Kevan:
Great. Not only do I find out I’m bound for Catholic Hell, but I find it out from a Catholic who doesn’t even know for sure that it’s true.
Ask a bishop, eh? He can authoritatively tell me what the CCC means? Since it’s authoritative, that means no other bishop can contradict him, right? Sorta like a localized papal infallibility–if the bishop speaks about the CCC, he’s authoritative.
Boy, I’m learning new things about Catholicism all the time around here.That just rewords the question; it doesn’t answer it. Obviously those men are familiar with the teachings of the Catholic church, and obviously they are Protestant by choice. Is that enough to disqualify them from the “ignorant” loophole, or does the Church pretty much excuse Protestants generally on the theory that, if they don’t believe, then they must not understand?Pray, why would I want to convince you of that? Are you under the impression that I have contended in some way for such a doctrine? I have done no such thing!
What I did was to show you an objection to your beliefs that really presents a conundrum.
Y’all are pretty much left with one of two choices: either (1) Jn 6 refers to the Catholic mass and Protestants are without eternal life and won’t be raised at the resurrection of the just; or (2) we do have eternal life, Jesus is going to raise us up at the last day, and Jn 6 does not refer to the Catholic mass.
A third choice, I suppose, would be so say that Protestants do somehow partake of the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus, but we do it in a spiritual way–analogous perhaps to “the baptism of desire.”
You might not like that position, though, because it is the very doctrine of the Eucharist which we ourselves hold.
Here is a quote from the CCC. No, our seperated brethren are not necessarily destined for hell.
816 "The sole Church of Christ [is that] which our Savior, after his Resurrection, entrusted to Peter’s pastoral care, commissioning him and the other apostles to extend and rule it… This Church, constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in (subsistit in) in) the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him."267
The Second Vatican Council’s Decree on Ecumenism explains: "For it is through Christ’s Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained. It was to the apostolic college alone, of which Peter is the head, that we believe that our Lord entrusted all the blessings of the New Covenant, in order to establish on earth the one Body of Christ into which all those should be fully incorporated who belong in any way to the People of God."268
Wounds to unity
817 In fact, "in this one and only Church of God from its very beginnings there arose certain rifts, which the Apostle strongly censures as damnable. But in subsequent centuries much more serious dissensions appeared and large communities became separated from full communion with the Catholic Church - for which, often enough, men of both sides were to blame."269 The ruptures that wound the unity of Christ’s Body - here we must distinguish heresy, apostasy, and schism270 - do not occur without human sin:
Where there are sins, there are also divisions, schisms, heresies, and disputes. Where there is virtue, however, there also are harmony and unity, from which arise the one heart and one soul of all believers.271
818 "However, one cannot charge with the sin of the separation those who at present are born into these communities [that resulted from such separation] and in them are brought up in the faith of Christ, and the Catholic Church accepts them with respect and affection as brothers … All who have been justified by faith in Baptism are incorporated into Christ; they therefore have a right to be called Christians, and with good reason are accepted as brothers in the Lord by the children of the Catholic Church."272
819 "Furthermore, many elements of sanctification and of truth"273 are found outside the visible confines of the Catholic Church: "the written Word of God; the life of grace; faith, hope, and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, as well as visible elements."274 Christ’s Spirit uses these Churches and ecclesial communities as means of salvation, whose power derives from the fullness of grace and truth that Christ has entrusted to the Catholic Church. All these blessings come from Christ and lead to him,275 and are in themselves calls to "Catholic unity."276
Perhaps the “life” referred to in John 6 is the fullness of Christ’s truth and revelation as found in his mystical body here on earth- the RCC.
. Please forgive me if I did.