What Happens if a Catholic Chooses to Refuse to Believe

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It’s called apostasy. Heresy and apostasy are sins against the faith. It means the person is rejecting God. As Jesus put it:
“Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.” Luke 10:16
The catechism of the Catholic Church echoes the Scriptures which prophecy that before the return of Christ there would be a great apostasy from the faith.
 
excommunication just seems unnecessary is all I’m saying. if someone can reject the doctrine of the Church and still say they are Catholic, what’s the point?
 
Fallen away catholics, bad Catholics, lukewarm Catholics, poorly catechized Catholics; the culpability falls on the individual Catholic, who is responsible for knowing, studying, cultivating and practicing the faith. We are not talking invincible ignorance here. Catholics who do not know their faith yet have access to the catechism and don’t find time for it, yet spend hours and a lifetime on entertainment than the things of God, have no excuse. Those to whom much was given, much more will be required. The culpability is compounded when a Catholic works to promote things that go against Catholic teaching, as then they become agents of the devil by forming part of and working for the body of Satan, instead of the Body of Christ.
 
Soubirous1 said:
if someone can reject the doctrine of the Church and still say they are Catholic, what’s the point?
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“Being Catholic” isn’t a prize for holding the correct doctrinal views. Baptism confirms an indelible mark on your soul and you’re Catholic, period. You might be a bad Catholic, but you’re still a Catholic. The Church can no more “unbaptize” you than it could turn you into a frog.
 
Excommunication is like tough love, or the ‘point of no return’; a kind of ‘shock’ to the soul. And excommunication can be lifted and the person return to the fold.

Those who reject without being noticed ‘by the world’ are still noticed by God.

If a person could be baptised as a child of God (in Catholic baptism) and then suddenly become ‘no longer a child of God’ (have the ‘Catholicism’ wiped out), what would that say about being Catholic to begin with? We have only one baptism. So imagine Joe Catholic rejecting a dogma, becoming ‘no longer Catholic’, then later repenting. Too bad, he’s no longer Catholic, and he can’t be Catholic again because he was already baptised. . .see the difficulty?
 
you can be in a state of grace and then fall. you can return to a state of grace but until you do you are not in a state of grace.
 
not if they reject the doctrine. you can’t be something you don’t believe in.
 
Soubirous1 said:
not if they reject the doctrine. you can’t be something you don’t believe in.
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If a baptised Catholic rejects Church teachings and walks away from the Church they remain Catholic but would be in a state of mortal sin.
 
Soubirous1, I totally get your point, but I see in this “always Catholic” tenet, grace. Think of it this way - the door is always open for you to return, even up to your very last moments on earth.

I heard a wonderful priest say in a sermon, “I sincerely hope I see you all in heaven, but it is not a given that all of us will make it there.” In Catholicism there is a clear teaching of being able to fall out of grace and risk hell. We all need the open door that the permanent label of Catholic gives us.

I openly admit that “Catholics” who flout their unbelief in words and actions frustrate me. But we have every chance to extend grace and encourage them to repent and come home to the Father who watches and longs for their return. The prodigal son never stopped being a son.
 
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The point here is that being Baptized and receiving other Sacraments are not signals or merit badges. They aren’t human events.

When you receive a Sacrament, God reaches into your soul and body and DOES THINGS TO YOU.

FOREVER.

If you receive unworthily, or if you choose not to use His gifts and graces, or if you choose to misuse them… you might be driving yourself straight into Hell, if you don’t repent.

But no human can REVERSE what God has done to him. Not the person himself, not other people around that person. What God has done, no man can undo.

Of course, if you have been provided by God with eternal life in Him, and you do evil on purpose during your entire life on earth, you have guaranteed yourself a really horrible eternal fate. Because the best things (like sharing Jesus’ divine life) can become the worst things. A baptized human has been raised to a great height, and can fall farther or rise higher than an unbaptized human.

So yes, it’s important for Catholics to believe the right things in the right way, just as it’s important for them to do God’s will and follow God’s laws, and to serve God and His people and His Creation.

But those are among the possible ways a person reacts to living a totally new life provided by God, just as doing evil is a possible way to react. The person’s reaction does not undo his/her initiation by God into that new life.
 
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i understand and agree the Church is always there for someone to return. that doesn’t mean they are still Catholic while they are away. if a person was. Democrat for 20 years and then began to vote Republican, are they still Democrat because they may return?
 
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