I was listening to a Catholic apologetics room earlier today and Paltalk and they were criticising a 'Jack Chick' tract entitled, "Are Roman Catholics Christian?" (the complete tract is
here). They were roaring with laughter as they ridiculed the factual content of the tract.
A little checking online revealed some interesting 'facts' about Catholic baptism. The site. "
Love to Know Baby" explains that "
A Catholic Baptism has origins steeped in history." Some further excerpts:
Quote:History of Catholic Baptism
In the year 416 the Roman Empire made infant baptism compulsory. For centuries Roman Catholic tradition taught that if a baby died without being baptized they would go to a place called limbo. However, in April of 2007, Pope Benedict reversed this teaching on limbo. He also declared that the church would not revert to St. Augustine's teaching that infants who die without being baptized go to hell. Instead the Pope created a new doctrine: infants go to heaven baptized or not.
C'mon, make up your minds already. Does this mean that all those babies who were previously suffering in hell or in 'limbo' were suddenly whisked up to heaven courtesy of Pope Benedict's 2007 change of heart? What about all of those centuries of pain and torment the babies in hell had to endure? Oops, sorry about that.
The Jack Chick tract also claims that 'salt' and 'oil' are used during the baptismal ritual. This also drew another round of laughter and denial from the Catholic apologists, but according to the same web site:
Quote: The Priest places a few grains of salt in the baby's mouth as a symbol of wisdom.
.
Regarding the use of oil:
Quote:Priest anoints the baby with oil on the heart and between the shoulders tracing a small cross. This represents the oil of salvation in Jesus Christ.
Some other disturbing elements of the ritual include:
Quote:The priest breathes into the child's face three times recalling the Spirit breath of God.
Quote:The priest makes the Sign of the Cross over the child three times and prays for the exorcise of the unclean spirit in the name of the Trinity.
Quote:Traditionally, the priest takes spittle on his finger and touches the ears and nostrils of the baby, but today for health reasons this step which comes from Mark 7:33-35 may be omitted.
The main Catholic apologist was condemning 'anti-Catholics' for their "lack of knowledge" about the Catholic Church, but all one has to do is to check it out for themselves. It appears that the information in the referenced Jack Chick tract is correct.
The web page "Love to Know Baby" I got the above quotations from is
here.
You will find the complete Jack Chick tract below. Here is some more information about
Roman Catholicism from the same site.
Edited by user Sunday, June 8, 2008 9:30:21 PM(UTC)
| Reason: Not specified
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