Why can't priests marry, since 1 Tim 4:1-4 warns against people not being allowed to marry?

It's true that Paul here talks about a day when people will forbid to marry, but if we compare this with the rest of the New Testament, we see that he surely imagined a situation where ALL would be forbidden to marry, as in certain denominations and sects that have appeared in history. In fact, Jesus commends celibacy (Matthew 19:12), as does Paul himself (1 Corinthians 7:32- 33). It's true that mandatory celibacy for priests did not occur until the tenth century, and so this is a juridical... [Read More]

Why are priests called "father"? Doesn't the Bible say to call no man "father"?

Moreover, do not call anyone your Father on earth, for One is your Father, the heavenly one, Yahweh.
(Matthew 23:9)

Context and common sense gives us many clues that Jesus did not want us to remove the word "father" from the language unless applied to Yahweh. Our first clue is that the term "father" is a metaphor for God, and the metaphor would lose all meaning if it couldn't apply to anyone on earth. Moreover, whatever word you used to rename biological... [Read More]

Do Catholics worship statues?

No. In fact, the Church has come out repeatedly against the worship of statues, in the Catechism of the Council of Trent, the new Catechism, and so on. As far as bowing to God while in the presence of statues of the saints, that's no more worship than it is to kneel near another praying Christian, or a priest facing you. Nor are you worshipping the pages of your Bible if you kneel with it in your hand. I have knelt with statues of saints as I have asked the saints in heaven to pray for me,... [Read More]

But doesn't Jesus condemn tradition when disputing with the Pharisees?

In fact, Jesus clearly upholds Tradition in the New Testament as we will see, but before we do that, let's look carefully at the scene that people use as evidence that Jesus is hostile to Tradition.

The entirety of it is that Jesus castigates the Pharisees for their corrupt traditions in a teaching recorded in Mark 7:1-23, and Matthew 15:1-20. The differences between the two accounts of this scene are negligible, and so I will go through the account in Mark:

Mark 7

1
"Now when the Ph

... [Read More]

Catholics say that the Bible nowhere teaches sola scriptura, but what about 2 Tim 3:16-17?

"All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work."
(2 Timothy 3:16-17)

These are wonderful verses on the importance of the bible, and how it is God-breathed." They say that Scripture is "profitable" for various good things (teaching, correction, reproof, training in righteousness), so that we can be "comp... [Read More]

Why do Catholics believe that Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture go together?

The Bible teaches that not only do we look to the Bible for our faith, but to a Sacred Tradition passed down from the Apostles. Jesus condemned false traditions — "traditions of men" — but He upheld Sacred Tradition (for a full essay on Jesus' teaching on Tradition, click here).

The Catholic idea works like this: when your mother pulls out the family photo album, she can just hand it to you, and you may indeed get a lot out of it. There are plenty of faces you will recognize, such as... [Read More]