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Q: I am a graduate theology student, and in class we covered the reforms of the Council of Trent. I came across this passage from Chapter 12 of the Decree on Reformation of Session 25: “The holy synod therefore enjoins on all, of what rank and condition soever they be, to whom the payment of tithes belongs, that they henceforth pay in full the tithes, to which they are bound in law, to the cathedral church, or to what other churches… they are lawfully due. And they who either withhold them, or hinder them [from being paid], shall be excommunicated…”...

Q: Please help me with a matter weighing on my conscience. My husband and I married in our parish church 16 years ago, but I agreed to get married there only because that’s what my parents wanted. Unlike my husband, I wasn’t really practicing my faith, I just went through the motions… gradually I had a reawakening of faith, and now am fully committed to the Catholic Church. But I’m afraid our marriage isn’t valid because I didn’t embrace concepts like indissolubility at the time of our wedding, nor did I want children, although I later changed my mind…. What...

Q: My family is doing genealogical research, and we’ve discovered discrepancies in the birth-dates of a couple of our great-grandparents…. They married very young, and depending on which birth-dates are correct, we’re thinking it’s possible they may really have been too young to marry validly in the Church. If a marriage is invalid due to the age of the spouses, does it automatically become valid when they’re old enough? Or do they need to have another wedding ceremony once they’ve reached the minimum age? –Frank

Q: My daughter stopped practicing her faith and was married to a protestant in his church. Now she has come back, and her protestant husband is preparing to become a Catholic too, next Easter. They understand that their marriage isn’t valid in the eyes of the Catholic Church, but the parish priest told them he can just “bless their marriage” and it will be all right. Can that possibly be true? –Eamon

Q: I have a question about preaching: what happens in times and places where there is no priest or deacon available to hold Mass, and a communion service or another form of liturgical prayer is held? –Mark A: While the scenario that Mark describes is not the norm, there’s no denying that in some parts of the world it’s unfortunately becoming increasingly common. Let’s see first what the code says about preaching in general, and then look at what the Church has to say about preaching in those particular situations where, due to a shortage of clergy, no priest or...

Q: If God established marriage for the procreation of children, does it affect the validity of a marriage if one spouse is infertile? What if you know for sure that you can’t have children, can you get married in the Church anyway? How does that work? –Donna A: As we’ve seen before in this space, the Church holds that marriage is, by its very nature, ordered to the well-being of the spouses and the procreation and upbringing of children (c. 1055.1). As Vatican II’s Constitution on the Church in the Modern World stated nearly 50 years ago, “By its very...

Q: Recently, a Catholic priest in our area left to become “pastor” of an Episcopal church. If we assume for a moment that the Episcopal liturgy contains the valid words of Institution, and if we assume that valid matter was used, does he confect the Eucharist? –Patrick A: Sad to say, the case cited by Patrick is far from unique. In certain countries with a sizeable Episcopal community, one far too frequently encounters priests who have left the Catholic Church to join the Church of England—often in order to get married while still remaining in some sort of ministry—and who...

Q: My fiancée and I attended a marriage-prep class in our diocese, and one of the speakers said something we didn’t fully understand. First he urged us to be open and honest with each other about our past lives, not hiding anything from one another, which made basic sense to us. But then he mentioned that we need to do this because otherwise our marriage could be null. We’ve known each other since childhood anyway, so it’s a moot point for us. Later on, though, we were wondering if telling your future spouse every single little thing about you is...

Q1: I’m Catholic and my fiancé is from a devout Lutheran family. They weren’t too pleased when I told them our wedding has to take place in a Catholic church…. Is it permissible for us under canon law to have a wedding ceremony in my parish church, and have his Lutheran minister “co-marry” us there, alongside the Catholic priest? I asked my pastor and he said no, but I couldn’t tell if he refused because that’s actually the law, or if he just didn’t like the idea. –Christina Q2: My Jewish girlfriend and I want to get married, and both...

Q: What does canon law say about Catholics eloping? I understand the issue from the perspective of the sacramental theology of the Church, but was wondering if canon law had anything to say about it. –David A: When we speak of “elopement” today, we usually envision a young couple running away in the middle of the night to be married in secret, and without the consent of their parents—usually by a justice of the peace in a civil wedding ceremony. Is it ever possible for a Catholic couple (or a couple including only one Catholic) to marry under such circumstances?...

Q: A coworker was talking loudly at work about an article she’d read, endorsing the ordination of women as deacons, and she was all for it. It didn’t sound right to me, though, but I couldn’t put my finger on why not. Would it be possible for the Church to ordain female deacons? If not, what’s the argument against it? –Katie

Q: I have been discerning my vocation, trying to determine whether or not I am called to be a priest. I happened to find a commentary on canon law in my school library… it says that a person is barred from being a priest, permanently, if they have ever been a heretic, apostate, or schismatic. I was baptized outside the Church (Lutheran), and professed agnosticism for a time before converting to Catholicism around the time I was 17. Does that make me incur the irregularity? –Alex

Q: My neighbors are Catholics who didn’t practice the faith for years, but now they are returning to the Church. Their children were never baptized, so they went to the parish priest to arrange for their baptism. But he refused, because he said the children are too old! He claims the children are mature enough to decide for themselves if they want to be Catholic or not…. The whole thing sounds bizarre. The parents truly want to raise their children as Catholics. Is it possible the priest doubts their sincerity? What can they do? –Rachel A: It’s impossible to be...

Q: Could you please explain what "ratum sed non consummatum" means with respect to marriage? I always thought that this was an antiquated term that no longer had any relevance, but recently I encountered it [in a current context]… Why would it matter to the Church whether a marriage has been consummated or not? –Fiona A: The Latin phrase ratum sed non consummatum is translated literally as “ratified but not consummated,” and it has been used by theologians and canonists in regard to matrimony for many centuries. These four Latin words actually contain a wealth of information about the way...

Q: A friend is going to marry a man whose previous marriage was annulled… he says he was able to get an annulment because his wife was against having children and took contraceptives. Does that mean every Catholic marriage is invalid if the couple is contracepting? –Marisa A: No. It’s impossible to determine the exact grounds for the annulment of the marriage which Marisa describes, based solely on the information provided here. Nevertheless, we can examine the reasons why contraception might have been a pivotal factor in proving the nullity of this marriage.

Q1: I’m going to be a bridesmaid in my friend’s wedding… she and her fiancé met with the pastor to discuss the wedding preparations, and he insisted they have to pay the parish a hefty sum in order to get married there. They were horrified, because it feels like the priest is blackmailing them, if they don’t pay it, they can’t get married! Can a priest actually charge fees for marrying people? –Caitlin Q2: My elderly mother mailed a check to [some missionary priests] and asked them to celebrate a Mass for my late father. They returned the check and...

Q: My wife, preschool son and I regularly attend Sunday Mass at the Shrine of –. My wife and I also go to confession there regularly. Our son will be starting school next year… we discovered that there is no CCD of any kind being provided. The priest told my wife that instead, we have to take our son to St. – Church for Sunday School and First Confession/Communion preparation. We were flabbergasted! There aren’t many children who regularly attend Mass at the Shrine, it’s true. But aren’t they still required to provide religious instruction for the ones who do,...

Q: My sister stopped practicing her faith, and married a Greek Orthodox man in his church in Greece. Now their marriage has ended, and she has returned to the Church. She might want to remarry…. We both assumed that she could easily get an annulment, because she wasn’t married in a Catholic ceremony, and so her first marriage wasn’t valid. But her parish priest is insisting that it was! He says if she wants an annulment, she has to “find other grounds.” What is the best way to resolve this, should she join a different parish, or try to reach...

Q: We have a permanent deacon at our parish. Some of us are wondering if the pastor sometimes allows him to do things that he’s not supposed to do… for example, occasionally the deacon preaches a homily at Sunday Mass instead of the priest. Is that permissible? What are the limits of what a deacon can do? —Jay A: It’s a good question! Lay Catholics generally understand that because a deacon is not a priest, there are some sacramental/liturgical actions which he cannot perform. But occasionally the laity are taken aback when they see a deacon engaged in some sort...

Q: How is it that the martyr Philomena used to be a saint, but isn’t any more? I don’t understand how the Church can canonize a saint and then change its mind… –Mary A: Philomena is not, and has never been a saint. Many Catholics erroneously believe that Philomena used to be a saint, and was somehow “decanonized” by Pope John XXIII in 1961. In fact, the action taken that year by the Congregation of Rites—which back then had jurisdiction over matters pertaining to the canonization of saints—actually clarified and made more consistent the canonical status of the person commonly...