Open Forum

Questions Covered:

• 05:05 - Can a Catholic funeral mass be said for a non-Catholic Christian?
•  In Matthew 27:45-49, why did the people think Elijah was going to rescue Jesus when Christ started to recite psalm 22? I know they believed Elijah would come again (Malachi 4:5), and Jesus said it referred to John the Baptist (Matthew 11:11-15). But why do they associate psalm 22 with the return of Elijah?
• 12:10 - Is it okay to take your Latin learning kids to an FSSP Catholic Church for the purpose of hearing Latin when there’s no authentic Catholic Latin Masses anywhere nearby? And is so, do we kneel for their consecration or sit? Like is Jesus present in their Eucharist?
• 15:05 - Father Mitch says the upper room was with the Essenes (man carrying water). Pope Benedict believes it may have been in John’s parent’s house (the Pharisees knew John). The Gospel of Mark series on Augustine Institute by Dr. Tim Gray postulates it could be in the home of Mark’s family (well to do with servants & walls etc). Do you have your own theory or prefer one of these over the other? I have heard you quote Pope Benedict on this before.
• 18:58 - In different parts of the New Testament, the cross on which Jesus died is referred to as a tree. Why is that? I assume there is some kind of symbolism involved, but I don’t know what it is.
• 22:53 - If the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all one in the same, why would God send Jesus to die, to forgive us for sins, when he’s the one that determines what a sin is, and he’s the one that punishes for sinning?
• 30:20 – Does the Church have plans to build a church on the moon if people do build a colony? Has anybody celebrated Mass in space?
• 32:14 – why did the western church do away with infant communion
• 33:39 - In the Sacrament of Reconciliation a penitent can offer an imperfect act of contrition in fear of retribution of his sins or perfect contrition where the penitent is fully repentant of his/her sins because of the offense to God Himself. Is there such a thing as perfect/imperfect acts of love or charity? Doing good out of love of God vs. brownie points or personal gain in the spiritual? 
• 36:08 – Why did priests begin facing people when offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass? Was this a requirement explicitly stated for priests to follow? If not, why did it occur? Why was it not corrected?
• 42:52 – If a priest is in a state of mortal sin, can they refrain from consuming the sacred host and chalice during Mass? If it’s mandatory, which I assume it is, are they committing a new mortal sin by that or are they not culpable in this instance since they are not freely consenting?
• 46:41 – I’m still a bit confused at the relationship between free will and Divine Providence. If we cannot even exist without God sustaining us (i.e. providing for us) how is that free will?
• 49:59 – Given that the Roman Canon was the only Eucharistic Prayer used until Vatican II introduced 3 new Eucharistic Prayers why after that did the Roman Canon become the least used Eucharistic Prayer in today’s Mass?
• 52:56 - I’ve heard Church sexual teaching criticized as placing a high value on virginity and purity, particularly for women, as a good in and of itself. This would make it seem that even properly married people who have had sexual intercourse within marriage are less pure or lesser in some other way than virgins. Maria Goretti gets brought up a lot in these discussions. Is this the case, that there is a “good” that is lost and people are lesser having had intercourse, even in the proper, licit setting? How should we answer critics of this?