woodzchick: Someone encouraged me to start this thread, and I thought it sounded like a good idea.
I'm doing a research paper in English, and I need this info to help with my paper. I googled it on the internet, but I would still like to hear some people's views of their interpretation of how Catholics believe salvation is acquired.
Catholics believe that salvation for a person begins with baptism. At that moment your soul is pure. Throughout life we must seek redemption from sins by way of penance. Most non-Catholics believe that Catholics can just confess their sins and then everything is 'okay'. This is not so! You must truly express sorrow for your sins. It must be a sincere repentance with an intent not to sin no more. Then you perform certain acts in order to repair the harm caused by your sins.
Salvation was a gift from God to us. I person must truly believe in his heart that he is free of sin. He must believe that God gave he only son to free us of our sins. Part of requirements for salvation is a belief in the sacraments of the Church. The utilization of the Eucharist and taking of the bread and wine into our bodies represents accepting Jesus in our lives.
Finally, a person can be unknowing in the ways of the Church and not held accountable for those beliefs.
What are the Catholic's beliefs about salvation?: click here to read the entire thread »