#10553 Open Forum - Jimmy Akin

03/25/22 • -1 min

Questions Covered: 01:45 – How is it remotely right that annulment due to canonical form means that a person who was baptized Catholic but left the church in their teens and was married in a protestant church isn’t really considered married by the Catholic Church and they could get it annulled if they came back? How does this actually work and what am I misunderstanding because I don’t see how that’s remotely justified 10:42 – What would you say to a protestant who doesn’t see the need to go to church on Sunday? 15:03 – Is it wrong to address the Angel Gabriel as “archangel”? I have learned from Wikipedia that he is an archangel 2nd in command. Is it a Catholic teaching to acknowledge Gabriel as archangel, what is the difference between the two? 18:48 – Since the LXX was the basis for our current Bible, why weren’t all of the LXX’s books included in the Bible? 21:15 – Question 1: When are Catholics required to give their full assent to the teachings of the Church? I heard an apologist mentioned that we do not have to follow Pope Francis’s teaching on the death penalty since he was making a prudential judgment. 23:15 – Question 2: Since the Latin Church is in communion with Byzantine Rite Catholic Churches. Does that mean that Rome has implicitly canonized the Saints in the Eastern Church that were Orthodox since these saints were after the Great Schism like Gregory of Palamas? 24:28 – Jimmy, how do you respond to non-Catholics who ask about the number of Catholics who publicly criticize the Pope – they question our claim of unity. 31:58 – Please shed light on what this is about. Matt 27: 52-53. the tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his 35:00 – Can you explain purgatory in adult terms. 41:58 – What is transubstantiation? Is there a good example of change in substance in anything besides Eucharist that would help people understand Eucharistic transubstantiation? 47:43 – If (or when) we welcome the Eastern Orthodox Churches back into the fold – what could that mean for the Table of Contents for our Bibles? What books could plausibly make the cut, so to speak? 3 Maccabees but not 4 Maccabees? 51:55 – I know of holy water and blessed salt to protect my family from evil. What else should parents know to protect their families? ...

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#10552 Open Forum - Jimmy Akin

Questions Covered: 06:00 – Does the physical material (for example, bone or hair or tooth or whatever) of a given saint’s relic bear upon its Wonder-Working Providence? 11:56 – How can one better understand the trinity without falling into one of the many heresies there are? Why does it seem like there is a hierarchy when Christ says that the Father is greater than Him when all are equally God? 17:23 – Is God “complicated”? It has been bandied about that God has “His” time to call us home. Regardless... I’m not sure that I think this. 22:15 – When a new saint is canonized who identifies the attributes that one sees in depictions of that saint? This assumes that there is an actual selection, as opposed to a tradition arising that “sticks” by attrition as the years go by. Similarly, who identifies the patronages, if that’s a real word. Example: When St. Jimmy is canonized one day, who will decide that you’re always to be depicted wearing a cowboy hat, and that you’re the patron saint of philosophers from Arkansas? 28:48 – Protestants call certain parts of Scripture apocryphal and we call them deuterocanonical. I want to understand why. It seems to me there is one canon of scripture and when I looked up deuterocanonical, it means second canon. Why do we have a second cannon of scripture when there should be just one cannon? 31:50 – People advise people in difficult marriages to draw on the graces of the sacrament. For those with annulled marriages, were there any? 33:00 – I am having a discussion with a protestant who claims that power to forgive or retain sins was given to more than the apostles that night of Jesus’ resurrection. He bases this on Luke 24:33 (that says others were present) and John 20:19-23 being the same appearance. How do we know that these two appearances were not the same? Or were they? 41:45 – In Robert Hugh Benson’s book “Lord of the World” the Pope establishes the “Order of Christ Crucified” in which the goal of the members are to seek out martyrdom. Is there a sense in which seeking martyrdom can be contrary to the Faith? 47:27 – Why are Catholics seen as “haters” when we stick to our guns on items of faith, sacraments, and morals? I hate no one but I know there is a standard we are all held to 50:24 – Can a practicing Catholic go to a Protestant Mass with a friend who is of this particular denomination as a friendly gesture? I know that the Catholic Church would not recognize the Eucharist within a Protestant service as being properly consecrated and thus null. Also, I do believe it is against church teaching to say some Protestant prayers that go against Catholic teaching. Can I have some clarification and guidance in regards to wanting to be friendly and charitable but within the parameters of Catholic responsibilities? ...

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#10554 The Bonds of Marriage - Rose Sweet

Questions Covered: 34:05 – I met my wife when I was 50. None of us can have kids but both of us willed to be together. She now has dementia, but I visit her every day at the home she lives at now. 37:40 – I’m someone who’s trying to take the Faith seriously, but my partner is not. We are in the process of getting our civil marriage blessed by the Church. How can I present the faith to her in a sympathetic way? 45:00 – Can you speak on the Church’s official teaching on people who want to get married but can’t have kids because of age? 48:28 – How do we reconcile the Catholic view of marriage with other cultural views that exist? ...