In this episode of Catholic Answers Live, Jimmy takes on the following questions:

• Can we “interpret Scripture with Scripture”?
• What does the word “desuetude” mean and how does it relate to women’s head coverings?
• Can we wear pictures of people other than saints?
• Is leaving candy before a statue of Baby Jesus okay or is that idolatry?
• Is the Church contradicting Scripture with its teaching that the use of force in legitimate defense is okay?
• Do we grow in our relationship with God in heaven?
• Can Latin Catholics attend the Melkite rite?
• Is the ice bucket challenge a Satanic ritual? Do you have to mean for a ritual to be Satanic for it to actually be Satanic?
• What does a former Catholic who has been attending a non-Catholic church need to do to return to the Faith?
• Thomas Aquinas’s arguments may prove the existence of a God, but how do you prove the existence of the God of the Bible?
• How does it work when a person has enough evidence for the existence of God but they choose not to convert?
• How to deal with religious compulsions? Are they sinful?

In this episode Jimmy joins Fr. Roderick Vonhögen, Stephanie Zimmer, Fr. Cory Sticha and Dom Bettinelli to review the first story of the new season of Doctor Who, "Deep Breath."

This is part of the SQPN podcast series The Secrets of Doctor Who, which will be reviewing all 12 episodes of this year's season of Doctor Who.

To learn more about the series, visit doctorwho.sqpn.com.

Jimmy will also be adding new theological podcasts, in and among the 12 episodes of Secrets of Doctor Who.

Jimmy appears on Catholic Answers Live in this episode of the podcast and answers these questions:

• Why does the book of Baruch not appear in some early lists of the Old Testament canon?
• Are we sinning if we don’t have a different disposition when praying to Mary and the saints than when praying to God?
• Did St. Jerome write anything concerning Tobit being inspired, given the question of the Sadducees in Matthew?
• Would it be appropriate or even mandatory for the Blessed Sacrament to be removed from the Tabernacle if someone is going to speak in a church?
• How has the Church changed its evaluation of the writings of St. Faustina Kowalska?
• Is it better to serve the poor by giving them money or making sandwiches and passing them out?
• How to explain to an ex-Catholic (now Protestant) why they shouldn’t receive Communion in the Catholic Church? Also, how to explain why Transubstantiation does not occur in Protestant services?
• What is the official Church teaching regarding the idea that Mark was the first Gospel written and that Matthew and Luke used Mark and a lost source known as Q?
• Is the Church the New Israel?

(Original Airdate: December 9, 2013)

Pope Francis recently released a major new document on evangelization—how to share the gospel of Jesus with others.

In this episode of Catholic Answers Live, Jimmy discusses the document and the implications it has.

In this episode, Jimmy discusses the issues:

• Is Pope Francis the most misunderstood pope in recent history?
• Is the press malicious or just incompetent?
• Does the Pope hate capitalism?
• How should we understand Pope Francis’s treatment of Islam?
• What level of authority does an apostolic exhortation have?
• How did Pope Francis write this document?
• Are there translation problems in this document?
• What is the major thrust of the document? Should we evangelize “without words”?
• Does Pope Francis understand his pontificate as being “to the world” in addition to “to Catholics”?
• What are the priorities of Pope Francis’s pontificate?
• What to make of the interview with an atheist journalist that was taken down from the Vatican web site?
• What level of authority do press interviews with the pope have?
• Should the Vatican web site publish papal press interviews?
• What is the Acta Apostolicae Sedis?
• Will Pope Francis do major specific things in his pontificate? Is he an innovator or an implementer?
• What to make of Pope Francis washing the feet of a Muslim girl on Holy Thursday?
• Does Pope Francis hate the Traditional Latin Mass?
• Why shouldn’t we read our own preferences into what the pope says and does?
• Will the rule on women’s foot washing be changed? Should we be upset about this?
• What gravity should we attribute to rubrics in the liturgy, and how does it relate to the doctrines in the hierarchy of truths?
• How to understand John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis in relation to each other?

(Original Airdate: December 9, 2013)

Then, a few verses later, he appears to the Virgin Mary to tell her that she will be the mother of Jesus Christ.

Both Zechariah and Mary ask questions of the angel--but with very different results.

Zechariah is rendered mute and unable to speak until John the Baptist is circumcised!

Mary . . . isn't.

So, what's the difference? 

They both asked questions about the seemingly impossible pregnancies that Gabriel had come to announce?

Why is Zechariah treated so differently?

Is God just playing favorites with Mary?

Or is there a subtle difference between their questions and the attitudes which the questions reveal?

That's what I take a look at in this podcast.

Jimmy appears on Catholic Answers Live in this episode of the podcast and answers these questions:

·      Why don’t we call bishops “apostles” if they’re the successors to the apostles? When did we start having bishops? (2:30)

·      Why did the Catholic Church support the “bad guys” in the Spanish Civil War? (5:00)

·      What can Jimmy recommend to a searching Protestant for understanding the pope and Mary? (12:15)

·      Are there apostles living today? (20:35)

·      Are all churches the same? (22:25)

·      Does the fact that Paul was sent to the Gentiles and Rome disprove the authority of Peter? (30:00)

·      Why do Catholics pray to saints if Jesus is the only Mediator? Can we pray for those who have passed on, and if so, do they have to be canonized saints? (34:35)

·      Does Jesus’ answer to the Sadducees imply sola scriptura? Where do Catholics and Protestants differ on sola scriptura? (44:40)

(Original Airdate: December 5, 2013)

Jimmy appears on Catholic Answers Live in this episode of the podcast and answers these questions:

•          What does Jimmy think of the pope’s new apostolic exhortation? (2:35)

•          Why do the early Church Fathers know best? Why are they authoritative? (6:15)

•          Is there evidence that the apostolic Fathers carried over the deposit of faith? (9:00)

•          Did the Reformers educate the people, whereas the Catholic Church deprived people of knowledge? (14:45)

•          Is it okay to lie the way Rahab did? (22:05)

•          Does the existence of non-canonical Gospels diminish the authority of the ones in the Bible? (27:35)

•          Were the four canonical gospels established at the Council of Carthage? (32:40)

•          What resources review Catholic books and movies in light of Catholic teaching? (34:30)

•          Can people do things pleasing to God before they know Jesus? (40:05)

•          Do conceptions have to occur through a sexual act? (48:40)

•          Is it morally permissible to contribute to a fund that your job requires you to permit to if it’s pro-abotion? (51:45)

(Original Airdate: November 26, 2013)

Jimmy appears on Catholic Answers Live in this episode of the podcast and answers these questions:

• Do our souls go to sleep when we die? (3:00-8:25)
• How to deal with an anti-Catholic husband? (11:45-19:35)
• How to interpret 1 John 3:9? (19:40-24:53)
• What does Scripture have to say about Tradition? (27:50-33:45)
• Are the differences in the Gospels due to the audiences they are written for? (33:45-38:40)
• Is it moral to sell your organs? (42:23-49:40)
• Was Adam more culpable for the Fall than Eve? (49:45-53:00)

(Original Airdate: November 19, 2013)

The Catholic Church associates the image of fire with the final purification known as purgatory.

Why does it do this?

Is there a scriptural basis for this image?

Also, what kind of fire is this?

In past centuries, many theologians have speculated that it might be a form of material fire.

Although that has been a common opinion historically, there's a difficult question that the idea raises: How could material fire affect the holy souls in purgatory? They don't have their bodies, so how could material fire affect them? And why would it accomplish a spiritual effect on them?

More recently, some theologians have suggested that the fire is something else entirely.

In fact, they have suggested that the fire of purgatory is an intense, transforming encounter with Jesus Christ.

You might be surprised to find out just who has been proposing this idea.

Why did the Virgin Mary remain a virgin even after the birth of Jesus?

It is an interesting question, and it can be answered on both a divine and a human level.

In this video, Jimmy Akin explores both aspects of the question, showing why, on a human level, Mary would have chosen to remain a virgin and why, on a divine level, God would find it fitting to have his Son born of a woman who remained a virgin for her whole life.

In the process, Jimmy quotes from from a little-known document from the A.D. 100s that sheds some light on the question.