Sr.

Maria Falentina Wea, MSBS

DOGMA & MAGISTERIUM

 Is Purgatory an essential Catholic doctrine? Support your answer with data and facts.
Yes, it is an essential catholic doctrine; The Catholic Church gives the name
purgatory to what it calls the after-death purification of "all who die in God's grace and
friendship, but still imperfectly purified” (CCC #1030, 1031, 1032). The Church affirmed
the existence of purgatory at each of the last three ecumenical councils: Trent, Vatican I,
and Vatican II. The latter council described purgatory as a place where the souls of the
dead make expiation "in the next life through fire and torments or purifying
punishments." According to Vatican II, "in purgatory the souls of those ‘who died in the
charity of God and truly repentant, but who had not made satisfaction with adequate
penance for their sins and omissions’ are cleansed after death with punishments designed
to purge away their debt." 

MORAL THEOLOGY

 Did the Church’s teaching on the dignity of the human person influence the secular
world-view in respecting human beings? How?
No it didn’t, it didn’t influence any human specially those who had killed the
innocent people, person who aborted their child, people who abuse the weak one etc. many
had fallen into sin, fallen into the evil ways. Even though there is teaching about respecting
the human beings, every innocent blood has been killed throughout the world. I have
believed that people’s faith is overpowered by the will to do evil things.

SCRIPTURES
 What is the relationship between the Sacred Scriptures and Sacred Tradition?
According to the Dogmatic constitution on divine revelation; the relationship between
the sacred scripture and sacred tradition is for both of them flowing from the divine
wellspring; for Sacred Scripture is the word of God inasmuch as it is consigned to writing
under the inspiration of the divine spirit, while sacred tradition takes the word of God
entrusted by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, and hand it on their
 successors in its full purity so that by the light of the spirits of truth, they may in proclaiming
it preserve the word of God faithfully, explain it and make it more widely known. It is not
from the sacred scripture alone that the Church draws her certainty about everything which
has been revealed. Therefore, both Sacred Scripture and sacred tradition are both accepted
and venerated with the same sense of loyalty and reverence. They are both form one sacred
deposit of the word of a God, committed to the Church.

CANON LAW
 How important is Canon Law in the life of the Church?
It protects and safeguards the dignity of the Christian inasmuch as he is constituted
in the likeness of Christ and a son of God. It is law which gives to the ecclesial
community the basic texture of those relationships which produces the dynamic
flowering of: The Christian life throughout the whole range of its powers until it attains
"to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4, 13). It is the seed-bed
from which charity buds forth and blossoms in the Church—that love which, like the
leaven in the Gospel, permeates everything, vitalizes and sanctifies it, summarizes and
synthesizes all things in Christ, to sustain, defend and protect the common drive towards
an ever more complete fulfillment of the Christian life.

ECCLESIOLOGY
 What do we mean when we say that “the Eucharist makes the Church, and the Church
makes the Eucharist”?
The Eucharist is at the very core of the life of the Church and gives the Church
its identity. The Church is the Body of Christ, and, as St. Augustine taught, we receive
the body of Christ in order to become the body of Christ. The whole mystery of Christ
and of the Church as his body is what we receive in the Eucharist. This sacrament
therefore renews our life together in Christ; in other words, it renews the Church. The
Church draws her life from the Eucharist," as Pope John Paul II said at the start of his
encyclical "Ecclesia de Eucharistia." The life that we share in Christ is the life of the
Trinity, because Christ is the Son of God incarnate, and that life is one of perfect
communion. The phrase we use about receiving the Eucharist is really very significant;
we say we are receiving Communion.
We are receiving Christ himself, but the life he shares with us is the communion life of
the Trinity; the very life that calls us out of our own individualism and draws us together
as the Church. The Eucharist renews the very gift that makes us to be the Church, and it
follows that the community dimension of the Eucharist is of the utmost importance. It is
really communities, and ultimately the Church as a whole, that receives the Eucharist, not
just lots of individuals. "Ecclesia facit eucharistiam": for if the Word is not proclaimed
 (cf. Rom. 10:14-15), if there is no one to celebrate the memorial of the Lord’s Pasch in
sacrament, in obedience to the Lord’s command, then there is no Eucharist "realized" in
time and place. Thus the Eucharist demands for its real-ization, the ministerial service of
the Church. It is this ministeriality which "gathers the people, proclaims the Word, and
breaks and shares the bread".

CHURCH HISTORY
 Is Martin Luther justified in “protesting” against the abuses of the Church during
his time?
Yes, he is justified because what he did is the right thing. In protesting against the
abuse of the Church that was the so-called indulgences is a wakeup call for all. When a
Christian purchased an indulgence from the Church, he obtained for himself or
whomever else he was trying to benefit a reduction in the amount of time the person’s
soul had to spend in Purgatory, atoning for his sins, before ascending to Heaven. For me,
I can say that it is not right that the Church has to do this by we can say that I will give
you the indulgence if you have to pay. we can we be sure that if we do not receive the
indulgence we cannot receive the forgiveness from God. Every human has the right to
receive all the prayers from each one; we are called to pray for each other so everybody
can be saved and enter together the kingdom of God.

PROFESSOR’S QUESTIONS

 Should the Church allow the receiving of communion to divorced and remarried
couples? Why and why not?