Replies

“former Catholic for 27 years”
“I was not properly catechized”
Obviously not. This should be automatic to you.
Salvation is by the Grace of God through Faith in Christ.

Certainly, you don't mean salvation is by Grace alone, thru Faith alone in Christ alone?

I think I got the correct main points from 12 years of daily catechism classes by the nuns.

Exactly what it says on the tin.

Salvation is through the Grace of God through Faith in Christ.

“I think I got the correct main points from 12 years of daily catechism classes by the nuns.”

Nope. Sorry, that’s not what the Church teaches. One cannot be saved unless God chooses to save you. Salvation is a free gift from Him, we can choose to accept or reject his offer.

I'm sorry, but on the point of Baptism, your statement was incorrect -- baptism does not save us -- only Christ's sacrifice on the cross is what granted us Salvation.

We believe that it is necessary for Salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament [Mark 16:16]. Those who die for the faith, those who are catechumens, and all those who, without knowing of the Church but acting under the inspiration of grace, seek God sincerely and strive to fulfill his will, are saved even if they have not been baptized

The beginning of Romans 6 says, "Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." This idea that we are made one with Christ through baptism is reiterated by Paul in Colossians 2:12, and in Galatians 3:27 he likens baptism to "being clothed with Christ."

The apostles Peter and John confirm St. Paul’s teaching. In Acts 2, when St. Peter is preaching at Pentecost, his hearers ask what they must do to be saved, and he replies, "Repent and be baptized." In 1 Peter 3, Noah’s ark is referred to as a type of baptism, and Peter writes, "In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 3:20-21).

Then from the Gospel of John: "No one can enter the kingdom of heaven unless he is born of water and the Spirit" (John 3:3-5).

Even in Acts 16, we see in verse 33 And he, taking them the same hour of the night, washed their stripes, and himself was baptized, and all his house immediately

Two other clear accounts are Philip’s encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8, and Peter’s immediate baptism of Cornelius and his household in Acts 10.
BThe pattern in Acts is consistent: preaching, repentance of the hearers, belief in Christ, and immediate baptism. Why would this be the case if the apostles did not believe that baptism was both effective and necessary for salvation?

Do note of course that the Catholic Church does not believe that baptism is magic: Simply having water poured over one’s head with the Trinitarian formula does not mean a person is instantly saved forever. Baptism incorporates the individual into the Body of Christ, and within the whole life of the Church an individual’s baptism must be accompanied by faith. The developing faith of the individual is empowered by the grace of baptism, and nurtured by the whole Church, but if the Christian faith is rejected or never positively affirmed, the baptism is not magically effective.
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