What is the Communion of...

Christians have always believed that the Church exists not only in this world but extends into heaven, and the saints in heaven can pray for us, if we ask them to (consider Revelation 5:8; 8:3-4; Matthew 18:10; Tobit 12:12, 15; cf. Hebrews 11:4-12:1 for the "great cloud of witnesses"). For intercessory prayer in general: 1 Timothy 2:1-4; Ephesians 6:18; Romans 15:30; Colossians 4:3; 1 Thessalonians 1:2; for the suprasensible unity of all Christians: 1 Corinthians 12:25-27; Romans... [Read More]

Why are priests called...

Moreover, do not call anyone your Father on earth, for One is your Father, the heavenly one, Yahweh.
(Matthew 23:9)

Context and common sense gives us many clues that Jesus did not want us to remove the word "father" from the language unless applied to Yahweh. Our first clue is that the term "father" is a metaphor for God, and the metaphor would lose all meaning if it couldn't apply to anyone on earth. Moreover, whatever word you used to rename biological... [Read More]

But doesn't Jesus...

In fact, Jesus clearly upholds Tradition in the New Testament as we will see, but before we do that, let's look carefully at the scene that people use as evidence that Jesus is hostile to Tradition.

The entirety of it is that Jesus castigates the Pharisees for their corrupt traditions in a teaching recorded in Mark 7:1-23, and Matthew 15:1-20. The differences between the two accounts of this scene are negligible, and so I will go through the account in Mark:

Mark 7

1
"Now when the Ph

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What do Catholics...

What Catholics believe

A. Mary was conceived free of original sin (called the Immaculate Conception)

B. She never committed personal sin

C. When she died she was assumed body and soul into heaven

D. She is 100% dependent on God, and by her subordinate cooperation she plays a role in all the graces that come to us

Why Catholics believe this

1. Preliminary texts on the general holiness of Mary from Scripture (the following texts do not prove any Marian doctrines -- such te

... [Read More]

Do Catholics accept...

Yes. Catholics accept Jesus Christ as their Lord, as the Son of God, and as the Savior. The Lord God is the head of the Catholic Church, which we believe was established by Christ Himself. The Church does not replace Christ as the means of salvation for Catholics. Instead, it is a means through which He guides and aids the faithful by teaching and sacrament.