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Rebuild My Church

“You have to go to Mass to hear Father Ben’s homily. ”

That was the message I got in text after text on a Saturday night a few months ago. Just days before, I had shared on my Facebook page the column I wrote on this very page about my struggle with the latest wave in the ongoing sex-abuse crisis.

“I’m done, ” I had told so many of my friends. “I can’t do this anymore. ”

“Just go and listen, ” encouraged one friend. “It might give you hope. “

Keep the Children Safe

Back in 1989, a week of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood episodes was devoted to story lines about working mothers. In one story that week, we were introduced to Helena Ruoti, an employee at the small music shop in the neighborhood run by Joe Negri. As the episode begins, Helena is on the phone with her babysitter. Her young son, Matthew, is screaming, and nothing will comfort him.

Joe suggests she go home to be with her son. Helena feels torn. “I’d like that, ” she says, “but I also want to do my job for you. “

Some months before I was ordained, my bishop told me he planned to send me to teach at one of our Catholic high schools. The idea terrified me. I was not popular the first time around and imagined my new experience would be much the same. My bishop ever patient with me told me to trust his decision, be myself, and share with the students my relationship with Christ.

Although I know the Catholic Church approves of cremation, I can’t find in the Catechism of the Catholic Church what the Church requires that Catholics do with the ashes (cremains). Do they have to be buried as in a traditional burial?

According to the second section of article 2301, “The Church permits cremation, provided that it does not demonstrate a denial of faith in the resurrection of the body. “

What is meant by the expression “the valley of the shadow of death “? I am a lifelong Catholic nearing the end of life. So much has changed over the years that I don’t understand what the Church teaches now about the passage from this life to the next. Do we still believe it is a fearsome struggle to avoid the clutches of the evil one? How can I find peace about this?

Are there any readings, books, or websites to explain to my 79-year-old sister that the archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary, telling her that she was favored by God to give birth to God’s Son?My sister believes something evil happened to Mary. When I told her she was wrong, she replied, “But it was on the Internet! “