The Catholic Podcast is LIVE today! Here’s what it is, why we’re doing it, where to find it, and what you can do to listen in and to spread the word.
Author: Joe Heschmeyer
St. Peter: Rock or Stumbling-Stone?
Today’s the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, and a worthy time to remember that St. Peter and his papal successors serve as both a Rock and a Stumbling-Block for the Church.
Who is the “One Loaf” in Mark 8?
In Mark 8:14-21, he says that the Apostles are in the boat with “one loaf,” yet they then protest that they have no bread. How can both of these details be true, and what is meant by the “One Loaf” in the bread with the Apostles?
The Hidden Weapon in the Evangelization of the World
I have a new post up for Catholic Answers’ online magazine, looking at the hidden weapon in the evangelization of the world: how the family can convict the world in sin (and what that even means!)
Did the Virgin Mary Die?
In Jerusalem, there’s a Tomb in which Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, and many Muslims believe that the Virgin Mary was buried before her Assumption into Heaven. But don’t Catholics believe that Mary never died?
The Gospel Call to Christian Unity
The Gospel calls us to take the question of Christian unity seriously. How do we do so?
What If Protestants Are Right About the Eucharist?
My first piece for Catholic Answers Magazine online, asking “What if Protestants are Right About the Eucharist?”
Catholic and Protestant Bibles, 101
Why do Catholics and Protestants have different Bibles, and how are they different? There’s a lot of misinformation out there, so let me give a basic primer. This isn’t so much looking to convince anyone as just to establish some of the basic facts. So here are 19 points about how we ended up with two different Bibles. I don’t believe that there’s anything in here to which a well-informed Protestant could object…
Just What Are Men and Women, Anyway?
Sometimes, the most important questions are the basic ones. Back in 2011, I argued that the most important question in the gay-marriage debate was “What is marriage?” The next year, Robert George, Ryan Anderson, and Sherif Girgis published a book exploring just that question: What Is Marriage?: Man and Woman: A Defense. But in the face of contemporary questions of transgenderism and gender identity, it turns out that we need to ask a yet more-basic question: what are men and women, and what makes them different?
Is the Eucharist Necessary for Salvation?
Can Protestants be saved, given that they don’t have the Eucharist? In John 6:53-55, Jesus speaks about the Eucharist in a way that seems to suggest that, without it, you cannot be saved: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” So should we conclude from this that the Eucharist is strictly necessary for salvation?