Independent Catholic resourceNot affiliated with Catholic Answers (catholic.com)
THECatholic AnswersFaith. Understood.
CATHOLIC TOPICS

Social & Political

257 articles from the existing collection.

God & Faith1 min read

Christ said, “Suffer little children to come to Me . . . for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” He does not mention that they should be baptized.

That text has no reference to Baptism. Christ’s purpose there was to insist upon humility. He impressed the moral lesson that only such as cultivate the dispositions of a child before God will enter Heaven. But he never said that all children, even the unbaptized, will necessarily go to Heaven. He would contradict His own doctri…

The Church1 min read

Whatever may be said of rich individuals, the extreme wealth of your Church is a scandal, with millions crying out for bodily and spiritual help.

A family is not wealthy if it has scarcely enough to meet all its essential needs, and the Catholic Church certainly has not enough for its necessary work. Meantime she spends millions on her many works for men’s temporal welfare, and is very hard put to it to provide her thousands of missionaries, who are laboring for the spiri…

Other Christians & Religions3 min read

The Church of England is Catholic because she is sending missionaries throughout the whole world as far as possible.

Other Protestant Churches are doing as much as the Church of England in this matter, yet you will not admit that they are Catholic because of that. But apart from that, what does the word Catholic really mean in its technical Christian sense? It does not refer to area alone. To be really Catholic a Church must have originated wi…

God & Faith2 min read

I object to the permission of mental restriction under any circumstances, since withholding part of the truth misleads the listener just as if the speaker had lied.

If all that the speaker says is true, you cannot accuse him of lying. To be silent is not to lie. We may say that such a man is unjust, if he ought to speak yet refuses to do so. We may say that he is disobedient, if he is commanded by lawful authority to tell the rest, and will not. But he is not a liar, for he has not said wha…

Last Things & Salvation1 min read

Why do you omit from that Our Father the words “For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever.”

Because Our Lord did not add those words to the prayer as He taught it There is nothing wrong with the words in themselves. In fact, they are very beautiful. But they are not Sacred Scripture. Some early Catholic copyists wrote those words in a margin; later copyists mistakenly transcribed them into the text; and the Protestant …

The Church1 min read

Many things show the utter futility of your infallible Pope’s blessings. Sixtus V. blessed the Armada9 yet it was destroyed as much by the wrath of Heaven as by the English leaders.

You mean by a storm. There is a great difference between the wrath of Heaven and the wrath of the heavens. On your principles every man who has ever suffered shipwreck or been drowned or struck by lightning is a wicked wretch and the victim of God’s anger. I am as happy as you are that the Armada failed, but I do not admit that …

Moral Life2 min read

Why does the Church denounce the abuses of capitalism, instead of denouncing the whole existing system as evil, and as existing only for profit and not for use. The Church ought to say, “Away with capitalized industry.”

You take too much for granted. It is easy to say that modern industry under capitalism exists for profit and not for use. But it is not true. Industry produces things for the use of those who need them. The public pays for the value of the thing, and something additional for the trouble of making it. Portion of this something ex…

The Church1 min read

Why is Southern Ireland so poor? Is it for want of ability, or is it because the Catholic Church has bled the people of all their money? What a contrast with the North of Ireland!

It is not from want of ability. Nor is it because the Church has robbed the people. It is because England drained the country dry, confiscating property from Irishmen and bestowing it upon Englishmen, and taxing the people to fill the English exchequer. This has been one of the chief causes of the dissatisfaction in Ireland thro…

Moral Life1 min read

Do you approve the proclamation of religious liberty in Spain?

No. It was prompted by no desire for any purer religion, but by motives of hatred of all religion, or else simply by irreligion. It did not give the people liberty to be religious, for it restricted the liberty of good Catholics to practice their religion and educate their children according to the dictates of their conscience. …

The Church1 min read

Why does the Catholic Church favor only the Labor Party?

She does not. But the Catholic Church to-day is as it was in the time of the Apostles, “not many noble, not many of the worldly wise, not many powerful.” Most of her children are drawn from the class Christ loved so much—the working class. And in civil life the majority of these workers happen to have Labor sympathies. But these…

The Church1 min read

You say that the Pope is not swayed hy national considerations. In a war between Italy and England, would not his sympathies be with Italy?

The Pope as Pope must forget his nationality. As a man his sympathies might be with Italy. But he could not favor Italy in his official capacity. Despite his national sympathies, the Pope has insisted upon being perfectly independent of Italian authority. If an English Pope had done this many would have ascribed it to anti-Itali…

Other Christians & Religions1 min read

I still maintain that you cannot be loyal. By law the king is head of the Anglican Church, a law you must ignore.

Catholics are perfectly loyal to the Protestant king. They admit that he is head of the Anglican Church as the law declares. Since by law he is head of that Church, every Catholic says, “Right. Then he is head of the Anglican Church.” And loyalty demands no more. It certainly does not demand that I accept the Church of which he …

God & Faith1 min read

Your argument from justice weakens morality. If there were to be no rectification of things in the next life, all the more reason for men to remedy injustices in this world.

That might seem to you a reason why it would be better if there were no future life and reparation of justice. But we know that there is such a future life, and a priori possibilities cannot avail against fact. Also it is a fact that men who give up their belief in a future life are not consumed with a passion for the rectifying…

Last Things & Salvation1 min read

Christ intended a Kingdom of Heaven in this world, but you despise it, arraying yourself and rejoicing whilst the world is still in despair and shackles.

Christ never intended this world to be Heaven. He said, “My Kingdom is not of this world.” The Church is His Kingdom on earth, but it is not a Kingdom of earth. And I esteem this Kingdom of Christ above all else. This does not forbid me to dress respectably. It does forbid me to rejoice in so far as humanity is in despair and sh…

Moral Life2 min read

Your doctrines seem fair enough, but are they show-case doctrines for the public? In other words, does not your Church allow you to use mental restriction or reservation in your replies over the air?

I have never used mental reservation in explaining any teachings of the Church. Nor would I be justified in doing so. Even though mental reservation can be lawful in certain circumstances, you must not think that the Church allows it as a regular thing. It can be lawful, for although no one is ever allowed to say what is not tru…

KNOWLEDGE SHARED. FAITH STRENGTHENED.

Keep the door open.

Your optional contribution helps keep these resources free to read.

Support this independent site