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Ask a Priest

5,456 Responses

1. 

   Anonymous, on August 2, 2026 at 4:24 pm said:

   Hello, Father Joe. I asked earlier about whether one should avoid hobbies because of obsessive thoughts about one’s vow to God. I’d like to figure out if it’s always permissible to ignore triggers that trigger thoughts about one’s vow to God? Are there instances where not avoiding the trigger of obsessive thoughts can lead to you committing to an unwanted vow to God? I’ve heard that OCD can be treated with CBT when you encounter the trigger for your obsessive thoughts. Can a vow arise during this therapy? What about other cases? Should we generally avoid anything that might trigger these thoughts?

   FATHER JOE: You need to speak to a mental health specialist on this one. Sorry.
2. 

   Inveilis, on July 24, 2026 at 8:07 am said:

   Hello, Father Joe. How does the Catholic Church view the situation when one person utters a curse with a death wish? Do such curses have power?

   FATHER JOE:

   You are essentially asking whether curses have “effective” power. Is the person uttering the curse invoking God or the devil?  It may be that the curse is spiritually more dangerous for the person uttering it than for the one targeted. Remember that we must have the mind and heart of Christ about such matters. A lack of charity can damn the soul. Having said that, some cultures like that of the Irish, even have traditions about blessings and curses. However, they go together with bad tempers and superstition.

    While we are mindful of when Christ cursed the fig tree and it withered, he was the Lord and had a singular authority over nature. The tree became a symbol for his message about bearing good fruit. Catholicism rejects curses and death wishes as expressions of magic or the occult. We are warned to avoid superstition and to trust divine providence over attempts to spiritually manipulate situations or others. However, just as we might extend a prayer of blessing, words and actions have power and influence. When we call upon the Lord, even in anger, he is listening. We must be cautious. Doors can be opened to real spiritual danger and even psychological harm, as with any commission of sin and what God permits in terms of our misuse of freedom.

   First, the human person has no personal magical power of his own. However, demons or fallen angels might utilize their spiritual powers to collaborate with human iniquity and verbal threats.

   Second, a curse cannot override God’s sovereignty. A person in a state of grace is shielded from the incursion of such spiritual evil. A curse can only get a foothold if the person provides a spiritual opening as with unrepentant mortal sin. Regarding false worship or the occult, the one making the curse or death threat will likely suffer a spiritual assault, himself.

   Third, while demons and curses cannot directly kill a human being; they can impose bodily suffering, mental torment, emotional distress, and bring about the temptation to self-harm or violence.

   Fourth, the intentionally wishing evil or death upon another is itself moral sin.

   Fifth, remaining in a state of grace is our best protection from such malevolent acts: participation in the sacraments like Mass and Confession, daily prayer (especially the rosary) and bible reading, and the use of sacramentals like holy water and the crucifix.
3. 

   Mihaela Ghenea, on July 14, 2026 at 1:28 pm said:

   Good afternoon, Father! I read Verbum Domini and I came to the paragraph that says we are authorised to give our prudent adhesion to private revelations if they received Nihil Obstat. What is the difference between human faith – as opossed to Divine/ Catholic faith – and prudent adhesion? It is the same or adhesion is stronger?

   FATHER JOE: “Prudent adhesion” is a category of human faith weaker than the assent given by divine faith. Church authorities can grant approval for private revelation, meaning there is nothing contrary to faith and morals, however, unlike divine faith, human faith or belief is not obligatory.  Private revelation may prove valuable to living out our discipleship in there here-and-now, but all public revelation ended with the death of the last apostle.  There are no new doctrines.
4. 

   Inveilis, on July 7, 2026 at 3:32 pm said:

   Hello Father Joe I had a situation: I was thinking about the permissibility of an action and assumed it was unacceptable. The next day, I forgot the arguments in favor of the action being unacceptable and began to think again and This time I came to the conclusion that the action was acceptable. But it turns out that because of the knowledge that there are arguments prohibiting an action, it remains unacceptable, because as far as I know, acting with doubt is not allowed. But I can’t remember these arguments and therefore I can’t decide whether this action is acceptable for me. And even if I find out the answer to the question of whether an action is permissible and they tell me that it is permissible, I still remember that there are forgotten unresolved arguments. Is it possible to forget about old information? And does it matter whether I forgot about it through my own fault or not? Sorry if the question may sound unclear or strange

   FATHER JOE: You are unclear in the articulation of your quandary. Are you asking whether one may commit an act if its morality is suspect? First, one is obliged to investigate and discern whether certain actions or behavior are good, evil or neutral. Second, a person should ordinarily avoid the commission of acts that are ethically dubious. Disregard for whether an act is harmful or prohibited is itself a formal fault. Third, it may be that sometimes one cannot have absolute assurance but we can act upon a “practical” certainty that an act is okay.
5. 

   Inveilis, on June 16, 2026 at 6:43 pm said:

   Hello Father JoeI have a question about OCD and the guilt associated with intrusive thoughts. What should I do when obsessive thoughts arise that often involve making a vow to God, specifically about forbidding myself something that I wouldn’t want to forbid? It’s difficult to determine how much I actually want to make this vow, and these thoughts are interfering with my daily life. Sometimes I can even think that I 100% remember that it was voluntary, but given that such thoughts arise not once but periodically and prevent me from doing what I wanted, I have hope that This is still OCD and not a real vow. But there is also another problem: recently I had a little to drink, and such a thought came to me again. I don’t remember exactly how much time passed (maybe 10 seconds, maybe less or more) from the moment of the thought about the vow to God. I immediately forgot the content and I’m afraid that this forgetfulness is my fault because alcohol was involved and I didn’t want to analyze this vow to God. Therefore, I’m afraid that now I cannot do everything that might have been the content of that vow, so as not to break a vow that might have been made. Do such vows obligate me?

   FATHER JOE: You should not make such vows at all. Just do not do it!
6. 

   Jeremy, on May 22, 2026 at 6:17 pm said:

   Hello, Father Joe, may I ask what was the scale of the brutality of the Armenian genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks and did it almost destroy the Armenian Christian community because we rarely get news or hear from them.

   Thank you

   FATHER JOE: It was absolutely devastating. 1.5 million Christian Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Empire. This included as well Assyrians, Greeks and even Catholics. A generation of Christian men were erased. There wives and children were given to Moslem men who forced them to convert. It was monstrously evil.