This is the eleventh in a series of articles aimed at helping you to get your lapsed Catholic loved one going to Church again and once again becoming a practicing Catholic.  Excuse #5 Excuse #5 is “I don’t agree with the Church’s teachings on sex / contraception / marriage / divorce / homosexuality.” And as an excuse for not going to Mass it really does not make a lot of sense.  It’s like a U.S. citizen saying, ‘I’m not going to file an income tax return anymore because I think the 17th Amendment to the Constitution is dumb.’ Of course, not paying your taxes will only bring the IRS d ..read more

The Protestant doctrine of sola scriptura (“Scripture alone”) always was a sham. I don’t simply mean that it’s an error, one that has been misleading millions of Christians for five centuries. I mean it’s a subterfuge, a shell game that Martin Luther used to substitute himself for Rome as the ultimate authority over Christian doctrine. Scripture would speak clearly, but with his voice, not fifteen centuries of bishops, scholars, and saints. However, Luther didn’t foresee that others could displace him as readily as he displaced the pope. Now Scripture speaks in a Babel of voices, for self-appo ..read more

This is the tenth in a series of articles aimed at helping you to get your lapsed Catholic loved one going to Church again and once again becoming a practicing Catholic.  Excuse #4 You can almost anticipate someone who offers Excuse #3 jumping to excuse #4 if the discussion is not going his or her way.  (Sometimes it’s just the opposite.)  But Excuse #4 – “Going to church is just a man-made rule to fill the collection plate” – is the weakest of all seven excuses. While some parishes do expect parishioners to tithe – to give a fixed amount (a percentage of yearly income) to the p ..read more

This is the ninth in a series of articles aimed at helping you to get your lapsed Catholic loved one going to Church again and once again becoming a practicing Catholic.  Excuse #3 Excuse #3 (“I don’t have to go to church to keep the Lord’s Day holy”) is, to put it bluntly, wrong-headed.  The Mass has been the method by which Catholics have kept the Lord’s Day holy for over 2,000 years.  It is not some clever method cooked up to fill the collection plate. Mass The basic form of the Mass has been in place for a really, really long time!  St. Justin Martyr wrote to Roman Empe ..read more

This is the eighth in a series of articles aimed at helping you to get your lapsed Catholic loved one going to Church again and once again becoming a practicing Catholic.  Excuse #2 If someone you love is not going to Mass on Sunday because he or she ‘doesn’t feel welcome,’ there is an obvious, common sense solution: change parishes.  But if the individual balks at this suggestion there may be more going on than meets the eye. Excuse number two (I don’t really feel welcome at the church in my parish; our parish is too liberal/conservative to suit my tastes) is an excuse, like the oth ..read more

The meaning of the Sunday Mass Readings for April 2024 is made clearest by Catholic Doctrine. Doctrines are the Magisterium’s authoritative, essentially unchangeable clarifications of Revelation and Faith that, in order to be Catholic, must be accepted as objectively true. Doctrines describe reality. Much of what the Magisterium (the pope and bishops) teach is not doctrine; much of what they teach is the application of Revelation and Faith, not clarification of Revelation and Faith. The Magisterium does not have the authority to contradict doctrine. Let’s learn the always-true doctrines in the ..read more

This is the seventh in a series of articles aimed at helping you to get your lapsed Catholic loved one going to Church again and once again becoming a practicing Catholic.  Excuse #1 and Catholics in Name Only (CINOs) If you get Excuse #1 and you’ve determined the person offering the excuse is a CINO, it’s a whole different ballgame. With a CINO, the response to “I don’t get anything out of Mass; it’s boring” is still “How long have you felt this way about Mass”?  But when you ask this question don’t be shocked if the response you get is “Oh, for a really long time.”  If this is ..read more

This is the sixth in a series of articles aimed at helping you to get your lapsed Catholic loved one going to Church again and once again becoming a practicing Catholic.  Excuse #1 So you’ve asked the question, “Sam (or Samantha), I’ve been wondering, how come you’ve stopped going to Mass on Sunday?” And Sam or Samantha responds with Excuse #1. “I don’t get anything out of Mass; it’s boring, the homilies are dull/uninspiring, and besides, I’m too busy to go to Mass.” A student in a Catechism class my wife and I were teaching a few years ago actually volunteered that the ‘reason’ his famil ..read more

Being all-knowing is one of the many attributes ascribed to Almighty God. This attribute underscores the reality that God is constant, thus never changing. Today, many in our culture believe that God changes with the times to reflect the changing views of society. This is simply not true, as God would not institute a moral statute which he would later contradict. Unfortunately, this prominent cultural view does not reflect constancy on the part of God, but rather inconstancy. As if God was unaware of what would happen in the future that might change his mind. And then God would not be God! So ..read more

This is the fifth in a series of articles aimed at helping you to get your lapsed Catholic loved one going to Church again and once again becoming a practicing Catholic.  The Third Commandment The third Commandment is clear: “Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.”  When a Catholic does not go to Mass on Saturday Evening or Sunday that person is breaking the third Commandment and committing a mortal sin. But it’s possible the person is breaking the First Commandment as well – making sports, shopping, sleeping in, other activities, or even their own hubris (pride in their own mistaken ..read more