Category: Podcasts

Pope Francis Washing Women’s Feet & The Popes Who Thought About Resigning . . . But Didn’t

 

Recently, Pope Francis washed the feet of several young people, including young women. He did this in the wake of Pope Benedict's resignation. Here are two interesting discussions of Pope Francis's actions and a look at recent popes who thought about resigning but didn't do so in the end.

It has been widely reported that, when he was still the cardinal archbishop of Buenos Aires, the future Pope Francis washed the feet of women during the Mass of the Lord’s Supper.

Now he has done so as pope.

Did he break the Church’s law?

What does this event mean, and how can we understand what he was trying to do?

CLICK HERE TO READ WHAT I’VE WRITTEN ABOUT THAT.

 

Popes Who Thought About Resigning . . . But Didn’t

Benedict XVI’s resignation may have been the first papal resignation in hundreds of years, but it didn’t come completely out of the blue.

He’d already indicated that he had been thinking about the subject of resignation.

What is less well known is that other recent popes had been thinking about it, too.

A lot of recent popes.

CLICK HERE TO READ WHAT I’VE WRITTEN ABOUT THAT.

 

Two Conversations

This special, extra episode of the Jimmy Akin Podcast contains two conversations I recently had on these subjects on Al Kresta’s and Drew Mariani’s radio shows.

I thought they were very interesting, productive discussions, and so I thought I’d share them with you.

Use the player or links below to listen!

(Or, if you’re reading by email CLICK HERE to go to the original post and listen.)

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The Pope Who Inspired Pope Benedict’s Resignation

Pope Benedict's resignation is patterned after that of St. Celestine V. Here Pope Benedict visits the relics of St. Celestine V.

There haven’t been that many popes who have resigned, and none of them offer an exact parallel to the case of Pope Benedict.

However, there is one pope–St. Celestine V–who is by far the closest parallel.

Who was he? Why did he resign? And what does his strange case tell us about Pope Benedict’s decision to resign?

In this episode, Dr. Andrew Jones and I discuss the most recent papal resignations, including that of St. Celestine V.

We comment on how Pope Benedict is modeling his resignation after that of Celestine V and what light this sheds on Pope Benedict’s thinking.

We also discuss what this means for the future and why Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation may be as momentous an event in the history of the Church as the development of the conclave.

Use the player or links below to listen!

 

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Is St. Peter the Rock on which Jesus built his Church?

Is St. Peter the Rock on which Jesus built his Church?
One of the most controversial passages in the Bible is Matthew 16:18, where Jesus tells Peter, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church.”

Catholics see this passage as evidence that Jesus made Peter the first pope.

Many Evangelicals look at it as just the opposite.

Who is right?

It’s an interesting question, and I’ve been on both sides of the question. In fact, this passage played a pivotal role in my conversion to the Catholic Church.

You may think you’ve heard all the arguments about whether Peter is the rock, but I’m going to show you the one that convinced me, and you probably haven’t heard it anywhere else . . .

The Basic Argument

A common claim in Protestant apologetics is that in Matthew 16:18, Jesus is actually contrasting St. Peter with the rock on which he will build his Church.

The argument is based on the fact that in Greek the word for Peter is petros, while the word used for “rock” here is petra.
It is often claimed that these words meant two different things–that petros meant a small stone or a pebble, while petra meant a large rock.

The idea is that Jesus is contrasting Peter–a tiny, insignificant stone–with the great rock on which he will build his Church, which is often said not to be Peter but Peter’s faith.

How well does this argument work?

By the Way . . .

Incidentally, if you’re interested in this type of information, you might want to check out my Secret Information Club.

If you’re not familiar with it, the Secret Information Club is a free service that I operate by email.

I send out information on a variety of fascinating topics connected with the Catholic faith.

The very first thing you’ll get if you sign up is an “interview” I did with Pope Benedict on the book of Revelation. What I did was compose questions about the book of Revelation and take the answers from his writings.

He has a lot of interesting things to say!

If you’d like to find out what they are, just sign up at www.SecretInfoClub.com or use this handy sign-up form:

Just email me at jimmy@secretinfoclub.com if you have any difficulty.

In the meantime, what do you think?

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Spiritual Warfare, the Hungry Ghosts, and Blindness

St. Paul describes the "whole armor of God" in Ephesians 6, a classic spiritual warfare text

Spiritual Warfare

What is spiritual warfare?

Why is it practiced differently in the Catholic Church than in other churches?

What are the principles that it is based on?

Are ordinary Christians authorized to cast out demons?

What does St. Paul really mean when he talks about putting on the “whole armor of God”?

What is the “spirit of fear”?

How about the “spirit of religion”?

Who has the power to “bind and loose”? Is it just St. Peter, or is it broader than that?

What does “binding and loosing” mean, anyway?

Who is allowed to perform exorcisms–and do they need special permission?

Does the Bible support the idea that only certain people are authorized to perform exorcism?

What are the dangers exorcism involves for the unprepared?

Is the devil responsible for all of our temptations?

Can we attribute too much power to the devil?

What is a balanced approach to spiritual warfare?

The Hungry Ghosts

Should Catholic schools allow non-Christians to conduct prayer services on school property?

What if it’s in the chapel?

What if it’s in the parking lot?

Who should be consulted in cases of doubt?

Blindness

What is it like to be blind? What struggles do people with severe vision impairment face that sighted people never think about?

What has Jimmy’s own experience with being legally blind for a month taught him about the situation of blind people, and how has it affected his prayer life.

By the way, toward the end of the program, I invite people to join the Secret Information Club. To do that, you can use this handy form:

Or email me if you have any problems at jimmy@secretinfoclub.com.

In the meantime, to learn the answers to all these questions, just click the “Play” icon!

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What Is the “God Particle”? And Why Is It Important?

What is the "God particle"?
Computer simulation of a Higgs boson event
Scientists are abuzz with word that the long-sought “God particle” (aka the Higgs boson) may have finally been discovered.

While most scientists don’t like the nickname “God particle” (and while many religious people might not neither), it’s certainly generated a lot of coverage in the media.

Because of the God-based nickname the particle has been given, the discovery of the Higgs has attracted a lot of press attention, and I’ve received quite a number of requests to comment on it.

What is the Higgs boson? Why is it important?
And why do they call it the “God particle”?

In this video, I take a look at these and similar questions to give you the basics of the new discovery and what to make of it from a religious perspective.

Before we get to the video, though, here’s a Higgs-related joke (adapted from one I read on the Internet):

A Higgs boson walks into a church. The priest, offended by its nickname of the “God particle,” immediately orders it out.

The Higgs shrugs and turns to leave. “Okay,” it says. “But without me, you can’t have Mass.”

Groan!

At least if you know the basics of what the Higgs boson is supposed to do.

If not, watch the video and find out!

If you’re reading this by email, click here to view the video.

By the way, several of the requests I got for comment came from members of the Secret Information Club. If you’d like to get cool, informative material on a variety of topics from me by email, you should sign up at www.SecretInfoClub.com or just use this handy sign up form:

If you have any difficulty, just email me at jimmy@secretinfoclub.com.

You can also listen to or download an audio, podcast version of this video. Just click the “play” icon to listen!

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Chapel Veils, Understanding Scripture, Tithing and Debt, and More!

In this episode of Catholic Answers Live (July 12, 2012), I take on the following questions:

  • What is the history of chapel veils? Why did women stop wearing them?
  • What is the best resource for helping Catholics understand Scripture?
  • If I have a lot of debt, should I still tithe 10%? How do we know when to stop tithing and start paying our debts?
  • Do you think the laity’s attitude toward the priest is still that he is a member of the community, or do people just go to him for the sacraments and then ignore him?
  • What must I do to be saved?
  • In The Passion of the Christ, Satan asks, “How can one man bear the full burden of sin?” — how do Catholics address this question?
  • Where can I find proof that the Bible comes from the Catholic Church?
  • What can I do to help my daughter who is dating a Muslim stay strong in her faith?
  • How long does the sacrament of the anointing of the sick last? Can you receive it more than once?
  • What resource do you recommend for information about the permanent diaconate?
  • Is it disrespectful to refrain from bowing during the Nicene Creed and from striking your breast during the Penitential Rite?
  • My 24-year-old son always talks about the Vatican’s “corrupt” police force — can you tell me anything about this?
  • If I enter into the Catholic Church with a lot of spiritual “baggage,” will that be taken care of before I join, or do I bring it to confession after I become Catholic?

Click the “Play” icon to listen!

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“To Be Absent from the Body Is to be Present with the Lord”?

There is a common argument used against the idea of purgatory in some circles which goes like this: “St. Paul says that ‘to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord’ (2 Cor. 5:8). It’s that simple: If you’re a Christian and you aren’t in your body then you are with Jesus in heaven. There is no room for purgatory in St. Paul’s view. Purgatory is just a Catholic fable–a ‘man made tradition.'”

Is this true?

It turns out that if you examine what St. Paul really said, the whole argument is based on a misquotation. St. Paul said nothing of the kind.

Furthermore, if you look elsewhere in St. Paul’s writings–to the very same church he was addressing in his “absent from the body” passage–you find strong evidence for purgatory.

Far from being a Catholic fable, purgatory is rooted in the thought of the Apostle Paul himself–as I show in the following video.

I’ve also been working on a special mailing for the Secret Information Club where I “interview” John Paul II on the subject of purgatory. In the interview, I pose questions, and the answers are taken from his writing. Current Secret Club members will get it automatically.

Purgatory is a controversial subject that Catholics are often attacked over, so if you’d like to receive the special interview with John Paul II on purgatory, just sign up for the Secret Information Club by Friday, June 29th, and you’ll have it in your inbox on Saturday morning.

You should sign up using this handy sign up form:

If you have any difficulty, just email me at jimmy@secretinfoclub.com.

If you’re reading this by email, click here to view the video.

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The Selection of Eastern Bishops

In this week’s podcast I dealt briefly with the fact that the current method of selecting bishops that is used in the Latin church does not apply in all of the Eastern Catholic churches.

Instead of the pope personally selecting the man who will be appointed bishop, he may–for example, under normal circumstances–pre-approve a number of men, one of whom is then elected bishop by the appropriate parties in the Eastern church in question.

By coincidence, a Vatican Information Service story that came out Monday touched on this fact. Also note that the Maronite Patriarch of Antioch is able to transfer bishops subject to him.

Here’s the story:

ACTS CONCERNING THE ORIENTAL CHURCHES

Vatican City, 16 June 2012 (VIS) – The Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites, with the consent of the Synod of Bishops of the Maronite Church meeting pursuant to canon 85 paragraph 2 (2) of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, has transferred:

– Bishop Camille Zaidan, bishop of the Patriarchal Curia, to the office of archbishop of Antelias of the Maronites (Catholics 156,028, priests 162, religious 353), Lebanon. He succeeds Archbishop Youssef Bechara, who resigned from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese in accordance with canon 210 para. 1-2 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.

– Bishop Francois Eid O.M.M., eparchal vicar of Cairo, Egypt, and of Sudan of the Maronites, to the office of patriarchal procurator before the Holy See, having received prior pontifical assent. Bishop Eid will receive the tile of eparchal bishop emeritus of his former eparchy, under the terms of canon 211 para. 1 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.

The Synod of Bishops of the Maronite Church has elected the following archbishops and bishops, all of whom have received prior assent from the Holy Father:

– Fr. Moussa El-Hage O.A.M., superior of the convent of Sts. Sarkis and Bacchus in Edhen and Zghorta, as archbishop of Haifa and the Holy Land of the Maronites (Catholics 7,000, priests 11, religious 9), Israel, and as patriarchal exarch of Jerusalem and Palestine (Catholics 504, permanent deacons 1) and Jordan (Catholics 1,500, priests 2). The bishop-elect was born in Antoura, Lebanon in 1954 and ordained a priest in 1980. He studied in Jerusalem and in Rome and has held various offices in his religious order as well as being active in pastoral work and education. He succeeds Archbishop Paul Nabil El-Sayah, who had earlier resigned from the pastoral care of those circumscriptions to take up the office of bishop of the Patriarchal Curia.

– Fr. Paul Rouhana O.L.M., secretary of the Middle East Council of Churches, as bishop of the patriarchal vicariate of Sarba, Lebanon. The bishop-elect was born in Amchit, Lebanon in 1954 and ordained a priest in 1982. He studied in Belgium and in France and been active in education at “Saint Esprit” University in Kaslik. He succeeds Bishop Guy-Paul Noujaim, who resigned from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese in accordance with canon 210 para. 1-2 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.

– Fr. Maroun Ammar, rector of the major seminary of Ghazir, as bishop of the patriarchal vicariate of Joubbe, Lebanon. The bishop-elect was born in Haje, Lebanon in 1956 and ordained a priest in 1983. He has served as pastor in various parishes and is a judge at the Court of Appeal of the Maronite Tribunal of Lebanon. He succeeds Bishop Francis Baissari, who resigned from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese in accordance with canon 210 para. 1-2 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.

– Fr. Joseph Mouawad, vicar general of the eparchy of Jbeil-Byblos, Lebanon, as bishop of the Patriarchal Curia. The bishop-elect was born in Mayfouq, Lebanon in 1970 and ordained a priest in 1995. He studied in Rome and has been active in pastoral work, as well as teaching theology at “La Sagesse” University in Beirut and “Saint Esprit” University in Kaslik.

– Fr. Georges Chihane, patriarchal administrator of Haifa and the Holy Land of the Maronites, Israel, and patriarchal exarch of Jerusalem, Palestine and Jordan, as eparchal vicar of Cairo, Egypt and Sudan of the Maronites (Catholics 5,500, priests 6, religious 3). The bishop-elect was born in Haret Sakhr, Lebanon in 1953 and ordained a priest in 1979. He has served as pastor in various parishes in Lebanon, France and Jordan.

Just another couple of illustrations of Catholic diversity-in-unity.

The Unbroken Chain of Apostolic Succession; Bible Software Update

In this episode of the program I answer two questions regarding apostolic succession and whether, in fact, we have an unbroken chain going back to the apostles.

The first question comes from Marci in Mexico, who wonders about the effect that various practices have on the liceity (lawfulness) and validity of episcopal consecrations.

The second question comes from a gentleman who asks about a particular figure from the 1500s–Cardinal Scipione Rebiba–who has a very unusual property: 91% of all modern Catholic bishops trace their episcopal lineage back to him, and we’re not entirely sure who consecrated Rebiba.

What are the implications of that for apostolic succession?

In the process of answering this, I invite Dr. Andrew Jones of Logos Bible Software on the show. Dr. Jones has a doctorate in medieval history, so this is right up his alley.

In the second half of the show I keep Dr. Jones on the line to update us about current Logos Bible Software projects, including the newly-released Catechism of the Catholic Church set (which you may already have–free of charge) and their forthcoming translations of certain key works by St. Thomas Aquinas that have never been translated into English before. (I’m excited about getting my hands on those!)

To read the transcript, just click the big, friendly red button.

Or click the “Play” icon to listen to the show!

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God’s Infinite Mercy

At some point in their lives, virtually everyone has wondered whether they can be forgiven for what they’ve done. The good news is, they can!

But sometimes the doubts linger, particularly for people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and particularly in connection with certain passages in the Bible, such as some in the book of Hebrews that deal with the subject of apostasy–the complete rejection of the Christian faith.

Passages like these:

Hebrews 6:4-6

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.

Hebrews 10:26

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left.

Can an apostate be forgiven? If you’ve knowingly and deliberately rejected Christ, will he take you back? And what is the real meaning of those passages in Hebrews?

In this episode I respond to a gentleman who is struggling with these very issues.

I demonstrate that the Hebrews passages do not mean what the gentleman fears and reveal, instead, the infinite mercy of God.

The good news is: No matter what you’ve done, if you are willing to come back to God, God is eager to take you back. He loves you, and your sins are not greater than his love.

I’m also preparing a special mailing for the Secret Information Club where I “interview” Blessed John Paul II on heaven.

If you’d like to read what John Paul II says about heaven and how we can get there by God’s mercy, you should sign up for the Secret Information Club by Friday, June 8th, and you’ll have it in your email inbox Saturday morning.

You should sign up here (and if you have any trouble, just email me at jimmy@secretinfoclub.com):

Now here’s the show! Just click “Play” to listen!

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