Catholic Answers Focus

Questions Covered:

13:41 – What is your take on whether an obstacle is the different images of who Jesus is? Examples socialist Jesus etc. 

17:51 – Communion has always been an obstacle for many. I heard a Jewish scholar say the Jewish marriage ceremony includes “this is my body.” Is there a connection between that ceremony and Jesus’ last supper? Why don’t we hear of this connection? Would this be helpful to overcome the obstacle? 

23:55 – How can an attachment to things of this physical world, such as over involvement in sports, be turned into a good instead of an obstacle to Jesus?   

34:08 – I have an atheist co-worker, how do you respond to someone who does not have belief? 

45:22 – The Real Presence of Jesus, I can’t always wrap my head around it. How can I overcome that obstacle? 

50:34 – I’m a cradle Catholic struggling with a crisis of accepting God’s way instead of my way.   

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Questions Covered:

24:20 – Being a young adult fresh out of college, how do I maintain a consistent prayer life working a 9-5 job. How can lay people be held accountable? 

36:14 – How do you gain wisdom? 

48:22 – My fiancé and I are going through RCIA and using Dr. Sri’s video, I missed some lessons, where else can I watch? 

50:41 – I recently returned to the Church and all of my sins were forgiven through attrition how do I get to contrition? 

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Who gets to say what a religion is, and why do “World Religions” classes so often fail in their approach to Christian Faith? Joe Heschmeyer, author of The Early Church Was the Catholic Church, explores the politics around the word “religion.”

Cy Kellett:

Why modern definitions of religion get Christianity wrong. Joe Heschmeyer is next.

Cy Kellett:

Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answer’s podcast for living, understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I’m Cy Kellett your host and one of the things we might have to defend our Catholic faith agai...

Questions Covered:

01:13 – Is there a connection between the Tree of Life in Genesis and the Cross. I’ve never heard this connection. 

07:02 – If a saint has bilocation, do they share thoughts and memories to both locations or do they have one mind in both locations? 

12:14 – With regards to the following story,  Jesus drove out a demon and the demon sought out another soul but did not find one; he then returned back to the same person, Why would this person be predisposed to receiving the demon again? 

17:50 – What does Jesus mean when he says don’t pray in vain repetition? 

23:16 – Sirach 42:14, What is the Catholic interpretation of that verse? 

33:07 – In regards to translation, why are some words given so much weight in specific translations and sometimes not even seen in others? 

42:08 – Why can’t I baptize my entire household if they’re all willing? 

51:17 – Acts 8:37 –  Can you clarify your comments about the baptismal formula and the protestant objection from your book The Early Church was the Catholic Church? 

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Questions Covered:

05:20 – Why do Christians and Jew alike not offer animal sacrifice anymore? 

11:10 – I help with Confirmation, What level of authority does the subcommittee of the Catechism actually have? They recommended a book, and I was wondering if I actually have to follow it. 

15:00 – I watched a video promoting the rapture, Is there someone that has responded to things like this? How can I approach this without starting an argument? 

19:17 – I read an article on NC Register on the priest baptizing using the wrong words. What happens to the people who went on to receive the other sacraments and specifically Holy Orders? 

28:50 – Regarding Hysterectomy, my wife is not Catholic, and she wants to have the procedure. How do I approach it as a Catholic and will it be a sin to continue to live out my call as a husband? 

34:40 – What is the Gospel according to Hebrews? St. Clemente mentions it. Is there a secret Gospel of Mark?   

41:49 – What or Who determines what public vs private revelation? Who judges what should be followed? 

47:05 – Is there any dogma that teaches whether Jesus had the virtue of Faith? 

49:55 – Is torture always wrong or are there exceptions specifically interrogations to save lives? 

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Questions Covered:

17:24 –  It’s sad to see that people are replacing children with animals. 

21:00 – Would the 2 greatest commandments be a good response to “live your best life?” 

38:57 – How do you I talk to my friends about why marriage shouldn’t necessarily be about making you “happy” when happiness is pushed as the ultimate goal?  

42:42 – Where can young couples find a resource for things like NFP and other Church teaching on marriage?

45:50 – How does the Catholic Faith respond to other faiths and their fruitfulness if the Church claims that they are the one way? 

47:42 – You can learn from the negative and not just the positive especially in divorce.

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Questions Covered:

15:16 – None of the police forces have demilitarized since 2020. Since peace is important, what is your opinion on threat protocols? Can we do something in the culture to reduce that?

22:40 – Is it a sin to want your child to marry within your race?

36:23 – I had a black Catholic friend who wanted me to read White Fragility. How do I respond to her who wants me to focus the conversation from a secular perspective?

44:12 – I have a daughter who is involved with BLM and I feel resentful that they are teaching her that I am racist. What would be better, to address it more forcefully or wait and pray?

52:55 – Are division and racism ways of dividing our Church?

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Questions Covered:

02:54 – Whichever of the standard folklore approaches one takes to faeries, it seems like it would be unusual for a faery to be baptized. Which in turn opens up some interesting questions about what’s going on with Cinderella having a faery as a godmother. 

Maybe there’s an order of fair folk who returned to the faith, were baptized, and do good works on behalf of mortals. 

They’re probably also suspected and persecuted by the institutional church. But Cinderella’s family is part of the remnant which maintains a connection with them. 

Maybe this also has to do with why the stepmother treats Cinderella badly: the stepmother is an outsider and suspects what’s going on in the family history and she’s putting pressure on Cinderella to try to make her renounce her pietism. 

Which of course makes it extremely dodgy to have someone with a faery godmother marrying into the royal family. There’s going to be some resistance to that. 

Is there reconciliation? Is the country placed under interdict? Why don’t the stories address this stuff? 

I have a few questions regarding the Soul Gem, one of the six Infinity Gems of Marvel Comics. Here I am specifically referring to the comic version, versus the film version. I do not know how much you know about the Infinity Gems, so here is some important background info: 

— They were created as part of the Universe in the Big Bang 

— Each allows for complete universal control over a different aspect of the universe: power, space, reality, the mind, the soul, and time. 

1) 11:23 – The Soul Gem can warp and unwarp the soul. This means it can forcefully make beings evil or good. Thanos says: “I can turn sinners into saints, and saints into monsters.” Question: What effect does this have on free will, the need for God’s forgiveness, and Purgatory? 

2) 14:39 – The Soul Gem can resurrect the dead. Thanos says, “And the dead, — their souls are also within my control.” Question: If someone was in Heaven and was resurrected, could they theoretically end up in Hell after they die a second time? What about going from Hell to Heaven? 

3) Question: 17:06 – Could the Soul Gem fix Original Sin? 

18:25 – What would happen to your soul if you were assimilated by the Borg? Let’s assume that the cybernetic implants and the nanoprobes keep your body alive indefinitely, you are never killed, and you are never rescued. 

20:16 – Before the fall, did Adam and Eve have to poop? And if so, would their poop have been stinky? Or would they have had perfect poop? Or would they not have pooped at all, and the digestion was perfect, with no need to poop. 

22:41 – Is it possible to validly baptize an unborn baby? I’m thinking of an instance where maybe the mother is dying and the baby is not developed enough to survive outside the womb. If it is not possible, does the reasoning implicitly contradict the church’s teaching on life beginning at conception?  

If it is possible to validly baptize an unborn baby in emergency situations, then what about non-emergency situations? It seems like it would be a good idea just in case something happens before the baby is born. 

29:30 – What criteria would the Catholic Church have to consider if someone wanted to marry an alien?  

Would the couple have to prove they can consummate the marriage? 

Would they have to come up with some way to prove that they are the equivalent of the opposite sex? 

What if any child they bear might have severe disabilities because of mixing species? 

To that end, the Church is against bestiality, so would they have to come up with some criteria to distinguish human from beast? 

34:40 – Why do all representations of the cross depict the corpus with a wound on the right side when the heart and plural sac are on the left? Would blood and water gush forth from the right side when a spear pie…

What are the Dead Sea Scrolls? What is their relevance for Christianity? Find out these answers and more from this episode of Catholic Answers Live.

Questions Covered:

16:00 – What would you say to people who would dismiss the Essenes as just a fringe cult? 

25:00 – What do the Dead Sea Scrolls teach us about His childhood and early adulthood? 

29:15 – What are the Dead Sea Scrolls? 

35:20 – Was St. Paul an Essene? 

44:38 – Considering the Dead Sea Scrolls, why did the apostles choose the Septuagint type instead of the others? 

48:44 – In Mark 4 Jesus says some will not be converted. I once heard that that verse was a reference to Isaiah, is this true and if so, what does that mean? 

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Questions Covered

8:56 – If Martin Luther was a Catholic priest, then why doesn’t the Lutheran church have apostolic succession? 

12:19 – Why did the popes stop wearing the crowns and what is the importance of the crowns? 

22:00 – If the Eucharist is the full body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus, does it have a consciousness? 

35:06 – I’m confused about the sequence of becoming a saint, what is the order?  

What happened to the physical bodies of Mary and Jesus when they entered heaven? 

41:50 – 1 Pt 3:21 on baptism.  I’m a protestant looking into Catholicism. Can you clarify the verse? How do you reconcile it with the Church’s teaching on Baptism? 

49:32 – If God is present everywhere, does that mean he’s present in hell? 

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