It never fails that in each of my high school religion classes someone asks, “Can a non-Christian go to heaven?” It is an important question that preys on many of us. We have seen people of heroic moral virtue in…
Can Non-Christians Go to Heaven?
The God-Shaped Hole
St. Augustine said, “We were made for You, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” The human heart is a puzzle, to be sure. But Augustine gives us the answer. To understand the profundity of…
5 Disclaimers When Talking about Sin
There is a reluctance on the part of many to talk about sin. That is understandable. It is not a pleasant topic of conversation. People being told about it often feel lectured to or judged. People talking about it feel…
Wagering on Pascal
Why should we believe in God? I usually start my first theology class by asking my students this. Most of them have spent years in Catholic school, but they are flummoxed to find an answer. “Because the Bible says so.” …
Opinion, Knowledge, Faith
Often in class we will talk about controversial things. I will say that the unborn child is human from the moment of conception or that sex before marriage is a mortal sin. Sometimes I will say something which I don’t…
How a One-Eyed Man Taught Me to See Love
In the movie You’ve Got Mail, there is a wonderful line where a character says, “You are what you read.” Just as we digest food and make it a part of our bodies, we digest books and make them a…
Homosexuality and the Modern Problem
I have been teaching high school theology for 11 years and I noticed remarkable shifts in the minds of the youth. Some are positive. When I first began, they were about 50/50 on abortion. Now they are closer to 80%-90% pro…
On the Necessity of Purgatory
Editor’s note: Today we welcome Catholic Skywalker to the New Evangelizers blogging team! There are many, some of them Catholic, who think that Purgatory is an invention of the Church. They believe it is a theological theory that had its time…