Question of Faith is a Q&A column by Father Earl Fernandes A reader asks: “I would like to find out how I can get back to good graces in the church and receive Communion. I have been divorced twice. The first marriage was in the church and ended in divorce. …

It is dangerous when beginning something new, such as this column, to enter an area as controversial as the sacred liturgy. I received the following question from a man from Dayton: “The Eucharist is about intimacy with Christ. Would our hearts minds and souls be better served if music ministries …

April 13, 2011 By Father Earl Fernandes Each year the church calls us to remember the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus in ritual, music and readings. We have all grown up with the long reading of the Passion of Christ from the Gospels, the carrying of the palm in …

March 15, 2011 By Father Earl Fernandes Our family prayed the rosary every night. Invariably, my mother would say, “It’s time to pray the rosary,” just as our favorite television programs began. The rosary would be followed by a host of prayers, including the Litany of Loreto, the Angelus, a …

Thursday, January 20, 2011 By Father Earl Fernandes To be pro-life is to think of others. Thinking of others, rather than thinking just of one’s self, is a first step in growing toward moral maturity. In December, Pope Benedict XVI’s interview with journalist Peter Seewald was published as Light of …

Thursday, October 14, 2010 By David Eck DAYTON DEANERY — Priests should preach God’s word from His perspective, not their own, in helping parishioners form their Catholic conscience. That was among the key messages Father Earl Fernandes shared during a presentation at the annual priest convocation Oct. 7 at Incarnation …

Thursday, October 14, 2010 By Father Earl Fernandes It’s October, the month of the rosary. My parents and two oldest brothers came to America from India in 1970. By December 1973, they were proud parents of five boys. My mother told us that since we didn’t have family here, we …

Thursday, September 16, 2010 By Father Earl Fernandes In early September I visited retired priests at St. Charles Seminary in Carthagena. Father Jim Byrne had just celebrated his 99th birthday, and Father Anselm Boeke his 92nd. Father John Bensman at 80 was the “spring chicken.” They were inspirational and truly …

Thursday, August 19, 2010 By Father Earl Fernandes The academic calendar has ruled my life. From 1977 until 2002, when I was ordained a priest, I was in school. After that, I spent time as a high school teacher, a graduate student and a seminary professor.

Thursday, June 17, 2010 By Father Earl Fernandes At the kickoff for the Athenaeum’s capital campaign, a benefactor said, “Father, we enjoyed your last article (‘Magisterium: Always Right?’) in The Catholic Telegraph. I only have one question: What’s the magisterium?” The Catechism of the Catholic Church (85) states: “The task …