[ed. note. Rich Horrell of www.utahmission.com has posted the following after a request was made for an analogous Catholic response to the question posed in an earlier entry. Thanks Rich!]

From the CCC CHAPTER TWO, ARTICLE 3:

I. CONCEIVED BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. . .484 The Annunciation to Mary inaugurates “the fullness of time”,119 the time of the fulfillment of God’s promises and preparations. Mary was invited to conceive him in whom the “whole fullness of deity” would dwell “bodily”.120 The divine response to her question, “How can this be, since I know not man?”, was given by the power of the Spirit: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you.”121 Read the rest of this entry »

A few weeks ago there were a couple of discussions [1,2] on FAIR’s message  boards. I wish to capture a few quotations by Catholic David Waltz that present his opinion that  Mormons can be considered Christians, albeit heretical, from a Catholic perspective. As a hat tip to previous discussion, Brad Haas has argued from another Catholic perspective (perhaps the majority opinion), that Mormonism fails to meet traditional expectations of Christianity while witholding judgment on individual Mormons and other self-professed Christians. M&C has looked into the relevancy of the recent decision to not accept Mormon baptisms in a couple of entries [3,4].

Read the rest of this entry »

[ed. note: This question came into M&C in the middle of October and I'm moving it here. The questioner's, AKA Wacky Hermit, text is in italics and John in MN's answer is interspersed in regular font.]

Hi, I’m a Mormon and I have some questions for Catholics about rosaries. By way of background I was baptized Catholic but my parents joined the LDS church when I was just a few years old, so I was essentially raised Mormon but I have many Catholic relatives.

My grandfather (Catholic) passed away and a memorial mass is to be held for him. Knowing how dearly my grandmother (also Catholic) loves her religion, I made for her a special rosary out of semiprecious stone beads and with a center piece of her and my grandfather’s favorite saint, and I want her to have it in time for my grandfather’s mass. Is this an appropriate gift? Also, can I give rosaries I made to my other Catholic relatives who also hold their religion dear?

Read the rest of this entry »

[ed. note: I am moving this question here along with John in MN's thoughtful response for increased visibility.]

Mercedes writes:

Hello!

I am an active catholic. I was raised in a catholic school and I am now dating a Mormon guy.

We want to get married and I have made it very clear that I will not convert and that we will have to find a way to live with the differences our religions have.

I am mostly worried about us having children, because I want to raise them as catholic, so if anyone has any life experience to share with me I will be very glad to hear it. Read the rest of this entry »

The English edition of the classic book Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma by Dr. Ludwig Ott, printed by TAN, bears this description on the cover:

A One-Volume Encyclopedia of the Doctrines of the Catholic Church, showing their Sources in Scripture and Tradition and their Definitions by Popes and Councils.

I like the book. It covers just about everything. It also shows where each doctrine is on the ladder, i.e. how certain we can be of it. I thought it might be helpful to reproduce that part of the book, as Dave was asking for such things.

Read the rest of this entry »

In the discussion following the post �..."Thoughts on Abortion”, questions were raised regarding �..."confession and repentance in the Roman Catholic Church.” I hope in this post to give a brief, general overview of the Catholic understanding of these issues, and to answer some of the questions raised in the discussions of the previous post.

To get an overview in the Church’s own language, I recommend reading the sections concerning grace and justification of the Catechism, paragraphs 1987 through 2029. I refer to these sections because understanding the Catholic conception of grace is necessary to understand the Catholic conception of sin.

Why does man need salvation?

Catholics believe man’s destiny is eternal life, to live in unity with God. This, in particular, is what distinguishes us from the animals, who share biological and sensible life with us, but do not have free will and rational, immortal souls. The nature of this life with God himself is participation in God’s own life â€â€�" this is our definition of grace (CCC #1997). Read the rest of this entry »

[Ed. Note: This is valuable and welcome submission was contributed by one of our astute Catholic readers, who comments under the monicker "Bear". It helps set the record straight on some of the unintentional inaccuracies made in the previous entry, Thoughts on Abortion and provides some much needed explanation of the Roman Catholic Church's current teachings as well.]

I. TEACHING ON ABORTION

Firstly, Catholicism considers abortion to be evil because it is the direct, intentional killing of a human person. The Catechism states in paragraph 2270:

Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person-among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.

It goes on to affirm from there that this has been the constant teaching of the Church from the beginning. Sources indicating this include the Bible itself, the Didache, and various non-canonical epistles and other writings from the early Church. Read the rest of this entry »