Q: I’m writing to you about a question one of my confirmation student asked me, (I am teaching confirmation class this year), her question was, do the babies that get aborted  go to heaven?  I honestly didn’t know the answer and I didn’t was to give her a wrong answer so I told her I would ask someone who might know more than I do. When you have time Father Paul, to answer the question it is fine.  God Bless you Father.  == A: The Vatican says that we have “hope” in the eternal salvation of any child who dies …

Q: I am facilitating a six-day retreat and will preside over a Second Rite of Reconciliation for retreatants. Am I permitted for pastoral reasons given the number of retreatants and time involved to: (i) give a common penance and (ii) confer absolution to the group as a whole. I do not envisage the latter as a general – third rite – absolution. Alternatively, is it permissible to confer the absolution individually over the course of the retreat, thus separating the absolution from the actual second rite liturgy? This too is in the interest preventing an  inordinately long ceremony involving a …

Q: I see you have had some responses to paschal candle questions recently. I have a twist on one. Someone here in the chancery asked why we do not have a paschal candle in the chapel. It is a daily Mass chapel and, to my knowledge, no other sacraments nor funerals are celebrated there. I cannot find anything concerning paschal candles in chapels or oratories. Do you know of one?  My take is that there is nothing to prohibit a paschal candle in a chapel. The candle would be prepared in advance per the guide from the USCCB concerning mission …

Q: We plan on moving out of our Church for two months this summer in order to do some repairs on the ceiling and at the same time refurbish the pews and put in some new carpet and freshen the place up. Do you have any suggestions for a ritual for leaving a space and then reentering the space? Thanks Paul for any insight or input you might have. == A: We really don’t have a ritual as such, but I wonder what you think of offering a prayer of thanksgiving for the space, such as Book of Blessings 1979. …

Q: For many years at the beginning of the Easter Vigil, as the Easter candle is brought into the church and “lumen Christi” is chanted, the deacon or priest chanting has raised the tone with each rising of the candle. Somewhere that must have been the understanding of the rubrics by a pastor, since choir members couldn’t remember when it wasn’t so sung. This year a deacon chanted the entrance call to the congregation and did not raise he pitch.  Obviously this is not an earth shattering  issue (especially when occasionally in the past the raised pitch has unintentionally caused …

Q: Many times I hear these prayers as being  too wordy or lengthy, emotional and even verging as petitions. I know that GIRM has given guidelines on it but are there further rules of the thumb that one could keep in mind when composing them? To differentiate between bidding prayers and prayers of petition? Praise the Lord for the gift of you to be always available to give advice and enlighten us on the Liturgy-the summit and font of all the Church’s activities. == A: There’s nothing official regarding the composition of the Universal Prayer. Nor does the liturgy of …

Q: Can an adult be baptized on some other day besides the Easter Vigil? == A: Yes, but RCIA 34/2 says that the bishop decides whether or when this may happen. I doubt that many bishops know this, much less many parish leaders. But it would be good to secure permission from his office before proceeding.

Q: We have had the practice to not have torchbearers accompany the gospel procession and flank the ambo during the Easter season because the Paschal Candle is next to the ambo. The thought is that the Paschal Candle already serves as the Christ light. The thought is additional candles from torch bearers is duplication. Is this appropriate and liturgically ok to do? == A: Well, candles in the gospel procession are always optional. The only masses when they are not to be used are those on Palm Sunday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil. I lean toward using them on …

Q: How do you explain the collect for Tuesday in the Octave of Easter? == A: I think that that translation is really unfortunate. I treated a lot of puzzling translations in my book, In These or Similar Words, but somehow I missed “paschal remedies” in the glossary of questionable words and phrases I put in there. I looked up the earlier translations of that prayer before it reached its final form. What we have in the missal now starts this way “O God, who have bestowed on us paschal remedies, endow your people with heavenly gifts.” From what I can tell, …

Q: No one was baptized at our  Easter Vigil this year.   #40-The  introductory statement the priest used was under the red instructions: If the font is to be blessed, but no one is to be baptized.  Check.  #42- If no one is to be baptized and the font is not blessed, the Litany is omitted, and Blessing of Water(#54) takes place.   However,  we still sang the Litany of Saints because the font WAS being blessed (and it never hurts to call upon our beloved saints!). Wrong?  So, how can you bless water without a font unless you are blessing a …