What Happens if a Catholic Chooses to Refuse to Believe

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SetYouFree

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All Infallibly Defined Dogma of the Catholic Church?
 
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i guess they wouldn’t be Catholic.
 
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What do you mean by “what happens?”

If Jane Catholic from Waukegan Illinois decides that she is not going to believe one, some, many, or ALL infallibly defined dogmas of the Church, but Jane never mentions it to anyone and doesn’t really live any differently from the way she did before, the only person who will truly be affected is Jane; and only she and God know whether she will be able to repent before death and also whether she even truly knew what she rejected or any other factors therein.

However, if this is John Catholic, celebrity, who makes it a habit to appear on TV, film, and other media to publicly spout forth on how he rejects dogma, calls on other Catholics to join him, leads people astray, etc., ol’ John is going to not only be responsible to ‘get right with the Lord’ before he dies, he will also be held to some degree responsible for any people that he ‘drew away’. Still the same caveat applies that it is between him and God as to what ‘ultimately happens’ though objectively speaking, any person in any unrepented mortal sin at death will have condemned themselves to hell.

They would (sorry Soubirous1) still be Catholic. They would be Catholics who made very bad decisions, even ‘bad Catholics’, to an extend ‘non practicing’ perhaps, but Catholic baptism is an indelible mark on the soul. Once Catholic, always Catholic. Just try to be a practicing Catholic and a ‘good Catholic’.

However, their names are not ‘erased’ on the Vatican Supercomputer and they don’t go to the secret Vatican Dungeons either.
 
If we’re honest I doubt any of us have perfect faith, whether we’re talking of quantity or quality. We’re limited, we’re weak, we’re ignorant; we can only believe what we believe or else we’re entering into the realm of falsehood. But as we seek, as we really want to know, God gives us the grace to believe more fully, to understand better, to be more convicted, and hold to Christian truths more firmly.
 
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Are they ignorant of the doctrine and dogma? If they are ignorant then it is hard to say to what level of culpability they have in rejecting it. However, if they are not ignorant and just outright reject or refuse to follow a teaching when they know it is against Church teaching(ex. premarital sex) then they go to hell when they die. Dying with unrepented mortal sin, you go to hell. When we know the truth(Christ) and reject Him, we go to hell. That is church teaching.
 
Aggghh. Pardon my peeve here, but in written language we use “by accident.’

Yes, we speak of things being done ‘on purpose’. But the converse in writing is not ‘on accident’, it is by accident.

On purpose, by accident.

Don’t mind this elderly woman; I still hold to the Oxford comma also.
 
I am just wondering if the Catholic Church requires retribution from a Catholic who chooses to refuse to believe all Infallibly Defined Dogma of the Catholic Church.
 
SetYouFree said:
I am just wondering if the Catholic Church requires retribution from a Catholic who chooses to refuse to believe all Infallibly Defined Dogma of the Catholic Church
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What do you mean “retribution”?

Do you mean repentance? Like, should someone who rejects some dogma and later changes his or her mind go to confession?
 
LOL, it is not ignorance. In casual speaking ‘on accident’ is perfectly acceptable (grits teeth) among the young and in certain regional areas. It’s just in written communications that it is considered not standard. You see, I spend much of my day dealing with communications and editing, and by Friday my skin is so thin even a misplaced comma gets my BP up (so it’s not you, it’s me). Add to the above that my darling children, all in the 30s, appear to be addicted to the phrase, and I am also dealing with the somewhat painful effect of a flu shot, and I just allowed myself to flame up. It isn’t at you at all, but circumstance, and I apologise for any offense!
 
Retribution?
Please specify.

I mean, if you belong to say the Baptist Church and you wander into service Sunday morning and loudly proclaim that Baptism is not necessary for salvation and that Jesus wasn’t really God, does the Baptist Church require retribution from its members for choosing to refuse to believe core teachings (which may not have the definition of ‘infallible’ but are pretty much accepted as ‘gospel true’ and ‘taught by God”)?
 
SetYouFree said:
All Infallibly Defined Dogma of the Catholic Church?
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To be Catholic means Catholic baptism. If the baptism was as an infant, then it requires more at the age of reason, for if mortal sin then occurs, the baptism is not fruitful (unless there is repentance). The Catechism states in No. 2088 “The first commandment requires us to nourish and protect our faith with prudence and vigilance, and to reject everything that is opposed to it.” and then describes voluntary doubt, cultivated involuntary doubt called spiritual blindness, and Incredulity, heresy, apostasy, and schism.

Each of these can be mortal sins when meeting the conditions for it.

Catechism
1861 Mortal sin is a radical possibility of human freedom, as is love itself. It results in the loss of charity and the privation of sanctifying grace, that is, of the state of grace. If it is not redeemed by repentance and God’s forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christ’s kingdom and the eternal death of hell, for our freedom has the power to make choices for ever, with no turning back. …
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SetYouFree said:
requires retribution
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Okay, that’s the language of conspiracy theorists and fear mongers.🤣🤣🤣

We’ve already established there aren’t any Vatican Dungeons.

The difficulty is the phrasing to not believe “on purpose”.
To me that sounds like the person was taught the teaching, the person gives intellectual assent, but refuses to proclaim it?
That sounds like obstinacy?
 
i didn’t know that being baptized Catholic makes you automatically Catholic. People are capable of leaving the Catholic Church iirc. if a baptized Catholic goes to mass and received Communion everyday but didn’t believe that it is God they are receiving, are they still Catholic?
 
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