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I'm a 21-year-old, non-denominational Christian
who lives in America. I just have two questions:
Do you believe other Christians are saved
or just Catholics?
Do you have to go to Confession to be
saved and, if so, how often must you go?
Tim
{
Do you believe other Christians are saved
or just Catholics and do you have to go to Confession? }
John
replied:
Hi, Tim —
Salvation is a complete act of God;
it's grace from beginning to end
that requires our free will cooperation.
It cannot be put into an algebraic
formula as Protestant theology seeks
to do. We know that God wants all
men to be saved, therefore He can
save whom ever is willing to receive
and respond to whatever grace He
gives them.
Confession is a sacrament, an encounter
with Christ. It is His work, not
ours. Through the ministry He left
his Apostles, He gave them the authority
to forgive sins:
23 Who's sins you forgive,
are forgiven, who's sins you retain,
will be retained.
Christ empowers us with grace to
overcome the sins we confess. We
are also reconciled in the sacrament
with the Body, His Church. When we
sin, we not only sin against God
but against the entire Church. Hence
we need reconciliation with the Church.
This is nothing more than an application
of what was accomplished at Calvary.
Catholicism isn't Witchcraft; the
sacraments are not spells or rituals
that we perform to force God's hand
into saving us. Rather they are means
which God uses to convey grace, though
certainly it's not the only means.
God can save anyone Catholic, Christian
and even non-Christian, but all salvation
comes in, and through, Jesus Christ
and His sacrifice on Calvary.
John
Paul
replied:
Hello Tim.
Here are quick answers to your good
questions:
It is possible many non-Catholics
will be saved; it is also possible
many Catholics will not. Labels
don't save anyone, rather one
must do the will of the Father
(Matthew 7:21) by His grace. Having
said that, the Catholic Church
offers the fullness of grace and
truth so men and women can cooperate with
God and attain salvation.
We must go to Confession if
we have sinned mortally. We are
no longer in a state of grace,
no longer in union with God, if
there is mortal sin on our soul.
Look up, in the
third section of the Catechism
of the Catholic Church, the words serious or grave
matter and grave sin. If these acts are performed with
full knowledge and full consent
it is a mortal sin. If you have
more specific questions about
this let us know.
A person should go to Confession
as much as they feel the need
in order to confess legitimate
sin, both mortal (which is necessary) and venial.
It is popular piety
to go at least once a month but
it is up to each individual.
Paul
Tim
replied:
Good answer.
It's nice to see someone of a specific
religion actually supporting themselves
with the Scriptures. (This isn't a slant
at Catholics it's a slant at people
who can't back up their religion.)
Anyway, I came up with another question
for you.
In Deuteronomy 18:10 and Micah 5:12 and a couple of other passages, the
Bible talks about witchcraft, sorcery,
astrology, etc.
Is this implicitly acknowledging
that these things are real and
have power?
Tim
Paul
replied:
Tim,
What these passages say to me, as
a Catholic, is stay
away from them all.
2115 God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility.
2116 All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to unveil the future. (cf. Deuteronomy 18:10; Jeremiah 29:8) Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.
2117 All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one's service and have a supernatural power over others - even if this were for the sake of restoring their health - are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another's credulity.
We don't
know, if there is or, when there
may be demonic power involved or
whether people just attributed false
power to it, but we do know that
God does not work that way so whether
the power is:
false
from natural sources, or
from demons
it is safe to say it is not of God.
On a side note, there are some good
bible scholars who claim the word sorcery in the Scriptures,
which comes from the Greek pharmakeia,
actually refers to contraceptive
drugs and potions and, of course,
contraception is another thing that
is absolutely forbidden, and rightly
so, by the teaching authority of
the Church.
Peace,
Paul
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