We do not have the answers to every question – but the very asking of the question is the beginning of the answer. So why don’t you send us your questions and let us together find the answers to our questions.

MONEY LENDERS

I know a member of a Catholic organization who runs a lending company which works like a 5-6. They are good leaders in our community but I understand that this is against the Church teachings.

The Bible forbids the lending of money with interest. But that was at a time when money had a stable value. Today the value of money changes so that if I lend you P10,000.00 today, next year when you give it back to me it will actually only be worth maybe P9,000.00 in terms of the goods it can buy or in terms of rice. So the Church does allow interest to be taken on a loan. That interest should not be excessive and it is to be judged by several factors. One important factor is the RISK involved. If there is no collateral then the lender runs the risk of losing everything and sometimes does. Hence he or she makes up for it by increasing the interest. Another factor is to ask what is the prevailing interest at that time and place. What is very wrong is to take advantage of people’s illness or otherwise to lend them money on a land title with an exorbitant interest rate and deliberately use that to get the land from them. This happened a lot in the Marcos years in the rural parts of the Philippines and was one of the factors that drove the revolution. Now to your friends we should be slow to judge and you would have to be quite sure that you really have the true details. People are inclined to give only their side of the story.

CONFLICT BETWEEN CATHOLIC AND ORTHODOX CHURCHES

What are the significant differences in the religious beliefs between Orthodox Churches and Catholic Church that, maybe when traced, is the cause of their conflict, and if Pope John Paul II is the head of the Roman Catholic Church, who is the head being considered by the Orthodox Church?

There is only one significant difference between the Orthodox and the Catholic. The Orthodox don’t accept the headship of the bishop of Rome, the Pope. That goes back to a split in 1096; other differences have developed on the foot of that. There is no one head of the Orthodox Church and that’s what makes reconciliation so difficult. The Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Constantinople is almost the head but I doubt if he is recognized by the Russian Orthodox Patriarch in Moscow. The Orthodox have always had a strong devotion to Mary, who they call Theotokos, the mother of God. They have images which they call ikons and which they venerate and they have the Sacrifice of the Mass and Confession. The present Holy Father has been trying hard to bring about a reconciliation. Not so long ago he made an apology for the time that Catholics sacked the city of Constantinopleduring the Crusades. That has been a sore point with the Orthodox ever since. The role of the Holy Spirit is important in the Orthodox Church and we have a lot to learn from them.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

If I went to Mass but the Gospel reading has just been finished and the priest was already beginning his homily, can I still go for Communion? How about if I arrived just before the Sanctus, can I still take Communion, too?

The short answer is YES in both cases. Naturally we don’t encourage people to be late but what we are trying to avoid is a too legalistic approach to Mass. It should be a moment of handing ourselves over to God, a joining in the sacrifice of Jesus and ultimately a communion with him and through Him with our fellow Christians. These are deep sentiments and need a quiet unrushed approach. However because of the pressures of family life – babies at home getting sick, for example – we will not always have these ideal circumstances, so better late than never and leave the rest in the hands of our loving God. I knew a woman who worked so hard at home that she regarded the Mass on Sunday as her special moment of peace away from all the pressures of the family.

RUSHED COMMUNION

I have observed some people leave the Church right after taking communion. Is it all right even if they have not received the final blessing?

Communion is an integral part of the Mass and the culmination of it. We need some time after Communion to pray and let the wonder of it sink in. So leaving immediately as a habit does not help but then we should not judge individual cases because people may have some really pressing family problems at home or some other reason we don’t know about. Some teachers try to get daily Mass before they go to school and have to leave to be in time for flag ceremony. We priests however should try and make sure that the space between Communion and the last blessing is adequate. Sometimes that part of the Mass goes too quickly and there is not enough time for people to make a good thanksgiving.

SIN IN THOUGHT

Is it a mortal or venial sin once I entertain a desire to sin in thought?

No. Desires spring up naturally. For example the desire for revenge. Popular magazine Psychology encourages people to fantasize about things that we might consider wrong but totally unchecked fantasies have led to the most horrific acts as we have seen with children walking into a classroom and shooting down their classmates. On the other hand, scrupulous and nervous suppression of any desires that come to mind could be counter productive and reinforce them. Learn from the carabao: When crossing the river he does not go one hundred percent against the current. He goes a little with it and a little against it and gets to the other side. Put away wrong desires gently and learn to laugh at your wild fantasies.

Of course, I am presuming that you have clear principles about what is right and wrong in life. Without these we would utterly get lost when it came to telling the sheep from the goats among our desires.

WOULD RELIGION MATTER?

I am a Roman Catholic while my fiancé is not. We are planning to get married in a Catholic wedding rites in the near future. Do we need to get a dispensation from the bishop for us to be married? My fiancé is not willing to be converted but he is our agreeable that our children will be raised up as Catholics. Is his agreement (re: raising children up as Catholics) the only thing required for a couple who will go into a mixed marriage?

Yes, you do need a dispensation but it only involves a visit to the Chancellor’s Office in the Bishop’s House and it is almost never refused. However if you are getting married to a Muslim the dispensation would be more difficult for reasons you can easily imagine. There is one other requirement and that is a pre-marriage seminar. This is to help you in a lot of the simple things which you might not have thought about even down to how you share your money. This can be quite enjoyable and it’s a pity to miss it. Some people twist the priest’s arm to avoid doing this seminar but I think they and the priest are making a mistake. The Catholic party will be asked to receive the Sacrament of Confession before the marriage to any priest of their choice.