Catholic Answers LIVE

Questions Covered:

03:33 – What are your thoughts on determinism and free will, can they be combined?
7:20 – How does God know he’s not a brain in a vat?
08:14 – My 5-year-old asked “Did Jesus’ death on the cross make God the Father sad?”
12:44 – Where does the idea of “the rapture” come from? I’ve heard that it isn’t actually biblical, but pop culture and many Protestants would claim otherwise.
19:30 – I am a later in life convert and I did not baptize my two now young adult children as infants. Is it possible to conditionally baptize them due to their other parent preventing their baptisms? The situation they are in is not typical I gave birth to them within a same sex marriage prior to conversion and then I was radically converted. The same sex marriage ended 10 years ago I am now married to a man in the Catholic Church. Neither of the children desire to attend Catechism classes and my son is 17 and my daughter is 20. I pray a Novena daily for Baptism for them to occur. It’s the Saint Therese of Lisieux Novena asking for her prayers for my children. Thank you Jimmy and God bless you.
21:47 – Hello Jimmy, i am Catholic from Africa how can I help people around me who refuse to be Christian or Catholic saying it is because it is an invention to keep Africa poor calling it « the white man’s religion »
28:40 – Hi Jimmy, someone had asked if there would be bacteria in Heaven and you said it’s possible if God allows us to eat and Heaven is like a big banquet with the saints. So if we eat in Heaven does that mean there’s death in Heaven since things would have to die for us to eat it?
36:44 – What would the Church do to celebrate the Eucharist in the event of a blight that killed all wheat on the planet?
42:41 – How should Christians understand these words of Jesus: “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter shall pass from the Law, until all is accomplished! Therefore, whoever nullifies one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Doesn’t this mean the Law of Moses still applies to Christians?
46:30 – In a previous AMA, you said in response to someone’s question that if a person were assimilated by the Borg, the state of their soul adjacent to confession would remain unchanged. If someone were assimilated, could they conceivably receive anointing of the sick?
47:55 – To what extent can a priest alter the words of the mass? For example, a priest at a chapel I go to says “This is Jesus, the Lamb of God” instead of “Behold the Lamb of God”, which I think is quite beautiful, but I am unsure if it’s correct.
49:17 – Doesn’t the act of naming someone a pope fit the definition of a sacrament? It’s 1-a rite 2-Instituted by Jesus (Matthew 16) 3-to convey grace (infallibility)
52:59 – Are orthodox bishops and old catholic bishops and sedevacantist bishops real bishops?

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Questions Covered:

02:22 – I heard this as an argument against the body and soul being distinct and advocating strict materialism, i.e. it’s all in the brain: If we consider that memories, emotions, reasoning, consciousness, personality, etc. are distinct from the body in the senses of sight, sound, smell, touch, taste then what accounts for the changes that occur when drinking alcohol or taking drugs for a temporary effect, or the habitual use of psychedelic drugs which cause a permanent effect? A spiritual soul should be unaffected by the chemical changes in the brain, but since behavior is changed passively from ingestion in this and not by an active decision, doesn’t that prove materialism and disprove a spiritual soul?
13:26 – I have asked multiple priest and exorcists about “perfect possession “and have yet to have anyone give me an answer. I have read about this characterization of complete possession of a person by Fr. Malachi, Martin, as well as a few other exorcists, but no thorough definition or had any current exorcist or priest confirm that perfect possession is true and possible. Could you please expand on this? It seems in these crazy times perfect possession would explain a lot of what we see in the church at large and the world. Example, people openly and flagrantly in the state of mortal sin able to go to mass, receive the sacraments, come into contact with holy objects, receive communion etc., without any adverse reaction or manifestations towards these holy things. I am hopeful and humbly asking that you will answer with clarity about perfect possession
22:25 – If aliens made of anti-matter showed up and wanted to become Catholic, how would we accomplish this when the sacraments like baptism, ordination, and the Eucharist involve contact with matter?
31:30 – Which, if any, pagan gods are real?
34:46 – Did Neanderthals have immortal souls?
44:02 – Why does time seem to go by faster as we get older?
47:26 – How tiny can the Blessed Sacrament be? Many years ago I once asked a priest to clean the paten better because I noticed some particles of the consecrated bread remained on it. He answered that my problem was that I believe that Jesus is present on each of those tiny crumbs. I was very indignant. I like a verse in a Corpus Christi hymn that mentions that Jesus is really present on each of the small pieces of the consecrated bread broken. Now, recently I was reflecting on that indignant moment, saying to myself well, Jesus is present as tiny as a molecule, atoms, fundamental particles or strings, if they exists… until I said wait a minute… at some point on those levels one cannot distinguish bread. There is even a theory that says that all the electrons of the universe are the same thing. So I think the limit is not scientific but philosophical: Jesus is present up to the point when one can still perceive the attributes of bread. But then… maybe that priest was not that wrong at all… Mr. Akin, is Jesus present in the crumbs and if so to which level of smallness?

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