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Steven Lee
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Hi, guys —
- Do you think people who don't go to the Roman Catholic Church will go to Hell?
- Also, why do people who convert from another church have to be baptized again?
Thanks in advance for your answers.
Peace.
Steven
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Will those who don't go to a Catholic Church go to Hell and why would they need to be re-baptized? }
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Paul replied:
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Hi Steven,
The short answers to your questions are:
- We don't know who goes to Heaven or Hell. We leave that judgment to God alone. There is a tradition within Catholicism that holds that even though the fullness of Truth and Grace, that God has offered the world for salvation, subsides in the Catholic Church, God can work outside of His sacraments to offer such grace to those that are sincerely and involuntarily ignorant of this Truth.
- People who convert to Catholicism from another Christian denomination do not have to get baptized again if their original baptism was valid, which would necessarily include the baptizer using the Trinitarian formula while pouring water on the head or immersing the baptized into water. The formula is:
I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
It comes straight from Jesus' mandate found at the very end of Matthew's gospel.
(Matthew 28:16-20)
Paul
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