I was being educated by a Catholic Freeper. He was banned for his anti-Mormon sentiment.
I was born and raised in a area with NO Catholic Churches (Panguitch, Utah). When I was in High School there was a circuit Priest who covered a 200 Mile radius each Sunday in order to administer sacraments.
My FIL was born an Hispanic Catholic (an converted to Mormonism when he was in his 30’s). I have attended family funerals in Catholic Churches, but they have been administered in Spanish.
My son is actually Catholic. He converted (in name only) when he married his wife. (She too is a Spanish speaking Catholic).
There is much I do not know about Catholicism. I have a tendency to reject it’s pomp and ceremony because it reminds me of the LDS rites. There is one thing I truly believe. We will be judged by what is in our hearts, period. God knows us, he knows our hearts and he knows if we belong to Him or not. There are no amounts of ceremonies or ordinances that will make this any different, and so I think I would fall outside mainstream Catholic belief. (I however, do not have any idea if this is so or not)
Well said. But let me just clarify why the pomp & ceremony is there, and hopefully it'll make a little more sense. We believe, as you might know, that Christ Jesus is physically, literally, and fully present in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar. All the pomp flows from that theological premise: we decorate our churches, vestments, and vessels because they are consecrated to the service of God, and because they literally contain God in a more real sense than even the Jewish Temple contained Him.
However, while the pomp is customary and natural, it isn't absolutely essential. A priest can say Mass on the back of a jeep in the middle of the battlefield, and the worth of the Sacrifice is not at all affected thereby.
AMEN!!!
John 6:28-29
28. Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?"
29. Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."
Anyone who ADDS to this 'requirement' is saying, "I do NOT believe what Jesus has plainly said."