Q. Who witnessed the first known Marian apparition? A. The earliest recorded apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary was to St. Gregory the Wonderworker (ca. A.D. 213–270). In his biography the Life of St. Gregory the Wonderworker (PG 46, 909-12), St. Gregory of Nyssa (335–395) reported: “While [Gregory] was passing a sleepless night because of these worries, someone appeared to him in human form, aged in appearance, clothed in garments denoting a sacred dignity, with a face ch

Dear St. Catherine Parish Family, On Christmas day of 2005, Pope Benedict XVI published his first encyclical (letter to the whole church) which was called Deus Caritas Est. In the first part of this beautiful letter, Pope Benedict speaks about the nature of love in general, and the different ways of understanding God’s love, in particular. In the second part, he speaks about some of the practical consequences for love in the life of the Church and in the lives of individual C

Q. King Herod appears throughout the Gospels and the Book of Acts, from Jesus’ nativity to St. Paul’s trial. How long did he reign? A. The multiple mentions of Herod in Scripture actually refer to five related men by that name who reigned in succession. This Dynasty of Herod ruled over Judea for about a hundred years. Herod I or Herod the Great (73–4 B.C.), who rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem, was the ruler who ordered the slaughter of the innocents after learning of Jesus’ b

Q. Why do only two of the Gospels tell about Jesus’ nativity, and why are these two accounts so different? A. The Gospels were written by different authors, at different times, for different audiences, with different emphases, and drawing from sources that were not all the same. So we should not expect them to be all alike, even if they all have the same purpose: to tell the good news of Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Mark is an early account of Jesus’ life — perhaps the earlies

Q. What papal honors have been granted Our Lady of Guadalupe? A. Pope Benedict XIV in 1754 proclaimed Our Lady of Guadalupe patroness of what was then called New Spain (Spanish Central and North America), and approved liturgical texts for the Mass and Breviary in her honor. Pope Leo XIII granted new liturgical texts in 1891 and authorized in 1887 the canonical coronation of her image, which took place in 1895. Pope St. Pius X declared her patroness of Latin America in 1910, a