Called to Communion with Doctor David Anders - April 12, 2021

and his ascension for more news with a catholic perspective visit ewtnews.com i'm teresa tamio and call to communion with dr david anders starts now what's stopping you from becoming a catholic why can't women become priests 1-833-288 ewtn i don't understand why i have to earn salvation eight eight 1-833-288-3 nine eight six what's stopping why do i need to confess my sins to a priest what's stopping you this is called to communion with dr david anders on the ewtn global catholic radio network hey everybody welcome again to call to communion here on ewtn it's the program for our non-catholic brothers and sisters those of you who have questions about the catholic faith boy oh boy what a great way to get those questions answered today today can you believe it maybe you've been walking around with those questions for 20 or 30 years and here's an opportunity to get that question answered here is our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833 now if you're listening to us outside of north america please dial the u.s country code and then text the letters 205-271-2985 to 5500 wait for our response and then text us your first name and your brief question message and data rates may apply and of course you can always send us an email we'll lead off with one of those in a moment ctc ewtn.com is the address ctc at ewtn.com well we are changing things up today just because we can our producer today michael mccall our phone screener michael birchfield how about that for different but uh jeff burson hanging in there with social media he'll be glad to pass on any uh questions that you might want to post via youtube or facebook put that question of yours in the comments box and then jeff will shoot that to us here in the studio i'm tom price along with dr david anders tom how are you today very well how was your weekend my friend oh it was uh it was decent and you know fortunately we didn't get blown away in any storms but you know several people do get blown away in storms down here in the south this season of the year it does happen we are very blessed to be um with everybody today here's an email uh this is rather interesting this is from john who says your claim that the roman catholic church was required to determine canonicity is completely fallacious how did the jews know that the old testament was inspired and canonical jesus held them accountable to it they didn't know the jews didn't know and they had no agreement among themselves over the contents of their own canon of the bible and jesus acknowledges their disagreement so when christ interacts with the sadducees the sadducees had a different canon in the bible from the pharisees and when jesus interacts with the sadducees he does not quote from the pharisaical canon he doesn't quote the prophets at uh at the sadducees he quotes the law of moses the first five books the pentateuch because those are the only books that the sadducees regarded as authoritative when he iron acts with pharisees he has to interact with a different canon the jews didn't have a determined canon of the bible until after the time of christ there are multiple jewish cannons floating around in antiquity and they were disputed well all right then okay so the premise of the question is false okay there you go john appreciate your email here's one now from joseph could you please explain if there is scriptural or traditional reason why god through times of darkness in human history has given his church weak and even complicit leadership is that why indeed there is darkness we have seen this in several periods some very bad over 2000 years since peter and it's always separated people from him now we understand it's god's choice are we given to understand why through anything he has given us thanks joseph yeah thanks i really appreciate the question so your remark that having bad leadership has alienated people from god is probably true and having bad leadership has also not alienated people from god that's also true so at moments in time when people of god have had really inept or immoral leaders there have always been saints in those times right so you know the the in any society that could be the society of the church or civil society in any society you have to have some sort of organizational principle in order to have a society if you don't have something that unites this group of individuals is you know some kind of some sort of principle then you don't have a coherent society and if it's uh if it's if if they govern their own activities you have to have some sort of leadership structure that's just that's necessary for the maintenance of any kind of any kind of social institution and uh and so to have leaders is intrinsic to the nature of social organization but it's not it's not uh it's not of the essence of holiness right i mean holiness is the the charity in our own hearts given to us by the holy spirit with which we cooperate with god's grace and live virtuously and love god and love our neighbor and you the fact that you have an inept or incompetent or immoral leader has literally i mean it's it's inconvenient right we don't want to have these kinds of leaders yeah but it is no it's no absolute impediment to the life of holiness and your question why would god allow this well it may actually be in a kind of paradoxical way productive of holiness right um and i'm thinking about all the occasions uh that i see in my own life and in history of uh of seemingly fantastic leaders that draw people in due to the force of their own personality or their charisma right and then what happens when you lose that leader um where's your faith then where's your life of virtue then right and sometimes god does use people to to draw us to himself and to and to model for us what authentic relationship to god looks like but those kinds of mentor individuals need not necessarily be in positions of higher office i mean it's nice if they are but then it that may not be the case in your own walk and spirituality and having to confront the ups and downs and the ins and outs and the ambiguities of human society uh you know as you run smack dab against uh you know maybe a a a judgment or a policy or a ruling or an individual that you think is unjust is an occasion to develop virtues like patience and constancy and faith in god's providence and trust and long-suffering and these kinds of things i mean clearly christ modeled that for us as well jesus's confrontation with the religious authorities of his own day ultimately to his own martyrdom is a model for our life of holiness and i mean it seems kind of bizarre and paradoxical that we should be blessed by the church and sanctified and taught by the church and sometimes we also suffer at the hands of the church this is the law of of human society and you're not going to escape this no matter what society you join and uh and holiness ultimately points us towards the next life and not the cult of of charismatic personalities in this okay very good and we thank you so much for your question by the way if you'd like to send us an email for a future show here is the address ctc at ewtn.com ctc ewtn.com we try to do several on our live shows that we do monday through friday here on ewtn radio and about once a month we'll do a mailbag program where we'll do a whole bunch of emails so again the address ctc ewtn.com in a moment we'll be talking with doc in denton texas listening to us on the great guadalupe radio we've got a line open for you right now as well at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 the monday edition of call to communion i'm roy brown executive director for billings catholic radio catholic radio is arguably the greatest tool for evangelization radio has the power to speak directly to individuals and creates a sense of one-on-one fellowship there is no better way to evangelize than through a relationship where we can share and bring the love and joy of christ to another's daily life the world needs ewtn catholic radio now more than ever [Music] this is a messy family minute with mike and alicia hernan in the document lumen gentium the church tells us the family is so to speak the domestic church in it parents should by their word and example be the first preachers of the faith to their children this worldwide pandemic has made it even more clear that the spiritual responsibility for children rests firmly in the hands of parents parents need to create an environment of prayer at home and then teach their children the tools of prayer if prayer time with little ones especially becomes a wrestling match or playtime we suggest that you remove items of amusement ignore distracting behavior from young children and then be an example to them by turning your own mind and heart to god if parents and older children have a heartfelt attitude of prayer they set the right tone and example for the little ones remember our heavenly father loves our best efforts to honor him and will take our messy offerings and return them with grace in favor for more ideas on prayer visit us at messi [Music] it's called a communion here on ewtn want to give you a quick reminder about the holy rosary you know what we bring you the holy holy rosary twice each day and we've been doing it for over 25 years here on the radio tune in every morning at 5 30 a.m eastern for mother angelica leading the rosary and every evening at 9 30 p.m for father benedict groschel leading the rosary only on ewtn radio if you're ready now let's go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn let's begin with a doc in denton texas listing on guadalupe radio hey doc what's on your mind today well i called it about seven weeks ago and i still haven't got an answer that i want that i need a straight answer i am my uh i i i couldn't be confirmed uh on easter i mean i just but because i can't get an answer as to why i'm told i have to follow certain things the you know everything that you know to become a good catholic and to follow the catechists and everything but the president of the united states the speaker of the house uh several members of congress they can talk about abortion they talk about it openly but if i talk about it or if i acquit you know in other words it seems like i could be excommunicated or i could be you know why are they allowed to to do this and remain you know and be able to take the holy sacraments okay thanks i appreciate what you tell me i want someone to tell me why yeah sure doc i appreciate it uh first of all you would not be excommunicated for discussing abortion no you would not be right um and uh and you wouldn't necessarily be excommunicated even if you held erroneous opinions about abortion all right so to be to be uh materially in error on a matter of church teaching or morals is not cause for excommunication right uh it's calls for instruction admonition and be the priest's duty to to set you straight but not to excommunicate you right um and uh so the church has a discipline of the sacraments and you talked about you know your own desire to receive the eucharist and having to go through the proper procedure and the church pass those procedures to make sure that catechumens and candidates are well instructed know what their duties and obligations are now you know it's in terms of when when a judgment is made about a public figure who who may or may not be engaged in scandalous behavior it is the job of that person's bishop to determine what the proper disciplinary procedure is right now i see that you're calling from texas and your bishop has absolutely nothing to do with uh with who receives communion in the nation's capital that's outside of his jurisdiction so you need to answer to your bishop and politicians need to answer to their bishops and th those bishops make decisions about how to enforce church law and they try to make good judgments about what the best pastoral policy is and i can't speak for those bishops i can't tell you why they make the judgment calls that they make but i don't i'm not personally going to live or die or go to heaven or hell based on someone else's conscience but on mine and my conscience is held captive to the word of god in scripture and tradition and i obedience to my bishop as you owe to yours and and it's based on that that i'm going to be judged it it on on on a human level it can be frustrating of course of course it's frustrating i recognize that yeah so there you go doc we hope that's helpful for you we also and you've you've mentioned this in the past david that we don't know what's going on behind the scenes we should don't with uh you know with a particular bishop and a particular politician we have no idea you know but again i'm i'm keen to emphasize bishops are in the position of trying to make prudent judgments about about the discipline of the church the instruction in the church and uh and they're human beings bishops are yeah and they're they're not they're not immune from making mistakes in the exercise of their office now i'm not gonna call anybody out yeah it's not my job to judge whether they're doing a good job or a bad job right but if you're frustrated with somebody it's okay to be frustrated that's not a sin to be frustrated doc thanks so much for your call we hope that's uh helpful for you that opens up a line for you right now at 833 eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six it's the monday edition of call to communion here on ewtn here is ernest now in dunadan florida listening on ewtn television did i pronounce your name uh correctly there ernest dunadan is that right done eden done eden all right very good what's on your mind today ernest my question is about eating pork products pork hot dogs pork sausage pork rolls well that stopped me from getting into heaven nope oh very good i just want to make sure nope i don't want to make sure god has declared all foods clean now the only way that food can keep you from getting into heaven is if you are given to the vice of gluttony right and uh st paul speaks of those who make their stomach their god um and but that wouldn't i mean you could be a you could be a a glutton and be a vegan you know yeah you could be a glutton for broccoli i don't think i've ever met any of those but no but there are no prohibitions on types of food for for christians there you go appreciate that thank you so much for your call ernest here is uh charlie in the uk watching us on youtube right now charlie says why do catholics feel it is compulsory that monks priests and nuns should remain celibate shouldn't this be optional for the devout to decide yes thank you i really appreciate the question so first of all the question of state of life celibacy or marriage priesthood or religious life um is uh is absolutely uh absolutely emerges from from the the free decision of the one called to this state of life now i should add it's not entirely up to their free decision i mean if i'd decide hey i want to be a priest well i don't you know the church has to accept me and they're not going to accept me because i'm married right so i don't i don't you know it's my free choice but i made my free choice and i settled on my state of life which is marriage and same thing with religious life somebody might say hey i want to be a monk shows up at the monastery and they say we don't think you're called [Laughter] why don't you go back to school for a while slow down here sparky exactly but yeah but no one is forced no one is forced to live a celibate life now let's talk about monks and nuns in particular since you bring them up and and consecrated religious in general this is the choice of a state of life perfectly consecrated to god right jesus talks about if you want to be perfect go and sell everything you possess give to the poor come and follow me councils of perfection poverty chastity and obedience is a freely chosen state of life when one wants to consecrate their their whole existence entirely to the service of god and of the church that's a freely chosen state of life saint paul talks about this in first corinthians chapter six and seven he says you know if better not to marry better better to be like me celibate so you can give yourself entirely the work of the church but i leave that up to your free decision if you don't want to take that choice of life that state of life you don't have to you can marry but this is the more perfect way well religious life in the catholic faith is an opportunity for somebody to take that more perfect way now you know my experience growing up outside the catholic church i grew up in a tradition that had no place at all for celibacy now there are a lot of unmarried people yeah and you just by force not everybody can get married had a lot of unmarried people but had no place of life in the church for people who had decided on a life of celibacy so they were lonely and without direction without a rule of life to guide them so it's really a deep deprivation to they were deprived of these formal structures to give shape and meaning and context to their life of celibacy when i became and i was of course taught growing up that that catholic religious life was a terrible burden and what a horrible thing these catholic people do when they impose this on folks then i became catholic and i said that's totally they don't understand this is a beautiful gift that the church gives first to the consecrated religious themselves because imagine if you are called to celibacy if that's your vocation in life your personal location is to give yourself entirely this way and you got no way to do it you know no institutions to support that decision you're you're you're you know you're you're you're you you're out on the boat without a paddle you got nowhere to go you become catholic now all of a sudden there's this rich tradition of religious institutions where you can freely give yourself in this way and the church recognizes you have a particular state of life and we're here to support that sustain that and and to hold it up as an example so it's a gift to the religious themselves but then the religious are in turn a tremendous gift to the rest of the body of christ in my own catholic life as a layman i cannot tell you how much i have benefited from the ministry of catholic religious it's just been tremen even in my little tiny diocese here of of birmingham alabama right it was not the catholic capital of the universe i've had dominicans franciscans jesuits passionists uh benedictines that have enriched my life enriched my family's life with this tremendous gift of self an example of self-donation and selfless living and even as a married person their example of chastity helps me live my vocation of chastity as a married man it is an incredibly fruitful gift to the church and i cannot stop singing the praise of catholic religious and to be grateful for the church for making this opportunity available to young men and young women to give their lives in this way what a gift but it's forced on no one in fact more often than not the religious institutions are standing at the door saying we don't think this one's for you like they're selective they don't just let any old you know tom dick and harry come in they're selected they can really make sure this is your vocation now when it comes to the priesthood a little bit different story with the priesthood because there are married priests in the catholic church church consists of a number of different rights these are these are legal and liturgical traditions going back for 2000 years in some of those rights of the catholic church married clergy or more and less common right uh in the roman rite the latin right of the church which is the dominant right in the west in most of the world there are also some married priests although they're an exception all right so it's not an absolute prohibition on on married people becoming priests uh however the discipline is that for most people who want to be priests need to be committed to the life of celibacy for the same reasons we've already articulated christ and saint paul have identified this as the most perfect form of consecration in which the priest is able to give himself entirely to the work of the church but it's not only of utilitarian value it also has this profound iconic significance that i already spoke about it's a witness to the whole christian faithful about what a life of total consecration actually looks like and i i'm grateful for the married catholic priests that i know very grateful for them their friendship their pastoral wisdom and human experience but i'm also deeply grateful for the celibate priests that i know who who stand before me every day at the altar as this example this icon of christ's total consecration and i i wouldn't have it any other way and i want to circle back on something that you that you said earlier almost without exception some of the most joyful people that i know are the priests and the religious that i have known here in here in birmingham and really all over the world and and we get priests and religious from all over the world that come here to the ewtn campus to do shows to appear on guest shots these are happy people absolutely they're just you know joyful and and it's a very natural joy it's not a forced thing at all you know there's a there's a uh religious congregation very close to ewtn you know sister servants sure do around the corner yeah and i took a friend of mine years and years ago to go visit somebody who was out there wasn't one of the sisters it was a priest who was out there and this guy was thinking about becoming catholic and um to be honest with you he had kind of a middling experience with the priest all right but he said to me after we left he said didn't didn't get much out of talking to the priest what i noticed was the sisters he didn't speak to him he said everywhere i looked i saw smiling women yeah they were happy yeah it's a wonderful thing let's go to uh the phones right now at 833 288 ewtn here is virginia in toledo listening on annunciation radio hey there virginia what's on your mind today hi how you doing very well i'm here for questions it goes back to david he uh saw bathsheba bathing understandable he had her husband killed in a battle they conceived a child and then god let the child die i thought the sins of the father does not fall upon the child yes thank you i appreciate the question so uh clearly david and bathsheba themselves experience this loss with great grief for for them they experience this loss as the consequence of their immorality and that's the way the prophet interpreted this experience to them now we should point out many people unfortunately suffer the tragedy of losing their children we should not conclude that this is always a punishment clearly not clearly not but in this particular instance the prophet reveals to king david that this is the consequence of his activity david experiences it this way that's not the same thing as to suggest that the child himself was being punished there's no indication in the narrative that the child was the object of god's wrath far from it in every reason i think to suppose that the child experienced this you know early departure if you will as an entrance and to be attitude and ultimately after the resurrection of christ under the beatific vision so this this poor child wasn't the one who was really suffering it was the parents who suffered the loss of the child the child himself not told that this child was an object of god's wrath at all and you know people die all the time we will all die none of us know the day or the hour for many people death is a boon for those left behind it's great grief and sorrow sure but it's not necessarily great grief and sorrow for the one who passes into the bosom of our father well we're virginia we hope that's helpful for you thank you so much for your call we're going to go to a quick break here when we come back we've got lots more on the second half of today's call to communion here on ewtn radio we'll be talking with martha martha is in pittsburgh watching us on ewtn television today also elena in brownsville texas listening on siriusxm channel 130 delighted to hear from you today if you have a question for dr david anders what's keeping you from becoming a catholic let's talk about it 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 the monday afternoon edition of call to communion in progress here on ewtn radio do stay with us [Music] it means the same live truth live catholic ewtn 60 on 10 with monsignor charles pope the fifth commandment you shall not kill at the heart of this commandment is an absolute insistence on the sacredness of human life we read in jeremiah chapter 1 verse 5 before i ever formed you in the womb i knew you says the lord so every human life is sacred because it's caught up in the mind and the heart and the will and the love of god and no matter how we're conceived or any circumstances god has always known and loved every human person and for this reason we are to hold sacred every human life we are therefore to never murder never kill never seek vengeance of course we have issues of abortion and euthanasia today and we have so many ways where we in some way disrespect the lives of other human persons and even our own life we have to learn to respect it as a great gift from god the fifth commandment you shall not kill for more about the ten commandments visit ewtnrc.com [Music] unplanned the true story of abby johnson i would be the youngest director in planned parenthood history she believed in a woman's right to choose i've had an abortion myself so i don't have any problem with another woman making the same decision until the day she saw something that changed everything tiny perfect little baby and then it was just gone now she's pulling back the curtain on the abortion industry unplanned available at ewtnrc.com and the ewtn app hi this is sci kellett later today on catholic answers live two hours of tips for defending the faith with trent horn catholic ants was live 6 pm eastern on ewtn radio now back to call to communion with dr david anderson it's called communion here on ewtn if you have a question for dr david andrews uh especially want to hear from our non-catholic brothers and sisters what's keeping you from becoming a catholic 833 288 ewtn we have one line open 833-288-3986 here is elena now in brownsville texas listening on siriusxm channel 130 a first-time caller elena what's on your mind today yes thank you for taking my call yes um i wanted to ask i'm from mexico and since living on the border i came into the united states legally when i was 10 years old all my family members were catholic that's the only church that i've known the thing is my parents never really took us to church we never went to church now i'm 60 years old now and uh i've been going back to the church and i see everybody taking the eucharist and i asked myself well i'd like to take the eucharist this is well you have to do your first communion but to do the first communion i was told by a priest that you have to have to prove that you have been baptized and confirmed so i was baptized in mexico and one of my aunts confirmed me the thing is i have no records and i went to my somalis mexico to check the church there if they if there's any record of me being baptized and i show nothing and my mother passed away and my dad passed away and my aunt passed away so now i'm in a position where how can i take the eucharist if i have no clue yes yes so thank you elena i really appreciate the question so uh first of all let me tell you why the church does this right because baptism is a public act and it signals that we are members of a society the society of the catholic church you know we're not just we are baptized for our own individual spirituality and salvation but also baptized as members of a collective members of a group and uh and so the church needs to know that this has been done properly in the same way that say if a politician took an oath of office it wouldn't be sufficient for him to say well you know i took it privately you know there'd have to be some way to verify that the guy had taken the oath of office so he could enter into that public state of life so it's reasonable for the church to to want to have some kind of evidence that a person has been properly baptized now in a situation like yours where there's no record and and there doesn't seem to be a good way of of producing a record there is an alternative and that is the church can can perform what's called a conditional baptism it's not it's not a baptism unless you're not baptized validly and then it is a baptism but if you are baptized validly then it's just conditional and the prayers i don't have the formula memorized but something along the lines of in case this person is not baptized then i baptize you in the name of the father son and holy spirit it's easy easy to do and so you just tell the priest look i i want to come back to church i want to be admitted to holy communion i don't have any proof of my baptism you know we could do conditional baptism and then and then we're off to the races uh now with the confirmation it would not be possible for your aunt to validly confirm you has to be is supposed to be a bishop or a priest that the bishop delegates to administer the sacrament of confirmation a layperson cannot administer confirmation so that would seem if that's your memory uh that would not be a valid confirmation we would definitely need to be confirmed but with the baptism conditional baptism is the way forward for you that would be the first step right all right elena thank you so much for your call good to hear from you in brownsville texas let's go now to uh pittsburgh and talk with martha watching us on ewtn television a first time caller martha what's on your mind today oh thank you so very much great show thank you this is um uh concerning uh of my girlfriend that finally came back i thought to the catholic church because she she retired i've been retired for 10 years and i thought oh this is so wonderful she's going to church with her friend sandy this is so wonderful and hear about um something about three months ago she started kind of complaining about some stuff at the church like uh like oh she says marty there's a picture of saint james why there a picture of saint james on top of the tabernacle i'm like i don't know i have no idea why there's a picture of saint james on top of your tabernacle she says there's something she would complain about here things couple things here and there and i thought it was a typical latin mask because they say she wore the dress and the veil and all that stuff and i thought well that's good a latin mess you know it's nice people go to latin masses that's great so i'm more of a you know regular you know um nervous type of person you know so um i'm pretty pretty orthodox catholic here so i might think oh this is so wonderful well all of a sudden i i looked it up because i like to read about everything so i looked it up and i looked up the churches um i won't name it in pittsburgh and i'm thinking well another thing was suspicious is why is this girl taking lucy with the driving all the way across the city to go to this church you could probably go to a latin church i named one that was a little bit closer that had a latin mass closer but this woman wanted to then i found out by doing research it's a sspx church okay and then i then i told my girlfriend i told her i did research um and and then i looked up the research and then i got my other really developed catholic girlfriend that that my girl that girlfriend a likes a lot catholic and i got her to jump on her so we all got on her and then then she actually listened to the research and she read it from the usccb and stuff like that and franciscan.org and stuff like that and uh so now we got her going back to the regular catholic church so my question to you is what's up with the ss what is up with the sspx what's up with them are they like aryans are they like uh no they're not aryans they're not aryans they're more like donatists if they're like anything all right they're not aryans but uh yippie i like that yeah she's back to the church let's talk about the sspx so after the second vatican council um french archbishop lefevre formed a priestly society to to perpetuate a uh uh how should i put it the more traditional way of formulating uh the faith and catechesis and the celebration of the liturgy um as uh uh you know really sort of resisted the reformers of the second vatican council and the insights gained there there from and really wanted to kind of perpetuate the way things had been had been done before the council and he did so with the pope's permission right i mean this council of trent is a holy catholic council in the in the catholic uh the sacred holy mass according to the council of trent so sacred and holy mass and many saints have come from that expression of the catholic faith and that's not an unreasonable uh to have a loyalty to that and to want to perpetuate those those traditions and those insights difficulty came in when pope john paul ii instructed archbishop lefevre not to ordain bishops to his society you know really not to try to make a church apart without the holy father being in charge right and archbishop lefevre disobeyed that order and he ordained bishops for his society and so he incurred the discipline of excommunication as did all the bishops that he ordained and voila the society saint pius the tenth went into a kind of schismatical condition where they had validly ordained priests and bishops that could celebrate some valid sacraments but they were outside the obedience of the church and the holy father and and so they ceased to have any kind of official or canonical status within the catholic church and that has continued to this day except we've made some progress uh the church did lift the verdict of excommunication from these bishops and priests so they're no longer formally excommunicated and pope francis has extended to them the faculties to perform some sacraments that they previously lacked faculties to perform so for example in order to validly absolve sins a priest has to have faculties given to him by his bishop but since the bishops of the society of saint pius x have no valid jurisdiction they don't have diocese they were not able to grant faculties to their own priests to validly absolve now they think they do but the church says otherwise right yeah but pope francis recognized well look there are kids that have grown up in these chapels and they know no other expression of catholic faith other than this this one and so in a in a extraordinary act of pastoral condescension the pope said you know what i'm just going to unilaterally grant these guys the right to absolve i give them jurisdiction because i don't want these kids to grow up without the sacrament of of penance so the pope gave them that and uh you could just see them going this puts us in a bad light right because what are we going to do thanks but no thanks you know but they've got it that in the same way the pope authorized that local catholic bishops if they have an sspx chapel in there in their jurisdiction can grant faculties for those priests to validly perform marriages because you have to have a a catholic minister priest or deacon to validly marry if you're a catholic and so you had all these people in the society getting married in front of sspx priests and they weren't getting valuable valid sacramental marriages so pope gave the power to bishops true bishops real bishops that have actual jurisdiction to uh to grant those faculties um and they do have a valid mass so we're in kind of a weird situation with the sspx we've got we've got validly ordained bishops but they don't have any diocese and therefore have no real jurisdiction you've got validly ordained priests who can celebrate many sacraments validly but they do so illicitly they do so in disobedience to the pope boy all right they're not formally excommunicated but they have no official status within the catholic church so they're really in a very irregular kind of condition now all these concessions that the pope that the church has made to the sspx are not they're not they're not admissions that the sspx is operating lawfully they're really concessions for the sake of the poor people who've been raised in this tradition right and the the mind of the church is that these people need to be reconciled to obedience to the church into the holy father and uh and you just can't keep holding out you know for the regime that you like that's not how catholic life works yeah you know you get the bishop that you get you get the pope that you get and you trust the holy spirit to keep his promise that the gates of hell are not going to prevail against the church it's not on you to keep the gates of hell from prevailing against the church it's not my good judgment you know it's the church preserved by christ that's going to keep the faith so let's let's give up the pride let's come back inside the church let's submit to the pope and the bishops and less operate you know like good catholics and if you're into the latin mouse you know there's a way to scratch that itch and still be obedient to the church you know i mean if you listen to the show you know i love theology both before and after the second vatican council plumbed the whole depth of catholic tradition for 2 000 years right that's fine you can do that too but let's do it in the church with the pope and the bishops and let's all pray for unity absolutely all right g martha thank you so much for your call hope that's helpful for you it's called a communion here on ewtn a quick reminder here that this program called a communion is rebroadcast each and every monday through friday at 11 p.m eastern and that would be 8 p.m pacific so if you missed uh part or all of our show uh any day check out the uh the encore that evening at 11 pm eastern 8 pm pacific and of course you can always check out the podcast by going to ewtnradio.net back to the phones right now for ewtn's call to communion here's ellen in toledo listening on annunciation radio ellen what's on your mind today yes i was told by a catholic uh friend that if you attend mass every day for all seven days a week sunday through saturday over a three year period you will hear the entire bible except for a few passages here and there what are those passages and why were they specifically omitted yeah thank you appreciate the question so i i cannot give you a strict list of every passage of the bible that is not read in the three-year lectionary but i can speak in general terms about it uh some of the texts that have been omitted from public reading for example would be the some of the imprecatory psalms the imprecatory psalms are the the ones that say things like god may uh may you my enemies children's heads be bashed against rocks all right really really violent calls for vengeance against israel's enemies and uh um it's it's uh it's hard to preach a good homily on that i'll tell you right now okay and and i think you know rightly or wrongly um uh the uh congregation for the liturgy thought we're going to provoke more misunderstanding than otherwise with these texts and so this is just an exercise of pastoral judgment that we might not read in preparatory psalms uh during the liturgy now look the church has been reading these texts for 2000 years and there's a long history of theological reflection on these texts uh in in ways that can accommodate the obvious offensiveness of their face value content so there's a way of doing it um and uh and of course they're not omitted from the you know from the older liturgy yeah um but um you know but that's a judgment call sure okay well there you go alan appreciate that and i hope that's helpful for you call to communion here on ewtn let's go to gene in hazelton pennsylvania listing on ewtn television hello gene what's on your mind today well i thank you for taking my call i our priest our church we had a charismatic priest that's he says mass and then after mass he blesses you and if you fall down they say the holy spirit goes in you so every time i went and i got blessed i never fell down then i went through classes and after the class was over you're supposed to have the holy spirit in you well i they were all talking in tongues and that but i didn't and then i went to another class uh that was another week and when it was over with there were ev there were people crying and people talking in tongues and then i just kept saying the prayer over and over and over again and i'm wondering is the holy spirit in me yes thank you so much i really appreciate this this question i can assure you that the holy spirit is in you if you're a baptized confirmed catholic living in the state of grace the holy spirit is absolutely in you and in sacred scripture the spirit manifests himself in a number of different ways in different modes and the highest modes of the spirit's presence in our life are in the infused virtues of faith hope and charity and the gifts of the holy spirit that are things like piety and fortitude and the fear of the lord right and wisdom these are the the most imminent gifts of the spirit and saint paul says that if we walk with the spirit if we keep in step with the spirit then the fruit of the spirit is manifest in our life things like love and joy peace and patience kindness goodness gentleness and self-control this is the real manifestation of the spirit in our life now sometimes god does other things through the ministry of the holy spirit in the life of the church granting charisms gifts for building up the body uh for example teaching is one of the charisms that a person might have from the holy spirit and it is possible to have say the charismatic gift of teaching and go to hell you can have a charismatic gift and not be in the state of grace and go to hell right so you know there some days of the week i'd like to think that maybe the lord gave me the gift of teaching i enjoy teaching i hope to think it might be a spiritual gift but it's certainly not going to save me right god gives such gifts for the sake of the body of christ in order to build up others but the one who uses that gift might do it in a self-aggrandizing way right in order to build himself up or herself up and it might be an occasion for that person to go to hell and saint james says that he says you people who have the gift of teaching watch out because god is going to judge you more harshly it's not any sign of grace in your life it's just something that god has given for the building up of the church all of the charismatic gifts are like that that would include gifts of prophecy and healing and tongues they're way way down the scale is what i'm saying in terms of the life of personal holiness they're way down the scale and saint paul who had all these gifts said he said i would rather speak uh two intelligible words this is in first corinthians chapter 14 then ten thousand words in a tongue hmm did i rather speak two intelligible words than 10 000 words in a tongue and whatever you do he says let everything be done decently in an order and so you know if the lord grants you faith hope and charity wisdom and piety and fortitude and fear of the lord and love and joy and peace and patience and kindness then he has given you the greater gifts and and if he hasn't given you you know the ability to pass out when somebody prays for you or the invalid the ability to speak unintelligible words uh then you have been denied the least of his gifts and gifted with the greatest of his gifts there you go be not afraid gene thank you so much uh for your call call to communion here on ewtn let's go to jeremy now one of my favorite towns in georgia douglasville listening on the quest a first-time caller jeremy what's on your mind today hi well i am i'm responding to your call for non-catholics to give a reason and a question about why you're not catholic um i am a i was baptized southern baptist uh didn't identify with the reformed tradition i'm listening to your show i'm gonna pick my kids up from school um i've been persuaded by your solo scriptura arguments about why the church sort of came first and gave us gave us the new testament and i've also finished reading the popen the president which made me appreciate the power of the papacy and uh the miracles at fatima which i can't really explain or dismiss either so my question is um it has to do with historical error so one reason i'm not a catholic is i believe like martin luther that the sale of indulgences and what tesla was doing that angered him was out of line with scripture out of line with with the gospel and so my question is is like why didn't the church correct those errors themselves or what mechanism does the church have to correct such errors given people infallibility you know why did it take martin luther standing up to what to the sale of indulgences why didn't the church itself sort of recognize that was wrong yeah sure correct themselves along the way that's a great question so i got several things i need to say here one has to do with the uh the historical account of the reformation and i think the idea that luther somehow was the guy who popped up and called attention to corruption in the church i think that's a gross mistelling i mean it's part of the it's part of the protestant narrative i understand that but that's not actually the way the history works out the reformation in my judgment as a historian of the period and this is i did this study as a protestant it's what made me catholic right so i didn't have an axe to grind when i was when i was learning this stuff actually i did i was trying to defeat the catholic church and stay reformed protestant but uh i really think the reformation begins in the 11th century in the pontifica of hildebrand pope uh gregory vii who brought to the catholic church from the cluniag monasteries the ideology of reform you know before the 11th century the idea that church needs to be reformed get back to some primitive model that's not an idea that's current i mean the apostles weren't talking about getting back to some primitive model they were the primitive model right so it has that idea has to emerge from some place it really comes into the western church about the 11th century really due to the cluniak monasteries and the ministry of pope gregory the seventh and for the next 500 years the idea let's reform the church becomes the primary motivator of all the progress in catholicism for 500 years is what inspires saint francis of assisi it's what inspires saint dominic carmelite reform efforts augustinian hermits you name all these religious orders that pop into existence and begin to evangelize and call people to a reformed state of life the ideology of reform was thick in the air in the world into which luther was born luther himself was an augustinian hermit this is a reforming order within the catholic church great theologians like george these guys were anticipated what luther was doing in most of its good aspects right and so luther is just riding a wave of reformism he's not at all the first guy to call out corruption in the church and to ask for reform he had a number of councils that had been called in the church prior to luther's day to try to address issues now what's the mechanism uh the mechanism is the governing body of the church the pope and the bishops and councils and you know like any mechanism they can be more or less effective but to but to imagine that the catholic church was a sort of sitting idol and not trying to do anything is just historically false now when it comes to the question of infallibility understand that infallibility does not guarantee that catholic leaders will make prudent judgments at all it doesn't guarantee that they make prudent judgments it just guarantees that that when they teach the faith and morals in a way that's definitive that god will preserve them from saying something untrue that's all it means it doesn't mean that they necessarily make prudent judgments now there were plenty of people in luther's old own day that thought that what tesla was doing was atrocious and and the church also thinks that and that's why it's against the law in the church to sell indulgences or for that matter to sell any kind of spiritual goods or offices it's the son of simony right they've been recognized as a problem for a long time prior to luther and it's against canon law so i mean there is a mechanism for doing that and continues to be to this day um you know i mean take a contemporary example when we began to see the scandal uh surrounding uh clerical sex abuse that really kind of hit the newspapers big time in the early 2000s and we had another uh uh sort of major explosion you know in the last 10 years uh what did the church do well i mean these were atrocious scandals are horrible things well the church went to work immediately to develop legal policies about uh how to handle it and as a result we have one of the most thorough regimes for youth protection in the catholic diocese diocese around the world now of any private agency and so that's the mechanism we have a governing body it's charged with overseeing the affairs of the church trying to do a good job and and lay people are allowed to participate in that uh you know sometimes even in civil courts if they have to this is actually something that you work with uh in your work at the diocese here in birmingham every day yeah yeah so you know how strong it is uh jeremy thank you so much for your very very good question and uh hope that answers everything for you we certainly invite you to keep listening to ewtn radio uh if you want to hear this again i invite you to check out the podcast our producer today michael mccall we'll have that posted for you oh probably in the next couple of hours here at ewtnradio.net ewtnradio.net hey dr david andrews thank you sir thanks tom don't forget as we mentioned earlier in the hour you can check out uh the encore of this show at 11 p.m eastern tonight 8 p.m pacific time on behalf of our great team behind the glass i'm tom price along with dr david andrews thanks for joining us today on ewtn's call to commission communion we'll see you tomorrow god bless

Channel: EWTN

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Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: KtuGW_cDTZc

Length: 54min 10sec (3250 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 12 2021