Have Questions about the Catholic Church?

Have you ever wondered why we do some of the things we do at Mass? Fr. George Teodoro has answers to question from our parishioners in all things liturgy!

If you have a question or have ever wondered about any of the rituals of Mass, please send an email to parishbulletin@sfxphx.org.

Q. Why do we have to go to confession with a priest? Why not just say “I’m sorry” to God in private prayer?

03-17-2024  |  

As Catholics, we have an incarnational faith. We believe that Christ truly was made flesh and dwelt among us, and that each of us as humans are a union of body, mind, and spirit. Each of our sacraments has an incarnational component to it: the bread and wine of the Eucharist, the oils used for anointing, the water of baptism, etc. St. Augustine said that a sacrament is an “outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace.”

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Q. What is purgatory? Why do Catholics believe in it, rather than just heaven and hell?

03-10-2024  |  

From the foundations of Christianity, there was a belief that there were two options for the afterlife – the reward of Heaven for the just, and the pains of Hell for the unjust. And while these concepts are clear in the Gospels and easy to understand, there wasn’t much specific instruction for who goes where, other than the judgment scenes found in Matthew (24), Mark (13), and Luke (21) – “whatever you did for the least of my people, that you did to me.”

Within a couple of centuries, Christians wanted more specificity about sin and how to get into heaven. St. Jerome came up with the categories of venial sins and mortal sins to try to describe differences in the gravity and nature of our choices. He used the metaphor of debt – that to one creditor we may own just a few coins, while to another we may owe 10,000. By the Middle Ages, theologians became very exact in which sins required what amount of penance.

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