Grill the Priest: Why do some priests have different titles than others?

Why some priests are addressed as Reverend, some as Very Reverend and others as Most Reverend?

Clergy are addressed differently depending on their role.

Pope – His Holiness – Pope (Name)

Cardinals – His Eminence – Cardinal (Name)

Archbishops – His Grace – The Most Reverend (Name)

Bishops – His Excellency – The Most Reverend (Name)

Abbots – Right Reverend – The Right Reverend (Name)

Monsignors – Reverend Monsignor – The Reverend Monsignor (Name)

Vicar General, judicial vicars, rectors of cathedrals and seminaries – The Very Reverend (Name)

Priests – Reverend (Father) – Reverend (Name) – Father (Name)

Permanent Deacon – Reverend Deacon (Name) – Deacon (Name)

Transitional Deacon (studying for the priesthood) – Reverend Mister (Name) – Deacon (Name)

Bulletin Article for the Fourth Sunday of Easter (April 21, 2024)

Dear Children of God,

Another Sacramental weekend. On Saturday (April 20), James Troendle and Claire Forget were married at St. Mary’s. Pray for them that they may have a strong life-long marriage. We are First Holy Communion at St. Mary’s. What a great gift the Eucharist is. It is the closest we get to God on this side of heaven. Jesus comes to us body, blood, soul, and divinity under the appearance of bread and wine. As Catholics, we believe in the Real Presence. Jesus is really present body, blood, soul, and divinity under the appearance of bread and wine.

The Easter season continues. Peter makes it very clear in our first reading. There is no salvation through anyone else. We can only be saved through Jesus Christ. It is great to be healed of illness here on earth. This may or may not happen to you. However, it is better to be saved, to get to heaven. And this we all have available to us through Jesus Christ. This is the Good News of Jesus Christ. This is what we celebrate during this Easter season.

Jesus Christ has risen, Alleluia!

Father Vogel

Easter 2024 Article for the Argus Newspaper

Why do we need Easter in the 21st century? The Enlightenment movement in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries made huge advancements in government, science, mathematics, and philosophy. So much so that some started to believe that through human effort we could conquer disease, poverty, lawlessness, and other ailments of society. Some people started to believe that if we just had the right government, the right laws, that the perfect society would emerge. Humanity had made so much progress in other areas, surely we could come up with a form of government that would allow everyone to thrive. Our intellectual powers will surely come up with something that allows everyone to thrive. The idea and early formulations of democracy came out of this period. Socialism became a huge topic as well.

As Catholics, we believe we are still, even after the Fall, essentially good. However, even though we are essentially good, we are fallen. After the Fall of Adam and Eve, our intellect, our ability to discern right and wrong, is clouded. As Catholic Christians we believe that we do not have the capacity on our own to fix ourselves or our society. We need supernatural grace. We need a Savior. We have access to this supernatural grace because Jesus died on the Cross and rose again. If we are to be the people God has called us to be; if we are to have a well-functioning society made up of fallen human beings, then we need the supernatural grace of Jesus Christ.

Now the separation of state and church is for the most part a good thing. However, our Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. We need to allow God, in different forms, to bear on the deeper questions of society. Jesus says in Matthew 26:11 that the poor will be with us. This doesn’t mean that we should stop caring about the poor. However, it does mean that in a fallen world we will never eradicate poverty completely. The same for justice. In a fallen world, things will not always be completely just. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to be just. We should try. However, it does mean that we do not have the capacity (through laws or regulations) to make people be completely just with each other.

We do not have the capacity to create the perfect society. Only Jesus does. Jesus did, does, and will form the perfect society…in heaven. Heaven will be the perfect society. It is tapping into the graces of Jesus’ death and resurrection that we prepare ourselves for the perfect society of heaven. Jesus did not come to declare us good and holy, but to give us the grace to become more and more holy. We may not (probably not) reach sainthood in this life, but if we choose Christ in this life, He will choose us and give us the grace to become saints in the next life, in heaven. This is why humanity will always need Jesus Christ. This why humanity will always need the graces won by Jesus Christ on the Cross and through His resurrection. This is why humanity will always need to be an Easter people.

Homily for the Third Sunday of Easter (April 14, 2024)

Full Text: Homily for the Third Sunday of EasterDownload

Grill the Priest: Do you have to be Catholic to get to heaven?

Do we believe only Catholics go to heaven?

The short answer is no. Traditionally, the answer is yes. They are both right. Let me explain. First we need to state that all salvation comes through Jesus Christ and through his one Catholic Church. Christ is the head. The body of Christ is the Church. In paragraph 846 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), it quotes Lumen Gentium, (one of the documents of Vatican II), paragraph 14, saying, “He (Jesus) himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door.” Any baptized Christian (baptized in “the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit) has received saving grace. We can lose that by committing a mortal sin. The next sentence in paragraph 846 reads, “Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.” So if you know the Catholic Church is the one true Church started by Christ and you refuse to enter it or remain in it, then you disqualified yourself from going to heaven. However, with all of the misinformation and lack of catechesis even of cradle Catholics, I would argue this is very few people. 

What about those who through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and/or His (Catholic) Church? CCC 847 again quotes Lumen Gentium (paragraph 14), “Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience – those too may achieve eternal salvation.” Now the eternal question is, is it hard or easy to “seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience”? Some people say this is easy to do and have interpreted this to mean that basically we don’t need to evangelize anymore; that everyone is saved except for maybe Hitler and Judas. This is known as Universal Salvation. Others like me have argued that this is really, really hard to do. Still others have taken up some position in the middle. I think it is really hard to seek God with a sincere heart and to follow my conscience constantly and ardently. I think it really hard for anyone to seek God with a sincere heart and to do God’s will as they understand it to be. But this is what is required for a non-Catholic to do these things and thus get to heaven. I know I, time and time again, do not seek God and disobey my conscience, the voice of the Holy Spirit. Thankfully I am Catholic. Thankfully I have access to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Thankfully I have access to other Sacraments, especially the Eucharist (See John 6:53-54). Again, I think it is hard to “seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience,” So it is hard, but not impossible for a non-Catholic to get to heaven. Therefore, I agree with the end of CCC 848, which reads, “the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men.”

Bulletin Article for the Third Sunday of Easter (April 14, 2024)

People of God,

The Easter season continues. Again, we continue to celebrate for 50 days the resurrection of Jesus. Lent is 40 days. So we celebrate longer than we prepared. This Sunday (April 14), we are Baptizing Walter Lance Hammell, son of Drew and Erin. Please pray Walter and his family. 

In today’s Gospel Jesus’ disciples are huddled together out of fear after Jesus’ death. It is into this situation that Jesus appears his disciples. He says to them, “Peace be with you.” And then he shows them that it is really Him. He asks them to touch Him. He eats in front of them. The assumption is ghosts cannot eat food. Jesus says these words to us, “Peace be with you.” Jesus is here with us. There is nothing to fear.

Have a blessed week,

Father Vogel 

Grill the Priest: Where does the Bible Talk about Purgatory?

Where does the Bible talk about Purgatory?

To begin this question, we have to do a little truth and logic. Christians for the last two thousand years have held to the permanency of heaven and hell. This means that if you’re in heaven, you can’t (don’t want to) get out of heaven. If you are in hell, you can’t get out of hell. So if the Bible talks about praying for the dead, there has to be another spot other than heaven or hell. If there is only heaven and hell, our prayers would be wasted on the dead since they can’t change there state. Guess what? The Bible does talk about praying for the dead! So even though the word “purgatory” does not appear in the Bible (but neither is the word “Trinity”), Purgatory is still Scriptural. Matthew 12:32 says, “And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” This seems to imply that sins are forgiven not just before death, but after death. Again, this makes no sense if there is just heaven and hell. However, if there is a temporary place like Purgatory, then praying for the dead starts to make sense. Thus purgatory is a place where we are further purified of our venial sins and reparation is paid for forgiven sins. Purgatory is a place where we are made “perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48) so that we can be in a state we need to be in to be in heaven with God face to face. I tell people that the souls of Purgatory are joyful because you cannot go from Purgatory to hell. You can only go from Purgatory to heaven. However, the souls in Purgatory are also suffering because purification is not easy in this life or the next. I actually find Purgatory to be a great comfort. It means that if I die and I’m not perfect, there is still a chance I can go to heaven. As long as I die in a state of grace, as long as I don’t die with unreported mortal sin on my soul, I will eventually get to heaven.

The big “proof” text is 2 Maccabees 12:44-46. However, First and Second Maccabees are not recognized as part of the Bible by Protestants. The reason for this has to do with authority to declare what books are Sacred Scripture and what books are not. The Catholic Church is the only Christian church that has existed since the time of Christ because it was started by Christ Himself. Thus, it was the Catholic Church that affirmed the the list of books that were divinely inspired by God and thus should be in the Bible. This happened during Councils of Hippo and Carthage in the late 4th century, over a 1000 years before Protestant churches existed. Leading up to these verses, Judas Maccabee was leading an army into battle. After the battle, they found idols underneath the clothing of those who had died in battle. They had sinned by worshiping idols. So Judas has prayers said for them. “…if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be absolved from their sin.” Again, it would make no sense to pray for the dead unless there was a place other than heaven or hell where prayers make a difference. Praying for the dead has been a practice of the Christian church, especially at Mass, since the very beginning.

Bulletin Article for the Second Sunday of Easter (April 7, 2024)

People of God,

Again, happy Easter! Just like Christmas, Easter is not just a day, but a season. In fact the season of Easter is significantly longer than the season of Christmas. In fact it is longer than Advent and Lent. The season of Easter lasts until Pentecost, which this year, is Sunday, May 19. So continue to celebrate. Eat those chocolate bunnies. Better yet, spend some extra time in prayer thanking God for the gifts of our freedom from our sins and eternal life. So continue to celebrate Jesus’ rising from the dead.

Have a blessed week,

Father Vogel

Homily for Easter Sunday (March 31, 2024)

Full Text: Homily for Easter SundayDownload

Bulletin Article for Easter (March 31, 2024)

Happy Easter!! Christ is risen!!

Today we celebrate the greatest moment in history. Ever since the Fall of Adam and Eve, all of creation has waited for this moment. Right after the Fall (Genesis 3:6), God promises Satan that the offspring (Jesus) of the woman (Mary) will crush Satan’s head (Genesis 3:15). This is the death blow that Jesus gave to Satan from the Cross (and will be completed at the end of time). Before the Fall, we had eternal life on earth sustained by the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. Now through a new Tree of Life, the Cross of Christ, we are given eternal life in heaven. If we choose to accept God’s mercy and forgiveness, won on the Cross, we can have eternal life not in a garden, but in heaven with God face to face. Thanks to Jesus, we can have even more than Adam and Eve had before the Fall. My favorite line from the Easter season is found in the Exsultet (which is sung at the beginning of the Easter Vigil): “O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!” Sin is never a good thing, but as I have said many times, God is the master of bringing good out of evil. God allowed the Original sin of Adam because He knew that He would bring about an even greater good for us, our eternal salvation in heaven. 

The Passion of Christ had to happen before the Resurrection. Often, in our own lives, before something great happens, there has to trial and perseverance. Maybe it is even relationships. Maybe you had to go through some tough relationships before you found the love of your life. As I have said before, all true love on this side of heaven requires sacrifice. Jesus loves us more than we can imagine. That is why His love for us, which is so deep it can even save us from our sins, required pain and suffering. When we look at the Crucifix, we should see the ultimate example of love.

This love should propel us to live differently. The love of Christ, the graces offered to us from the Cross and through His resurrection, gives us the means we need to become saints. There is no greater task as a human being than to allow God’s grace to transform us into saints, to prepare us for eternity in heaven. I pray as we begin the 50 days of the Easter season, you allow God’s saving grace to make you more holy, to transform you into a saint.

Peace of Christ,

Father Vogel