Test Your Knowledge! (by Brock Hammon)
CATHOLIC QUIZ*
Please choose the best response for the following ten questions.
Prayer and Indulgences
b) The Catholic Church considers praying the Rosary “a form of meditation” because by utilizing memorized invocations we can more easily contemplate the mysteries therein.
c) To pray the “Hail Mary” is to quote both the Archangel St. Gabriel and Mary’s cousin Elizabeth directly from the Gospel of St. Luke.
d) All of the above
e) Only b and c
2. a) A mystery is a divine truth the human mind cannot fully understand.
b) There are 20 mysteries of the Holy Rosary.
c) The Luminous Mysteries reflect on the public ministry of Jesus Christ.
d) All of the above
e) Only b and c
3. a) An indulgence is given to someone with mortal sin on their soul as an alternative to confessing their sin.
b) An excommunicated or schismatic Catholic can receive an indulgence.
c) Indulgences can be applied to oneself or to the souls of the deceased as well as to other persons living on earth.
d) An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions.
e) All of the above
4. a) The nine days of a novena prayer recall the nine days that the Apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary spent in prayer between Ascension Thursday and Pentecost Sunday.
b) Saints are holy men and women whom the Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, has declared are now in full communion with God in Heaven.
c) A novena is a prayer, usually for a particular petition, directed to a saint in heaven; God delights in granting the requests of his special friends the saints who lived holy and exemplary lives, and who now petition God on our behalf that we may one day join the Church Triumphant.
d) The Church Militant refers to the Mystical Body of Christ on earth whereas the Church Suffering refers to souls undergoing temporary purification in Purgatory as they await unification with God.
e) All of the above
5. a) The Church Triumphant intercedes for the Church Militant and the Church Suffering.
b) The Church Suffering is able to intercede for itself.
c) When Jesus said “Let the dead bury the dead,” he meant we should refrain from praying for the dead; Jesus himself was not buried by his disciples.
d) The Catholic Church occasionally declares someone an “anti-saint.” This means they declare someone to be in Hell.
e) All of the above
Historical Highlights
b) The Catholic Church founded by Jesus Christ ended when the first pope, St. Peter, was murdered.
c) No Catholics were killed during the Protestant Reformation.
d) No Catholics were killed during the French Revolution.
e) None of the above
7. a) The Crusade announced by Pope Urban II was the answer to an urgent plea from the Eastern Byzantine emperor for assistance against an Islamic invasion from the Seljuk Turks. The Seljuk Turks had overrun Armenia and threatened Constantinople itself.
b) The Eastern imperial army had been virtually destroyed at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, and the Empire survived solely on deft diplomacy to neutralize the Seljuk advance.
c) In 1095, representatives from the East begged for assistance to ward off the Seljuk Turks and to ensure that safe passage would remain to the Holy Land for Western pilgrims.
d) The Holy Father issued the call for a crusade to rescue eastern Christendom from Islamic invasion.
e) All of the above
8. a) The Spanish Inquisition was at its height in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. During that period, there were approximately 2,000 victims, not untold millions. Monks never tortured anyone, as they were forbidden to do so by the laws of the Church.
b) The Spanish Inquisition was aimed primarily at practicing Catholics-families of Jewish heritage that had converted to the faith (many for generations). They called them "conversos," and the charge was that they were practicing the religion of their ancestors secretly. There were few, if any, "Protestant" victims of the Spanish Inquisition simply because there were no Protestants in Spain. Luther’s revolt never took hold anywhere in Spain.
c) The motivating factors for the Spanish Inquisition were primarily greed, jealousy, and racial enmity. The "old Christians" saw these "converso" families having great success. They considered them impure racially-at a time when the reunited Spanish peninsula had defeated Islam-and wanted their money and their influence.
d) Both Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484) and Pope Innocent VIII (1484-1492) complained about the treatment of the "conversos," but they had no authority over an Inquisition that was controlled by Spanish civil authorities.
e) All of the above
9. a) Galileo was a particular friend of the reigning Pope at the time of his trial.
b) In 1623, Cardinal Maffeo Barberini became Pope Urban VIII. He supported Galileo’s ideas. The two discussed Galileo’s theory, and how it affected scripture. Pope Urban VIII, in a fair-minded manner, funded and formally granted Galileo to write about the theory of Copernicanism in the form of a dialogue representing both Heliocentrism and Geocentrism.
c) Despite the support of the papacy, in Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief Systems of the World, Galileo characterized the pope as the ignorant antagonist. He did this by naming the antagonist the “Simpleton,” and then ascribing direct quotes from actual previous conversations with the pope to the “Simpleton.”
d) The idea of a heliocentric system belonged to Copernicus, a Catholic cleric. Galileo was never excommunicated, only placed under house arrest. Philosopher Paul Feyerabend said "The Church at the time of Galileo kept much more closely to reason than did Galileo himself, and she took into consideration the ethical and social consequences of Galileo's teaching too. Her verdict against Galileo was rational and just and the revision of this verdict can be justified only on the grounds of what is politically opportune." The ban on Galileo’s work was lifted in 1718 and numerous popes since have, despite the subject’s contempt for the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, on several occasions recognized the significant scientific contributions of Galileo.
e) All of the above
10. a) Though without an army or weapon, Pope Pius XII was considered by Hitler a dangerous enemy.
b) In the aftermath of the war, Jewish sources estimated that as many as 800,000 Jewish lives were saved in Europe by the direct actions of the Church under Pius. Even if that number was wrong by half, the Catholic Church under Pius saved more Jewish lives than any entity, any government, any army, or any international organization that existed in Europe.
c) The Catholic Church teaches that socialism undermines the doctrine of free will, is materialistic and deterministic, and conflicts with the natural law regarding private property.
d) The Catholic Church promotes a reasonable regulation of the marketplace and economic initiatives, in keeping with a just hierarchy of values and a view to the common good.
*This quiz was put together by Brock Hammon (many thanks!) from various historical reference sources. Grab some source material and see if you can answer these. :)
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