Q 01/05

Which colour are the robes and hats worn by Catholic cardinals?

A) Purple

B) Red

C) White

D) Black

Answer · why

B) Red

Red, strictly scarlet, is said to show a cardinal's readiness to shed his blood for the faith; the pope still places a scarlet biretta on each new car...

Q 02/05

How many sacraments are recognized in the Catholic Church?

A) Two

B) Seven

C) Fourteen

D) Thirty

Answer · why

B) Seven

Seven: the list was fixed in the 12th century by the theologian Peter Lombard, whose textbook, the Sentences, became the standard, and Church councils...

Q 03/05

Catholics count Peter as the first pope because Jesus promised to build his church on what?

A) This mountain

B) This rock

C) This vine

D) This cornerstone

Answer · why

B) This rock

This rock is a pun: Jesus renamed the fisherman Simon 'Peter', from the Greek for rock, and promised him the keys of the kingdom, which is why crossed...

Q 04/05

Which council, meeting on and off from 1545 to 1563, shaped the Catholic answer to the Protestant Reformation?

A) Council of Nicaea

B) Second Vatican Council

C) Council of Chalcedon

D) Council of Trent

Answer · why

D) Council of Trent

The Council of Trent took 18 years to finish its work; among its most lasting reforms, it ordered seminaries to be set up so that future priests would...

Q 05/05

Whom did Pope John Paul II formally declare the patron of ecology in 1979?

A) Francis of Assisi

B) Michael the Archangel

C) Patrick of Ireland

D) Augustine of Hippo

Answer · why

A) Francis of Assisi

Francis of Assisi, said to have preached to the birds, wrote the 'Canticle of the Creatures', whose refrain 'Laudato si'' gave the 2015 environmental ...