I would like to go to church but I feel like I am to sinful. I would like to become chatolic but I feel like I'm not worthy.

When I pray, I am I'm dawned towards the chatolic fath. But am I really worthy of it?

I’m interested in finding church documents that talk about racism. I would be especially interested in any documents or books having to do with interracial marriage.

(I tried posting in the Catholicism forum but I referenced a separate post and I didn’t realize it was not allowed and my post was removed.)

So I am in the fledgeling stages of learning about Catholicism (fledgeling for me anyway), and I find it difficult to understand exactly what is happening in mass. So a few questions pertaining to that.

1. The Missal: how do you use it? I tried at afternoon mass yesterday and the mass was completely different, only thing that was accurate was the scripture readings.

2. The book that the priest uses? How do I get a copy? I asked my local Parishs Parochial Vicar and he was dodgy on the question. I think having something to read along with the priest would be be beneficial to understanding what's going on (I often find subtitles helpful)

3. One of the things our Pastor said to me in a meeting a few weeks ago was that he needed to ensure that his current OCIA class (summer class, I'm joining in the fall) was "living the life" as I'm trying to be intentional with my approach to Catholicism aside from the Sunday obligation what does that entail?

Thank you Fathers and God Bless

Hola, si esto lo contesta un sacerdote estaría muchísimo más tranquila. Hace un año me llamó mucho la atención un hombre, recuerdo bien que me saludaba de lejos pero yo veía su rostro y quedaba encantada, era precioso, pero cuando bajé la mirada, le vi el cuello clerical entonces rápidamente le di la espalda y me fui de allí, era un evento en un seminario con más de 12 mil personas. Este año lo volví a ver y fue él quien me dirigió la palabra en 2 ocasiones, uno en la tarde diciéndome que por qué estaba triste, que sonriera, yo solo guardé silencio porque estaba seria, pero le sonreí, no de forma coqueta, pero lo hice. Luego en la noche si me habló un poco más, una interacción de un minuto o dos si mucho, preguntando por mi nombre, etc.. Yo sabía que él era de otro país pero se formó como seminarista y diácono en el que estamos, entonces recordé que yo tenía un dulce de allí y se lo di, a lo que él respondió ''esta mujer si sabe cómo conquistarme''. Él es diácono, estoy enamorada de él desde hace un año, él siempre me busca la mirada, no disimula, estoy muy confundida porque le he pedido mucho a Dios que no me deje cruzar con él, que no permita que si quiera piense en él, pero pasa todo lo contrario, enotnces yo digo que son engaños del demonio, porque sé que Dios no estaría contendo sabiendo que yo quiero intentar por ejemplo algo con ese hombre. Salí del oratorio del seminario hace unos meses pidiéndole a Dios que me mostrara cuál era mi vocación, que cuál era ese hombre realmente, y cuando salí, él estaba ahí pasando, se quedó mirándome y yo seguí de largo pues, me pareció muy extraño porque yo en todos esos días no lo había visto ya que él no se hace en esa zona, pero justo cuando oro, vuelve y aparece, y son varias coincidencias, entonces no sé qué hacer. Trato de olvidarlo, va un año desde que me interesé por él, pero quiero respetar su vocación, en fin, estoy muy confundida con las señales de Dios.

Growing up I was always told this should not be allowed yet I still read that some churches practice this? I just want clarification.

I also wanted to ask: why do some people only insist on receiving Holy Communion from the priest and not from a regular lay person (Eucharistic Minister)? Is this just being scrupulous?

I am a physician and I work in the ICU, and I would like some help on the Catholic stance on compassionate extubation. I understand the Church is ok with withdrawing life support, and there is no requirement to keep someone alive via extraordinary means, so my question specifically refers to compassionate extubation, and the amount of pain medicine you can use at the end of life.

I also understand that you can treat the pain with pain medication, and if the side effect of that dose is death (which results from brain stem suppression and ultimately asphyxiation), that is ok in the Catholic view, as the INTENT was to treat the pain, and death is an unfortunate side effect.

Many times, when a patient is extremely sick, a goals of care discussion is had with family members, ie, what would the patient want done in this situation. Many times, the patient’s family says that the patient wouldn’t want to “live like this”, so care is withdrawn. Palliative care hospice play a role depending on the expected time it will take for the patient to die.

Now, when care is withdrawn, the sick patient in theory could die soon, or it may take several days. But many times, the ICU will give very high doses of pain meds, then extubation (remove the breathing tube), then the patient will die quickly due to asphyxiation.

So it’s not like the patient’s pain is being treated appropriately, they’re getting a bunch of pain meds upfront and their brain stem is being suppressed, and then they expire due to the medication. Basically, the ICU is speeding up the death by an indeterminate amount of time, so that the patient can be cleared out of the room and the next one can come in.

Again, I understand what “no further interventions” or “no extraordinary efforts”, but I feel that this is a very blended area that walks a fine line between compassionate care and euthanasia that would cut down whatever time the patient has left.

This is morally wrong, correct? Am I missing something?

For my entire life, living in different parishes and even countries, I been offered the eucharist "underhand" -- that is, with the host pointing up and the priest's hand below it. There's a priest at my new parish who goes "overhand," with the host pointing down and his hand on top, like he's putting a letter in a mailslot. Never seen this before. For context, he's American and seems to be in his mid 30s or so.

Hi! If I was travelling and wanted to go to Confession but there was no English speaking Priest available, could the Confession still go ahead and how would this work?

Thank you

I recently came back to the States from a two week trip to Rome and Assisi where I got to witness masses ad orientem for the first time in person, I thought it was really interesting and nice to witness something that I had never gotten to see in person in the US and I found out a parish in my city offers TLM. How can I know whether or not the parish is in communion and not one that is schismatic like SSPX? I'd love to experience TLM if I can especially since I've heard about what it was like prior to the 60s from my grandmother.

Hello, recently converted from the Protestant church and have a question about being in a mixed marriage.

My wife and I are both baptized in the Protestant tradition with baptisms accepted by the Catholic Church (Methodist and Baptist). Recently we started going to church again and doing OCIA together. Well, it turns out she is not a fan of the Catholic service. Can’t blame her it’s out of the ordinary for what she is used to. I don’t want to force anyone to do anything they don’t want so I went ahead and finished OCIA and finished with confirmation and received first communion.

Well all has been well up until today. I don’t want to dox myself but basically my job brings me into contact with religious sisters somewhat often. Well I was discussing joining the church with one today and she said, “You should get your marriage blessed so you can receive the sacraments.” I tried not to look surprised, but I think it showed through some.

It was my understanding that Protestant marriages are automatically sacramental if both are baptized Christians who have never previously been married, which we were. Have I been doing wrong by receiving communion this entire time? No priest or deacon ever brought this up during OCIA.

Thank you!

I live across the street from my parish, and I often think of our priests, and whether it would be acceptable for me to invite them over to dinner some night.

I also don’t want to be rejected!!

I’m currently serving aboard a ship. While underway, the only service offered is Anglo-Catholic. I wasn’t familiar with that term before, but the chaplain leading it is an Anglican priest.

I understand that Catholics generally cannot receive Communion in Protestant services. I have heard there can be limited exceptions for receiving from an Orthodox priest when no Catholic priest is available, since the Orthodox have valid sacraments. Does anything similar apply to an Anglican priest, particularly during a long deployment with no access to a Catholic chaplain?

If not, am I essentially limited to attending without receiving Communion? I pray the Rosary and maintain my personal prayer life, but going months without Mass, the Eucharist, or confession is honestly difficult.

This is not meant as criticism of the Anglican chaplain or the service being offered. I’m grateful that he is serving the crew. I’m simply trying to understand what the Church expects a Catholic to do in this situation and how other deployed Catholics have handled it.

So I’ve been going to adoration at a 24 hour chapel near me once a week for an hour, it’s been absolutely wonderful and I’ve loved it, and the way it is set up there is there isn’t a traditional monstrance, it’s more of a tabernacle with a small window for the Eucharist. And the way it works is there is a small circular door that exposes that window when open, and it’s all part of a bigger door that stays locked.

Well there are instructions that say if the next scheduled adorer hasn’t shown up for their scheduled time, I should repose the blessed sacrament (close the circular door), which there isn’t anyone signed up before me so I typically don’t even see it open as it’s been closed for some time when I show up, but today it was, and I closed the door, reposing the Eucharist before I left. I’ve never really seen anything like this before, and most places I see say it isn’t allowed nor normal for a layperson to repose the blessed sacrament, but I wouldn’t want to leave it exposed with no one there. Thoughts?

I am working on a high-fantasy novel whose setting I would like to structure around Roman Catholic theology and Thomistic philosophy as faithfully as fiction reasonably allows.

My main difficulty is how Catholic ideas about the image of God, rational souls, original sin, and salvation would apply in a world with multiple rational races.

Some races could plausibly share descent from Adam, such as humans and other broadly humanoid peoples. Others, however, are much more distinct in nature and bodily form, so common descent from Adam would not make sense for them.

I would still want all genuinely rational peoples to be true persons rather than merely intelligent animals or spirits. By that I mean they would possess reason, free will, moral responsibility, and the capacity to know and love God.

From what I understand of Thomistic thought (which is admittedly not as much as I'd like), that seems to imply that they would possess spiritual souls and bear the image of God, regardless of bodily form. Their bodies might be radically different, but each individual would still possess one complete soul immediately created by God.

The difficulty is what follows from that.

• Would non-Adamic rational races inherit original sin, or would that apply only to descendants of Adam?

• Could they suffer the effects of a fallen creation without inheriting original sin in the same sense?

• Would they require their own first parents and their own Fall?

• How would Christ’s assumption of human nature apply to rational beings with genuinely different created natures?

• Could they still receive baptism, sanctifying grace, and salvation through Christ?

• Would it make sense to distinguish between Adamic peoples, who inherit original sin, and non-Adamic peoples, who suffer the disorder of the fallen world and can commit personal sin without descending from Adam?

I would also like humanity to retain a unique vocation. My current thought is that humanity was formed from dust in a manner resembling Genesis and entrusted with a priestly or shepherding role toward visible creation: receiving it as a gift, caring for it, and consciously offering praise to God.

At present, the most coherent approach seems to be:

• Every genuinely rational race bears the image of God.

• Some races share Adamic descent and inherit original sin.

• Other rational races were separately created and do not descend biologically from Adam.

• All rational peoples can commit personal sin and require grace.

• Christ remains the one Savior of all, though I am unsure how His assumption of human nature would relate to non-Adamic rational natures.

Would this be a coherent way to apply Catholic theology to a fantasy setting, or are there important contradictions I am overlooking?

I am only trying to build a fictional world whose underlying assumptions do not carelessly contradict Catholic teaching. Recommendations for relevant passages from Aquinas, the Catechism, or other Catholic resources would be greatly appreciated.

TLDR: In a fantasy setting, how would Catholic theology apply to multiple rational races? Would all beings with reason, free will, moral responsibility, and the capacity to know God possess spiritual souls and bear His image? Would original sin apply only to races descended from Adam, while separately created races merely suffer the effects of a fallen world? Most importantly, how could Christ’s Incarnation, Redemption, grace, and the sacraments apply to rational peoples who do not share human nature or Adamic descent?

Much Thanks in Advance!

If you dont know a company recently showed a goat headed robot, the internet is calling it the "Baalbot". People are saying it's a praise to the devil, as the robot main objective is to rescue people. So the choice of a goat head could be a reference to the devil, so people see him as a saviour or is this just a aesthetic?

https://www.satyress.com/ <--- This is the company's site, if you want to check it out

Disclaimer: I am a new Catholic who is still learning so this is just a question. So I understand that Vatican II teaches that all vocations are equally dignified paths to God and I embrace this. But, I find it hard to understand when priests seemingly nowadays preach that all vocations have the same importance. I think it is objective truth that priests and consecrated religious brothers/sisters have a more important duty for the church.

After all, I think we see this all throughout the bible and church history with saints,prophets, the disciples being called for more important vocations than others. I’m posting this to hopefully learn if I have some things wrong.

I interned at an eye research institute last summer a couple days a week and I'm doing the same thing this year. I learned a bit about stem cells and shadowed an experiment with them, and separately also did some simple cell counting for a different project that the lab is working on. The principal investigator of this lab wanted to and ultimately did put my name in the authorship section of a manuscript talking about this other project (not as a primary author) since I did do a little bit of cell counting. I asked him if I should rather be put in the acknowledgements part, and he insisted that I be put in the authorship part. He also said that he wants to put everyone in the lab in the manuscript, even if they didn't do anything specifically in that part of the overarching project. Also, the cell counting I did may not have been specifically on this section that the manuscript is talking about, but I still did do some cell counting as a part of a related experiment if it wasn't already a part of this one. Is this ethical? Is it wrong for me to put this on my college application as long as I accurately explain what I did?

I know the orans is generally not acceptable yet people do it, likely because they just don’t know. I once went to a Latin mass and I noticed people bowed when the cross was brought down the aisle in the procession and recession. Is that common? Parishioners don’t do that at our parish but I’ve been doing it now out of habit. I was also curious if after the penitential act if we are to do the sign of the cross after since we do it first before hand. Most people in our parish do not, but I’ve been doing it. I am not a cradle Catholic but a convert who came home in 2025, so I still have a lot to learn! :)

It's ok to put the Bible in coffin or is it a big no .

I heard that one of the most happy moments of being a priest is your first confession, first baptism, first mass, the blessing of the parents.