Benjamin Franklin once observed that death and taxes are the only two certainties in this world. Most of us would also add suffering to that list. It is the existence of suffering that provides atheists and agnostics with some of their more effective arguments against faith. Suffering also presents religion with a dilemma. If God exists, if God is good, and if God is love, why does He permit suffering? As anyone who has read the Bible (or even just... Read more
The Bible contradicts itself. So is the claim of many atheists and agnostics. While most of these charges stem from ignorance of Scripture or simply efforts to discredit biblical religion, even Christians can be occasionally confused by what appear to be discrepancies in the text. So, while it is tempting to dismiss the claims of contradictions as the usual ramblings of atheists, any contradictions, or at least any significant contradictions, could have immense implications on Catholicism. In this paper, I... Read more
The process of studying a particular thing often entails analysis. To correctly analyze a thing, one seeks to reduce it to its various components. Once this is done, one can study the individual parts more closely. In analyzing the Catholic Church, it is possible to identify four parts or pillars. These four pillars – theology, morality, public liturgy, and private prayer – comprise the Church’s constituent parts. The four pillars are essential to understanding Catholicism. Theology Literally, the science of... Read more
Is religion the refuge of the weak? Friedrich Nietzsche thought so. Is faith a crutch or an opioid that makes life tolerable but is in itself an illusion? That is what Karl Marx concluded. While both Nietzsche and Marx were avowed atheists, the question of whether organized religion – in this case, Catholicism – exists as a coping mechanism is worth examining. The concepts underlying the conclusions of Nietzsche and Marx are relatively straightforward. Human beings are fragile creatures who... Read more
“The prayer of the Church venerates and honors the Heart of Jesus just as it invokes his most holy name. It adores the incarnate Word and his Heart which, out of love for men, he allowed to be pierced by our sins.” – Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraph 2669. In December of 1673, a French nun named Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque started to experience visions that included communicating with Christ. During one of these encounters, Jesus instructed Sister Alacoque.... Read more
“Man alone is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God’s own life . . . This is the fundamental reason for his dignity. Being in the image of God, the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone.” – Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraph 356. What is a human being worth? This may seem like an odd question, but how we answer that question, indeed, how history has responded to... Read more
“God forgives somehow; we have yet to learn the same.” – Mary Chapin Carpenter. A fundamental principle that undergirds the Biblical tradition upon which Catholic theology is predicated is forgiveness. The Catholic faith believes that God so emphasizes forgiveness that He has endowed the Church with the sacrament of reconciliation. To ask God for the forgiveness of one’s sins is a necessary condition for our salvation. But what exactly does it mean for God to forgive us our sins, and... Read more
When one considers or refers to the Catholic Church, one often intends to connote the Pope, Cardinals, Bishops, or Priests that comprise the hierarchy of the Church. This is entirely proper. It is also too restrictive to capture what the Church encompasses. A more comprehensive understanding of the Church involves perceiving it as a living body composed of members both on earth and in eternity. For this reason, and in following the teachings of the Bible, the Catholic Church is... Read more
It can be tempting to think of saints as people with such an intimate relationship with God that they experienced none of the struggles common to the rest of us. Of course, even a cursory examination of the lives of the saints will disabuse such an opinion. One of those who endured such difficulties was Saint Paul. In this paper, I will explore Saint Paul’s remarkable observation about his own struggle with sin and how that struggle is reflective of... Read more
Philosophy is one of mankind’s oldest pursuits, dating some six hundred years before the birth of Christ. One of the more recent entries into the vast universe of philosophical thought is existentialism. In this paper, I will examine existentialism and review its interactions with Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. I will then argue that even though existentialism has influenced Catholicism and although there have been some notable Christian existentialists, ultimately, the philosophy of existentialism is antithetical to Catholicism.... Read more
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