Why Can’t You Change the Name of a Church?
Q: If a church was consecrated by the diocesan bishop in the name of a particular saint, can a different bishop later change its name? I ask because my parish church was consecrated 150 years ago to...
View ArticleWhen Can a Bishop Lawfully Transfer a Pastor to Another Parish?
Q: I belong to a very large parish… Up until a couple of years ago we had an excellent pastor who was not only well-liked by nearly everyone in the parish, but had many years of experience, and was...
View ArticleHow Much Financial Support Are We Required to Give Retired Bishops?
Q: I heard our bishop say that he was entitled to “a car, a house, and a secretary” upon retirement. He claimed that canon law provides for this. Canon 402.2 states that a Conference of Bishops can...
View ArticleWho Controls Ecclesiastical Property?
Q: I am hoping that you can resolve a debate we are having about the term “ecclesiastical property.” Some Catholic friends and I were talking about how the US bishops tried to seize [the Catholic...
View ArticleRemoving a Bishop From His Diocese: The Case of Bishop Strickland
Q: I don’t need to tell you, practically the whole Catholic world is looking at the removal of Bishop Strickland from [his diocese of] Tyler, [Texas,] and wondering what happened and why. From the...
View ArticleWhen Christmas Falls on a Monday: Holydays of Obligation, Part III
Q: If a solemnity is a precept [i.e., a holyday of obligation] in my country and it falls on a Saturday or a Monday, is going to just one Mass enough to fulfill the precept? For example, if a...
View ArticleFiducia Supplicans and the Magisterium
Q: When reading news about Fiducia Supplicans, and then reading the declaration itself, I was struck by this statement it contains about the Church’s Magisterium: Such theological reflection, based on...
View ArticleLimiting Diocesan Bishops’ Authority: Recent Decrees From Pope Francis
Q: I would like to ask a question about diocesan bishops and episcopal authority, but I don’t know how to formulate it. I hope you’ll bear patiently with me, there’s a confused jumble of ideas in my...
View ArticleExcommunication and the Seal of Confession (Sanctions, Part VI)
Q: My question relates to the seal of the confessional because I am wondering if I broke it. I know I acted imprudently, but whether or not I broke it is somewhat unclear to me…. I was hearing...
View ArticleWho Decides Whether a Catholic Has Been Excommunicated?
Q: My (big mouthed!) spiritual director directly broke the seal of confession (names and sins) privately to me not once but twice (same conversation)…. When it happened, I called him out on it and...
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