Catholic Fundamentalists are sad when someone leaves The Church. It is as if a piece of living code suddenly erases itself from The Program and wants to stand on its own. It can’t, though the delusion that it’s possible is certainly widespread and as tempting to many as was the apple to Eve.
While Church theologians have not yet caught up to the understanding that Catholic Fundamentalists have about the “programming nature” of God, their truth is as immutable, though the Iron Age words they use may not be as readily understood by those bombarded by flows of electrons.
Lumen Gentium 14 tells us about those who leave The Church: “In explicit terms He Himself affirmed the necessity of faith and baptism(124) and thereby affirmed also the necessity of the Church, for through baptism as through a door men enter the Church. Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved.”
The next section of Lumen Gentium tell us that those in other Christian denominations who are baptized, faithful, and charitable are not necessary lost. Falling between the cracks are those souls who leave The Church for other denominations, but one reasonable reading is that they may be saved.
However, on the off-chance that we are allowed to defend our decisions in a Heavenly Court (probably better to fall on the mercy of that Court), one who left The Church could argue, “I didn’t know that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ. I believed that, as long as I was going to some Christian denomination, I’d be okay.”
At that point, the soul is treated to “playback”. The Guardian Angel, acting as a tape recorder of thoughts, reports exactly as to the thoughts of the person at the time of decision. The Court decides whether or not those thoughts would justify the leaving of The Church for which the ancestors of that soul had withstood dungeon, fire, and sword to remain faithful to Her.
Those ancestors may be allowed to act as character witnesses, as well. “John Smith was an embarrassment to all of us. We begged him to be good and stay faithful, but he wilfully ignored our pleas.”
John, of course, will reply, “I wish I’d heard you, but I didn’t. I was too wrapped up in myself.” At some point in the proceedings, the Guardian Angel may be directed to provide the “playback” for every period preceding every sin, along with the consequences of that sin. At that point, the soul being judged may cringe away to nothingness.
One of our duties, as Catholic Fundamentalists, is to be sure that each soul is prepared for the awful pain of “playback”, and does not lose heart. He must summon the strength to beg for mercy as each new sin is brought before The Court. The Court will listen, as long as the pleas for forgiveness begin before the separation of the soul from the body.
It is important to remember that The Court has forgiven many terrible sins, and we must not fall into the additional error of thinking we’re so “special” that our own sins cannot be forgiven.
