Understanding Catholicism/ Dialogue with other (purification, beliefs, hell, doctrine)

[Geoffthe3rd]

I noticed that many people really do not understand Catholicism, as such with other religions, and im just wanting to help clear up what we do believe and why. I would enjoy getting into debates bout whether the Church is right or wrong on an issue, but hopefully we can keep it somewhat civil.

[mormonman]

Do you guys pray to or worship saints?

[Evelyn]

Duck! Tomatoes coming your way.
Just kidding, good luck and I'm betting my husband is gonna join you.

[mormonman]

Ohh, I have more questions.

Do infants that die w/o being baptized go to hell?

I was reading on a site about Catholic beliefs (http://www.theworkofgod.org/dogmas.htm) and it said, in the baptism part, that anyone can preform baptisms. Is this true?

Why doesn't the Catholic Church, if true, bear the name of Christ?

Does the Catholic Church believe in any different levels or glories in Heaven? If no, why? Why would someone who was an amazing person get the same reward as someone that almost went to hell?

Why is there politicing involved w/ picking a new pope? In the LDS Church the Quourm of the 12 pray to God and pick a prophet. There can not be one disenting vote. Then at the next General Conference the prophet is sustained by the WHOLE CHURCH.

Sorry about all of the questions. I just wanted to get them all out there.

[Evelyn]

Originally Posted by mormonman

Do you guys pray to or worship saints?

Ok, I know this one. We pray to Saints. Equivalent to asking a fellow Christian to pray for you.

[Evelyn]

Originally Posted by mormonman

Ohh, I have more questions.

Do infants that die w/o being baptized go to hell?

I'll let others answer your other questions. We actually have no doctrine about this. We don't know what happens to unbaptized infants. I'd be surprised if any catholics believed infants went to hell. But the answer is we don't know.

[Geoffthe3rd]

on your Question on infants and limbo i got this source from Wikpedia
"limbo is not part of the Catholic religion's official doctrine (compare purgatory, which is a part of Roman Catholic doctrine). Official Church teaching remains that the status of these souls (who don't seem to deserve hell, yet cannot follow the divinely-revealed path to heaven) is in limbo – in other words, their fate cannot be determined by any but God."

Now to you question bout whether "good people" get to go to heaven, but they dont accept Christ as their savior, and if there are different levels in heaven then the answer is also no. Now you might ask then why is it that someone who hasnt led such a good life get to heaven? The answer is they go to purgatory where they are purified. Here is a something that might help u understand, its from cpats.org
"Purgatory and Heaven go together in a sense. Hell is total separation from God. St. Therese, Doctor of the Church, tells us, "There is no love in Hell."
Purgatory is a state or place of purification where man is made totally holy so as to enter Heaven and worship God for eternity. Remember, there is no sin in Heaven, or it wouldn't be Heaven "

We dont politicize our selection of Popes, which is why we keep the Cardinals in a "secluded" area (away from media outsources). The Cardinals are led by the Holy Spirit to choose who should be the next Pope of the Holy Church, and the rest of us except it as the will of God

And i encourage you to ask more questions

[mormonman]

Originally Posted by Geoffthe3rd

We dont politicize our selection of Popes, which is why we keep the Cardinals in a "secluded" area (away from media outsources). The Cardinals are led by the Holy Spirit to choose who should be the next Pope of the Holy Church, and the rest of us except it as the will of God

And i encourage you to ask more questions

Thanks for the answers! The reason I asked about the selection of Popes was because, I remember when the last Pope died and they were talking about Cardinals running for Pope and if they dropped out of the running, throwing their support behind other Cardinals. I don't know, it just seemed too much like a presidential race, than choosing a new religious leader. I'm used to have absolutely no dissenting votes in the Quourm of the 12 and having the entire Church sustain the Prophet, that God through the Quourm chooses.

I'm still wondering about why the Catholic Church is named such, and why it doesn't have the name of Christ in it somewhere.

[michel]

Originally Posted by Geoffthe3rd

on your Question on infants and limbo i got this source from Wikpedia
"limbo is not part of the Catholic religion's official doctrine (compare purgatory, which is a part of Roman Catholic doctrine). Official Church teaching remains that the status of these souls (who don't seem to deserve hell, yet cannot follow the divinely-revealed path to heaven) is in limbo – in other words, their fate cannot be determined by any but God."

Now to you question bout whether "good people" get to go to heaven, but they dont accept Christ as their savior, and if there are different levels in heaven then the answer is also no. Now you might ask then why is it that someone who hasnt led such a good life get to heaven? The answer is they go to purgatory where they are purified. Here is a something that might help u understand, its from cpats.org
"Purgatory and Heaven go together in a sense. Hell is total separation from God. St. Therese, Doctor of the Church, tells us, "There is no love in Hell."
Purgatory is a state or place of purification where man is made totally holy so as to enter Heaven and worship God for eternity. Remember, there is no sin in Heaven, or it wouldn't be Heaven "

We dont politicize our selection of Popes, which is why we keep the Cardinals in a "secluded" area (away from media outsources). The Cardinals are led by the Holy Spirit to choose who should be the next Pope of the Holy Church, and the rest of us except it as the will of God

And i encourage you to ask more questions

Geoff,

I hope you won't mind a suggestion; Scott1 is a Catholic member here, and he 'introduced me' to The Catholic Encyclopedia http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09256a.htm, which I personally find far more thorough......an extract on this subject is as follows:-

II. LIMBUS INFANTIUM


The New Testament contains no definite statement of a positive kind regarding the lot of those who die in original sin without being burdened with grievous personal guilt. But, by insisting on the absolute necessity of being "born again of water and the Holy Ghost" (John 3:5) for entry into the kingdom of Heaven (see "Baptism," subtitle Necessity of Baptism), Christ clearly enough implies that men are born into this world in a state of sin, and St. Paul's teaching to the same effect is quite explicit (Romans 5:12 sqq.). On the other hand, it is clear form Scripture and Catholic tradition that the means of regeneration provided for this life do not remain available after death, so that those dying unregenerate are eternally excluded from the supernatural happiness of the beatific vision (John 9:4, Luke 12:40, 16:19 sqq., 2 Corinthians 5:10; see also "Apocatastasis"). The question therefore arises as to what, in the absence of a clear positive revelation on the subject, we ought in conformity with Catholic principles to believe regarding the eternal lot of such persons. Now it may confidently be said that, as the result of centuries of speculation on the subject, we ought to believe that these souls enjoy and will eternally enjoy a state of perfect natural happiness; and this is what Catholics usually mean when they speak of the limbus infantium, the "children's limbo." The best way of justifying the above statement is to give a brief sketch of the history of Catholic opinion on the subject. We shall try to do so by selecting the particular and pertinent facts from the general history of Catholic speculation regarding the Fall and original sin, but it is only right to observe that a fairly full knowledge of this general history is required for a proper appreciation of these facts.

(See the above site for the full article)

[James the Persian]

Seeing as nobody from the RCC has answered my thread on the subject, I'll ask here: what do you think of the current Pope dropping the title Patriarch of the West and why do you think he has done it? It's been reported that it was an attempt at 'ecumenical sensitivity' and the article I read seemed to suggest this was aimed at us. For the life of me I can't understand how this is ecumenically sensitive in any way, but maybe an RC can fill me in?

James