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<div>I am traveling to the U.S. from abroad, leaving on Good Friday and arriving on Good Friday (21-hour flight). When do I fast?</div><div>For holy days of obligation, canon law calls for us to follow the liturgical calendar of our home diocese (can. 12 §3). Although Good Friday is not a holy day of obligation regarding Church attendance, it is a day of obligation for fasting and abstinence. In my opinion, the same principle would appear to apply, and you should fast according to the calendar of your home diocese. However, once in the United States you should do your best not to give scandal to other Catholics.
Your pastor can also dispense you from the fast and abstinence and substitute another form of penance (can. 1245; <a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_p-vi_apc_19660217_paenitemini.html">Paenitemini</a> III, VII). So your pastor could commute your fasting and abstinence to the day that you are in the United States if that would be easier for you.
</div>

When Do I Fast?

Doesn’t Abortion Help Reduce Overpopulation?

<div>I’m seeking employment in the biotech field. Are there any restrictions as to what I can do? Can I work with human cells?</div><div>The best thing for you to do is to contact the folks at the reliable and sophisticated <a href="https://www.ncbcenter.org/">National Catholic Bioethics Center</a> in Philadelphia. They are happy to engage and answer questions.
Peace to you with prayers for your future work.
</div>

Are There Mays and May-Nots in Biotech Work?

Stock Protestant objections to the practice of invoking the saints to pray for us have been around for quite some time: “Jesus is the one mediator,” “we shouldn’t communicate with the dead,” “the dead can’t hear us,” etc. And a plethora of successful responses have been given. So, whenever a non-stock objection comes along, it’s quite nice.
Protestant apologist Gavin Ortlund has provided us such an opportunity. In <a href="https://opentheo.org/i/5431341150608907844/praying-to-the-saints-a-protestant-critique">his video</a>, “Praying to the Saints: A Protestant Critique,” he argues that when we consider “how the prayers to the saints actually played out” in medieval piety, we discover that it led to many distortions.
Ortlund gives several examples. I can’t quote them all. But here are some relevant excerpts that include the primary “distortion” that concerns him:
“Lord, we ask that Thou, placated by the intercession of all Thy saints . . . We pray thee, Lord, that the merits of blessed Mary, who is both perpetually a virgin and the bearer of God, may attend us and always implore Thy forgiveness for us” (Cursus Honarum of the Blessed Virgin Mary, according to the Ordinarium of the Church of Hildeshelm).
“O noble Mary, excellent above all, procure for us forgiveness.”
“O holy virgin Mary, and all the saints and elect of God, come to aid me, wretched one, now and in the hour  of my death, and make the Lord our God propitious to me by your merits and prayers.”
“Through you forgiveness is granted to the guilty” (Sequence to Our Lady and Sequence in Praise of the Virgin).
For Ortlund, the above invocations are “inherently wrong” and in “error” because the soteriology (study of salvation) embedded within them is flat-out contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ. As he puts it, “it is subtracting from the sufficiency of Christ because the specific tasks that are the property of Christ in the gospel are being assigned to Mary here.” Which tasks? Procuring the forgiveness of sins and propitiating or placating God, which, for Ortlund, can be done only by the death of Jesus on the cross.
It’s because of these distortions, Ortlund explains, that Protestants, including himself, are concerned with the practice of invoking the intercession of the saints. And such a concern is good enough reason for him not to engage in the practice, at least when combined with the lack of New Testament and early Christian evidence that Christians requested that the saints in heaven pray for them.
We’ll set aside for now Ortlund’s concern about the lack of early evidence for invocations. It’s his concern about these so-called distortions, and his reasoning about them, that I would like to focus on here.
Assuming for argument’s sake that these requests are distortions, notice how Ortlund concludes that we shouldn’t invoke the saints’ help because such invocations have played out in a way that violate the Bible’s teaching on salvation—namely, that we are forgiven of our sins through the merits of Jesus’ death on the cross.
Now, one might think Ortlund is guilty of committing the association fallacy, which asserts that the quality of some things within a category (when not essential to the things within the category) is a quality of all things within that category. If Ortlund were to conclude that all invocations of the saints are violations of the gospel because some were, then he would be guilty of fallacious reasoning. But Ortlund simply argues that such invocations can lead to violations, and on this basis, he chooses not to engage in the practice.
But why should we reject the invocation of the saints simply because some invocations lead to a violation of the gospel (again, assuming that the above invocations are violations of the gospel)? We don’t reject interpreting Scripture just because some interpretations lead people to destruction (2 Pet. 3:15-16). Nor do we reject the practice of religion simply because some who practice it do so in a way that leads to unjust conflict and violence.
Concerning the interpretation of Scripture, we realize that it’s not interpretation that leads to destruction. Rather, it’s specific interpretations along with whatever method the interpreter is using. Similarly, when it comes to religion, we realize that it’s not religion that leads to conflict and violence. Rather, it’s the perversion of religion by the one causing unjust conflict and violence.
The same line of reasoning applies to the so-called “distorted” invocations of the saints. In the examples Ortlund gave, it would be the specific requests that are “distorted” and the soteriological beliefs driving these specific requests. And if that’s the case, there’s no need for Ortlund to persuade others away from the practice of invoking the saints’ intercession. There could be some invocations that are not problematic and thus worthy of Christian practice.
Now, this response assumes that the requests in the above excerpts are actual “distortions.” But we have good reason to think they’re not.
Recall that Ortlund is concerned with the invocations because they take away from the sufficiency of Christ insofar as they attempt to procure the forgiveness of sins from and propitiate or placate God. Notice the hidden assumption: nobody except Christ can procure the forgiveness of sins from God or propitiate him. 
If by “procure” Ortlund has primary causality in mind, then we agree. Only Christ is the efficient cause of the forgiveness of sins. But that’s not how the above excerpts should be read. The “procuring” is by way of request. In other words, the above prayers are simply asking Mary to pray that God would forgive us of our sins.
Is it okay for Mary to do this? Well, it’s not at all different from Paul praying, “May the Lord grant [onesiphorus] to find mercy from the Lord on that Day [the Day of Judgment]” (2 Tim. 1:18). If Paul can pray for a Christian to be forgiven by God, so can Mary. And if it’s okay for Mary to do this, then the above requests made of Mary is not a “distortion” of the gospel.
Concerning the request that Mary would propitiate or placate God, all this entails is a request that Mary would ask God to be more favorable to us. If Paul and Mary can ask God to forgive our sins, which is just one way in which God can be favorable to us, then Paul and Mary can ask God to be favorable to us in other ways.
As much as I appreciate Ortlund’s honest and charitable expression of his concerns with the Catholic practice of the invocation of the intercession of the saints, when it’s thought through, the concern dealt with in this article doesn’t justify a rejection of invoking the saints. Not only are the requests in the excerpts not violations of the gospel, which is a major motivation behind his concern, but his reasoning is fallacious even if we grant that these requests are perversions. If Ortlund wants to justify his rejection of the practice of invoking the saints, he’s going to have to ground himself in better arguments.

Should Mary Just Mind Her Own Business?

In Acts 2, St. Peter gets up at Pentecost and declares that (a) Jesus&#8217; Tomb is empty because He is risen, and (b) that the Apostles are all witnesses of the risen Christ.
Do we have any good reason to believe that this really happened? How do we know that St. Peter was telling the truth? How do we know that Acts 2 is historically accurate? (Did St. Luke just invent this Pentecost sermon?)

Did Peter Lie About the Resurrection?

It may seem like there isn&#8217;t any freedom in <a href="https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/free-will">free will</a> if one bad decision can damn you to <a href="https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/what-is-hell">hell</a> for eternity. What does it really mean when Catholics say we have free will? Jimmy Akin, Catholic Answers Apologist, freely chooses to answer this question.

Does Fear of Hell Contradict Free Will?

The recent ruling regarding Medjugorje

Why isn’t the Bible written in such a way that there isn’t wiggle room on moral topics?

Can you explain the difference of the Greek and Aramaic word for “my Church” in Matthew 16:18?

How can I respond to the Pope’s comments in Singapore that all religions lead to God?

How can I effectively Catechize my daughters without over complicating the faith?

How late can you be to a Sunday Mass for it to be considered valid attendance?

Do we get to meet our Guardian Angels in heaven?

Why does a marriage need to be consummate in the Catholic church?

How do we reconcile our free will with God’s omniscience?

If Jesus and Mary’s bodies are in heaven, would other symbiotic organisms be with them?

Can divorced Catholics be allowed to receive Holy Communion?

Ask Me Anything

<div>How old was Jesus at the presentation in the temple? </div><div>According to Mosaic Law, a woman who has given birth to a boy is unable to enter the temple or touch anything holy for forty days. At the end of the forty days she is to offer a year-old lamb or two turtledoves or two pigeons as an offering. Luke (2:22-24) mentions this sacrifice, so this event would have taken place when Jesus was either forty days old or shortly thereafter.
</div>

How Long After the Nativity Was the Presentation?

Is Ash Wednesday / Lent ONLY FOR CATHOLICS?

How do you get from basketball to the diaconate, with a lot of suffering in between?  Here’s one way.
My journey with Christ began back in high school, with an event that looked completely ordinary and non-spiritual. I was playing basketball with some friends when I suffered a back injury for the first time. Little did I know in the moment that my life would completely change.
You see, this injury didn’t go away. Instead, I developed what my doctors thought was chronic neck and back pain, and it has plagued me ever since. Over the years, my list of symptoms grew longer and longer. I loved to play sports growing up, but because of these physical limitations, I had to rediscover who I was.
I began to focus on school by studying and reading. I saw my parents’ great love for learning about our Catholic faith, and I followed their example. Studying the Bible and other books like it, became an ordinary part of my life.
I remember thinking one day, why am I doing this? I was “wasting” so much time reading about God. When would I ever use it? In the moment, it didn’t look as though I would ever use it. But I didn’t care. In the moment, reading about God gave me a joy and a purpose I needed in order to persevere through the physical pains and limitations that I had.
Thanks be to God, about a year ago, I was finally diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder called Ankylosing Spondylitis. Now I understood why my body didn’t heal thirteen years ago, when I was in high school. I had an illness that requires treatment. Finally, the mystery was solved, and I had hope of a brighter future.
When I started reading the Bible, I didn’t know what God had planned for my future. All I knew was that it was worth it in the moment. Many years later, I’ve used that knowledge a lot. I taught a Bible study at the Newman Center at Southern Utah University when I was a nursing student. I’ve received two Master’s degrees from St. John’s Seminary. I’m a deacon.
St. Paul tells us in Romans 8:28 that “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.” I didn’t know what God had planned for my future when my illness began. But God did.
I suffered a lot, and I have to admit that even now it&#8217;s tough to accept just how difficult life became. The pain was that bad. What made it impossible to handle was the fact that there was no hope for years, because the doctors didn’t understand why I was in pain.
Yet I&#8217;ve received a tremendous blessing through my years of illness. Through it all, I&#8217;ve had an encounter with the living God. I can say without a doubt that had it not been for my illness, I wouldn&#8217;t have developed a personal relationship with Jesus.
We hear our Protestant brothers and sisters speak about a personal relationship with Christ. That personal relationship is not only for them; it’s for Catholics, too. Because of my illness, I had to reorient my life, to reach out for something that could provide stability. That &#8220;thing&#8221; that I grabbed onto as I was drowning in despair was our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Think about the sick who encounter Jesus in the Gospels. Their illnesses and pain drove them mad. They searched with all they had for a cure. Think of the woman who spent all she had on doctors, searching for relief, to no avail (Mark 5:24-34). Then think about all the sick who in their madness searched Jesus out. Think about that “obnoxious” blind beggar who heard Jesus passing by (Luke 18:38-43). He screamed out, &#8220;Lord Jesus, have mercy on me!&#8221; The people around him told him to shut up because the way he was acting was mad. But he screamed out all the more, because he knew healing was worth it! In the eyes of the world, this beggar was acting crazy. Yet his illness freed him to call out to our Lord with all he had, even if it might humiliate him to do so.
If Jesus allows us to be afflicted with illness or some other heavy cross, we can go to our doctors, because they have treatments and cures, but we also need to cry out to him in prayer. He may heal us; after all, anything is possible for God, and healing us is easy for him. But his answer might instead be &#8220;I am <a href="https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/tracking-down-pauls-thorn-in-the-flesh">not going to heal you</a> right now&#8221; (see 2 Cor. 12:1-10). That was his answer to me for thirteen years. He may never heal us or free us from the burden. If that&#8217;s the case, we are called to cling to him all the more.
God will not abandon us—especially when we are suffering, because that is when he is closest to us. I don’t know the cross you are carrying. But I know that everybody is carrying a cross, and I know that God has good plans in mind for you. Rather than focusing on the pain, let us throw ourselves into the arms of Jesus by praying all the more fervently. Jesus is looking for us to persevere in prayer, and he promises that he will respond . . . even if he doesn’t take away our crosses (Luke 11:5-13).

When God Gives You a Cross

All 10 archbishops of New York have been Irishmen of one degree or another. Author George Marlin shares their history with us, and a bit of the history of New York as America&#8217;s leading archdiocese.