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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 17, Number 4
 April 2006 
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When Do Children Start Church?
Q: At what age should children start to regularly attend church?
A: Although young children are welcome at Mass, the obligation to attend does not bind those under seven years old. The Church law that obligates Catholics to go to Mass is canon 1247: On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are obliged to participate in the Mass. Moreover, they are to abstain from those works and affairs that hinder the worship to be rendered to God, the joy proper to the Lord’s day, or the suitable relaxation of mind and body. This law does not expressly state an age at which the faithful become obliged to follow it, but canon 11 tells us:Merely ecclesiastical laws bind those who have been baptized in the Catholic Church or received into it, possess the efficient use of reason, and, unless the law expressly provides otherwise, have completed seven years of age. Since canon 1247 does not expressly provide otherwise, it binds only those who have completed seven years of age and who also meet the other requirements mentioned in canon 11.
—Jim Blackburn
Q: Do individual bishops have the authority to "overrule" the Church’s liturgical laws and papal teachings when they deem it necessary? For example, can a bishop authorize the use of unapproved Eucharistic Prayers or require children to receive First Communion before First Confession?
A: No. This is contrary to the clear and infallible teachings of Vatican I and II.
Local bishops are not individually infallible and cannot violate canon law, the Vatican’s directives, or their national conference’s directives.
The Code of Canon Law states: In celebrating the sacraments, the liturgical books approved by competent authority are to be observed faithfully; accordingly, no one is to add, omit, or alter anything in them on one’s own authority (CIC 846 §1). In Sacrosanctum Concilium it is said:Therefore no other person, even if he be a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority (3). Finally, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that the bishops’ "authority must be exercised in communion with the whole Church under the guidance of the pope" (CCC 895).
—Peggy Frye
Q: In John 1:6–8 and John 1:19–28, John the Baptist denies he is Elijah. Yet in Matthew 17:9–13, Jesus implies that he was. Isn’t this a contradiction?
A: In John 1:6–8, John the Baptist was being questioned by the Jewish religious leaders about whether he literally was Elijah returned from heaven. In answer to that question, John said "no" because he was not literally Elijah.
In the second passage, Jesus is answering a question from the disciples about the fulfillment of prophecy. The disciples want to know why the scribes say that Elijah must return before the messianic age. Jesus answers that Elijah has returned, and the disciples understand him to be referring to John the Baptist. In this case, Jesus is speaking metaphorically. John the Baptist is not literally Elijah, but his heralding the arrival of the Messiah fulfills the messianic prophecy concerning Elijah.
—Michelle Arnold
Q: My RCIA teacher’s list of Ten Commandments excludes the second commandment forbidding idolatry and breaks the tenth into two separate commandments forbidding coveting. What is the correct listing of the Ten Commandments?
A: God’s commandments as recorded in Deuteronomy 5:6–21 and Exodus 20:2–17 seem to add up to more than ten, so it is not perfectly clear how their numbering is to be reckoned. The numbering used in your RCIA class is consistent with the traditional Catholic catechetical formula. Numbered this way, the commandment prohibiting idolatry is not left out but, rather, is considered to be a part of the first commandment.
—Jim Blackburn
Q: A colleague claims that all truth is relative. I believe that there are objective truths but am at a loss as to how to refute her.
A: If all truth is relative, then there is no objective truth and nothing can ever be posited as fact—including your colleague’s statement that truth is relative. Such a stance equals chaos and voids all logical communication.
—Fr. Vincent Serpa
Q: Is there a patron saint of dieters?
A: To my knowledge, there is not a saint who has been officially delegated as a patron for dieters, but it is possible to choose a saint with similar interests or life situation and pray to him for that intention. Some possibilities include St. Martha, who was known for her hospitality and is a patron of dietitians (although not dieters); St. Raphael the Archangel, whose name means "God heals"; St. Thomas Aquinas, who is believed to have been a large man; St. Catherine of Siena, who, at periods in her life, survived on the Eucharist alone; and St. Anthony of Padua, a patron of starving people.
—Michelle Arnold
Q: Why is the pope called the " Holy Father" instead of just "Father"?
A: Catholics call the pope "Holy Father" not as an acknowledgement of his personal state of soul but as an expression of respect for his office as successor to Peter and head of the Church on earth. His is a holy office.
—Fr. Vincent Serpa
Q: Is it required that Catholics be devoted to Mary?
A: Devotion is an emotional attachment, which cannot be required of anyone. All that is required is assent to those doctrines that the Church has declared to be true and binding upon Catholic consciences. As long as a Catholic gives assent of the will to the Marian doctrines, it is not required that he have any particular emotional attachment to the Blessed Mother.
That said, devotion can be developed just like emotional attachment to any person can be developed, and it is a pious action for a Catholic to develop a devotion to his spiritual Mother. One means of developing such an attachment is to learn more about the Blessed Mother through reading Marian apologetic and devotional literature.
—Michelle Arnold
Q: Can bi-ritual priests become bishops?
A: Yes, the Holy See can appoint any priest it wishes to the episcopacy for any rite it chooses. Ordinarily though, it appoints a bishop for the rite to which the new bishop has always belonged. Bi-ritual priests are priests who have been given permission to celebrate the liturgy in more than one rite. The priests themselves belong to only one rite.
—Fr. Vincent Serpa
Q: My parish refuses to have an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion go to the Sunday school classrooms to offer the Eucharist to the teachers at Communion time. Since the teachers are sacrificing themselves to teach during Mass, should they not be given the opportunity to receive the Eucharist? Though they could attend a later Mass, in reality 90 percent of them will not do this. Their classrooms are only a few steps away from the worship space.
A: In reality, the 90 percent of teachers to whom you refer need to learn what the Mass is before attempting to teach Sunday school. Better to have no Sunday school than to have the blind leading the blind!
We are not Protestants for whom Sunday school is sometimes considered to be equal to the main worship service. Mass is like nothing else. Nothing on the face of the earth can equal what happens on the altar. Any sacrifices we make are miniscule compared to the sacrifice of our Lord’s very body and blood. I don’t mean to berate anyone here, but to miss the supreme importance of the Mass is to not understand Catholicism at all.
The Catechism reminds us: The command of Jesus to repeat his actions and words "until he comes" does not only ask us to remember Jesus and what he did. It is directed at the liturgical celebration, by the apostles and their successors, of the memorial of Christ, of his life, of his death, of his resurrection, and of his intercession in the presence of the Father (CCC 1341). Further, if the children aren’t preschoolers, they should be at Mass as well.
—Fr. Vincent Serpa
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