Response to people saying Catholics go to hell

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Startingcatholic

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So I have recently seen a lot of stuff talking saying that Catholics go to hell. I was wondering why our fellow Christian’s believe that Catholics go to hell? As well as how can we respond to people for example saying they died and saw Catholics go to hell?
 
It is a dogma of the faith that salvation is only found in the Catholic Church. I would say in light of that, they have more to worry about if they do not enter into communion with the fullness of the faith.

As for the visions, take them or leave them. Could be an overactive imagination or the work of demons. Edit: I should add that of course there are Catholics in hell, just being Catholic doesn’t mean you can’t be damned.
 
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Considering that they cannot trace back their belief system to Jesus and the Apostles, why would they be right about that?
 
“See you there!”

OK, maybe not.

How about “I would listen to you if you knew what the heck you were talking about.”?
 
TrueRomanCatholic said:
Filthy non-attendees of Mother Church don’t know what they are talking about.

Only through Mother Church can we be saved.
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People who are not in communion with the church are not “filthy.” Jeez. The level of vitriol to non-Catholics lately is getting out of hand.
 
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Startingcatholic said:
As well as how can we respond to people for example saying they died and saw Catholics go to hell?
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There’s your clue right there. Apart from those in the Bible whom Jesus raised from the dead - no-one has yet died and risen. That will occur at the Last Judgement. Once you truly dead you are dead.

If by chance, these people meant a near death experience, that’s not the same as dying. I can see how a near death experience occured during the time of them being resuscitated. These expriences are valid for them.
We are not obliged to accept them or believe them.
 
One way I have heard extra Ecclesiam nulla salus expressed is that some Christian denominations have the sacraments, scripture, and faith. But only the Catholic Church has salvation. This does not mean that all Catholics are predestined for heaven because they are Catholic, but that the grace of salvation comes only through the Catholic Church. This also doesn’t mean that it’s impossible for a baptist or a buddhist to be saved, it means that they are saved in spite of their religion due to the Catholic faith.

I know it comes across as a harsh doctrine, but we need to recognize that Christ established only ONE Church and one road to salvation through Him. And I should add that this mindset has been lost in the past century, just look at how fervently Catholic evangelists were martyred trying to convert as many souls as possible to the Church. This doctrine has been the driving force behind Catholic evangelization since Christ walked the earth.
 
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Startingcatholic said:
So I have recently seen a lot of stuff talking saying that Catholics go to hell. I was wondering why our fellow Christian’s believe that Catholics go to hell?
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They have been taught a lot of misinformation by their forebears who need to justify in some way why their relatively new and often relatively tiny little sect is broken away from the much larger and much older Catholic Church.
As well as how can we respond to people for example saying they died and saw Catholics go to hell?
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We can simply do such people the kindness of ignoring them and saying a silent, secret prayer that God open their minds to the truth.
 
For those who aren’t inclined to links, the Church’s answer in the Catechism of the Catholic Church will answer the question regarding non-Catholics and eternal salvation more fully and charitably than some Catholic might answer, so I’ll quote directly, because we do need to know what the Church actually teaches.

III. THE CHURCH IS CATHOLIC

What does “catholic” mean?

[830] The word “catholic” means “universal,” in the sense of “according to the totality” or “in keeping with the whole.” The Church is catholic in a double sense:

First, the Church is catholic because Christ is present in her. "Where there is Christ Jesus, there is the Catholic Church."307 In her subsists the fullness of Christ’s body united with its head; this implies that she receives from him "the fullness of the means of salvation"308 which he has willed: correct and complete confession of faith, full sacramental life, and ordained ministry in apostolic succession. The Church was, in this fundamental sense, catholic on the day of Pentecost309 and will always be so until the day of the Parousia.

[831] Secondly, the Church is catholic because she has been sent out by Christ on a mission to the whole of the human race:310

All men are called to belong to the new People of God. This People, therefore, while remaining one and only one, is to be spread throughout the whole world and to all ages in order that the design of God’s will may be fulfilled: he made human nature one in the beginning and has decreed that all his children who were scattered should be finally gathered together as one. . . . The character of universality which adorns the People of God is a gift from the Lord himself whereby the Catholic Church ceaselessly and efficaciously seeks for the return of all humanity and all its goods, under Christ the Head in the unity of his Spirit.311

Each particular Church is "catholic"

[832] "The Church of Christ is really present in all legitimately organized local groups of the faithful, which, in so far as they are united to their pastors, are also quite appropriately called Churches in the New Testament. . . . In them the faithful are gathered together through the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, and the mystery of the Lord’s Supper is celebrated. . . . In these communities, though they may often be small and poor, or existing in the diaspora, Christ is present, through whose power and influence the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is constituted."312
 
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[834] Particular Churches are fully catholic through their communion with one of them, the Church of Rome "which presides in charity."315 "For with this church, by reason of its pre-eminence, the whole Church, that is the faithful everywhere, must necessarily be in accord."316 Indeed, "from the incarnate Word’s descent to us, all Christian churches everywhere have held and hold the great Church that is here [at Rome] to be their only basis and foundation since, according to the Savior’s promise, the gates of hell have never prevailed against her."317

[835] "Let us be very careful not to conceive of the universal Church as the simple sum, or . . . the more or less anomalous federation of essentially different particular churches. In the mind of the Lord the Church is universal by vocation and mission, but when she put down her roots in a variety of cultural, social, and human terrains, she takes on different external expressions and appearances in each part of the world."318 The rich variety of ecclesiastical disciplines, liturgical rites, and theological and spiritual heritages proper to the local churches "unified in a common effort, shows all the more resplendently the catholicity of the undivided Church."319

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
 
These groups tend to think we break the first commandment, either because of our veneration of saints, or our beliefs about the Eucharist.

The best thing you can do is live your faith, showing them how much you love Christ. If His work in our lives doesn’t convince them nothing will. Kick the dust off your feet as you go.
 
Skipping other important paragraphs, this is the Church’s answer to Catholic’s who may be tempted to say back to non-Catholic Christians,
“Outside the Church there is no salvation”

[846] How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers?335 Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body:

Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.336

847 This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:

Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.337

[848] "Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men."338
 
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My advice is that if they seem open to discussion, then discuss and debate, but make sure you are well-informed first. If they declare this in a manner such that they seem not open to discussion, then do not attempt to persuade them, but pray for them instead.
 
DH was chatting with the local Assembly of God pastor. They believe in a very literal “144,000 will be saved”. He asked DH where we went to church. DH said he was raised Methodist, but we currently attend St. So-and-So’s Catholic Church.

The Assembly of God pastor said, “Oh, I’m sorry you’re going to burn in hell.”

There’s not really a whole lot you can do except smile and keep talking about whatever was being discussed before the conversation took a left turn. 😛
 
@Startingcatholic, you have only their assertions, nothing to back up their claims.
It could just be intended to unsettle you. Any of us can claim visions or dreams or even NDE supposed experiences to back up our prejudices. That doesn’t make them true.
 
It isn’t how Jesus described the Last Judgement, in Matthew 25 verses 31-46, though, as we know.
Jesus, the judge of souls, would have the more accurate assessment of who goes to heaven or who bears the consequences of their choices in hell.
 
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I think this “True Roman Catholic” is, in the words of Francis Poldark, a “trull”.
 
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