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Thank you father for your answer. That’s why I love the Dominican order: for seeking the truth. Yesterday I was at the parish committee in my town and our priest , while commenting on the gospel of Matthew, the scene where the angel appears to Joseph and tells him what to do, said that when the sacred author isn’t able to give rational answers, he brings up the angels that actually don’t exist. Then another priest commenting on the announcement of the angel Gabriel to Mary said that we don’t have to imagine the angel with wings, that he’s just a man and that angel is just an expression, therefore when someone is well-behaved we say that he is an angel (for example the wife preparing the coffee in the morning) and if someone is bad-behaved is a devil. Hearing all these things caused me a stomach ache and made me angry.

Priest’s answer

Dear

1.the statements on the presence of the angels are numerous in the Holy Scripture. It is engaged from the beginning until the end, from Genesis up to the Apocalypse. In yesterday’s Gospel, solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin Mary, we heard the gospel passage in which it is said that “God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” (Luke 1, 26-28; www.thebiblegateway.com).  The dialogue between Mary and Gabriel is then told. Now, if angels don’t exist, who would Mary have talked to? 

2. Jesus talks about angels as well. For instance when He says: “For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done” (Matthew 16, 27). The words “his angels” should be pointed out, because demons are also angels, but rebels.

3. The entire life of Jesus is accompanied by the ministry of angels. In the moment of incarnation, an angel (Gabriel) gives the announcement of His incarnation to Mary. After the incarnation, God the Father says about the Son: “Let all God’s angels worship him” (Hebrew 1,6; www.thebiblegateway.com). On the occasion of His birth an angel gives the announcement to shepherds (CFR Luke 2, 10-13). And then all the angels sing together: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2, 14). An angel warns Joseph to escape to Egypt. When they return he will tell him not to go to Bethlehem because in Judea Archelaus ruled, who was worse than his father Erode. Angels appear at the end of the temptations in the desert: “Angels came and attended him” (Matthew 4,11). An angel comforts him during the agony: “An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him” (Luke 22,43). At the moment of the arrest, when one of those present draws his sword to defend Jesus, and the Lord says: “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26, 52-53). Angels are the ones announcing His resurrection: “As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him” (Mark 16, 5-7). “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne” (Matthew 25,31).

4. The magisterium of the Church established the existence of angels as a dogma of faith. These implicitly appear when professing the Nicene-Costantinopolian Creed: “I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible”.(https://hozana.org/it/preghiera/credo/inglese). The invisible things are the angels and the human souls. The Lateran Council IV clearly pointed it out: “The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are the one principle of the universe, Creator of all things invisible and visible, spiritual and corporeal, who from the beginning of time and by His omnipotent power made from nothing creatures both spiritual and corporeal, angelic, namely, and mundane, and then human, as it were, common, composed of spirit and body. The devil and the other demons were indeed created by God good by nature but they became bad through themselves” (DS 800; https://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/344lat.html;edited by the translator).

5. The First Vatican Council affirms it again when it says: “(God) by His goodness and omnipotent power, not to increase His own beatitude, and not to add to, but to manifest His perfection by the blessings which He bestows on creatures, with most free volition, immediately from the beginning of time fashioned each creature out of nothing, spiritual and corporeal, namely angelic and mundane” (DS 3002; https://inters.org/Vatican-Council-I-Dei-Filius). The saint Pope Paul VI the 30th June 1968, by proclaiming in the Credo of the people of God the truths of Christian faith that admit no discussion, in the first statement says: “We believe in one only God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, creator of things visible such as this world in which our transient life passes, of things invisible such as the pure spirits which are also called angels (cfr. DS 3002), and Creator in each man of his spiritual and immortal soul” (https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/motu_proprio/documents/hf_p-vi_motu-proprio_19680630_credo.html).

6. Equally, the Liturgy of the Church claims the existence of angels devoting for them some special days as for Gabriel, Michael and Raphael (29th September) and the guardian angels (2nd October). In addition, all of the prefaces mention the angels: “And we, along with the angels and the saints, proclaim the hymn of praise: Holy, Holy, Holy” (translated by the translator). Sometimes they are mentioned in a far more specific way according to the hierarchies: cherubim, seraphim, thrones, dominions, virtues, principalities, powers, angels, archangels. They are listed for a reason. But from the beginning of the eucharistic celebration in the “I confess to almighty God” it is said: “ I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin, all the Angels and Saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God” (www.liturgyoffice.org.uk). 

7. The Catechism of the Catholic Church dedicates different numbers to the angels. First of all it reminds us that “The existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Sacred Scripture usually calls angels is a truth of faith. The witness of Scripture is as clear as the unanimity of Tradition” (CCC 328; www.catholiccrossreference.online). Truth of faith is the same as the dogma of faith.

8. Then it is written: “As purely spiritual creatures angels have intelligence and will: they are personal and immortal creatures, surpassing in perfection all visible creatures, as the splendor of their glory bears witness” (CCC 330). Surely, angels as pure spirits don’t have wings. But somehow they need to materialize in order to make themselves visible. And that’s why when they make themselves visible in the Holy Scripture they have wings (cfr. Is 6,2), as to say that they are heavenly messengers.

9. Finally the Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that “From its beginning until death, human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession. Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life.” Already here on earth the Christian life shares by faith in the blessed company of angels and men united in God” (CCC 336).

10. It didn’t escape me your first statement: “that’s why I love the Dominican order: for seeking the truth”. Yes, we do. The charisma of the Dominican order is wrapped in its same motto: “Veritas”. According to the revelation made by God the Father to Saint Catherine of Siena the Dominican order received a special grace, that it could be even named as grace of State: “For this purpose, for an extraordinary gift of mine, he (Saint Dominic) and his frails have been allowed to understand the Truth of my words, and to never get away from the Truth” (BLESSED RAYMOND OF CAPUA, Saint Catherine of Siena, Legenda Maior, n. 205; translated by the translator).

I wish you could be a son of the order as you’ve desired for a long time, I bless you and remember you in my prayer.

Father Angelo