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Candy over at MyBlessed home suggests this “amazing” story for Catholics to read and apparently realize the error of their ways.

I have often said that I have never met an ex-Catholic who really knew his catechism and left anyway (unless it was for some socio/political reason) and this guy keeps my record. His second paragraph is full of error.

“I believed that since I was a Catholic I would surely go to heaven.

I don’t know who taught him this, but that clearly is not the teaching of the Catholic church and there is no paragraph in the catechism that states that membership in the Catholic church is all that it takes to get to heaven. Oh, that it were so easy!

I was taught through my religion classes that I could ‘earn’ my way into heaven if my ‘good deeds’ outweighed the bad.

Again, not in the catechism and not in keeping with the scripture.

I was also taught that the rest of my family could pray my soul out of purgatory and be able purify me before I entered heaven.”

Well of course that depends. The catechism actually says:

1030 All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.

1031 The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.606 The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire:607

As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.608

1032 This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: “Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.”609 From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God.610 The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead:

Let us help and commemorate them. If Job’s sons were purified by their father’s sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them.611

Of course a catechized Catholic will have trouble not letting their eyes roll to the back of their head after the first two paragraphs. I suggest Ms. Brauer find something a little more compelling and persuasive.

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