[dan1123]

Even if the lost or separated person is 55 when they return home after a long separation, the joy at their return home remains that- joy that the person has come home.

So all non-Catholics are lost then? That just confirms my point.

[Petronski]

So all non-Catholics are lost then?

I'm not sure you two are speaking of the same sense of "lost."

[fetal heart beats by 21st day]

If you would try to refrain from reading things into my words that are not there, we could communicate better- if you are interested in communicating.

[Mad Dawg]

The language was "lost or separated".

I'll say this: Yes, I think that a Christian, who may end up in eternal bliss with the other saints, nonetheless is probably passing up some helpful assists and graces and consolations and the rest if he persists in staying out of communion with the Holy See.

It is as though a member or friend of the family insisted on having his dinner among the garbage cans, with the bad smells and bugs and whatnot. YES he IS being nourished, but he is missing out on the conversation, the beauty, the fellowship, all those things which make a meal an occasion and not merely an ingestion.

IF a child or a friend of mine had insisted on doing that and one day decided to join us at the table where there is light and a fire in the stove (in the winter) and corny jokes told and laughed at for the twentieth time and thoughtful discussion of deep issues, yes, I'd rejoice that he came home.

[BlackElk]

An otherwise brilliant Jesuit priest, the late Leonard Feeney, SJ, made the mistake of reading and interpreting Scripture on his own and without adequate submission to the Teaching Magisterium of the Catholic Church. He took the Scriptural passage that "outside the Church there is no salvation" a tad too seriously and then some. Feeney concluded for several decade that all non-Catholics were, as you suggest, lost (regarding their salvation). The Church answered Fr. Feeney on this point by severely punishing him and IIRC separating him from the Church by excommunication (which does pose an interesting dilemma for the exclusivist crowd, doesn't it?). Fr. Feeney eventually repented his sinful preachings in that respect (whatever his unreconciled followers may claim) and was restored to full communion with Rome.

I was a Catholic child in New Haven, Connecticut, when Feeneyism (which emanated from Boston) was at its height. Feeney had people dressed as nuns and religious brothers going door to door to sell books and raise money. My pastor and many others advised the faithful in the pews to respond to Feeney's disciples by politely telling them that we were Catholics and were uninterested in Leonard Feeney's eccentric theories.

While Catholics would certainly welcome you too if you were to convert to Catholicism, I have no question that Evangelicals (and many other Protestants) are Christians and I hope to meet many of them (including you, and many former clients in pro-life activity and many dear friends) in heaven when the time comes. I have more reason to worry about my own salvation than I do about that of many of my non-Catholic Christian brothers and sisters.

You and I would, no doubt, disagree in our respective beliefs as to a very important 5% of faith matters. We would likely agree on the rest. The differences are quite important but so are the similarities.

May God bless you and yours.

[Cronos]

So all non-Catholics are lost then? That just confirms my point.

No, not ALL --> let's beak down that large gruop who are not Catholic -- the Orthodox, the members of the ORiental and Assyrian Churches are not lost, they are part of The One Apostolic Church. Among Christians that are not part of the Apostolic Church, I will not make a blanket statement -- there are many true beleivers among protestant groups, but there are many protestant groups that I think are very, very far from The Church