Ask a Franciscan

On Sundays and holy days of obligation, we recite the Nicene Creed. We begin by saying, “We believe in one God….” Although this is the first person plural, this prayer’s Latin text reads “Credo” (“I believe,” first person singular).

Why do Catholics eat fish on Friday? How did this tradition start? I have been told that at one time the Italian fishing industry was in a depression, so the pope made a law mandating eating fish once a week. ...

In the book How the Irish Saved Civilization (Doubleday), Thomas Cahill talks about both green and white martyrdom. According to Cahill, Ireland was unique in that Christianity was introduced there without bloodshed (red martyrdom).

Lent is based on Christ’s 40-day fast in the desert, which recalls the 40 years that the Hebrew people wandered between leaving Egypt and entering the Promised Land.

If God is all-powerful and all-good, why does evil exist?

Q. In Amos 7:14, at the king’s sanctuary in Bethel, the prophet verbally defends himself against the priest Amaziah by denying that he ever said he belonged to a company of prophets. Amos adds, “I am a herdsman and a ...