Ask a Franciscan

Our diocese distributed a pamphlet on examining your conscience. It states that having an abortion or encouraging a woman to do so would mean automatic excommunication from the Catholic Church. If I do that, is this so?

As an 80-year-old Catholic, I was taught that missing Mass through your own fault is a mortal sin that, if unconfessed and unabsolved, could send you to hell forever. I know friends and other Catholics who are good people but ...

Question about limbo: Are souls in a state of eternal happiness outside heaven or do they go to hell forever? I pray for my granddaughter’s soul.

I like what I read in St. Anthony Messenger and enjoy other products from Franciscan Media. One question keeps coming back to me: Are you Franciscan or Roman Catholic? I ask this because these days I feel much closer to ...

In his book The Future of the Catholic Church with Pope Francis, Garry Wills states that there is no evidence before AD 100 that there was any bishop in Rome. Is that true?

I cannot find an examination of conscience for sins of omission. Does such a list exist?