answers given by Fr. Carl Pulvermacher

Q. ...warn Catholics about the Protestantism of the New Mass. But tell them also about the beauty and goodness of the Eastern Liturgy. During the reign of His Holiness Pius XI, the Holy Father often expressed a wish that Catholics of the Latin Rite should become more familiar with the history, religious life and present state of the Eastern Church. Pope Benedict XV said also, "The Church of Jesus Christ is neither Latin nor Greek, nor Slav, but Catholic: Accordingly she makes no difference between her children, and Greeks, Latins, Slavs, and members of other nations are equal in the eyes of the Apostolic See." J. V., Philadelphia, Pa.

A. What is permitted and what is obligatory are two different things. I agree you may avail yourself of an Eastern liturgy Mass on Sundays to fulfill your obligation. However, I don't believe that a Latin Rite Catholic is obliged to do so, even when a Catholic Roman Rite Mass is not available.

Q. The Catholic Near East Fall 1983 magazine carries an article in praise and favor of the Bahai religion. I have always been led to blieve that Bahai was diabolic and opposed to the religion of Christ. A. S., Winnepeg, Manitoba.

A.  Wonders will never cease! True it is that Bahai is a religion absolutely opposed to the Catholic Faith. It is humanism and atheism working toward one world religion and one world government. Its headquarters are in Haifa, Israel. It has a marvelous temple of Satan in Wilmette, Illinois, and another like it on the other side of the globe in North Sydney, Australia. How a Catholic magazine can publish an article like this one is just a great mystery to me.

Q. On the Shroud of Turin, Our Lord appears to have long hair. How does this match up with what St. Paul writes in I Corinthians, Chapter 11, verse 14? Could the Shroud be genuine? M. M., Orlando, Florida.

A. These are almost unanswerable questions. I wish someone else had to answer them. St. Paul says in the mentioned place, "Does not nature itself teach you that for a man to wear his hair long is degrading?" St. Paul saw Christ on the road to Damascus, and I doubt he would have written this had Christ worn His hair long.

Long hair on men is a sign of revolt, as students of history have noted, i.e., the American Revolution and French Revolution. The Church has, for years, permitted Our Lord to be pictured with shoulder-length hair and, therefore, we must assume there is nothing impossible in it or heretical about it.

The Shroud appears to show Our Lord with long hair; but as far as I know the Church has never declared this item to be absolutely genuine. There have been copies of it made which have also been claimed as authentic. Recently a NASA scientist had the chance to examine the Turin Shroud, but still absolute authenticity was not proved. He said it had an image that appeared to be scorched into it, of a man who had been crowned with thorns, scourged, and then crucified. He found the blood to be real human blood. He said there was no explanation as to how the image was made.

The Shroud history goes back to 1540. Some have said the image is miraculous. Some have said it could be a "vaporigraph caused by the ammonical emenations radiating from the surface of Christ's body after so violent a death" (Catholic Encyclopedia). According to Catherine Emmerich, the image appeared on the outer burial cloth while the body was being placed into the tomb, and it was a visible blessing for those who did this act of love.

The Shroud has recently been turned over to the Vatican and I believe it could be genuine, though there is still no absolute proof of it.

Persons who took the Nazarene vow presumably showed it by the length of their hair, e.g., Samson in the Old Testament. It is known that the earliest pictures of Christ in the catacombs, and in icons, show Him without beard and long hair. Only after about the fourth century does He begin to show up with beard and long hair. What we can learn from this I do not know. We who arrive in heaven one day will know the answer to this question, for we shall see Him as He is.