Q. I need an answer. Our son had been suffering from clinical depression since he was 4 years old. All of the doctors and all of the medications we tried over the years seemed to do little to help. One year ago, his own son died in an auto accident at the age of 24, and that seemed to be more than...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Parents who juggle packed work and family schedules deserve a Nobel Prize in mathematics for doing something not even the most brilliant scientists can do: They pack 48 hours of activity into 24, Pope Francis said. "I don't know how they do it, but they do," the pope told tho...
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Q. Is it still required to abstain from meat on all the Fridays of the year? I was in Minnesota and read in a parish bulletin that this was true (i.e. all Fridays, not just during Lent.). Recently my daughter was visiting from Virginia and said that she had heard the same thing. What is the truth?...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The discussion at last year's extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family was lively -- some media coverage made it sound like a battle -- and a new book from the Pontifical Council for the Family shows the debate continues. "Family and Church: An Indissoluble Bond," publish...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Work is an important expression of human dignity and of caring for one's family, but today there is a "dangerous tendency" to consider a worker's family obligations as an obstacle to productivity and profit, Pope Francis said. "But let's ask ourselves: What productivity? And...
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Q. I am a faithfully practicing Catholic and read the Bible daily. As a supporter of Israel, I see their task in protecting the Holy Land as difficult but necessary. I find it hard to accept the Vatican's proposal of a two-state agreement as a solution to the woes of the Middle East. I base my opin...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Families need moments of rest and celebration, time for standing back and recognizing the gifts of God and how well they have developed, Pope Francis said. Celebrations are times "to enjoy that which cannot be produced or consumed, that cannot be bought or sold," the pope sai...
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Q. My husband and I have an issue that we really struggle with. We are often invited to the wedding of a Catholic couple who have already been living together. We understand cohabitation before marriage to be very wrong in the eyes of God and of the Church. Should we go to these weddings? It seems...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Trusting in God's infinite mercy, people should not be afraid or embarrassed to go to confession, Pope Francis said. "There are people who are afraid to go to confession, forgetting that they will not encounter a severe judge there, but the immensely merciful Father," Pope Fra...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Catholics who have divorced and are civilly remarried "are not, in fact, excommunicated -- they are not excommunicated -- and they absolutely must not be treated as if they were," Pope Francis said. Resuming his Wednesday general audiences Aug. 5 after a month's break, Pope F...
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