Man Who "Died" 5 Times Is Becoming Catholic (Thousands to Enter Church at Easter)

WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 29, 2010 (Zenit.org).- This Easter, thousands are planning to become Catholic, including a man who almost lost his life five times.

The U.S. bishops' conference shared the story of Jeremy Feldbusch, 30, from Blairsville, Pennsylvania, who is among the thousands preparing to enter the Church Saturday evening.

Feldbusch was in the armed services in Iraq, and on April 3, 2003, he was wounded with shrapnel from the conflict, which resulted in blindness in both eyes and traumatic brain injury.

He was expected to die shortly after, or if he lived, to sustain extensive brain damage. Doctors put him into a coma with a ventilator for six weeks in order to reduce brain swelling.

The medical professionals attempted to remove the ventilator five times, but on each attempt, Feldbusch "died" and had to be resuscitated. On the sixth try, he finally regained consciousness.

The patient, who had been baptized a Methodist, asked his father, "Why did God take my eyesight?"

His father replied with a different question, "Why did God let you live?"

The bishops' conference reported that through the process of rehabilitation, Feldbusch "began to think that things happen for a reason and resolved to spend his life helping other wounded service members."

He decided to enter the Catholic Church, and will be received on Saturday, the 7th anniversary of his life-changing injury in Iraq.

Growth

The conference press release noted that thousands more will join Feldbusch, with especially high numbers of new Catholics expected in the South and Southwest regions of the United States.

The Diocese of Dallas, Texas, is preparing to receive 3,000 new Catholics. Of these, 700 are catechumens (never before baptized) and 2,300 are candidates (already validly baptized into the Christian faith, but seeking full communion with the Church).

Also in Texas, the Archdiocese of San Antonio is reporting that 1,112 people will enter the Church. A good number of these are young people, who have already reached the age of reason, including 214 child catechumens and 124 candidates.

The Diocese of Forth Worth in that same state will welcome around the same number of new Catholics.

The Archdiocese of Atlanta is preparing for 1,800 new Church members, which is the largest group ever recorded for that region, the press release reported.

On the West Coast, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which is the largest diocese nationwide, will receive 2,400 new members.

In Seattle, 682 people will be baptized into the Church, and 479 welcomed into full communion.

The Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, will welcome 842 new Catholics.

Other dioceses who are expecting over a thousand new members are: Detroit, Michigan (1,225); Cincinnati, Ohio (1,049); Denver, Colorado (1,102); Arlington, Virginia (1,100); Washington, D.C. (1,150).

In the Archdiocese of Washington, 18 of those preparing to enter the Church are students from St. Augustine School, the oldest African American school in the nation's capital.

The conference communiqué noted that the Catholic Church, which is the largest denomination in the United States, with over 68 million members, has shown a 1.5% increase in membership numbers this past year.

fish hawk:

The sacrament of Confession is indeed theologically consistent with the New Testament and is rooted in the the Priesthood of Christ and his sending the Apostles to minister in his name and make present his priesthood for sacraments are not for God, but were given to man so that humanity can have communion with God in ways consistent with our human nature, that is we are human persons with both a body and soul and thus through the sacraments God allows us to have communion with him in ways that relate to our human nature.

The word Apostle means “one who is sent” and Christ throughout the NT spoke of being sent by the Father (e.g, John 3:17; 3:34) and thus when he gathers his Apostles, he then states that listening to them is listening to Christ and then he sends them to minister in his name. For example, Christ states “Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.” (cf Luke 10:16) and the version in St. Matthew 10:40 reads “ Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me”.

So Christ is now linking the mission of Apostle to his on person and thus the Apostles and their mission has Christologicl implications as only they are charged with certain things {e.g, celebrate the Eucharist Mt 28:17-30, Mk 14:22-28; Lk 22:14-20, 1 Cor 11:23-30) and binding and loosing (cf Mt 18:18) and to forgive sins in Christ name. In St. John’s Gospel 20:21-23 we read:

“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”

St. Paul himself referred to his ministry as a “priestly service of the gospel of God”(cf. Romans 15:16) and we see St. Paul himself, who was brought into the Apostolic Ministry as he was ordained by Ananias (Acts 9:15) and Barnabas (Acts 9:27), who himself was an Apostle [cf Acts 11: 22, {he was sent} Acts 14:4 {called Apostle}] and was the one who brought St. Paul to the Apostles and later Paul and Barnabas had hands laid on them and “were sent off” (cf Acts 13:3)

Later, not only do we St. Paul celebrating the Eucharist and giving a strong Eucharistic theology of real presence in 1 Cor 11:23-30, but also speaking of the ministry of reconciliation given to the Church as we read in 2 Cor 5:18-20:

“And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation,
namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

St. Paul also refers to himself and the Apostles as being stewards as we read “ Thus should one regard us: as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.” (cf. 1 Cor 4:1). What are the Mysteries, well, that is what the Eastern Orthodox Church calls “sacraments” and the word sacrament is the Latin word that St. Jerome translated “mysterion, ie mystery” into. In other words, St. Paul was saying that the the Apostles and presbyters [priests] were to be stewards of the Mysteries of God.

In other New Testament epistles, we see confession mentioned again as in St. James 5: 14-16 we see calling the presbyters of the Church:

“Is anyone among you sick? He should summon the presbyters of the church, and they should pray over him and anoint (him) with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven.
Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful.”

In the context of the passage above, it is the presbyters who are called to administer the sacrament of annointing dn confession. So, how do presbyters share in the Apostolic ministry one may ask, well lets go to 1 Peter 5: 1-2 where we read:

“So I exhort the presbyters among you, as a fellow presbyter and witness to the sufferings of Christ and one who has a share in the glory to be revealed. Tend the flock of God in your midst, (overseeing) not by constraint but willingly, as God would have it, not for shameful profit but eagerly.”

So St. Peter, who is an Apostle, now identifies himself as a fellow presbyter and thus, the ministry of the presbyters is now finds its origins in the Apostolic ministry, which of course finds its origins in Christ.

I will not go into the tons of statements by the Early Church Fathers attesting to the Sacrament of Confession which confirms the interpretation of Sacred Scripture with respect to Confession by the Catholic Church in 2010 is the same one in the early Church but the Church Fathers attest to the sacrament of Confession [e.g., Didache, St.Ignatius of Antioch {called it penance}, St. Irenaus of Lyon, Origen, St. Cyprian of Carthage, St. Basil, St. John Chyrstotem, St. Ambrose of Milan, St. Jerome and St. Augustine, just to name a few] and one throughout Church History despite what you think and want it to be.

Regards

There are so many errors in this entire post, I hardly know where to begin.

Let us just agree that there is so much of Jesus in this post, that a Calvinist is entirely out of his depth.

Rome suffers the same error that Judaizers of old did. Acts 15, they thought they were doing the Law and that the Gentiles should be taught to do the same. Peter corrects them, after he himself had been rebuked by Paul for the same error (Galatians). But, "Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are." Rome has been doing this for centuries and cannot seem to hear Peter (in spite of claiming he is their first pope).

The Beatitudes will stand, regardless of Calvin. Matthew 25 will stand, regardless of Calvin. The Judgement of All by Jesus on their conduct will stand regardless of Calvin.

So Paul explains exactly what became of the Law and the "doing" that you now advocate.

I follow Jesus, not a kaleidoscope vision of Paul.

The RCC is sometimes subtle in their error, sometimes blatant. When confronted, they say this isn't taught. Next thing you turn around...there it is: Part and parcel of salvation.

Matthew 25. Love it and embrace it, or be Judged by it. You cannot hide behind the Reformers when you are face to face with Almighty God and are confronted with the verses that you claim to read and understand.

Now we are getting somewhere.

Does that mean that you are considering becoming Christian?

If you believe you follow Jesus to become a believer, then you are clearly a heretic.

What are you talking about?

But, if you mean you follow Jesus AFTER He sought you and rescued you and that salvation was not due to merit on your part, without anything done on your part, without any transaction whereby grace is a payback for belief or trust on your part, then you are actually a Calvinist.

Oh, I see. We Christians believe that God reaches out to all men with His saving Grace. No payback. No worthiness. Just God reaching out to men.

We Christians do not have the Calvinist innovation of having God hate all men except for the chosen few. We Christians believe that God loves all men and would have all men be saved.

1 Timothy 4: 10 For this we toil and struggle, 4 because we have set our hope on the living God, who is the savior of all, especially of those who believe.

Saviour of all. The only condition is that they believe. An act of volition, which repudiates everything of Calvin.

1 Timothy 2: 1 1 First of all, then, I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone, 2 for kings and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity. 3 This is good and pleasing to God our savior, 4 who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.

Calvin was as wrong as it is possible to be wrong about Christianity. Was he a heretic? Sure. Was he a Calvinist? Sure. Same thing. Where do you fall in?

I must leave FR tonight, but I will leave you with some Gospel (which may shake your faith in Calvinism).

Luke 13: 22 9 He passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. 23 Someone asked him, "Lord, will only a few people be saved?" He answered them, 24 "Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.

Your salvation depends on your striving through the narrow gate.

Acts 17: 30 God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now he demands that all people everywhere repent 31 because he has established a day on which he will 'judge the world with justice' through a man he has appointed, and he has provided confirmation for all by raising him from the dead."

If you do not repent you are condemned, but if you repent, you will be judged accordingly.

John 3: 14 And just as Moses lifted up 5 the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 6 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life." 16 For God so loved the world that he gave 7 his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn 8 the world, but that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 9 And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. 21 But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

Believe and live out the truth of the Gospel of Jesus, not the Gospel of Calvin. Hear all you Calvinists what Paul says that you must do to be saved. You may be repulsed by the Gospel, but at least hear what Paul says. Remember that Paul says that Jesus wills that all men be saved...

fish hawk:

I understand you see it that way, but the great theologians of the early Church see it the way that the Catholic Church sees it, ie. Confession is a sacrament instituted by Christ and given to the Church as the normative means of reconciliation.

Priests, ie. ordained priests, because of the Sacrament of Holy Orders are the successors to the Apostles, I did not say they are “Apostles” but because of the Grace given to them by Christ through his body the Church, they can rightly celebrate the sacraments.

As for all believers priests, yes there is the passage from 1 Peter chapter 2 that refers to church as a holy nation, a royal priesthood, which means the entire Church is now God’s priestly people. So on that point, you and I are in agreement, in Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Theology as well, through Trinitarian Baptism, one is annointed priest which is commonly called the priesthood of all believers.

Yet, it is also evident that certain members of the Church, i.e. the Apostles and certain men later ordained via the laying on of hands, i.e. Titus, Timothy, etc, were ordained for certain ministry’s that the priesthood of all believers were not, ie. eucharist, confession, annointing of the sick, etc.

and I appreciate the “with due respect tone of your” post, hence no polemics in mine.

Regards

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