Dear Father: V - Could there be a Puppy Heaven? (And the monstrosity in the 2015 Synod Lineamenta on Orthodoxy and Pastoral Praxis)

Dear Father:

I am perplexed by the recent talk about dogs going to heaven.  I watch the morning shows from New York while drinking my coffee, and everyone this morning  seemed happy and excited by what the Pope had apparently said, whether it was accurately reported or not. I must confess that I am getting exhausted trying to keep up with all the new things coming out of Rome.  Can you help me understand what is going on?  Can I tell my daughter that her goldfish will go to heaven and be with her?

Dog-tired in Dodge City

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Dear Dog-tired in Dodge City,

I will try my best to answer your questions and help relieve your tired state of mind.  I, too, was surprised to see an article on the Pope’s supposed statement about dogs going to heaven on the front page of the New York Times, a newspaper certainly of record and influence but not known to care too much about papal statements. 

Dear Father: Answers for Troubled Times - Gender Ideology and the Priesthood

Dear Father,

I watched Cardinal O’Malley’s interview on Sixty Minutes the other night. I like him and have every reason to believe that he is a good bishop and takes that role seriously. But he made me uneasy when he was discussing the question of whether women can become priests. The Pope himself said that this was not a question “that could be put on the table”, not up for discussion. But the Cardinal seemed to be having difficulty responding to Norah O’Donnell’s question about whether the exclusion of women in the priesthood is “immoral”. His response, when it came, seemed to be the right one to give, but it included a statement that if he were to found a church he would love to have women priests. Am I wrong in being uneasy about all of this?

Ataloss in Atlanta

Dear Father: IV - What does all this mean?

Dear Father,

This letter is a long time in coming.  I want to know what has happened to the Catholic understanding of death.  On All Souls Day our priest wore white vestments and talked about how all the dead we pray for on this day are already in heaven.  And he called us all a “resurrected people”.  This is similar to what I see and hear at almost every Catholic funeral Mass I go to.  I thought we were supposed to pray for the dead who are in Purgatory to speed them on their way to heaven.  But if everyone goes to heaven as soon as he dies, what does all this mean?

Faithfully,

Beleaguered in Biloxi.

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Dear Beleaguered in Biloxi,

"Dear Father": Answers for Troubled Times III - My Pastor is Now Addicted to "Who am I to judge?" -- Now what?

Dear Father,

I'm somewhat confused by a pastor, who used to be very conservative until two years ago, but who's been recently using, 'Who am I to judge?' often in his sermons, criticizing those 'who judge,' in his words. Now, when he's criticizing those whom he sees as 'judgmental', isn't he himself judging? So, isn't there some level of contradiction in this sentence, this fear of 'judgment' being used to...well, 'judge' others, as 'judgmental', 'hypocrites', 'pharisees', etc?

Mesmerized in Mississippi

Dear Mesmerized in Mississippi,

"Dear Father": Answers for Troubled TimesII - In these times, can I be critical or skeptical of hierarchy pronouncements?

"Dear Father,

"Dear Father": Answers for Troubled Times I - A Confused Convert

I will periodically answer a question or anxious doubt put forward to me. At least for now, it won't be possible to receive questions from readers, due to pure lack of time, but will only answer those that I receive in regular pastoral life.

The first question comes from a confused convert.

"Dear Father,

I'm a convert from an Evangelical background. Most of my family remained Evangelical, and this has caused occasional attrition. Now, I hear continuous pronouncements that weaken my resolve in my conversion, for instance in visits to Evangelical churches in which 'unity in diversity', at least to me, seems to completely include Evangelicals in a new unity that is already in place. In this case, why did I go through all the trouble of converting? Should I go back?

In Christ,

Lost in Nebraska."

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Dear Lost in Nebraska,

May I begin by saying that I understand your dismay and your hurt in your reading of Pope Francis’ talk to the Italian Pentecostalists on July 28.  A quick reading of the talk and remembering the Pope’s recent words to an Evangelical about his not being interested in converting anyone to the Catholic faith could indeed make you ask the questions:  “Why did I leave where I was to enter the Catholic Church if in the end we are all on the same road walking with Christ? And if we are in fact all on the same road whatever communion or denomination we happen to belong to, then does not the whole understanding of the Catholic Church as the unique Church founded by Jesus Christ become irrelevant?  And if unity has nothing to do with the Catholic Church per se and instead depends on mutual claims to love Jesus, then why did I take that very real step that I thought brought me to that place that is the center of unity of Christians, the Catholic Church?”

These questions are even more poignant for those whose decision to enter into the Catholic Church was a painful one in that it meant a break in family relationships and a break with friends and a loss sometimes of even one’s livelihood. I know that your decision to enter the Church was a source of pain and discord in your family. So the questions are not merely academic.