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RCIA Questions & Answers! ! Marriage - why is it important to marry in the Church? If by Church you mean inside of a standing Catholic church it is because a wedding is solemn and sacramental event which should occur inside a church. Since the sacrament of matrimony is indeed a sacred thing, it must follow that the sacrament take place in a sacred place; inside of a Catholic church. As Catholics, we take this notion of a sacred space very seriously. That’s why being inside of a church feels different being anywhere else. An atmosphere of peace, reverence, and respect is important, which reflects God’s presence in the Church and thus in the marriage taking place. It is also where the most sacred sacrament of all resides, that is the Holy Eucharist. It is fitting then, for the marriage to take place where the Eucharist resides, to show that the couple intend for Christ to be the center and most important thing in their lives. ! Being married in a church also makes a statement. It says that the couple takes this sacrament seriously. Since sacraments belong to the entire church—not just the bride and groom—they are normally celebrated in the place that the church gathers. This unites the couple with the universal church throughout the ages and puts the ceremony in the common gathering place where other sacred celebrations occur. ! ! ***! If by Church you mean within the universal Catholic church and not, for example, getting married via Justice of the Peace, this is because a baptized Catholic who wishes to validly receive the sacrament of Matrimony must abide by the teachings and guidelines of the church, since it is through the sacraments that grace is transmitted to the faithful. Also as baptized Catholics we profess our faith in the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church. By this profession, we also lovingly accept all of the teachings and guidelines set by the church for us to receive the sacraments. Also, as Catholics, we adhere to the Holy Mass by devoutly attending it on holy days of obligation, so by getting married the couple is doing it within the celebration of the Mass and the Catholic church is the only institution that offers marriage to be a part of Mass, where the couple can receive not only the sacrament of the matrimony but also the Eucharist. ! Are there nunnery sweatshops that make the Eucharist? There are no nunnery sweatshops, since a sweatshop is a negatively connoted term for a harsh working environment considered to be unacceptably difficult or dangerous, something the church would not allow. ! But, in fact nuns who reside in a convent do make the hosts that are used for consecration at Mass and turned into the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ. They do this as a way to support their communities that they are a part of. ! There’s no specific convents that are solely dedicated to making the hosts. It’s usually done by an order of nuns who have the same duties and responsibilities as any other convent around the world. They make the hosts similarly to how one makes bread, they simply mix flour and water, bake it, and when it’s soft enough they just punch out the hosts with some kind of machine. Once they are made they can be directly distributed to the churches or sold in religious stores as well. ! Why can’t women become deacons or priests? While there are many reasons that women cannot be ordained into the the deaconate or priesthood, first it should be noted that Jesus did not choose any women to be apostles. The 13 chosen apostles (the 12 including Judas, then his replacement after Judas committed suicide) were all men. ! Judaism also does not use female priests. Remember that everything in the Old Testament of scripture points to the coming of Christ. The lines of priests in the Old Testament were all males. ! The priesthood represents Jesus Christ. The Old Testament points to the male Jesus, Jesus Himself became a human male, and today’s priests from St. Peter on, all reflect the priesthood of Christ who is a man. ! The question why women can't be ordained priests is often confused with the issue of equality. The Holy Father has made it clear that men and women (as far as their sex is concerned) are equal before God. But equality isn't identity. Men and women have different though complementary functions. Priesthood is a male function, for the reason that a priest is an icon of Christ, and Christ is male. The maleness of Christ is an important sign of His relationship to the Church, His Bride. As in nearly all cultures a man takes the initiative in winning a wife, so Christ took the initiative in winning souls and establishing His Church. For this reason, marriage is a “mystery” or sacrament of the Church.! Just like how males and females are physically different from one another, this does not make us unequal. It just makes us different. The role of a woman is to be able to bear and give birth to children. This role cannot be fulfilled with males. ! Since men and women have physical differences, so too do we have spiritual differences that we cannot see. St. Paul develops this theme in his parallel between a local church and the family. A "bishop" (or "overseer," which applied to both bishops and priests in NT times) is expected to keep his own family in order, "for if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how can he care for God's church?" (1 Tim 3:5) Male headship in the family is an axiom of both Scripture and Tradition, and if the Church is the Household of God, and Christ is Head of the Church, then His headship in the Church can be represented only by men. ! However, lest it seem that God has honored men above women, we should recall that of all created beings, including the hierarchy of Angels, God raised a Woman to the highest place, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Though she was not an Apostle, she was made Queen of the Apostles, Queen of Angels, Queen of the universe, and the Mother of her own Creator.! So with all this being said, Blessed Pope John Paul II declared “the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful.” ! So even if one day everyone wanted to have women as priests, this cannot happen because the church does not have the authority to ordain women. ! Why are Ouija boards bad, but praying or talking to the dead is not? First of all, what is the purpose of a Ouija board, and what is the purpose of talking and praying to the Saints in heaven? The purpose of a ouija board is divination. Divination is the act of seeking hidden knowledge or information from sources outside of the material world and the normative means that God gave us to obtain knowledge, not divinely revealed. These sources of knowledge include angels, demons, and deceased humans. So divination differs from prayer because it goes outside of the natural ways God reveals His will to us. It seeks to circumvent the right ways that God gives us to obtain knowledge. ! Divination has been around for a long time, since ancient times, but the prevalent forms today include the Ouijia board, palm reading, tarot cards, fortune telling, psychic hotlines, witchcraft, astrology, and horoscopes. Each of these things seek to acquire information about the future, knowledge beyond a person’s natural abilities, or power outside of God’s providence. ! God has already revealed everything we need to know about our present and our future through Divine Revelation and the Church; anything else He wants to tell us comes to us via prayer and spiritual discernment. In other words, God has already established safe channels for us to pursue when we seek answers to life's questions. Divination, even if done in ignorance or for fun, is a way of stepping outside God's plan for us. If this is done deliberately, with full knowledge and consent of the will, then the offender is guilty of grave sin.! the Catechism of the Catholic Church states the matter well: "All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to 'unveil' the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect and loving fear that we owe to God alone" (CCC 2116). People show a profound lack of trust in God by turning to the occult for answers to their most basic needs and deepest desires. This is precisely why divination is sinful.! Using ouija boards and other forms of divination opens up the door to the evil spirits who have every motive to answering to our desires, because by doing this, we become separated and less dependent on God and His holy will, and and instead are tempted to turn to spirits to give us what we want that God would withhold for good reasons. ! In today’s society with the advent of the ouija board, we have the testimony of the Church’s exorcists.