Hawaii Catholic Herald

Newspaper of the Diocese of Honolulu

Father Kenneth Doyle: Did Jesus feel abandoned? Should adoration be silent?

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QUESTION CORNER Q: When Jesus was dying on the cross, according to the Gospel, he cried out, “My God, why have you abandoned me?” Why was he saying this? Did he really feel that his Father had abandoned him? (Coxs Creek, Kentucky) A: Half a century ago, when I first began to think about the […]

Father Kenneth Doyle: Why a deacon if a priest is present? Is it wrong to long for heaven?

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QUESTION CORNER Q: Often, I have been at a Mass where the deacon reads the Gospel, which is fine. But then, sometimes, the deacon goes on to give the homily while the priest watches. This disappoints me and makes me feel that the deacon is overstepping his bounds. Why should a deacon, rather than the […]

Father Kenneth Doyle: Why can’t we use a closed church? Can a non-Catholic be a cantor?

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  QUESTION CORNER Q: I am having a hard time understanding why a Catholic church closed by a bishop can no longer be used for Masses, weddings and funerals. For more than 100 years, this particular church — built by my great-great-grandparents — was considered sacred ground. Now my grandson wants to get married in […]

Father Kenneth Doyle: How can one obtain relics? Why do priests leave the altar before the last song is done?

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QUESTION CORNER Q: Please forgive my awful handwriting. I have multiple sclerosis and also Parkinson’s disease and can no longer do very well on a typewriter or computer. My question is: Why is it so hard to obtain first-class relics? (Also, do I need permission from my bishop to obtain them?) I am now 65 […]

Father Kenneth Doyle: Am I doomed by Scripture? Masses said for things other than specific people?

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QUESTION CORNER Q: In the Book of Wisdom (3:17-18 and 4:3) it indicates that children born of a forbidden union will suffer a miserable fate and not amount to anything. They are illegitimate and can never lay a firm foundation with values that are deeply rooted. I was born out of wedlock; my Dad’s family […]

Father Kenneth Doyle: Missing Mass while on a cruise ship? Celebrating Mass in a state of sin?

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QUESTION CORNER Q: Every summer, my husband and I go on a cruise. Only one cruise line (Holland America) continues to have a priest on board to say Mass. When we travel on other cruise lines, frequently we have missed Sunday Mass because there was no priest on board and we could not get to […]

Father Kenneth Doyle: What’s the Catholic view on tithing? Should a couple cohabitat before getting married?

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QUESTION CORNER Q: I grew up in a Protestant church but converted to Catholicism. Sometimes it seems to me that Catholics give a lot less money to their churches than Protestants do. (The Sunday collections reported in our parish bulletin would, I think, be dwarfed by some Protestants parishes much smaller than our own.) On […]

Father Kenneth Doyle: Is wearing a veil in church prideful?

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QUESTION CORNER Q: Recently, I have been “convicted” to wear a veil in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament — both when I am at Mass and during my adoration hours in our parish’s Chapel of Perpetual Adoration. Several other women in the parish have also felt led to do so. However, I am told […]

Father Kenneth Doyle: Is Jesus’ resurrected body human?

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  QUESTION CORNER Q: Did the resurrected Jesus have a human body? (Carrollton, Georgia) A: It is a fundamental truth of Christianity that Jesus rose from the dead in his physical body. (This differs from the doctrine of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who hold that the post-resurrection Christ was spiritual, not physical.) Christians believe that the Jesus […]

Father Kenneth Doyle: When did the Holy Spirit come? Why no altar flowers for Lenten funeral?

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QUESTION CORNER Q: I have often wondered about the difference between the disciples receiving the Holy Spirit immediately after the Resurrection “on the evening of that first day of the week” (Jn 20:19-23) and the coeming of the Holy Spirit upon them at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4). Is it two different accounts of the same event, […]