Pat McCloskey, OFM

I am a Roman Catholic mother. What should I tell my children about Muslims and their faith? The history of Islam is terrible, and what is happening now in Europe is no better.

You should tell them what the Catholic Church believes: Muslims are people created and loved by God. Like all other people, some of their members reflect that love better than others. Although some Muslims are terrorists, the vast majority of Muslims are not.

How can I help the Dreamers and my fellow brothers and sisters wanting to come to the United States?
Pray for Dreamers, support local efforts on their behalf, and make your views known to those who represent you in Congress. Every country, including the United States, has a right to control its borders. All three branches of government work together to do that. By the way, our country has had a tradition of family reunification long before the term chain migration became a negative expression.

What is the Catholic Church’s position on entering prayer? Is it New Age? Is it allowed for Catholics? Why or why not?

It is allowed, despite what some self-appointed guardians of Catholic orthodoxy are claiming on the Internet.

In a 2014 article in America (December 3), Sidney Callahan wrote: “The simple steps of the method are to choose a sacred word as a symbol of your intention to consent to God’s presence and action within. Then, settling comfortably, you introduce the sacred word and remain quietly attentive within God’s presence.

How does the Book of Revelation speak to 2018 Catholics? Should all its visions, images, warnings, cautions, advice, and guidance be applied to their spiritual and temporal lives?

The Book of Revelation, sometimes called the Apocalypse (from the Greek verb “to reveal “), was intended as a book of consolation for Christians who were suffering violent persecutions from pagan rulers in the last decade of the first century AD. Its affirmation that God’s power and justice will ultimately prevail continues to console Christians.

One of my high school students asked if someone with a prosthetic hand could be ordained. If so, would that hand be anointed? What if a man was born without arms?

I think that all the things you mentioned are possible. The Catholic Church has established various impediments to ordination, but it can also dispense from many of them.

At one time, a man blind in his left eye could not be ordained because that was his “canonical eye. ” The missal rested on a stand to the priest’s left at the altar.

What were the customs in Jesus’ day for young Jewish people regarding courtship, engagements, and physical intimacy before marriage? What about any children conceived or born before the wedding?