Called to Communion with Dr. David Anders - January 26, 2022

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 1-833-288-3986 [Music] catholic radio network hey everybody welcome again to call to communion here on ewtn this is the program for our non-catholic brothers and sisters if you've got questions about the catholic faith what better opportunity do you have than to just pick up the phone and give us a call we'll get that question answered for you asap here's our number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's 833 288 3986 if you're listening to us anywhere outside of north america please dial the u.s country code and then 205-271-2985 you can also text the letters ewtn to 5500 wait for our response and then text us your first name and your brief question message and data rates may apply and uh if you wish to send us an email you can do that we're going to lead off in a moment here with an email we received just yesterday ctc at ewtn.com ctc at ewtn.com charles berry our producer and matt gabinski normally handles the phones but not today today it's going to be rich jesse we also have uh jeff person handling social media for us and if you want to uh ask a question via youtube or facebook live we're streaming there right now just put that question into the comments box and uh we'll get that to those to us here in the studio i'm tom price along with dr david anderson tom how are you today very well how are you sir i'm doing well thanks i don't think we've had a lunch update in a couple of weeks uh maybe you can tell us what you dined on today for lunch oh it was great today i had an acorn squash and broccoli wow i ate the whole acorn squash i bet you did it was fantastic fantastic well here is an email we received i came in this morning early on and this is from vinicius and this is actually relating to something that you said on an earlier program so dr anders where in the bible does it say we should not keep the sabbath anymore after jesus got crucified thank you venesius yeah thank you so places in his epistles and where he lays out the his sort of philosophical approach to the old testament and old testament ritual most most explicitly is in the book of galatians and his teaching is that old testament ritual is a pedagogue to lead us to christ and beyond that it has served its function and therefore we are not to allow anyone to judge judge us with respect to sabbath days he makes that claim explicitly or other jewish liturgical observances and when we look to the practice of the apostles record in the book of acts it's evident that they gathered on the first day of the week to celebrate the day of the lord's resurrection and in acts chapter 15 when the question arose about what to do with gentile converts when they come into the church should they be required to follow the law of moses or not the council in jerusalem guided by the holy spirit was adamant that the law of moses is not to be imposed upon the gentiles okay well there you go vinicius thank you so much for your email here's one now from james please discuss the practice of quote speaking in tongues my my recollection from catholic school many years ago was that at pentecost the holy spirit filled the apostles they began speaking or were being understood in different languages or or tongues i have heard so much about the protestant church attendees beginning to speak in tongues i have found it to sound kind of like gibberish or baby babble in videos that i have watched i don't see how the apostles could have spread the word of god in gibberish so would you please clarify this for me thank you james yes thank you very much appreciate the question so you are correct that in the book of acts the description we have is of people speaking in intelligible known languages that they were that they didn't have naturally the ability to speak and so those gathered from different countries could hear the word of god proclaimed in their own languages there is a discussion of glossolalia or speaking in tongues in the book of first corinthians that does not seem to fit that description because paul says that this language is unintelligible and he gives instructions for its use in christian worship and he says it's permitted but he would prefer that people use intelligible language and he says i would prefer to say three intelligible words than ten thousand words in a tongue now uh throughout christian history we have different accounts of uh communities uh having sort of spontaneous outbursts of glossolalia speaking tongues activity typically associated with uh you know enthusiasm i should say in in worship those events have been interpreted differently by different communities they mean different things to different people the modern phenomenon of speaking in tongues really took off around 1900 and in the protestant world grew into what is today the pentecostal movement and is associated with a very distinct theology that's different from catholic theology this theology grew out of revivalism and methodism and from the idea that a person would have a crisis moment of conversion a conscious moment of conversion when they would give their life to christ and then be quote unquote saved now that's something that catholics understand to happen in baptism not in a psychological event like that um but uh and then and then the wesleyan idea that one should attain moral perfection and wesley thought that was a distinct work of grace apart from this so-called conversion and in the holiness movement of 19th century wesleyanism the idea emerged that sanctification or holiness could also come with a kind of crisis moment in an instant right now that's not a catholic belief we don't really generally think that a person moves from from vice and concupiscence and sin to moral perfection just at the snap of a finger in a revivalist meeting it usually takes asceticism and renouncing one's past habits and so forth and a fair amount of moral catechesis and progress over time um and uh and so late late 19th early 20th century some wesleyan holiness thinkers began asking themselves the question is there some sort of infallible sign that a person has been zapped this second time and a fellow by the name of charles parham teaching at topeka uh bible college came up with the idea that speaking in tongues was the sign of having been zapped and and he associated it with the biblical language of being baptized in the holy spirit so he went out and began to promote this this theology and it really took it it took off and that's kind of the birth of modern pentecostalism but the fact of glossolalia is one thing pentecostal theology and the way they interpret it that's something entirely different very good thanks so much for your question we'll get to the phones in a moment right here on ewtn's call to communion with dr david anders 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 call now this is a messy family minute with mike and alicia hernan it's easy to become a frantic family in our fast-paced world and it can be hard to keep on being intentional about our marriage and our family life we have seen that it's easy to forget what life is all about isn't it that's why we created a valuable tool called the family board meeting the family board meeting is a simple concept every good company has a regular board meeting to talk about strategy goals direction and changes needed well you and your spouse are the executive officers the board of your family you need to take time off affirm each other sketch out a vision of what you want your family to look like and set goals to make that vision a reality set aside some time to reassess and rebuild your family culture with your spouse the beginning of the year is a great time to schedule or to have your family board meeting what are you waiting for to download our free resource and listen to the podcast on this valuable tool visit us at messyfamilyminute.org okay i've been a catholic for five years but i suffered under a lot of things due to my protestantism as a pentecostal and i just want to personally ask god to bless you for your ministry for everything you do and the help that you give people ewtn helping people grow in their love and understanding of god [Music] call to communion with dr david anders in progress here on ewtn on this wednesday afternoon our phone number 833-288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 do you have a catholic radio station in your area well if you don't you can find out how you can help start a catholic radio station right there where you live powered by the truth of the church and ewtn's dynamic radio programming shows just like this one right here you can email our friend steve at this address radio ewtn.com radio at ewtn.com we're going to get to the phones in just a second here and we'll begin with john driving to minneapolis but first a quick question from greg watching us on youtube can the devil be saved and if not why not if he were to repent of his pride would anything in this world or the next world change thanks so the catholic dogma on this is that the devil cannot be saved for several reasons most importantly christ didn't die for the fallen angels and that actually that position is dogmatic teaching and if you've ever wondered why in the creed we say for us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven according to saint thomas aquinas that line in the creed is meant to explicitly exclude the error of origin the early church writer origin who believed that christ died to redeem all rational all sentient creatures including the devil in that position that the devil and his angels would ultimately be saved so his technical word for that is apocatistasis was uh was officially ruled out christ died became incarnate in human flesh and and died for the salvation of men and women not not for not for the fallen angels okay um also he's not gonna repent because he is um he is forever in love with himself and there is uh he lacks the capacity to turn his will back to anything else okay well there you go and uh greg thank you so much for your fascinating question uh via youtube all right if you're ready now let's go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn here is john driving to minneapolis listening on siriusxm channel 130. john what's on your mind today hi good afternoon my question is could you explain the sacrament of anointing of the sick and last right and got a particular question can a catholic request a priest to perform those rights for those sacraments on somebody who is sick and dying but is not catholic okay thanks i appreciate the question so the anointing of the sick is a sacrament of healing that can according to the charism of the priest bring bring physical healing but is primarily oriented towards giving grace for a person to endure the difficulty of sickness and and death not necessarily death but but death can happen and and it brings grace in the forgiveness of sins and we read about it in the book of james where the apostle says if anyone is sick call the elders of the church and they'll come anoint him with oil and pray for him lay hands on him and the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well christ also gave the apostles the command to go forth and heal the sick was one of the things that they were commissioned to do so this praying for healing is part of the sacramental tradition from christ and from the apostles last rites are literally the last rites that a person receives in the catholic church and that would include the anointing of the sick but also their last holy communion which is called viaticum literally means with you on the way via comb viaticon that's cool and uh and the idea that that you should commune before you die goes back a very long time even in the council of nicaea in the fourth century back in the day when people were sometimes excluded for communion for disciplinary purposes for for a very long period of time in the canons of the council of nicaea it's made quite explicit that if somebody's in danger of death the bishop is to is to remit their penance and readmit them to holy communion so that they don't die without viaticum also the apostolic pardon which is a plenary indulgence that the pope gives every priest faculties to grant in case a person is in danger of death so those are your last rights your viaticum also your last confession to go to confession receive communion anointing of the sick and then the apostolic pardon apostolic benediction question can a non-catholic receive those in under some circumstances and not under others if the non-catholic person baptized non-catholic person is in danger of death that's really the critical qualification if that person is in danger of death and has catholic faith in the sacraments so they believe that the sacraments are what the church says they are and is properly disposed and willing then a person then a non-catholic person can receive last rites if they're not in danger of death then the church would not grant the sacraments but would rather request that that person become catholic okay john thanks so much for your question drive carefully out there it uh that opens up a line for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833 going now to john in topeka listening on siriusxm 130 as well hello john what's on your mind today sir hi thanks for taking my call yeah i guess the question i have is uh i was raised in the catholic church and uh confirmed in the catholic church but for the past 10 years or so i've been a protestant pretty active in my current church i still follow some catholic practices uh pray in the rosary i listen to daily math on ewtn can should you be both protestant and catholic i appreciate the questions yeah thanks i really appreciate the question so i would say that uh from the church's point of view the way the church regards you the church regards you as a catholic who's presently not going to mass that's the way you're viewed by the catholic church okay so you are catholic but as a catholic you're not fulfilling all of your catholic obligations preeminently your attendance at liturgy has been let's say spotty for the last 10 years so what i would advise you to do is to return to the regular celebration of the sacraments confession and mass especially and but that's no reason to deny the good things that you have experienced among non-catholic christians you know i was raised non-catholic and i became catholic but if you've listened to my show at all you know that when i answer questions that dig into biblical studies almost my entire orientation in that subject was formed in the protestant seminary and reading protestant authors and so i'll often approach things with the benefit of my protestant biblical education um and sometimes that gets me in trouble when i forget about the deuterocanonical texts you know that honestly i never studied in seminary because we didn't have them in our in our bible um i made the statement one time on the air that esther um didn't mention the word of god and somebody wrote in and said but you're talking about the hebrew version of esther not the greek version i was like oh yeah there is that you're right that's right you're right you know that was that was a fault of my formation but the point is simply that i i continue to be nourished in my own life by good things that i derive from the protestant tradition uh even to this day there are a few protestant theologians that i'll continue to read for insight on this that or the other topic um and so it doesn't work to be catholic doesn't mean that you that you cut yourself off from everything else that's good in the world on the contrary i mean to be truly catholic catholic means universal it means you're open to the good true and beautiful wherever you can find it and you're willing to be taught by anybody who is a wise person that has wisdom and insight and virtue and is aiming at the good but to be catholic means that you're in union with the church especially with the holy father the pope and sacramentally with the church in the eucharist john thank you so much for your call it's called a communion here on ewtn radio we're going to go out to a quick question here from um brendan watching us on youtube fascinating question is it possible to break your fast prior to communion by brushing your teeth and conversely how long should one wait after receiving to brush yeah thanks appreciate the question not possible to break the fast by brushing your teeth no that's not food not food it's not food so don't worry about it and i hope you don't carry a toothbrush to mass yeah that would not be good you know but but i mean technically you could brush whenever you want to brush sounds like a plan to me call to communion with dr david anders on this wednesday afternoon our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn uh no phone lines at the moment everything is uh pretty much sold out here however when a line does become available eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six here now jc in fort wayne listening on his alexa device jc what's on your mind today hey uh yeah this is a follow-up to your earlier uh tongues when it's not an intelligible language um i visited a protestant church here in fort wayne and someone rose and uh uttered some tongues and the pastor on stage gave an interpretation i i asked another pastor of that church if in the future um i recorded such an instance and came back six months later and played the you know gibberish the unintelligible um i i in my mind i would think the interpretation would line up with the interpretation offered six months um before is that a fair uh that that an interpretation of the unintelligible would be the same or is it just i understand i understand that would only be a fair assumption i appreciate the question by the way that would only be a fair assumption if what was transpiring is that someone was actually pronouncing intelligible language maybe unknown to the listeners but intelligible language and the other person genuinely had an ability to understand the syntax and vocabulary and render it as a translation if that's what we're going on then your supposition would be quite reasonable i for one don't think that's what's going on in these meetings and i think that based on rational evidence so modern linguists have examined the phenom in psychologists and neuro-linguistics and so forth have examined the phenomena known as speaking in tongues and it is pretty much universally agreed there's a pretty strong consensus among scientists and psychologists and linguists that it is not human language all right that it doesn't have the structure of language there's no there's no syntax there's no vocabulary and generally when people speak in tongues when they practice glossolalia the phonemes the actual guttural sounds that emerge from their mouths are those that are common to their native language now that's that's not what happens when you speak a foreign language when i speak french which is the only foreign language that i can speak which i don't speak well and maybe my phonemes sound too much like english but if i speak it well you'll recognize sounds in my french that don't occur in the english language and vice versa yeah that's not the case when people speak in tongues they usually take something that's common to their mother tongue just a few syllables and repeat it over and over again in a kind of random pattern so it doesn't have the structure of human language and and there's no reason to think that it contains actual cognitive content um uh now i think in some pentecostal churches that's that's the supposition they proceed on the assumption that it's intelligible language and because they understand there is a biblical warrant for the idea of translating or offering interpretation they engage in this practice that purports to be translation but i don't think that's what's going on um funny story when i was a seminar i learned about a seminary professor who was an expert in greek he wandered into one of these pentecostal churches and heard this stuff going on so he decided he would get up and and recite the prologue to john in greek which he had memorized so he did and then you know somebody else popped up and purported to give out an interpretation let's just say it wasn't the prologue to john okay now let me be charitable okay okay is there a point in this activity uh might someone derive benefit from it even if it's not the translation of intelligible language and when st paul deals with this phenomena and he says don't do this in church because it's not edifying to other people he says but it can be edifying to you because it can be one can edify oneself and i do think there's strong evidence that people who practice glossolalia can experience a kind of cathartic release and it can have some therapeutic value in helping them cope with their own neurotic tendencies and their own struggles and it's kind of a disassociative activity that can help them break out of the sort of nattering self-critical consciousness that most of us live with every day now is that holiness no holiness is a life of charity and patience and kindness and love of one's neighbor but can it be a first step if you can kind of disassociate from your daily life a little bit and what's bothering you and get in another vein and be open to something else in your life yes and so the catholic church permits glossolalia permits speaking in tongues but recognizing it's not the height of sanctity it's just an acceptable spiritual practice that can be put to rational use all right that's where we have to leave it appreciate your call jc in fort wayne it's called a communion here on ewtn radio we're going to go to steve in tallahassee and steve uh just want to let you know that we have just enough time to ask your question and then if you don't mind we're going to hold you over the break and then david will answer it on the other side what's on your mind today steve hey uh i was raised catholic and i love the catholic church and i i am currently going to a anglican church um considering going back to the catholic church but i just absolutely do not agree with the concept or doctrine of purgatory why not because it's not biblical i've never found anything in the new testament that references anything remotely according that that coincides with a doctrine of purgatory jesus the blood of jesus cleanses us from all sin period and if we confess our sins he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness okay i can't wait to address this topic tom forgot your name there for a second buddy here we go to the break okay right when we come back i'll talk about this yeah so please uh steve uh sit tight there we will get to your question get the answer for your question in just a moment here as we take this quick break also going to be talking with uh jim in yipsilanti michigan john in auburn alabama maureen in colorado mike in ferdinand indiana lots more straight ahead on this edition of call to communion with david anders stay with us i think we made prayer very complicated you know nobody has to tell you how to talk to a friend or a neighbor or apply to somebody in the streetcar you pass somebody in a in a restaurant it comes spontaneous it's natural well that's our prayers it's spontaneous sometimes you're just going to speak from your heart and now the ewtn family prayer with father joseph family a prayer that we pray together is a powerful prayer so please pray together with me our ewtn family prayer [Music] today we pray for those who are depressed the holy spirit lord of light we worship you whose presence brings love joy and peace be present to those who are suffering through the darkness of depression heal their wounds their strength renew on their dryness pour your dew bear the fruits of love joy and peace in their souls reveal to them the many signs of your goodness make gratitude and hope spring up anew in their hearts and console them with the fire of your love amen this is tom price if you missed part of today's show catch the encore tonight at 11 pm eastern check out the podcast anytime at ewtnradio.net and click podcasts [Music] have you heard the one about a hole hang on deb we want people's best clean jokes tomorrow on take two with jerry and debbie on most of these ewtn stations now we return to call to communion [Music] hey what's stopping you from becoming a catholic let's talk about that here on ewtn's call to communion with dr david anders our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three 833-288-3986 good luck because the phones are kind of on fire today which is always a good thing so before the break we were talking with steve in tallahassee who is a former catholic now an anglican he has considered returning to the catholic faith but he finds the doctrine of purgatory a huge stumbling block yes so steve said he had two major problems with the doctrine of purgatory one he claimed that there was no mention of the doctrine in the new testament and secondly he felt that the biblical teaching on the blood of christ cleansing us from sin made purgatory irrelevant okay so i will address each of those in turn first of all the new testament gives absolutely no warrant whatsoever at all in terms of explicit statement uh warranting the uh the admission of women to holy communion there's not one instance in the new testament where we witness women receiving holy communion but i would be willing to bet that in steve's anglican church the women would go to holy communion as they do as they do in the catholic church right there is there is no warrant in the new testament whatsoever at all not a single text of the new testament that suggests that the book of revelation is sacred scripture and then it belongs in the canonical writings of the 27 books of the new testament and in fact you could make that statement about each book individually there's there's no inspired writing that declares matthew belongs in the new testament or john belongs in the new testament or romans belongs in the new testament the verdict these books are inspired and they belong in a coherent collection and a codex called the new testament is something conveyed to us by sacred tradition not by the new testament itself even as the judgment women should receive communion cannot be found in the new testament but is the practice of the church and we could list thousands of such instances of beliefs and practices of christians that are widely held by anglicans catholics even baptists but are not actually warranted by the express words of scripture which just underscores the position of the catholic church and i should say of some anglicans that it that scripture alone is not a sufficient guide to the content or manner of the christian life the bible doesn't teach us that when jesus commissioned the apostles to preach the gospel he said go into all nations make disciples teach them everything i have commanded you of course christ never wrote a word down everything christ commanded was by way of oral tradition and ritual in that deposit of faith they faithfully handed on guided by christ's promise of divine assistance i'll be with you to the end of the age and the gates of hell will not prevail against the church so the christian can reasonably trust the testimony of the church and tradition regarding the content and form of christian life because that's precisely how christ instructed us to proceed so the fact that something is or is not mentioned in the new testament is not a sufficient reason to accept or reject it that being said i would argue that it is in the new testament and in the old testament more implicitly than explicitly i will grant you in the same way that say the dogma of the trinity is in the bible but but only by implication not not the language you're not going to find the term trinity in the bible but you can derive the principles from which a dogma of the trinity can be constructed what are some of those principles well let's start with teaching of jesus and sermon on the mount in the beatitudes when he says blessed are the pure in heart for they will see god blessed are the pure in heart for they will see god now it may be i'm not sure i don't put words in his mouth but maybe steve's position that the blood of christ automatically purifies our hearts so that if you are believer you've been baptized you just have the purity in heart with which you will see god that might be his position but i don't think you can hold that because scripture admonishes the baptized the believers the followers of christ over and over again that they must take up the active practice of purifying their hearts so saint james writes in chapter four he says purify your hearts you double-minded people purify your hearts saint paul second corinthians chapter seven verse one says therefore we ought to cleanse ourselves of everything that contaminates flesh and spirit out of reverence for god um so the idea that the christian has an active duty to seek that purity of heart without which no one will see god it's a very new testament idea psalm 24 who can ascend the lord's mountain or stand on his holy hill only he who has clean hands and a pure heart and such a pure heart is not automatically given to us through faith and baptism we are washed of sin and the guilt of sin but we have an ongoing active duty to follow christ and to purify ourselves of everything that contaminates flesh and spirit out of reverence for god without which we will not see god okay now someone might say well okay i'll grant you that andrews but purgatory takes place after death so so why does that have to do with anything can something happen after death that affects our ability to perceive the vision of god and now i am going to go to the old testament i'm going to go to the book of 2nd maccabees chapter 12 where we read an account of people who died in questionable moral circumstances namely they were wearing pagan amulets so the judean people feared for their status on the day of judgment so they offered prayers and offerings and sacrifices on behalf of the dead lest they uh not enter in the vision of god right um saint paul prays for his friend anissa forrest who has died read about that in what is it first timothy could be second timothy thinks first timothy so the practice of praying for the dead it's a jewish practice it's carried over by the early church there's oblique references to it in the new testament but clearly it was the practice of the church in its liturgy from the beginning to offer the mass and prayers on behalf of the living and the dead well you're not going to pray for the souls in hell they're kind of stuck there yeah you're not going to pray for those that are experiencing the vision of god they don't need your prayers so there must be some intermediate condition in which people can benefit from those prayers as they attain that purity with heart without which no one can see god so that's a biblical argument for the doctrine now it's the argument the doctrine is based not only on teaching a scripture but also the practice of the church and sacred tradition together and just like the doctrine of the trinity is derived from the practice of the church of worshiping christ as god and the biblical teaching that he is god um uh finally put together in a coherent fashion in the council of nicaea so most christian dogmas work this way um you know you don't you're not gonna read them off the pages of the new testament which is not after all a textbook in dogmatic theology and none of the texts of the new testament were written for that purpose but the mind of the church interpreting sacred scripture in light of the tradition reasonably concludes that these things are true not only the trinity of the two natures of christ or transubstantiation of the host or the you know the validity of the sacraments but also the doctrine of purgatory steve thank you so much for your call it's called a communion here on ewtn radio if you would like to send us an email for a future show well here's the address ctc at ewtn.com ctc at ewtn.com back to the phones right now for jim in ypsilanti michigan listening on the great ave maria radio jim what's on your mind today well i just wanted to see if i could get an answer with a question that i was asked last sunday um i am uh i'm in the experience experience a year for the firm with the academic so people now are coming up to me after math and asking questions so i was like well i don't know i'll see if i can find the answer for you okay um this is in regards to acts chapter five uh ananias and his wife uh saphira after they sold property but only gave half of the money to the church and said that they were killed because of lying to the holy spirit but being a early christian uh early christian church uh i was just curious that they were even aware of the holy spirit yeah thanks i appreciate the question so remember that ananias and safara were not killed because they only gave half of the proceeds of the sale of their land they were killed because when they were asked by the apostles is this the total psalm you received they said yes and they lied they wanted to be thought better you know jesus says don't do your good deeds to be seen by men yeah they were doing their good deeds to be seen by men and for that they were struck down um it wasn't the fact that they withheld half of the the proceeds um and in fact and when paul's epistles when he gives instructions for taking up collections for the poor in jerusalem he says each person ought to set aside what he's prepared to set aside and you know god loves a cheerful giver and we say this you know as an invitation not out of compulsion um and that remains the practice of the church to this day now did they were they aware of the holy spirit i i think it highly improbable that they were unaware of the holy spirit they were they were dwelling in the company of the apostles who were actively doing miracles and prophesying and were recounting the deeds of the lord and interpreting the events of pentecost i think it very probable that they were aware of the holy spirit now i think the statement you lied to the holy spirit means that the apostles ascribed their own authority to the holy spirit in acts chapter 15 when the council of jerusalem meets they say it seems good to the holy spirit and to us to lay upon you the following commands they had they had a very high view of their apostolic authority as they rightly should and so um since since these men were operating with the authority of the holy spirit to lie to them was to lie to the holy spirit um did ananias and sapphira i mean had they read saint basil's treatise you know on the holy spirit did they have a highly developed pneumatology i don't think so but i think they knew enough not to do what they did all right very good and uh jim thanks so much uh for your call call to communion with dr david anders here on this wednesday afternoon here on ewtn radio tom price reminding you to please join us for holy mass from our lady of the angels chapel right here on the ewtn campus we're very blessed to bring it to you every day at 8 am eastern time that is seven days a week so do check out the holy mass and you will be blessed all right back to the phones right now here is ian in baton rouge listening on spotify hello ian what's on your mind today hey thank you all so much for uh taking my call sure just to give you a quick background i recently came back to the catholic faith after um some time in college and uh stupidity but i'm back and um in that time i did get together with a protestant and we are still together looking forward to marriage um however since i just came back to the catholic faith i am noticing some obstacles and she's noticing them as well particularly with sexual morality natural family planning and contraceptives and stuff like that so i've been trying to you know explain to her some of the whys behind it but she's not really open to listening to the reasoning behind things and i was hoping you could provide some sort of uh advice on how to get past those barriers yeah i'm in conversation sure um so i'm going to give you a resource and i'm not trying to be self-serving here but i do think it would serve your needs i wrote a book about the topic you're discussing and it's called the catholic church save my marriage my name is david anders and david anders the catholic church saved my marriage published by ewtn and um since i had to negotiate all these issues for myself and with my wife as i was becoming catholic i kind of recapitulate every step of the way not only the theology behind the church's moral teaching but also how that played out in real time in discussing these issues with my wife and how we move from one point of view to another so on this like the specific guidance that you're looking for i think i really do think that book would be of great help to you um i would also uh i would encourage you you all need to get this figured out yeah yeah and you need to get this figured out before you get married and and you need i mean you need you don't just need to get it figured out you need to be in agreement because this is a this is a foundational issue that will you will that you'll be with this issue for the next however long you know 50 years potentially 70 years who knows how long y'all live um and this uh this has the potential to be a real root of bitterness and misunderstanding so you know you don't just need to paper over it you really need to go to the to the to the core of it now i think that from your point of view it's very important that you treat your fiance with a great deal of dignity and respect and kindness and patience and um your behavior needs to reflect the truth of the doctrine the truth of the doctrine is that we're not supposed to objectify ourselves or one another for self-aggrandizing purposes as we live out our sexual lives that we're to make gift of ourselves to one another for the sake of the family we're raising a family we're cooperating in this sublime task of being a father and a mother which requires self-sacrifice at every step of the way and our example of self-giving to one another is the ideal situation in which children can be brought up and nurtured to love god and love neighbor and to go out and be good citizens and good and good christians now i can say that with my voice but i can fail to exemplify that with my actions you know and i'm not just talking about sex i'm talking about you know the way i the way we talk to one another the way we treat one another the way we listen to one another all those things should converge on the fundamental truth of the church's sexual ethic which is self-donation in imitation of the love of jesus and you know and i think that when you get down to something that's so deeply personal and intimate like human sexuality um we're really talking about like the people are very wounded people are very sensitive in their you know most intimate places and and they really need to feel loved and accepted and valued and so that's that's the way you need to proceed very good and please know that we will keep you in our prayers and your your fiance as well call to communion here on ewtn going now to maureen in colorado listening online ewtn.com hi maureen what's on your mind today uh yes thank you for taking my call this is in reference earlier when you were speaking of the last right and i was wondering when someone is in icu and is on a s respirator and cannot make a last confession what's the state of his soul sure absolutely what happened i understand so if this person is a catholic and they would otherwise be disposed to receive the sacraments they should receive the sacraments even if they can't vocally participate and the priest can grant absolution and the apostolic pardon and and anointing of the sick even if the person is not able to respond uh and that's that's the practice of the church so if they're if this person is catholic or christian and disposed to receive the sacraments with catholic faith then send for the priest regardless and and he'll get the job done that's what you need to do now obviously people die all the time without last rites catholics and non-catholics you die in a car accident some kind of tragedy happens unexpected happens all the time are you lost if you die without last rites no of course not if you die in the grace of god you're not lost so let's all stay in the grace of god yes that's where we need to be maureen thank you so much uh for a very good call it is called a communion here on ewtn all right we're going now to mike in ferdinand indiana listening on the great covenant radio network hello there mike what's on your mind today sir i was wondering uh the catholic church doesn't recognize mormon baptism because of the difference in the belief of the trinity uh does do we recognize baptisms from protestant denominations that don't recognize what a sacrament is like yes i think like baptists don't believe in baptism as a sacrament correct yes answer the question is yes catholics do recognize the validity of non-catholic baptisms even when those non-catholic churches um are wrong on some issues of ecclesiology even even so all right and it is sufficient that the that the celebrant intend to do what the church means by baptism in so far as baptism as an introduction into the church into the life of grace and christ now people have different soteriologies they have different accounts of what that life of grace looks like and it's very stages it's kind of particular morphology but in the judgment of the church most trinitarian baptisms performed by non-catholic churches are valid baptisms with mormons it's a little bit different because the mormon doctrine of god is just so radically different from anything that historic christianity has ever believed that it's evident that what they think they're initiating you into is just light years away from what catholics mean by the church or by the life in christ and so that's that's why it's invalid now there are some protestant denominations increasingly today particularly your mainline protestant nominations who have moved away from a valid baptismal formula and they're no longer baptizing people in the name of the father son and holy spirit you know because they get kind of worked up about gendered terms like father and son so they institute new terminology and uh and even though they mean be intending to bring people into the church they're not using they're not using the valid form and those baptisms are in fact invalid well there it is appreciate your call mike it's called a communion here on ewtn radio let's go now to patrick patrick is in sarasota florida listening on siriusxm channel 130 patrick what's on your mind today good um just want to get the doctor's take on uh i i was at a talk by a deacon at our parish and [Music] in him trying to answer or interpret the i guess controversial question of no salvation outside the church which you know people like to talk around it a lot and not really get to the core of it he mentioned and he said point blank saint augustine was wrong um in his interpretation of no salvation outside the church and okay sure this is that's what he thinks about it but i wanted to see dr anders is what is your take on somebody who's even a deacon saying that a saint is wrong oh yeah saints can absolutely be wrong a saint can absolutely be wrong being a saint does not make you infallible in everything that you think or everything that you say are right and let me tell you something some states are a lot more not infallible than others okay i got some in mind right now that i'm not going to mention on air who i take a good deal of um enjoyment out of not finding them infallible i'll put it that way you know funny now there are some saints that the church recognizes as doctors of the church and a doctor of the church is somebody who's teaching is really authoritative and they are an authentic interpreter of the catholic faith saint augustine happens to be a doctor of the church he's one of the greatest doctors saint thomas is the doctor of the church but even being a doctor of the church doesn't make you infallible case in point thomas aquinas did not believe in the immaculate conception it had not yet been proclaimed to dogma in his day and it was a it was a debated theological question in the 13th century and thomas did not believe the dogma thomas thomas was wrong thomas was wrong uh but he wasn't wrong about many things okay now you know when it comes to um the interpretation of sacred tradition obviously that's not the the the sole job of saint augustine or saint thomas or any doctor of the church it belongs to the magisterium which is the pope and the bishops and and then you know in an extended sense the whole people of god who hand on the deposit of faith down through the centuries and our understanding of the deposit of faith can develop and we can it we can we don't change it but it can develop sort of nuances and qualifications as circumstances arise that force us to ask new questions and the uh in the doctrines no salvation outside of the church is one of these so when you go to antiquity uh very early on second century you find the likes of justin martyr for example very very important apologies from the saint justin martyr from the second century teaching explicitly that socrates plato democritus that the the philosophers of of pagan antiquity were kind of like anonymous christians because they participated in a rational way in the same divine logos that became incarnate in christ you'll find all of the catholic theologians holding that old testament saints moses and elijah and elisha were saved without the benefit of baptism and so there are principles embedded in patristic theology that didn't really get worked out ecclesialogically by the likes of cyprian and augustine when they're talking about no salvation outside the church but now you know i think with the benefit of several more centuries and and a bit more ecumenical sensitivity the church looks back and says you know this it was never you just have to be a baptized catholic to be saved there was always there were always exceptions to that in church history we hadn't formulated it as a principle but we have these so concrete instances in sacred tradition from people like justin from you know reflection on the old testament and so we have a more developed understanding of what no salvation at the church means it's not a contradiction of augustine's doctrine it's really a development with with uh kind of taking into account the larger picture okay patrick thanks for your call gilbert in los angeles we've got about 30 seconds what's on your mind gilbert well the question is the question is is where can i get information that a priest a regular parish is able to give an apostolic party uh that's a good ques he ha he can um in terms of pulling up the specific mandate uh from the pope i'll i'll have to get back to you yeah we'll have to leave it there uh gilbert was uh concerned because uh his uncle uh did receive the last rights but the priest was not aware that he could give an apostolic pardon so um maybe we can look into that uh for a future show david i'm i'm uh let's see i'm trying to find out if it's in it maybe in the code of canon law but i'm trying to find out i just got i can't do this in 30 seconds you know i'm since i'm not a priest i don't have to know the cannons you know at the top of my headline sure sure okay well we will look into it though uh gilbert and maybe we can get back to you on tomorrow's program dr david anders thank you sir tom don't forget we do this program monday through friday ewtn's a call to communion at 2 pm eastern with an encore at 11 p.m eastern check out the podcast anytime at ewtnradio.net on behalf of our fantastic team i'm tom price along with dr david anders we will see you tomorrow here on ewtn's call to communion god bless it's really awe inspiring to know that take two with jerry and debbie has the impact that it does we know from what our listeners share on the air but

Channel: EWTN

Views: 3,417

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: G2SOYjxxW_s

Length: 54min 7sec (3247 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 26 2022