Thursday, May 24, 2007

Catholicism As Presented By Mastercard

I was raised a Presbyterian. I attended church as a kid, was active in the church youth group as a teenager (gag), etc. These days, I am not sure if I believe in God, although I would like to. Two of my sisters converted to Catholicism when they got married (to men, not to each other!). I never really thought much about the Catholic religion until one day a while back, I was reading a newspaper opinion column or something of that nature which stated that Catholics believe that if you are not Catholic, you are going to hell when you die.

That can't be true, right? I mean, surely if you are a good person, if you are a Christian, if you believe in God, surely the Catholics believe that you will go to heaven!

Wrong. I talked to several of my friends who are Catholic, and although they hemmed and hawed and tried to change the subject and were obviously uncomfortable with this facet of their religion, the fact of the matter is this: The Catholic church instructs its followers that all non-Catholics are going to hell. No matter now good of a person someone might be, if they are not Catholic, they are going straight to hell when they die. Which inspired the following flip book (you can see the yarn ties on the left side of the pages):






























3 comments:

info@thebabymarketplace.com said...

Hahaha ... I enjoyed the flip book!

Timothy said...

Greetings! Found your post in Google blogsearch...

Your Catholic friends and the author of the article are in error. Both Catholics and non-Catholics alike often misunderstand Unum Sanctum, the 1302 Papal Bull that codified the doctrine on non-Catholic salvation.

There are many non-Catholics and non-Christians who will be "saved", as well as many Catholics who will not be "saved"..

Salvation is by the grace of God. God gives grace to whomever He pleases, at whatever time He pleases, and in whatever amount He pleases.

For a good, short, easy to read piece on Unum Sanctum, I recommend Mark Shea's recent article:

http://www.crisismagazine.com/may2007/shea.htm

God bless...

- Timothy

Anonymous said...

Oh no, that's not right!

I am sure that since the Second Vatican Council (in the early 1960s) Catholics have been allowed to exercise their OWN conscience and not necessarily follow this SHARED Catholic one?

I was raised a Catholic and I don't think there's anyone I know who's a Catholic who REALLY believes this.

Also I think that weight of things like this differ from country to country.