Protestants are in heaven because of the prayers of Catholics?

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God is their judge, and God is not so unfair as to judge souls by rules they do not know. No one can be blamed for what faith they were born into without any cause of their own. And if they ever wonder, how many of us Catholics really do give good enough example that many Protestants might say, "Maybe they have something? Maybe we should find out more about their faith. No just as we believe we have the truth, they honestly believe they have. It’s cruel to think they should be penalized for that!.

Jesus commands us to** love God above all and others as ourselves,**
and when Jesus describes who is considered for heaven and who not, as judge of souls, He shows that those who have lived in genuine love (not-lip-service and He makes absolutely no mention of ritual or faith distinctions) but with genuine practical love are those He judges souls fit for heaven.

We can argue this all we want, but our argument would be with Him who is or Judge, Jesus was quite clear about his description of His judgement of souls

Matthew 25:31-46

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Protestants can fit the criteria as well as any of us, though many of us don’t live nearly as much practical love of others as we should either…anyway, we need to be thankiful that Jesus is the Judge of souls, not ourselves being judges of souls Catholic or Protestant, or it would be a rather unbalanced situation sometimes! 🙂
 
Some may not have read the Catechism of the Catholic Church which is available online
therefore some Catholics mightn’t know what our Church teaches regarding other Christians, including the pivotal need for acted-upon love as means of salvation through Christ in the Church that we all must share:

Catechism of the Catholic Church, our official source, teaches thus
vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p123a9p3.htm

Who belongs to the Catholic Church?

836 "All men are called to this catholic unity of the People of God. . . . And to it, in different ways, belong or are ordered: the Catholic faithful, others who believe in Christ, and finally all mankind, called by God’s grace to salvation."320

837 "Fully incorporated into the society of the Church are those who, possessing the Spirit of Christ, accept all the means of salvation given to the Church together with her entire organization, and who - by the bonds constituted by the profession of faith, the sacraments, ecclesiastical government, and communion - are joined in the visible structure of the Church of Christ, who rules her through the Supreme Pontiff and the bishops. Even though incorporated into the Church, one who does not however persevere in charity is not saved. He remains indeed in the bosom of the Church, but ‘in body’ not ‘in heart.’"321

838 "The Church knows that she is joined in many ways to the baptized who are honored by the name of Christian, but do not profess the Catholic faith in its entirety or have not preserved unity or communion under the successor of Peter."322 Those "who believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in a certain, although imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church."323 With the Orthodox Churches, this communion is so profound "that it lacks little to attain the fullness that would permit a common celebration of the Lord’s Eucharist."324

Our thanks to the Lord, and our plea that we, Catholics and Protestants, will live lives of genuine practical compassion and love to our families, our communities, and to those who are in great need of our assistance and kindness.

For interest:
Catechism of the Catholic Church Table of Contents:
vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/ccc_toc.htm

May God bless us all with genuine love of Him and genuine love of others
Pauline
 
Would it not also be presumptuous to assume that there ARE Protestants who are saints in heaven before God’s sight?
This also came to my mind: Are there Protestants who skipped Purgatory before reaching Heaven? Are there Protestants who lived holier lives than the most devoutly/saintly Catholics on Earth?
 
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