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Baptism and Infant Baptism The Bible attests that baptism is the way a person becomes part of the “Body of Christ”, the Church. At the end of his speech at Pentecost, Peter told his hearers what they had to do to be saved: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Note that Peter said “everyone”, not just adults. In Catholic belief, the Latin term “ex opere operato”, which literally means “from the work performed”, expresses...

Mary 668. Why do Catholics believe that Mary prays for them and helps them? Because they believe that she is their spiritual Mother, and that she has not lost her interest in those for whom her Son died, merely because she is in heaven. It is the Christian law, according to St. James, that we should pray for one another. The Saints in heaven pray for us who are on earth and still endeavoring to work out our salvation. And Mary is the greatest of the Saints. It is but an application in practice of our belief in the Communion...

Joseph Smith said: "The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us is to seek after our dead." (Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 2, p. 146). Not only do Mormons seek after their dead, the dead also seek after them: Wilford Woodruff, the fourth president of the Church, stated the following: "The dead will be after you, they will seek after you as they have after us in St. George [temple]. They called upon us, knowing that we held the keys and power to redeem them. I will here say before closing, that two weeks before I left...

SPIRITUALISM AND MORMONISM WERE BOTH BORN in the "burned over district" in upper New York State within a generation of each another and teach that it is possible for the living to speak with the dead. Even though Spiritualists and Mormons have often recited these and other similarities—a hope for communitarian reform, a belief in humanity's perfectibility and eternal progress, experimentation with marriage relationships... SNIP Orthodox ministers...also found themselves agreeing that the apparitions claimed by these new religious movements were either bogus14 or inspired by the devil.15 Such comparisons and criticisms created a dilemma for followers of both movements.16 SNIP...

The Mormon Church has received plenty of criticism regarding the many inverted pentagrams that are displayed on both the exterior and interior of the temple in Nauvoo, Illinois. Several of them are located on the perimeter of the temple and as many as 138 inverted stars can be found in the assembly room. Inverted pentagrams can also be found on the upper walls and embroidered into the curtains of the celestial room. Some have wondered why a church claiming to be Christian would blatantly use emblems currently associated with Satanism as a temple decoration. Mormon apologists have quickly come to...

Joseph Smith wrote "Soon after the gospel was established in Kirtland...many false spirits were introduced, many strange visions were seen...men ran out of doors under the influence...some got upon the stumps of trees and shouted...[some] had the gift of tongues falsely, they would speak in a muttering, unnatural voice and their bodies be distorted..." (3) "There were even phenomena similar to modern UFO's, but in a form that appealed to and could be recognized by viewers in that day. A large number of Mormons saw a huge "steamboat...painted in the finest style...filled with people...[sail] steady along over the city [of...

Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus Traditional Holy Mass Propers † Dominica XXII, Post Pentecosten ~ Twenty-Second Sunday After Pentecost † Anno Dómini 24 October 2010 Commemorating† The Feast of Archbishop Saint Anthony Mary Claret † Color: Veridis/Green Vestments ~ II Classis ~ Second Class Observance Si iniquitátes observáveris, Dómine, Dómìne, quis sustinébit? quía apud te propitátio est, Deus Israël.... ( If Thou shalt observe iniquities, O Lord, Lord, who shall endure it? for with Thee is propitiation, O God of Israel.... ) ".... "Réddite ergo quæ sunt Cæsaris, Cæsari: et quæ sunt Dei, Deo...." ( "....Render therefore to Caesar the...

So evidenced by un-Biblical and "Christian anti-semitic" statements made during a  synod gathering of 185 Catholic clergy in St.Peters Basilica.Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Daniel Ayalon decribed this Vatican synod as a forum for Arab propaganda. I agree 100%. The church is not the "new" Israel. This heretical false doctrine, whether it is refered to as "relacement theology", "successionism", or "supercessionism", weaseled it's way into the church sometime after non-Jewish gentiles became the majority of believers and followers of the Jewish messiah Yeshua [Jesus]. A brief note on the english word "church":The word rendered as church in modern english Bibles dates back to the Middle Ages. That is, the modern recognized...

Author: D. Michael Quinn Signature Books, 1998 Reviewer: Eric Johnson IntroductionThe story of Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of Mormonism, is absolutely incredible. Here was a young man living in the early part of the 19th century who came from a family that could not have been any more common than spring leaves on a tree. As the story goes, he claimed that he was approached by God the Father and Jesus, told that all the churches were false, and commissioned to lead the restoration of God's kingdom upon the earth, which apparently had been lost for almost two millennia....

Animism and the Transmigration of Spirit The Cabala is a body of occult doctrine, originally Jewish, which has been adopted with enthusiasm by non-Jewish occultists since the fifteenth century.... Modern occultists are attracted to the Cabala because of its age and its mystery, and because they can draw from it the great magical principles that the universe is a unity, that it has an underlying pattern connected with numbers and planets, that man is God and the universe in miniature, and that man can develop the divine spark within him until he masters the entire universe and himself becomes God.(1)...

Although Smith didn’t say abracadabra, his mother admitted the family practiced this magic incantation: Let not the reader suppose that...we stopped our labor and went at trying to win the faculty of Abrac, drawing magic circles, or soothsaying, to the neglect of all kinds of business. We never during our lives suffered one important interest to swallow up every other obligation. “Abrac,” is a Jewish Kabbalistic word. It comes from Abracadabra and Abraxis, a word placed upon amulets to work magic. SNIP The family’s involvement in witchcraft was confirmed by Fayette Lapham who, after visiting the Smiths, wrote: [Joseph’s father]...

Hi, I'm new to Free Republic and being a Brit just wanted to get clear on a couple of things.

Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith. Both parents were poorly educated, very superstitious, and deeply involved in the occult (magic). The destitute Smith family moved frequently, with the mystical Joseph Sr. etching out a meager existence by farming, digging for buried treasure, and "water witching." When all else failed, he even attempted to mint his own money (a practice that was disliked by the local constabulary). The Smith family had a reputation for low moral character. According to more than sixty affidavits signed by members of the community, "...we have no hesitation in saying, that we consider them destitute of moral...

Featured Term (selected at random):CHRISTIAN NAMES Names given to individuals at their baptism. The custom of giving the name of a saint when a person is baptized goes back to the earliest days of the Church. It is required by ecclesiastical law and means that the saint whose name is chosen becomes a special patron to protect and guide and be the heavenly intercessor for the one who bears his or her name. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

A Catholic being asked why they call their spiritual leaders "Father". Written and edited by Laurence Gonzaga

Full story posted in parts: Part 1Part 2Part 3

Rachel Zoll of the Associated Press has a somewhat breathless article today on the conservative Catholic blogosphere. She interviewed me for the story so I was interested to see how she fit my work into the rest of her narrative. Here’s how she begins: Pressure is on to change the Roman Catholic Church in America, but it’s not coming from the usual liberal suspects. A new breed of theological conservatives has taken to blogs and YouTube to say the church isn’t Catholic enough. Enraged by dissent that they believe has gone unchecked for decades, and unafraid to say so in...

Since their not-so-quiet arrival on the U.S. political scene, the tea party has garnered a great deal of attention and found growing support among disgruntled Americans, many of whom are Catholics. A study commissioned earlier this year by the National Review Institute found that 28 percent of tea party supporters identified themselves as Catholic. Yet while the movement may include aspects that are attractive to practicing Catholics, there are also serious questions about whether the at times radical views and controversial practices seen from tea party protesters fit with the teachings of the Church. Rooted in frustration  Although the tea party movement...

Featured Term (selected at random):MATRIMONII SACRAMENTUM Instruction of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on mixed marriages. The first of two historic documents that changed many aspects of the Church's attitude toward marriages in which a Catholic marries someone who is not a Catholic. Among other normative provisions, the excommunication was lifted for marrying before a Protestant minister (March 18, 1966). All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

The Church honors the Apostles on the following feast days:Sts Peter and Paul-June 29thSt John-December 27thSt James-July 25thSt Andrew-November 30thSt Thomas-July 3rdSt Matthew-September 21stSts Philip and James the Less-May 3rdSt Bartholomew-August 24thSts Simon and Jude-October 28thSt Matthias-May 14th (Judas' replacement and comments) The Lord chose these holy men for their unfeigned love, and gave them eternal glory. Their message goes out through all the earth. Through all the earth their voice resounds, and to the end of the world, their message. We praise you, O God, we acclaim you as Lord; the glorious company of Apostles praise you. Alleluia,...