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Before we get into the text of Acts, there are two very important questions that must be asked and that are often overlooked in this discussion: “Who wrote the Book of Acts?” And, “Why is that important?”Well, the first question has an easy answer: “St. Luke wrote the Book of Acts.” It was basically a “part II” picking up where his Gospel leaves off.But the second question is the more important question for our purpose: “Why is this important?”It’s important because we know from Scripture that S …

Remember Zika?In 2016 the virus was linked to birth defects in thousands of Brazilian newborns striking fear across the countryIt was in that climate that, aboard a plane headed from Mexico back to Rome, a Spanish reporter named Paloma García Ovejero asked Pope Francis what should have been a simple softball question:“Some authorities have proposed abortion, or else avoiding pregnancy. As regards avoiding pregnancy, on this issue, can the Church take into consideration the concept of ‘the lesser …

Perhaps the clearest teaching on the papacy is at the Last Supper. That may surprise some readers. After all, there’s an all too common misconception that the Catholic claim for the papacy boils down entirely to Jesus’ words to Peter in Matthew 16:18 (“upon this rock, I will build my church”) and the identification of the rock with Peter himself. To be sure, we’ll cover that ground later, but it’s more important to start with the Last Supper. It’s there, after all, that we find the Twelve arguin …

What is a miracle, and how does it differ from magic? Both “miracle” and “magic” are notoriously hard concepts to define, and differing religions demarcate their respective limits differently. The closest we get to a biblical answer is in Moses’ and Aaron’s encounter with “the wise men and the sorcerers” of Pharaoh (Exod. 7:8-13). At the Lord’s instruction, Aaron “cast down his rod before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent.” The “magicians of Egypt” then did likewise, but “by thei …

If you want to know whether or not you should be a Catholic, there’s only one issue you need to solve: is the papacy true or not? To be sure, the papacy isn’t the most important doctrine: the existence of God, the divinity of Christ, the Eucharist, and countless other teachings are of greater importance. But it’s the most distinctive. Think about it this way: the existence (or non-existence) of a truck bed is the distinctive feature in determining if you’re looking at a truck or a car, even thou …