Days and for the month of November, which the Church traditionally has set aside for remembrance of the souls in purgatory.
Celebrated in the wrong way, Halloween festivities also can distract from the meaning of the holiday. Christian parents have a variety of options for celebrating the holiday in a Christian spirit and should feel free to choose what works best for helping their families learn the "reason for the season."
Q: A non-Catholic friend has died. What can I do to help him? Can I have Mass said for him?
A: You can help your friend by having a Mass offered for the repose of his soul. It is a dogmatic teaching of the Church that all those who have died in God’s friendship but are in need of purification, whether Catholic or non-Catholic, are in purgatory. That’s why the Church urges Catholics to offer prayers for all who die in God’s grace and friendship and "above all the eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God" (CCC 1032).
Q: I have seen the letter P with an X intersecting it on communion wafers and priests’ garments. Does this stand for St. Pius X?
A: The symbol you describe is called a chi-rho, a depiction of an interlocked chi and rho, the first two Greek letters in the title Christ. The image is a symbol of Jesus Christ.
Q: A priest in my diocese told a young couple planning their marriage that it is no longer permissible for the father of the bride to accompany his daughter down the aisle and give her away as if she were a piece of chattel. Is this true?
A: It is not part of the Catholic nuptial liturgy for fathers to accompany their daughters down the aisle at a Catholic wedding. It is a cultural phenomenon that the Church allows. During the ceremony, though, the parents are not asked to "give" their children in marriage, because the Church recognizes that the bride and the groom are the ones who must give themselves freely and willingly to each other in marriage for the sacrament of matrimony to be valid.
Q: If certain human relationships such as marriage end at death, and spouses are not our spouses any longer when we are in heaven (cf. Matt. 22:23–30), are our parents and children still our relatives in heaven? I’ve seen this argument used to show that Mary is no longer Jesus’ Mother in heaven.
A: In his answer to the Sadducees, Jesus pointed out that marriage is an institution intended to serve only this present life. It gives spouses a road to holiness and enables them to raise up new human beings for the heavenly kingdom. Because those purposes will have been fulfilled in the next life, there will be no need for marriage in eternity.
That does not mean other relationships are similarly cast aside. It does not even mean that a husband and wife will not have a special relationship in eternity that is unfathomable now. A mother is always a mother, given the nature of her special bond with her child. There is no reason to believe the relationship between the Blessed Virgin Mary and her Son is any different.
Q: Will people who suffer an eternity in hell be reunited with their bodies, or will they remain as bodiless souls?
A: Those in hell will have bodies. Jesus indicated this when he said: If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell (Matt. 5:29–30).
Q: I’ve heard that the Protestant hymn "Amazing Grace" has lyrics that may not be in keeping with Catholic teaching. Which lyrics are ambiguous, and how they can be understood incorrectly?
A: "Amazing Grace" was written by the eighteenth-century Anglican sea captain John Newton (1725–1807) in response to his conversion by grace from his life as a slave trader. These lyrics express his moment of conversion: "How precious did that grace appear / the hour I first believed."
While not directly contrary to Catholic teaching, this lyric stands in tension with it because it appears to envision entry into the state of grace following the advent of belief, with no mention of the sacraments (in other words, in a "faith alone" fashion).
This sentiment can be reconciled with Catholic teaching because the grace of conversion indeed can be given at certain hours, causing a person to repent of a previously sinful life and re-embrace faith in Jesus Christ.
Q: I was speaking one day to an Episcopalian priest, and he took me to task for referring to his religion as "Protestant." He advised me that Episcopalians are Catholic but not Roman Catholic. Is this correct?
A: The claim of non-Catholic Christians to be as Catholic as the Catholic Church is nearly as old as Catholicism. Such a claim shows that non-Catholic Christians understand the importance of being Catholic and wish to be acknowledged as such without having to submit to the authority of the Roman pontiff.
Augustine’s answer to this claim in the fifth century is the classical Catholic rebuttal: "Although all heretics wish to be styled ‘Catholic,’ if any one ask where is the Catholic place of worship, none of them would venture to point out his own conventicle [place of worship]" (Contra Epistolam quam vocant Fundamenti 4).
Episcopalianism is an American transplant of the Church of England, which was formed when King Henry VIII coerced the English bishops into schism from the Catholic Church. Although Henry abhorred Lutheran theology—even devoting a book to refuting it while he was still Catholic—it is fair to say that over the centuries Anglicanism and Episcopalianism have adopted some forms and traditions of Protestantism.
Anglicanism and Episcopalianism emerged from the Protestant Reformation; their theology, as embodied in the Thirty-Nine Articles, is Protestant; and historically many adherents have considered the word Protestant a badge of honor.
Q: Is the study of the Talmud useful for understanding Catholicism?
A: Let’s first understand what the Talmud is. Generally speaking, the Talmud is the gathered oral tradition of one school of early Judaism that is used in modern Judaism to explain and interpret the Torah, or the "Five Books of Moses" (Genesis–Deuteronomy). The tradition of this school (roughly identified with the Pharisees) remained oral until the second century A.D., when the process of reducing it to writing began. This process lasted until around the fifth century A.D. The Talmud consists of two major writings: the Mishnah (the original commentary on the Torah) and the Gemara (the elaborations on the Mishnah).
Catholic scholars find it useful to study the Talmud because it sheds light on certain New Testament passages. For non-scholars, there is a danger of reading back into the New Testament the ideas of a later age or of thinking that all first-century Jews thought as the Talmud authors did.
In principle, Christian revelation is sufficient in itself. While other historical information may be helpful, it is not necessary for establishing or understanding any point of the Christian faith.
Whether the Talmud will be helpful to you in understanding Catholicism depends on how familiar you are with Judaism and Catholicism. A solid foundation in Catholic thought is an indispensable prerequisite for a Catholic studying the Talmud. You should know your own faith as it explains itself before attempting to illuminate difficult passages through the writings of another faith. You also should be well versed in what the Talmud is and how Talmudic arguments are made. If you are already familiar with where Judaism and Catholicism intersect and have a good understanding of the Talmud—including its limitations—studying the Talmud may be helpful. But if you do not have the necessary background, Talmud study for a Christian may be more confusing than helpful.
Q: During Advent last year, I was surprised to see my priest, the altar, and even the Advent wreath in blue. Why did we not have the usual purple?
A: Blue is not a proper liturgical color for Advent. In fact, blue is not listed at all in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (2002) as an appropriate liturgical color for the celebration of the Mass (GIRM 346). The appropriate liturgical colors for Advent are violet or purple (ordinarily) and rose (on the third Sunday of Advent, also known as Gaudete Sunday). Though the use of blue as a liturgical color is approved in some countries (e.g., Spain), it is not approved in the United States.
Q: Do canonized saints have to pass through purgatory before entering heaven?
A: Canonization simply means that the Church knows for certain that particular individuals are now in heaven; it does not consider whether they experienced purgatory before they arrived in heaven. That a soul has been in purgatory does not bar him from canonization.
Q: Have there ever been female deacons?
A: There were women in the early Church, such as Phoebe, who assisted the clergy. Phoebe aided the local church in Cenchreae and was called a "deaconess" by Paul (Rom. 16:1). Such women, in certain ages of the early Church, assisted in the baptism of women, which was necessary because baptism often was performed without benefit of clothing.
Although the Catholic Encyclopedia recounts that there is some historical evidence that deaconesses were charged with their ministry in a manner resembling the ordination of deacons, it is certain that there was a fundamental difference in the rites. The First Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325) made it clear that "deaconesses" did not receive sacramental ordination. If there was a special liturgical rite for deaconesses, it likely resembled the modern non-sacramental installation ceremonies that charge extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion with their responsibilities.
Q: Why would women in the early Church be called deaconesses if they did not receive the same sacrament the deacons did?
A: The term diakonos simply means "servant" in Greek, and it was some time before it became an exclusive term for the ordained office. In the meantime, women who served in church were sometimes called diakonai, without implying that they were ordained. In ancient times the difference between male and female deacons was understood and unquestioned. In modern times this imprecise language has led to some confusion on the part of people who do not understand that women cannot validly receive the sacrament of holy orders.
Analogously, in medieval times, the blessing given church bells was popularly called "the baptism of the bells," although no one really believed that the bells were given the sacrament of baptism. Only after the Protestant Reformation did controversialists begin to misunderstand the blessing, although they did not misunderstand the practice of "christening" ships.
Now that there is widespread misunderstanding of the nature of holy orders, the Church is especially careful and precise in its sacramental language and no longer refers to female assistants to the clergy as "deaconesses."
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