Ask a Catholic

[Randy Carson]

Yes, I am a convert from Protestantism...American-made all the way.

As for what it's like, I have nothing to compare it to.

Here is the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC...only slightly smaller than the Church at Fatima:

Pretty building... let's see if I can summon on of Fatima:

It's pretty much the same size as the Vatican!


It seems you missed all my remaining points... Care to go back and see what you missed?

I didn't miss it...I just decided not to respond.

If you have a particular question about Catholicism, please ask away.

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Excellent question. 

The Necessity of Being Catholic (Condensed)

by James Akin
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/l...ecnum=3447
 
1) To be saved it is necessary to be a Christian.
2) To be a Christian it is necessary to be a member of Christ's Church.
3) To be a member of Christ's Church it is necessary to be a member of the Catholic Church.
4) To be a member of the Catholic Church it is necessary to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.
5) Therefore, it is necessary for salvation to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.
 
In this argument, the necessities are all normative necessities and the kind of membership being discussed is formal membership. The argument has a logically valid form (in fact, it expresses a variation on what is known as the "hypothetical syllogism" argument form), meaning that the truth of its conclusion depends only on the truth of the premises it contains.

Premise 1 is an example of the existential fallacy, unless you can demonstrate that there is such a thing as "being saved."

I can define it, and I can make a probable (though uncertain) evaluation of whether someone is saved based upon some knowledge of their lifestyle, etc., but I cannot demonstrate unless we agree that either someone has met the Christian Church's general standards for salvation or they haven't. 

If you concede that "being saved" is a matter of meeting a certain standard, then it may be possible to at least describe what being saved looks like.