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  • When is a “Natural Marriage” a Valid Marriage?
  • Homeschooling and Catechetics (Part II)
  • When Can a Catholic Church Charge Visitors an Entrance Fee?
  • How Can Arranged Marriages be Valid?
  • How Are Religious Institutes Obliged to Support Members Who Leave?
  • Archbishop Viganó and the Extrajudicial Process
  • Investigating Alleged Supernatural Phenomena
  • Obedience and Canon 1752
  • Which Mass Fulfills My Sunday Obligation? Part II
  • Who Decides Whether a Catholic Has Been Excommunicated?
  • Excommunication and the Seal of Confession (Sanctions, Part VI)
  • Limiting Diocesan Bishops’ Authority: Recent Decrees From Pope Francis
  • Fiducia Supplicans and the Magisterium
  • When Christmas Falls on a Monday: Holydays of Obligation, Part III
  • Removing a Bishop From His Diocese: The Case of Bishop Strickland
  • Who Controls Ecclesiastical Property?
  • How Much Financial Support Are We Required to Give Retired Bishops?
  • When Can a Bishop Lawfully Transfer a Pastor to Another Parish?
  • Why Can’t You Change the Name of a Church?
  • Becoming a Hermit in the 21st Century
  • Establishing Dioceses and Parishes in Mission Lands
  • Bishops Interfering in Parish Ministry, Part II
  • Bishops Interfering in Parish Ministry, Part I
  • Incorrupt Bodies and Canonizing Saints
  • Preventing Desecration of the Eucharist
  • Can I Become a Priest, If I Have an Illegitimate Child?
  • Can a Laicized Priest Return to the Priesthood?
  • Is Confession Still an Easter Duty? (Repost)
  • Refusing a Funeral Mass to a Non-Parishioner
  • Episcopal Celibacy and the Case of Bishop Antony
  • Is it Valid If I Marry Him Just For His Money?
  • Eastern Catholic Children Receiving Latin Catholic Sacraments
  • How Can You Obey a Law, If You Don’t Even Know It Exists?
  • What’s the Difference Between a Pastor, and a Parish Administrator?
  • Confession, and General Absolution (Repost)
  • When Can a Layperson Be a Pastor of a Parish?
  • Overdoing the Anointing of the Sick
  • Opus Dei and Personal Prelatures
  • What’s a Benefice? Eliminating Financial Corruption in the Church
  • Can Laypeople Hold Top Vatican Positions?
  • Leaving a Novice in Limbo
  • Receiving Holy Communion Outside of Mass
  • If My Marriage is Annulled, Why Aren’t the Children Illegitimate?
  • Canon Law and Making Private Vows
  • Does an Excommunicated Priest Administer Valid Sacraments? (Part II)
  • Does an Excommunicated Priest Administer Valid Sacraments? (Part I)
  • What Are the Church’s Current Rules on Indulgences? (Repost)
  • Can Divorced Catholics Date, While Waiting for Their Annulment?
  • Canon Law and Priests With Illegitimate Children
  • Can Traditional-Rite Priests be Forced to Say the Novus Ordo Mass?
  • When are Priests Required to Give a Homily?
  • Did Benedict XVI Cover Up Clerical Sexual Abuse?
  • Is it a Sacrilege to Hit a Priest?
  • Is My Annulment Invalid?
  • Getting Married on One’s Deathbed
  • Can We Receive Holy Communion Twice on Christmas Day? (Repost)
  • Should We Baptize Aborted Babies, If Possible?
  • Founding New Religious Institutes: Pope Francis Changes the Law (Episcopal Authority, Part II)
  • Retranslating the Liturgy: Pope Francis Changes the Law (Episcopal Authority, Part I)
  • Can a Catholic Sue the Church in Civil Court?
  • When is it Okay to Go to an SSPX Mass?
  • Can Church Officials Require Us to Get Vaccinated?
  • Spiritual Directors and a Seminarian’s Privacy
  • The Enormous Loophole in Traditionis Custodes
  • Using (And Misusing) Donations to the Church
  • Should We Contact the Papal Nuncio?
  • Can a Latin Catholic Man Enter an Eastern Catholic Seminary?
  • When Does Disobedience Constitute Schism?
  • When Can a Bishop Intervene in a Lay Association of the Faithful?
  • Altar Girls and the Pope’s New Document
  • Do Children Have to Make Their First Communion at Their Own Parish?
  • Catholic Schools With Non-Catholic Students
  • Repost: Is Confession Still an Easter Duty?
  • Canon Law and the Mass Pro Populo
  • Why Would a Bishop Refuse to Ordain a Seminarian?
  • Which Parish Do I Belong To?
  • Canon Law and Arriving Late for Mass
  • How Can You Tell a Real Law from an Illegal Decree?
  • How Many Masses Can a Priest Say on Sundays?
  • Re-post: Can We Receive Holy Communion Twice on Christmas Day?
  • Re-post: Confession and General Absolution
  • Which Mass Fulfills My Sunday Obligation? Part I
  • What Happens When a Religious Who’s Vowed Poverty Becomes a Bishop?
  • The Virus and the Bishops: Twisting a Vatican Document to Further an Agenda
  • Why Would a Catholic Cleric Desecrate an Altar?
  • Refusing First Holy Communion to Children Who Are Ill-Prepared
  • Ecclesia Supplet: Making Invalid Sacraments Valid
  • Invalid Baptisms and Unaccountable Clergy
  • When (and How Much) Can a Bishop Tax a Parish?
  • When Can a Pastor be Removed From Office?
  • Can We be Required to Wear Masks at Mass?
  • Can the Bishop Cancel Our Annual Parish Fundraiser, Because of the Virus?
  • Refusing a Funeral Mass, Because of the Virus
  • Contributing Financially to the Support of the Parish: A Precept of the Church
  • What Happens When the Clergy Refuse to Baptize, Because of the Virus?
  • Did the Spanish Flu of 1918 Create a Precedent for Closing Churches and Cancelling Masses Today?
  • The Virus and the Bishops: Twisting Canon 223 to Further an Agenda
  • Stressed-Out Shepherds and Ungrateful Parishioners
  • Our Priest Cancelled Our Wedding, So Who Else Can Validly Marry Us?
  • Episcopal Conferences and Communion on the Tongue
  • Are We Under Interdict? Sanctions, Part V
  • Can I Make My Confession Over the Phone?
  • Can I Attend an SSPX Church, Since My Parish Is Closed?
  • Can Priests Cancel Public Masses, and Say a Private Mass Instead?
  • Pope Francis’ Letter to the Priests of Rome, on Ministry During the Pandemic
  • Holy Week in the Era of Coronavirus
  • Do Bishops Have the Authority to Cancel Masses Completely?
  • Can We Be Required to Receive Communion in the Hand, Because of the Virus?
  • Can a Baby be Baptized During Lent?
  • Why is This Method of Baptizing Invalid?
  • Holydays of Obligation, Part II
  • How Can A Priest’s Ministry Be Illicit?
  • Can the Bishop Refuse to Ordain Me Because I’m Too Old?
  • Confession and General Absolution (Repost)
  • If I Become a Catholic, What Happens to My Marriage? (Part III)
  • Canon Law and Selling a Church
  • Canon Law and Closing a Parish
  • How Do you Fix an Illicit Sacrament?
  • Why Can’t an Ex-Catholic Marry Validly Outside the Church?
  • What Makes a Mass Invalid? (Part II)
  • What Makes a Mass Invalid? (Part I)
  • Discovering an Impediment Right Before the Wedding
  • What Happens when Canon Law Conflicts with Social Custom?
  • If I Become a Catholic, What Happens to My Marriage? (Part II)
  • How Does an Excommunicated Catholic Have the Sanction Lifted? (Part II)
  • How Does an Excommunicated Catholic Have the Sanction Lifted? (Part I)
  • Can a Priest Ever Reveal What is Said in Confession? (Part II)
  • Are Catholics Supposed to Avoid Contact With Excommunicated Persons?
  • Can a Child Be Baptized Catholic, If One Parent Strenuously Objects?
  • Which Tribunal Has Authority to Annul My Marriage?
  • If I Become a Catholic, What Happens to My Marriage? (Part I)
  • When Can Parish Buildings be Rented Out for Secular Use?
  • What’s the Difference Between a Cathedral Rector and a Parish Priest?
  • What’s the Difference Between a Nun and a Consecrated Virgin?
  • Does a Convert Become a Latin or an Eastern Catholic?
  • What Makes a Baptism Catholic?
  • Can the Pastor Set a Minimum Age for Baptism?
  • When Does a Catholic Book Need an Imprimatur?
  • (Repost:) Confession and General Absolution
  • When Can the Parish Priest Postpone a Wedding?
  • Why Would I Need an Annulment, Since My Civil Marriage Was Obviously Invalid?
  • Who’s in Charge of the Diocese When There’s No Bishop?
  • Can I Attend the Marriage of a Catholic Outside the Church?
  • Canon Law and the Marriage of the Virgin Mary to Saint Joseph
  • Sex-Abuse Scandals, Transparency, and the Right to a Good Reputation
  • Sex-Abuse Scandals and Papal Responsibility
  • Do Sisters Have to Wear Their Habits?
  • Why Would I Need to Convert in Order to Get Married?
  • When Can a Church be Used for Non-Liturgical Events?
  • Why Is the Priest Telling Me Not to Talk to a Canon Lawyer?
  • When Can You Get a Dispensation, and Who Can Grant It?
  • When Can You Have a Catholic Wedding Without a Mass?
  • How Can You Tell a Real Catholic Monastery From a Fake?
  • Canon Law and the Private Ownership of Relics (Part II)
  • Is My Confession Valid, If the Priest Changes the Words of Absolution?
  • Who Decides What Constitutes a Valid Sacrament?
  • Becoming (Or at Least Marrying) an Eastern Catholic
  • Can a Priest Refuse to Hear Your Confession if He Knows You?
  • Why Can’t These Priests Ever Celebrate a Valid Catholic Wedding?
  • Mass Intentions and Stipends (Part II)
  • Can the Pope Validly Marry People on an Airplane?
  • How Did My Ex Remarry in the Church, Since We Never Got an Annulment?
  • Can Children Have Any Input in Their Parents’ Annulment Proceedings?
  • Can You Marry Validly While Intoxicated?
  • Can the Priest Refuse to Baptize Our Baby, Since We’re Married Outside the Church?
  • Why Can’t He Get Married in the Church, If He’s Got an Annulment?
  • Can You Become Catholic If You’re in an Irregular Marriage?
  • Can I Get an Annulment If My Ex-Spouse Refuses to Cooperate?
  • Could a Pope Ever Be Excommunicated? (“Excommunication” Defined)
  • Can a Pope Commit Heresy? (“Heresy” Defined)
  • Canon Law and Simulating the Mass
  • How Has Canon Law Changed on Fasting Before Communion?
  • Pedophile Priests and Sacramental Validity
  • Can a Catholic Priest Ever Officiate at a Non-Catholic Wedding?
  • When Can We Have Our Child Baptized at a Different Parish?
  • When Can a Non-Catholic Go to Confession?
  • Canon Law and the Private Ownership of Relics (Part I)
  • Can the Pastor Expel Another Priest from the Rectory?
  • Who’s in Charge of the Parish When There’s No Parish Priest?
  • If My Ex-Spouse Dies, Does That Make My Second Marriage Valid?
  • Can You Be Both a Catholic and a Sedevacantist?
  • Granting Absolution to an Accomplice in Sin
  • Can Our Pastor Kick Us Out of the Parish?
  • Can a Pastor Ban a Parishioner from Coming to Mass?
  • How Can You Get a Permanent Dispensation from Attending Sunday Mass?
  • Why is This Method of Baptizing Illicit?
  • Who’s Supposed to Pay a Priest’s Salary?
  • Can a Lapsed Catholic Be a Godparent?
  • (Repost) Confession and General Absolution
  • Adopting Children of Another Faith (Eastern Churches, Part II)
  • Why Don’t We Marry Validly Before a Ukrainian Catholic Priest? (Eastern Churches, Part I)
  • Can a Priest Have His Ordination Annulled?
  • Can I Get an Annulment Without My Spouse Knowing About It?
  • What is the “Old Catholic Church”?
  • Can the Pastor Buy and Sell Parish Property Without Our Consent?
  • What Happens if Catholic Parents Have Their Child Baptized in a Non-Catholic Church?
  • Can a Lapsed Catholic Have a Catholic Funeral?
  • Who is Qualified to Become an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion?
  • What Do You Do With the Deacon Who Refuses to be Ordained a Priest?
  • Why Would an Illegitimate Man be Barred from the Priesthood?
  • Laypeople Can Always Baptize–But When Should They?
  • If the Church Has Never Permitted Divorce, Why Did Henry VIII Expect the Pope to Give Him One?
  • Marriage and Quasi-Domiciles
  • Do Catholics Have to be Confirmed Before Getting Married?
  • Canon Law and Getting What You Want
  • How Does the Presence of a Priest at My Non-Catholic Wedding Make it Okay?
  • Catholic Funerals and Physician-Assisted Suicide
  • Repost: What Are the Church’s Current Rules on Indulgences?
  • Excommunication and Bad-Mouthing the Pope
  • How Can You Tell a Real Priest From a Fake?
  • Besides the Priest, Who Else is Bound by the Seal of Confession?
  • Could Canon Law be Changed to Permit Gay Marriage?
  • When Can Catholic Soldiers Receive Sacraments from Non-Catholic Chaplains?
  • When Can Catholics Receive Communion at a Non-Catholic Service?
  • Why Does the Vatican Arrest Leakers, But Not Pedophile Priests?
  • Divorce, Remarriage, and Excommunication
  • How Much Authority Does a Synod Actually Have?
  • Why Doesn’t the Church Publish Marriage Banns Any More?
  • How Often Does the Pope Change Canon Law?
  • Why Are Some Suggesting That Francis’ Election Was Invalid?
  • Canon Law and Bishops of Bling
  • (Repost:) Clergy and Summer Vacation
  • Can a Catholic Ever Attend an Orthodox Liturgy Instead of Sunday Mass?
  • When Can Episcopalians Receive the Eucharist at a Catholic Mass?
  • Can a Catholic Remarry When a Spouse is Missing/Presumed Dead?
  • Why Would Non-Catholics Get an Annulment?
  • Why Can a Parish Priest Annul This Marriage?
  • Canon Law and a Convent of Rebellious Sisters
  • Why Would a Wedding in Our College Chapel be Invalid?
  • Can Catholics Marry in Any Parish Church They Want?
  • Canon Law and Marriage Records
  • Can Catholics be Prohibited from Marrying in Lent and Advent?
  • Catechetics and the Authority of the Parish Priest
  • Excommunication and the Authority of the Parish Priest
  • Annulments and the Authority of the Parish Priest
  • Why Can’t a Deacon Celebrate This Marriage?
  • Repost: Confession and General Absolution
  • What Are the Church’s Current Rules on Indulgences?
  • What Does the Church Really Say About Cremation?
  • Catholics in Non-Sacramental Marriages
  • Can a Deacon Ever Get Married?
  • Canon Law and Parish Councils
  • Tithing and Excommunication
  • What Does the Church Say About Usury?
  • Can a Priest Refuse to Hear My Confession?
  • How Can a Priest Transfer to Another Diocese?
  • What Does it Mean to Have Your Marriage Blessed? (Part III)
  • What Does it Mean to Have Your Marriage Blessed? (Part II)
  • What Does it Mean to Have Your Marriage Blessed? (Part I)
  • Who is Responsible for Children’s Religious Education?
  • Can a Bishop Expel a Sister from his Diocese?
  • When are the Laity Permitted to Preach?
  • Fertility and Marriage Validity
  • (Repost:) Is Confession Still an Easter Duty?
  • Catholic Priests Who Become Non-Catholic Ministers
  • Canon Law and Fraudulent Marriages
  • Can We Have Both a Priest and a Non-Catholic Minister at our Wedding?
  • Can a Catholic Ever Elope?
  • Could Women Ever be Ordained Deaconesses?
  • Am I Permanently Barred from Ordination to the Priesthood?
  • Canon Law and Non-Infant Baptism
  • Canon Law and Consummating a Marriage
  • Can In-Laws Marry in the Church?
  • Contraception and Marriage Validity
  • Stipends and Sacraments
  • Is Every Catholic Church a Parish?
  • Why is a Catholic Permitted to Marry in an Orthodox Ceremony?
  • What Can (and Can’t) a Deacon Do?
  • Why is Philomena No Longer Considered a Saint?
  • How Do I File a Canon Lawsuit?
  • Are SSPX Sacraments Valid? Part II
  • Are SSPX Sacraments Valid? Part I
  • How Many Miracles are Required to Canonize a Saint?
  • Why is the Marriage Tribunal Insisting I First Need a Divorce?
  • Women’s Ordination and the Case of Roy Bourgeois
  • Is Nepotism Still an Issue in the Church?
  • Canon Law and False Abuse Allegations, Part II
  • Canon Law and False Abuse Allegations, Part I
  • Will Australian Priests Be Forced to Violate the Seal of Confession?
  • What is the Pauline Privilege?
  • Canon Law and Two Popes
  • Why is Cardinal Mahony Voting in the Conclave?
  • When Will the Conclave Start? Pope Benedict’s Final Legislative Act
  • Canon Law and the Upcoming Conclave
  • Can a Baby be Baptized Against the Parents’ Wishes?
  • A Brief Note about Papal Resignation
  • Can a Pope be Removed from Office?
  • If a Catholic Marries a Non-Christian, How is it a Sacrament?
  • Can a Pope Ever Resign?
  • Canon Law and Consecrating the Eucharist
  • Father Pavone’s “Suspension”: Priests for Life, Part II
  • Clerical Incardination: Priests for Life, Part I
  • Was Theologian Hans Küng Ever Excommunicated?
  • Canon Law and the Pope’s Butler
  • Who Can Conduct an Exorcism?
  • Can Priests Hold Public Office?
  • Can the Bishop Shut Down a Shrine?
  • Bishops, Coadjutors, and Auxiliaries
  • Divorced Catholics and the Eucharist
  • Can All Priests Always Hear Confessions?
  • Do Catholic Children Have to be Given Saints’ Names?
  • Canon Law and the SSPX
  • Index of Forbidden Books
  • When Does the Pope Speak Infallibly?
  • The Validity of Anglican Holy Orders
  • The Eucharist and Sacramental Validity, Part II
  • Episcopalians Entering the Catholic Church
  • The Eucharist and Sacramental Validity, Part I
  • Have Pro-Abortion Politicians Excommunicated Themselves?
  • Celibacy and the Priesthood
  • Can Cousins Marry in the Church?
  • Does Mass Have to be Said in a Church?
  • Are They Excommunicated? Sanctions, Part IV
  • Sacraments and Personal Identity
  • How Are Priests Selected to be Bishops?
  • What Does it Mean to “Defrock” a Priest?
  • Canon Law and Altar Girls
  • Can Children Make their First Communion Before their First Confession?
  • Can a Priest Administer the Sacrament of Confirmation?
  • Do Converts Have to be Rebaptized?
  • Will the Woman Who Attacked the Pope be Punished?
  • Can a Bishop Forbid a Priest to Say Mass?
  • Does a Catholic Wedding Have to be Held in a Catholic Church?
  • Canon Law and Donations to the Church
  • Canon Law and “Catholic” Organizations
  • Bishops, Archbishops, and Cardinals
  • Can Catholic Children Receive the Last Rites?
  • Can a Priest Ever Return to the Lay State?
  • Confession by Appointment and Face-to-Face
  • What if the Other Spouse Doesn’t Want the Annulment?
  • How Soon Should a Baby be Baptized?
  • Clergy and Summer Vacation
  • Notre Dame, Obama, and the Bishop’s Authority
  • Is Confession Still an Easter Duty?
  • What’s the Difference Between Sisters and Nuns?
  • Are Catholics Supposed to Abstain from Meat Every Friday?
  • Can Non-Catholics Receive the Catholic Sacrament of Matrimony?
  • Why Do Marriage Annulments Take So Long?
  • Do Catholic Parents Have to Raise their Children as Catholics?
  • Do Priests Have to Say Mass Every Day?
  • Can We Receive Holy Communion Twice on Christmas Day?
  • Can a Priest Ever Reveal What is Said in Confession? (Part I)
  • The Priesthood and the Vow of Poverty
  • Questions about Eucharistic Ministers
  • Can Pro-Abortion Politicians Receive Holy Communion?
  • Can Catholics Become Freemasons?
  • Inclusive Language and Baptismal Validity
  • Can Homosexual Men be Ordained to the Priesthood?
  • Homeschooling and Catechetics (Part I)
  • Parish Closings
  • Who May Preach?
  • Parish Registration and Confirmation Sponsors
  • Holydays of Obligation, Part I
  • Are They Excommunicated? Sanctions, Part III
  • Parish Registration
  • Could the Pope Change the Law to Allow Women Priests?
  • Is She Excommunicated? Sanctions, Part II
  • Mass Intentions and Stipends (Part I)
  • Are there Any Limitations on the Power of the Pope?
  • Am I Excommunicated? Sanctions, Part I
  • Can You be Refused Holy Communion if You Kneel?
  • Can Non-Catholics Serve as Baptismal Sponsors?
  • Confession and General Absolution
  • Can Women be Ordained Priests?
  • Can a Public Sinner Have a Catholic Funeral?
  • Are they Really Catholic? Part II
  • Do Lapsed Catholics Marry Validly Outside the Church?
  • Are They Really Catholic? Part I
  • Are Women Required to Cover Their Heads in Church?
  • Can a Catholic Ever Get Married in a Non-Catholic Church?
  • Marriage between a Catholic and a Non-Catholic
  • Marriage and Annulment
  • Can a Non-Catholic Receive Holy Communion in a Catholic Church?
  • Can the Pastor Refuse to Baptize Our Child?
  • When Can a Priest Refuse to Absolve a Penitent in the Confessional?
  • Can a Non-Catholic be Given a Catholic Funeral?