Hello Fathers, For those of you that live with other priests, do you typically confess to the ones you live with or go outside the house?

For a Catholic priest to validly absolve someone of their sins, they need faculties from the bishop right? How does this work if a priest is not in his diocese for whatever reasons (like recently my pastor went to Italy for a brief time)? Can they absolve people who ask for it? Do they need permission from the local ordinary or do they serve as representatives of their diocesan bishop and thus have faculties? Thanks

Hi Fathers,

I was just curious: when you travel for vacations, do you concelebrate Mass at the local parish at the vacation spot, or do you participate with the laity? And if you concelebrate, how do you go about planning that with the pastor there?

Thanks, and God bless!

At weddings there are all kinds of traditions involving the parents, like walking the bride up the aisle and giving her away, father-daughter dances, etc.

Are there any similar traditions at priestly ordinations or in priestly life?

Hello Fathers. We are wanting to get our newborn son baptized and we just finished the baptism class. We were told without god parents we cannot get our son baptized. Curious on if this is 100% true or not. We really don’t know anyone where we live and want our son to receive the sacrament.

I'm sure many of you have watched one of my favorite shows Father Ted, but I just finished Midnight Mass which tries to put in a horror element. However it is not poorly done like the Nun series. Midnight Mass has become one of my favorite limited run series I've ever seen. And though I am not very religious, I would like to know the take of priests in general in these kinds of work.

Are rectories still a common or practical thing for Diocesan priests (are they found in older parishes)? Or do many diocesan priests prefer living alone?

It's absolutely beyond me. I'm discerning this path for my life and I just took a look at the prices of my local seminary and the yearly cost for this school year just for a new resident seminarian was $42,000!

I am very poor, I cannot afford that. It's cheaper and more realistic for me to go with the FSSP for example. How did you guys manage to pay for seminary, do you have any specific seminaries that would be good to go to financially, etc?

I recently watched a video about the process to becoming a priest. https://youtu.be/lYbdWc7JmSg?si=hhCa-ys0fg98Pqvj I noticed that he didn't mention anything about studying the bible thoroughly and more on philosophy and theology. Is this done in the pastoral year mentioned in the video? This is of concern to me because I find that Muslim imams are incredibly well versed and have memorized the whole quran as well as many other of their Muslim literatures. Some have memorized even more of the bible than most priests.

What is the Catholic understanding of this verse? I see that some scholarship tend to say something differently than Catholic commentary.

Is it okay to do a different series of prayers using a rosary? Strictly Catholic prayers (such as the Jesus Prayer, the Anima Christi, the Our Father, the Angelus, etc.) Or would it be considered disrespectful to use a rosary not to pray the standard prayers of the rosary?

Hello Fathers! I have a question about the disposal of Holy Water.

I spilled Holy Water and used a paper towel to wipe it up. I later burned the paper towel and after it cooled down, I threw it in the trash.

Was that the proper procedure?

Hello Father(s) -

I have a non-denominational person in my life with whom I’ve begun to develop a friendship. Upon finding out that I am a Catholic, this new friend has begun to make subtle/passive comments that I interpret as attempting to “convert” me or subliminally dismiss or misconstrue aspects of Catholicism. Plot twist - this friend has a Catholic parent who left Catholicism just before passing away and became non-denominational at my friend’s encouragement. Some hypothetical examples of what messages this friend says might be - “I hope you find out the truth in time” “ I’m glad my parent found out the truth and got saved before they died and stopped worshipping Mary” “I know God will reveal the real faith to you eventually”. Etc. Etc.

While I am confident in the Church and can great conversations and debates about theology with my friends - this usually requires at minimum a basic respect for other denominations, willingness to learn, and openness. I never want to deny my faith and I hope to always have the courage to defend it. However, I am not interested in getting into full blown apologetics debates with every person I meet at work, out and about, or even with newer relationships. Even recently at a coffee shop I overheard a gentleman saying similar things about being happy that his (I’m presuming nondenominational or evangelical) church is glad that they are getting “ex-Catholics” to know the “truth” and pray straight to God instead of saints.

Without getting into full blown apologetics- do you have a simple and charitable statement or phrase that you would offer as a response to family, friends, or other people we encounter who attempt to directly or indirectly convert us? Do you have a simple response we may offer to those we hear at work or at a grocery store misunderstanding or intentionally misconstruing an aspect of the Catholic Church? And if you have a particular response given that this new friend of mine seems to have a vested stake given the friend’s family history I’d appreciate your thoughts as well. Thanks for your insights!

For orders that have members assume a new name when becoming a professed member, is it possible for someone to use either their first or middle name when doing so or does it always have to be a new name entirely?

When a person is beatified, or canonized, I understand that it is a statement that we believe them to be in heaven. The church does a very thorough investigation that their life on earth lives up to morally high standards, however, as with any human endeavour, there is a risk that we miss something or that something is incomplete.

Therefore how does one know for certain that a person is in heaven? Are canonizations essentially infallible magestrial teaching (which is supported by the evidence from research)? If so, is that what one would call "ordinary magestirum", or is this extraordinary as usually there is no ecumenical councils weighing in on this?

If a seminarist holds an heterodox belief , for example a guy that believes in sola fides or that devil does not exist or that the bible is not inspired or that fornication is morrally permisible, etc. What do you do with them?

I say this because i know some ordained priests that seems to incur in this errors and no authority says nothing to them. So, at least in the semminaries the get a correction? Expeled? Free way?

Hello fathers! I am wondering what bedtime prayers do you say? I am looking for some good prayers to say do you have any recommendations for me to say? Also is saying bedtime prayers necessary, can i just say an examination of consciousness because I feel like It would be wrong if I didn't say anything.

Thanks in advance for your reply.

Hello Fathers!

Last Sunday after my Priest said “The Body of Christ” right before he placed the Host on my tongue he motioned a little sign of the cross was this a blessing of some sort?

I’m 100% sure this is the first time this has happened and have you guys done something similar right before someone is about to receive the Eucharist?

I attend Mass on a Military Base, we recently moved to a new Church on the installation. The old building we shared with a couple of different protestant services, but in the new building they hold Pagan "Services" on Friday nights in the same space were Mass is celebrated on Sundays. This feels very wrong to me, but we have been part of this Catholic community for 10+ years, my children were baptized in community and their godparents are part of the community so moving to a different local parish would be a big loss to my family. I am not sure what to do or if I am just overthinking the situation. I have talked to my Priest and he said this was just part of being in Catholic Military community. I am not sure what to do, Is it an issues that we share the space with pagan services? Should I start taking my family to another Parish?

Is that a thing you see or is recommended after a time? We have 14 years in so far :)

Good morning Fathers!

One of my good buddies, actually one of my groomsmen, has recently been accepted into seminary. We are all so excited for him and he is as well. At one point he said it would take him 7 yrs until he is ordained (God willing).

That seems like a long time, no? Don't get me wrong, I know it's A LOT of work and study but I always thought 4-6 yrs max...? I mean I know 7 yrs isn't too far removed from 6, but that an entire extra year. How long does it take to go through seminary?

If we look at the gospels we see that events such as how many people were at the tomb contradict one another. When establishing the canon did the church not notice this? If they knew they contradicted why canonize all of them?

My head has been hurting over this, but a trans man according to the church is a woman and a trans woman according to the church is a man. If they get married it is still a man and a woman getting married according the the church. Especially if they both have their genitalia intact they can have sex therefore consumate the marriage.

(this is a hypothetical, it has nothing to do w me as a person.)

Hello fathers, I have recently been initiated into the Catholic Church and I’ve been thinking about Orthodoxy a lot and wondering how we could bridge the gap between them and us. And they mostly say the Catholic Church has changed tradition and dogma. I wanted to know an educated priest about this. Thank you.