Q. What are the "seven deadly sins"? A. The “seven deadly sins” are more accurately known as the “seven capital vices.” A vice differs from a sin in that it’s a sinful habit, a repeated act that causes a kind of “rut” in the soul inclining us to fall into that particular sin more and more. These particular vices are called “capital” (from the Latin word for “head”) because they are, so to speak, the “fountainhead” vices from which others flow. They are pride, covetousness (or

The Parish Hall is now open, and we would like to offer our parishioners and school families an opportunity to sponsor several of the features of the new facility. This is a unique opportunity to participate in our capital campaign and to leave a legacy for generations to come. The names of those who sponsor one of the features will be listed on a personalized plaque in a location corresponding to the particular feature. Please consider a sponsorship even if you have already

Q. I’ve heard that religious tracts are a Catholic invention. Is that true? A. St. Francis de Sales (1567–1622) pioneered the strategy of doing Catholic evangelization and apologetics by leaving little slips of paper with short handwritten sermons in places where people could find and read them. St. Francis was a French priest, and in his day, tens of thousands of Catholics in French-speaking Switzerland had fallen into the Calvinist heresy. So he went there as a missionary,

Q. What is “Gregorian water?” A. “Gregorian water” is a mixture of water (a symbol of life and cleansing) with salt (health and preservation), ashes (humility) and wine (spiritual abundance and joy). A bishop exorcizes and blesses the salt and water; blesses the ashes and wine; then mixes them together and blesses the mixture. It is then a sacramental used in the rite of consecrating churches, altars, and altar stones (that is, dedicating them exclusively to divine use). “Gre

Q. In honor of Mother’s Day, who are some saints who were mothers and who would make great intercessors and role models for mothers today? A. So many holy mothers to choose from. Here are a few. Do you hope to rear your children to be saints? Then you should get to know St. Emmelia of Caesaria (d. 375), known as “the mother of saints.” She lived in Cappadocia (in modern-day Turkey), and among her ten children are five who are recognized as saints by both the Catholic Church a

Dear St. Catherine Parish Family, On this Mother’s Day weekend, I am particularly grateful to all the wonderful mothers of our parish, and in a special way, I thank God for the gift of my own mother. I would like to echo the words of St. John Paul II who, in 1995, wrote in his Letter to Women: “Thank you, women who are mothers! You have sheltered human beings within yourselves in a unique experience of joy and travail. This experience makes you become God's own smile upon the

Q. How did the month of May come to be associated especially with the Blessed Virgin Mary? A. The custom of consecrating the month of May to Our Lady with special observances arose in relatively recent times—no earlier than the late 1600s. The May devotion in its present form originated in Rome about a century later. There, Father Latomia of the Roman College of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) wanted to counteract immoral behavior and a lack of faith among the students, so