The Ten Mistakes

The Ten Mistakes - How do they relate to Catholicism?

Catholic teaching truly is universal - its way is the natural way – the way that seems right. But it is all backwards. Below I have compared Catholic teaching concerning salvation with "The 10 Mistakes." The numbers in parentheses are from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. These references are shown at the bottom of the page.

1) The Way of the Religious

Water baptism saves you, but salvation must be maintained through the other sacraments (1127). Confession to a priest is the "second plank of salvation, after the shipwreck which is the loss of [baptismal] grace.” (1446). The Catholic Church (RCC) provides "sacramentals" that are used to assist the religious to receive the "chief affect of the sacraments." (1667).

2) The Way of the Cautious

The Catholic Church (RCC) teaches that trusting God’s promise of heaven is not enough. Access to heaven is by faith plus adherence to the law (2010) - Jesus did His part, now I must do my part.

3) The Way of the Procrastinator

RCC teaches that justification must include sanctification (1989) - thus the day of salvation is after death.

4) The Way of the Self-Righteous

RCC teaches that we merit our own salvation (2027).

5) The Way of the Wet

RCC teaches that justification is conferred in the Sacrament of Water Baptism (1992).

6) The Way of False Humility

A Catholic must be converted twice (1428). RCC teaches that being certain of salvation is the sin of presumption (2092).

7) The Way of the Lukewarm

Because of all the necessary mediators (see #10), the Catholic does not experience the extraordinary love of Jesus for sinners - they instead flee to Mary, the Saints, etc.

8) The Way of the Victim

The RCC places its adherents "under the law." It is all about obligation - if you don't do (fill in the blank), you won't get to heaven. Holy Days of Obligation, obligation to pray for the Pope, obligation to keep the 10 commandments, obligation to avoid certain foods and to fast on certain days (2041).

9) The Way of the Worldly Wise

RCC teaches that God's truth is complicated and includes volumes and volumes of Tradition (which are not fully detailed) – (81, 85). These “truths” are solely interpreted by the Church.

10) The Via of the Via

RCC teaches that grace is mediated (1131, 969, 1558, 846, 882, 2132, 956, 1378).

References to The Catechism of the Catholic Church:

1127 - Celebrated worthily in faith, the sacraments confer the grace that they signify...

1446 - Christ instituted the sacrament of Penance for all sinful members of his Church; above all for those who, since Baptism, have fallen into grave sin, and have thus lost their baptismal grace and wounded ecclesial communion. It is to them that the sacrament of Penance offers a new possibility to convert and recover the grace of justification. The Fathers of the Church present this sacrament as "the second plank [of salvation] after the shipwreck which is the loss of grace."

1667 - "Holy Mother Church has, moreover, instituted sacramentals. These are sacred signs which bear a resemblance to the sacraments. They signify effects, particularly of a spiritual nature, which are obtained through the intercession of the Church. By them men are disposed to receive the chief effect of the sacraments, and various occasions in life are rendered holy."

2010 - Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life...

1989 - The first work of grace of the Holy Spirit is conversion, effecting justification in accordance with Jesus' proclamation at the beginning of the Gospel: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Moved by grace, man turns to God and away from sin, thus accepting forgiveness and righteousness from on high. "Justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man."

2027 - No one can merit the initial grace which is at the origin of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed to attain eternal life, as well as temporal goods.

1992 - Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ who offered himself on the cross as a living victim, holy and pleasing to God, and whose blood has become the instrument of atonement for the sins of all men. Justification is conferred in Baptism, the sacrament of faith. It conforms us to the righteousness of God, who makes us inwardly just by the power of his mercy. Its purpose is the glory of God and of Christ, and the gift of eternal life...

1428 - Christ's call to conversion continues to resound in the lives of Christians. This second conversion is an uninterrupted task for the whole Church who, "clasping sinners to her bosom, [is] at once holy and always in need of purification, [and] follows constantly the path of penance and renewal." This endeavor is not just a human work. It is the movement of a "contrite heart," drawn and moved by grace to respond to the merciful love of God who loved us first.

2092 - There are two kinds of presumption. Either man presumes upon his own capacities, (hoping to be able to save himself without help from on high), or he presumes upon God's almighty power or his mercy (hoping to obtain his forgiveness without conversion and glory without merit).

2041 - The precepts of the Church are set in the context of a moral life bound to and nourished by the liturgical life. The obligatory character of these positive laws decreed by pastoral authorities is meant to guarantee to the faithful the indispensable minimum in the spirit of prayer and moral effort, in the growth in love of God and neighbor...

81 - "Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit." "And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits it to the successors of the apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound, and spread it abroad by their preaching"

85 - "The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living, teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ." This means that the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome.

1131 - The sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions.

969 - "The motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfilment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation.... Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix."

1558 - "Episcopal consecration confers, together with the office of sanctifying, also the offices of teaching and ruling.... In fact...by the imposition of hands and through the words of the consecration, the grace of the Holy Spirit is given, and a sacred character is impressed in such wise that bishops, in an eminent and visible manner, take the place of Christ himself, teacher, shepherd, and priest, and act as his representative (in Eius persona agant)." "By virtue, therefore, of the Holy Spirit who has been given to them, bishops have been constituted true and authentic teachers of the faith and have been made pontiffs and pastors."

846 - "Outside the Church their is no salvation" How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers? 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.

882 - The Pope, Bishop of Rome and Peter's successor, "is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful." "For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as the pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered."

2132 - The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, "the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype," and "whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it." The honor paid to sacred images is a "respectful veneration," not the adoration due to God alone:
    Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose image it is.

956 - The intercession of the saints. "Being more closely united to Christ, those who dwell in heaven fix the whole Church more firmly in holiness.... [T]hey do not cease to intercede with the Father for us, as they proffer the merits which they acquired on earth through the one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus....So by their fraternal concern is our weakness greatly helped."

    Do not weep, for I shall be more useful to you after my death and I shall help you then more effectively than during my life. [source: a quote from St. Dominic, dying, to his brothers]

    I want to spend my heaven in doing good on earth. [source: St. Therese of Lisieux]

1378 - Worship of the Eucharist. In the liturgy of the Mass we express our faith in the real presence of Christ under the species of bread and wine by, among other ways, genuflecting or bowing deeply as a sign of adoration of the Lord. "The Catholic Church has always offered and still offers to the sacrament of the Eucharist the cult of adoration, not only during Mass, but also outside of it, reserving the consecrated hosts with the utmost care, exposing them to the solemn veneration of the faithful and carrying them in procession."