There are many people that look down on the Catholic Church because of what they perceive as great wealth (I tried to counter this misconception four years ago in my weekly thought, The Riches of the Church). One person I have corresponded with over the years is fond of pointing out that the pope has the most expensive car in the world, the “popemobile.” Actually, there are a number of popemobiles. The popemobiles are expensive, but they are hardly the most expensive cars in the world. I’m guessing the fleet of presidential limousines are just as expensive, if not more expensive. I know that Airforce One is much more expensive than the private papal jet.

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8 December
Solemnity

One of the things that attracts me to the Eastern Churches is the way they teach theology and doctrine through their prayers and hymnography. The Latin Church does this as well, but not as explicitly. This is not the case with the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, particularly in the new translation of the Roman Missal. These prayers are pregnant with theology and doctrine, and so, I will present them with a little commentary for my Protestant brethren.

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There is a great deal of confusion among English speaking Christians (maybe in some other languages as well) between the ministerial priesthood and the priesthood of all Christians. Protestant Churches do not have a ministerial priesthood, and often suggest that Catholics invented their ministerial priesthood apart from Sacred Scripture. Most Catholics, when presented with such suggestions, either weaken in their faith in the Catholic Church, or ignore such suggestions and make no attempt understand why these suggestions are wrong. This confusion does not exist in Greek or in Latin, and so a little look at the Greek New Testament, the Latin Vulgate Bible and the English Douay-Rheims Bible clears up this matter very quickly.

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This is Deacon Steven Robinson’s first Vlog. The Orthodox view of salvation is the same as the Catholic view, which is quite different from the Protestant view.

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If you like Hip-Hop music, you may want to buy some Catholic Hip-Hop music.

“And I say to you, you are Rock; and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18)

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When I first heard about the movie No Greater Love, I thought, “Great, another good movie teaching Christian values.”

When I saw the trailer, I thought, “Oh No! They know nothing about Christian marriage and make Christians look like a bunch of nuts.”

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Many do not understand how Catholics were forbidden from eating meat on Fridays, and then in 1966 they were suddenly allowed to. To understand this, one must realise that the no meat on Fridays rule, like the celibate clergy rule, was never a doctrine but only a practice. As well, this practice was not done away with, but simply modified.

In 1966, Pope Paul IV determined that the rules for fasting and abstinence should be set by the various bishop conferences according to local circumstances. Many, but not all, conferences decided that they would allow the faithful to eat meat on Fridays if the faithful chose some other form of penance; although, abstaining from meat was still preferable.

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All Protestant Fundamentalists will admit that both Christ and St. Paul encourage celibacy for the Kingdom for those that can accept it (cf. Matthew 19:12, 1 Corinthians 7:32-38). The reason for celibacy for the Kingdom is so that one can devote himself wholly  to God. Everyone has the right to choose a life of celibacy. Well, almost everyone.

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For a number of reasons, I’m a little more than a month behind in most of my projects right now (actually, I’m a whole year behind in one project). This is why I took a three week break in my podcasts over Easter instead of only one. Seven weeks ago, I heard someone say something theologically incorrect, and it’s taken until now before I address it. I didn’t correct this person at the time because in this situation I had to look up specific biblical passages to back up my correction. It was actually the beginning of the Intercessions in Tuesday’s Morning Prayer that prompted me to finally get busy on this one.

This is the erroneous theological statement that I heard:

“Christ did not rise from the dead of his own accord. God raised him from the dead.”

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This topic has come up yet again in an e-mail discussion, so I decided to address it on my blog so that the next time it comes up, I can direct people  to this page.

There is married clergy in the Catholic Church. There always has been. Both married and celibate men can be ordained to the diaconate; however, once ordained, a man cannot marry. If he freely choses to devote himself wholly to God through celibacy (cf. Matthew 19:12, 1 Corinthians 7:32-37) before ordination, he must remain celibate. If he was married before ordination and his wife dies after he is ordained, he cannot remarry but must remain celibate. It became the norm in the Latin Rite to only ordain celibate deacons to the presbyterate (priests). It became the norm in all of the rites of the Catholic Church to only ordain celibate presbyters to the episcopate (bishops).

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