Posted on 06/21/2013 4:07:10 AM PDT by markomalley
When you look around society today, it doesn’t look good.
Even in the Church, people are committing abortion and contraception.
They are sleeping together outside of marriage, using porn, and doing a host of other things that can endanger their souls.
It can be tempting to conclude that most Catholics in America today are going to go to hell.
Is the situation that bleak?
A Question from a Reader
A reader writes:
I belong to a great parish, full of wonderful people who love God and neighbor.
However, I can't help but be aware that at least from an objective viewpoint, most of them seem to be in a state of mortal sin per the Church's teaching.
The most common one is the use of contraception, but there are plenty of others, including cohabitation prior to marriage, remarriage outside the Church, etc.
The Church views all these things as mortal sins, although it's clear these people don't view them that way.
Our society at this moment makes it really difficult for people, especially young people, to do what the Church expects.
I also know that most of these people genuinely and sincerely do not believe they are sinning. They continue to pray, to attend Mass, and have faith in Christ, which indicates to me that they don't desire to cut themselves off from God.
Is it truly likely that the vast majority of American Catholics will end up in hell?
What can we say here?
(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...
Thanks for the link too.
Please forgive my not replying sooner, I didn't see your comment, but was distracted by another.
Tragically so, and do not seek to serve God.
However, it when such liberals become conservative evangelicals that the most concern is shown by RCs, who war against evangelicals, while relative little concern is shown about liberal Prots, as they are not a threat to th primacy of Rome, which is the most driving issue.
Perhaps a third option could be considered. A fourth or fifth could get complicated. A guy could get really bummed out, too.
Choose door number three. It's the one that has a brand nEW CAR!!!
That is a rather astounding statement. Is this from weekly attendance?
Be back tomorrow.
AA 2008 Catholic commissioned survey of adult Catholics reported 68% of Catholics affirmed you could be a good Catholic without going to Mass every Sunday, and 55% thought of themselves as good Catholics. 77% of Catholics agreed they were proud to be Catholic, (85% of weekly attendees) and 61% agreed that sacraments were essential to their faith (83% of weekly attendees). 2008 poll of 1,007 self-identified adult Catholics by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University; http://cara.georgetown.edu/beliefattitude.pdf
43% of Catholics overall (and 36% of weekly attendees) affirmed they look to Catholic teachings and statements made the pope and bishops to form their conscience on what is morally acceptable . ^
36% of weekly attendees affirmed their Catholic faith was the most important part of their life, 39% said it was “among the most important.” ^
83% of Catholics affirmed that helping those in need was important to their sense of what it means to be a Catholic; 79% affirmed the Eucharist was, 73% said living according to Church teachings, 68% said devotion to Mary, and 66% said attending Mass. Catholics in the South are the most likely to say such things are “very important.” ^
75% of surveyed adult Catholics said they never doubted the Trinity, 68% that the Father created all we know of the Universe, 73% that Christ rose from the dead, 59% that there is a Hell, and 44% that the pope and bishops have taken the place of Peter and the apostles.
Much more here: http://www.peacebyjesus.com/RC-Stats_vs._Evang.html#TOC
Sin is sin. There is no difference between "mortal" and "venial" sins. That is a construct made up by Roman Catholicism. ALL have sinned and fall short of the perfection of God and the "wages" of sin is death. Christ paid for all sin by his shed blood. That is why if someone is a genuine Christian - in God's eyes, who knows His own - they will NOT be going to hell. That was the whole purpose of the sacrifice of Christ - to be our redeemer who sanctifies us by His blood and makes us as righteous as God because we are found IN Christ when we place our faith in Him.
I realize that Catholics have all kinds of different opinions about what is a "grave matter", but preventing fertilization of an egg is NOT equal in seriousness to abortion or contraceptives that act as abortifacients. Perhaps some Catholics understand that difference and may be why they ignore such strictures as not the Church's business what a husband and wife do within their family planning. Maybe they even see that there is little difference between using a condom and NFP (natural family planning) and view a little hypocrisy going on in that area.
Don't expect any progress in any FR Catholic seeing the hypocrisy of that position. Last time I asked them about the difference, the conversation screeched to a dead halt. they dropped the topic like a hot potato.
2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
I guess that throws natural family planning out the window as well.
Is the next step is to condemn sex outside of the few days a woman is fertile?
The magisterium is fallible sometimes? Just how is the average lay Catholic to know when? Do they need someone to interpret their interpretation?
As to the query- “Are most Catholics in America going to hell?”- No.
No Christians are going to hell.
There are going to be those who THINK they're Christians or who call themselves Christians who are going to hell, but if one is really saved, really a Christian, they are not going to hell.
That's the whole point: being saved from hell. If you're going to hell, you're not saved and not a Christian.
Considering that the majority of the Catholic vote votes liberal, I'd say that your assessment is wrong. By Catholic theology they answer would be *yes*
Unless you allow for Catholics who vote pro-abortion and pro-homosexual to go to heaven.
Those folks ain’t catholic, then. Are they?
Many people use the terms interchangeably as is Catholic = Christian or Baptist = Christian or Presbyterian = Christian or (fill in the blank) but Christian as used in the Bible refers to those who follow Jesus irrespective of where they attended church.
Acts 11:26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.
Being a Christian is being a disciple of Christ. Being a Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian or (fill in the blank) is simply being a Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian or (fill in the blank). You can be one of those without being a Christian.
Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
1 John 3:21-24
Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
John 3:18
Can't rightly say; but it REALLY looks bad for MORMONs!!!
"Now if any of you will deny the plurality of wives, and continue to do so, I promise that you will be damned;
and I will go still further and say, take this revelation, or any other revelation that the Lord has given,
and deny it in your feelings, and I promise that you will be damned.
Brigham Young - JoD 3:266 (July 14, 1855)
Then whose job IS it?
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