“once a Catholic, always a Catholic” doesn’t become real no matter how many times it repeated. It’s still a myth.What happened to “once a Catholic, always a Catholic?” My children would like to be officially non-Catholic, but since we baptised them, they are stuck.
So we’re stuck with people like Hitler & McVeigh being Catholics. Tho the press loves descriptions such as “devout Catholic” and “former altar boy.”
A lapsed Catholic is a lapsed Catholic. An evil Catholic is an evil Catholic. A good Catholic is a good Catholic. A cafeteria Catholic is a cafeteria Catholic. An excommunicated Catholic is an excommunicated Catholic. An heretical Catholic is an heretical Catholic. A devout Catholic is a devout Catholic. Baptism lasts for life and blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is final impenitence. However, if one is a non-practicing Catholic who was baptised, but doesn’t believe, then it would be inappropriate to call that person a Christian. But they are still Catholic because of their Baptism, which is a holy sacrament upon the soul, and this gift means that without further ado a lapsed Catholic can always repent, and then attend the Sacrament of Holy Communion (I think), thereafter. We are all sinners, just to varying degrees of seriousness, yet the gift on Mercy is open to all who wish to approach it.