Q: Should women cover their heads in church and where did that tradition come from? Is this practice even appropriate?

A: The tradition of head coverings for women has its roots in St. Paul, who writes both that women ought to pray with their heads covered, and men with their heads uncovered, owing to the very imagery of our bodies as images of Christ and the Church (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:2ff).  As late as the […]

Old Testament Proscriptions, The Levitical Law, and the New Covenant

I was reading a piece over at the Friendly Atheist, written by the daughter of prominent Christian evangelist Matt Slick, founder of CARM.org, a christian (but not Catholic, and at times Anti-Catholic apologetic website – I could write a whole web-site dedicated to refuting that stuff, but others already have.). The author of the piece, […]

The Writing on the Ground

This Sunday’s gospel presents us with the story of the woman caught in adultery (not, of course, the man).  The scribes and pharisees come to Jesus to test whether he’ll be obedient to the law of Moses, which prescribed death for such a one, or to Roman laws, which outlawed capital punishment by anyone but […]

Q: Does God Want Only A Contrite Heart?

A reader asks: I . . . came across the daily readings. They seem to contradict themselves. . . . Hosea 6:1-6: The last couple versus are, “what am I to do with you, Ephraim? What am I to do with you, Judah? For your love is like morning mist, like the dew the quickly […]

Guns and Religion: Catholics, Fire Arms, the Right to Defend Oneself, and the Second Amendment

Over at USCatholic.org, there’s a piece boasting the church’s dedication to completely getting rid of guns from the hands of civilians. The Catholic Church’s position on gun control is not easy to find.  . . . The answer is resoundingly clear: Firearms in the hands of civilians should be strictly limited and eventually completely eliminated. But […]

Fruits, Vegetables, and the Fall of Man…and Bacon.

A good friend posted a link to an answer to the ultimate question: What makes a fruit, and what makes a veggie?  The answer from Wisegeek was: Simply put, a fruit is the ovary of a plant, which means that it may contain seeds, while a vegetable is a plant part, which does not contain […]

Young Earth Creationism vs. Old Earth Evolution: The Catholic Position.

God is Love.  He perfect, omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing), and omnibenevolent (all good).  Being Love in his very essence, he gives freely of himself to another, for the sake of the other, expecting nothing in return. God created us precisely because He is Love, and desired to share himself with us freely, expecting nothing in return.  In those […]

Bartimaeus: “How Poor Was He?”

This Sunday’s reading came from Mark 10, and it told about Bartimaeus.  This story always reminded me of that famous comedic shtick: “I once knew a man who was so poor,” to which an audience member would yell out, “how poor was he?!” In the cause of poor Bartimaeus, it seems he was so poor […]