Catholic Answers Live

Questions Covered: 02:40 – If a pagan god were to meet Jesus and convert to Christianity, would they go to heaven if they died? 13:11 – As far as I understand it, current physics tells us that information cannot travel faster than the speed of light since, if it did, you would (among other problems) get paradoxes. However, it seems like an angel could convey information faster than light. For example, Aquinas argues that an angel, in moving from place A to place B, can choose whether it traverses the space in between those places or not. Thus, an angel could observe, say, a supernova happening lightyears away from Earth and then travel instantaneously to Earth and tell us about it before the light from the supernova got here. What do you think of this? Should we think that even an angel couldn’t convey information faster than light? Or, should we discard the idea that information can’t be communicated faster than light? Or maybe some third option? Thanks! 23:46 – Your recent episodes on demons and the different beliefs on how people get possessed made me think. Could the dark forces be targeting powerful latent “psychic” individuals? It would fit with your demons being opportunists, and with Amorth’s Curse model. I would like to see a scientific study that would test people who have been validly possessed and exorcised to see if they test higher than a sample group. 35:22 – In the case of Ash Wednesday when fasting and abstinence is required, would receiving communion break one’s fast or count as a smaller meal? In other words, can one receive communion in addition to eating one full meal and two smaller meals? Thanks Jimmy! 39:16 – Let’s say we made contact with an alternate timeline whose divergence point is after the year 100. They have a recognizable continuing Petrine ministry. Does their pope (probably called something else) have immediate and universal jurisdiction in our timeline, and ours in theirs? Are we bound by each other’s infallible declarations of doctrine if we’ve defined something they haven’t, or vice versa? 46:12 – Do stage magicians have actual preternatural gifts?