I get so much e-mail, I must request these things. Have you done what I requested? Yes. No.

I provide links to short treatments of these kinds of problems, but I cannot answer email on these histories as such. Again, this page is about the truth of Catholic teaching and about the knowable mysteries which God has revealed.

So if a scandalous pope, apostle or priest has troubled your faith, your real issue is what you think your faith is in, which is a matter of faith and reason.

Or if you think that it is alright to do immoral things sometimes for the greater good, at least for rape victims, the poor or the marginalized, I would like to hear where you draw the line and why.

If you are a Christian and take issue to Christ, the Apostles or their successors teaching about these ethical questions, please also see the Menu of Statements of Beliefs and read the Gospel of Matthew, especially chapters 18-23. Otherwise, see the Non-Christians' Menu.

If you have not read all the relevant documents here in your category, please do; what is difficult or unclear in one is usually explained in the others.

I get so much email, I must request these things. Have you done what I requested? Yes. No.

I get so much email, I must request this. Have you done what I requested? Yes. No.

In the case of married priests, please remember that the calling of the priest is to be a living sign of Christ, exactly. The world needs most to be contradicted and disproven when it says that we cannot live or be mentally healthy without having at least one sexual relationship at any given moment.

If you are concerned about the need for intimacy, priests do have it, though in different kinds of love: of God, of friends, of family and in a spiritual intimacy with their spiritual children.

Nor can the needs of marriage counseling compel them to marry, as if Christ, St. Paul, or the apostles were incapable of marriage counseling. In fact, what is needed is an objective view and a study of virtue.

Finally, if you insist that it would be prudent to allow it sometimes, I say it is allowed sometimes; it is merely rare. Also, this is not a matter of faith and morals, since Catholicism is not tied to the practice as dogma. This being the case, I already share your oppinion that it be allowed sometimes, and the Church officially agrees with you.

In the case of Women priests, by all means email me, but first please read my bit on faith and reason very seriously. Remember also that Jesus did not propagate any social sins of his time; he never sinned no matter what the pressure or consequences. This is described in the document on Women Priests available here. Please give this a careful read before emailing me.

I get so much email, I must request these things. Have you done what I requested? Yes. No.

If you have in mind the clergy of the Church specifically, consider what kind of health should be their priority: physical or spiritual, and what they are equipped for in their training. And please understand that you are not objecting to Christianity or Catholicism itself, but to the fact that Christians do not live up to their Christianity.

Or if, to the contrary, you wish to argue that Christian charities (such as Mother Theresa's order) upset the progress of health care as if society's reliance on such low-cost efforts lessened motivation to set up a proper scientific system, I recommend that you go to the soup kitchens, hospitals, etc. and tell the poor to stop eating and halt treatments. Then email me when you have solved the problem. For until the problem is solved, the poor will still have to be cared for by whatever volunteers we can give them.

Whatever objection you have, before emailing me, please read G.K. Chesterton's essay on the Paradoxes of Christianity. It will be relevant to our discussion.

I get so much email, I must request these things. Have you done what I requested? Yes. No.

It should be quite clear that the Church is not out to govern the world or control governments or economies. Distinguish between temporal government and spiritual service.

The Church officially supports the free market economy and democracy, but opposes any system, especially communism and forms of capitalism which do not have ethical limits or controls.

I say these things to establish a basis or starting point for our discussion. Please click here.

If you are a Christian who thinks that the Church has gone too far in agreeing with scientific theories of evolution, please see my answer to you in my pages on Biblical "errors" down to the treatments of Genesis 1-2.

If you are a non-Christian who believes that the Church is not in tune enough with progress, you probably have a certain issue in mind such as abortion, married priests, etc. Instead of emailing me here about it, please check out what I offer you already for as defense on these issues, and home in on that treatment here first.

Either way, I finally ask that you read Chesterton's insight into the Paradoxes of Christianity.

I get so much email, I must request these things. Have you done what I requested? Yes. No.