DEACON FOR LIFE: Father, You’re Off-putting and Mean

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Father, You’re Off-putting and Mean

Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin and Father John Hollowell, left

Ask A Priest: Missing Mass

By Fr. John Hollowell:
I’ve had a very similar conversation with several different people at multiple parish assignments.
The same person will ask two questions maybe a few days or weeks or months apart:
1) “Father, why do you talk about missing Mass and mortal sin? It’s so off-putting and mean.”
and then, at some other point:
2) “Father, why have my kids stopped going to Mass?”
Hello!
If no one tells the next generation that going to Mass is SERIOUSLY important, and that their salvation is on the line, then why would they go?
Canon Law, 1247: “On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass.”
The Catechism, 2180: “The faithful are obliged to participate in the Eucharist on days of obligation, unless excused for a serious reason (for example, illness, the care of infants)…Those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin.”
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6

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from Courageous Priest

LIFE IS SACRED

An example of the traditional magisterial teaching which indicates that it is never morally licit to intentionally kill a child through abortion in order to “save the life of its mother” comes from the teaching of Pope Pius XII:

“Every human being, even the infant in the mother's womb, has the right to life immediately from God, not from the parent or any human society or authority. Therefore, there is no man, no human authority, no science, no medical, eugenic, social, economic or moral ‘indication’ that can show or give valid juridical title for direct deliberate disposition concerning an innocent human life-which is to say, a disposition that aims at its destruction either as an end in itself or as the means of attaining another end that is perhaps in no way illicit itself. Thus, for example, to save the life of the mother is a most noble end, but the direct killing of the child as a means to this end is not licit.”