A Survey of Catholic Faith

© Lúcio Mascarenhas. URL: http://www.geocities.com/livrant/a-survey-of-catholic-faith.html

This page is part of my pages on Christianity vs. Paganism.
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Friends,

I was having a conversation with an Ambedkarite woman, a convert from the Hindu low castes to Buddhism, when my brother-in-law, who claims to be a Catholic, interjected, saying "Sab dev ek hain", which means "All gods are one". He also stated that "All religions lead souls to heaven".

Then, shortly after, another person (a woman, the cousin-sister of my brother-in-law, who has been imposing herself upon me by fraud) who also claims to be a Catholic, and who claims to have great devotion to Jesus Christ, Mother Mary and St. Anthony of Padua, also made the same claims to me.

I pointed out to this second person that this meant that Christ and Ganapati, for example, are one, and that person affirmed that this is correct.

For ease, I have bulleted these premises here:

That "All gods are one"
That "All religions lead souls to heaven (i.e., to salvation)."
That "Christ and Ganapati are one"

Subsequently, I have spoken to two colleagues who also claim to be Catholic, and both assented to these three premises.

I spoke to three other persons who claim to be Catholic, two of them being a middle-aged couple, the third another visitor to their home like me. The head of the house told me that he believed the first and second premises are correct, but as to the third, he stated that Christ and Ganapati are not strictly speaking god but inferior and created beings sent by God as teachers of the path to salvation. Or, to use a technical term, Christ — and Ganapati — are demigods.

His wife repeated to me a statement that their other visitor made: To the effect that Catholics ought not to criticize pagan religions such as Hinduism and Mohammedanism since the followers of these religions can ask Catholics awkward and embarrassing questions to which we cannot give reasonable answers concerning Mother Mary's maternity of Jesus Christ, given her youth and unmarried state at the time of conceiving Christ Jesus.

Let me organize these premises once again:

That "All gods are one"

That "All religions lead souls to heaven (i.e., to salvation)."

That "Christ and Ganapati are one"

That "Christ is merely a demigod or great teacher but not God incarnate, and that Christ Jesus is effectively merely a demigod."

That "Catholics ought not to criticize pagan religions such as Hinduism and Mohammedanism since the followers of these religions can ask Catholics awkward and embarrassing questions to which we cannot give reasonable answers concerning Mother Mary's maternity of Jesus Christ, given her youth and unmarried state at the time of conceiving Christ Jesus."

In this context, I wish to conduct an informal survey among others of my acquaintances / friends / etc. who also claim to be Catholic. Please feel free to forward this survey to others of your acquaintance who also claim to be Catholic.

I wish YOU, if you claim to be a Catholic, to answer whether you agree with these premises. Please answer only with a "yes" or a "no". Your cooperation will be appreciated.

Please fill out the survey below and mail it back to me at Lucio dot Mascarenhas at Gmail dot com, no spaces or underscores (<[email protected]>).

In case you do not wish your name to be publicized, please state that your reply is private and confidential.

Kind regards,

Lúcio Mascarenhas

Lucio Mascarenhas' Survey of Catholic Faith
Sr.	Proposition	"Yes" OR "No"
1	"All gods are one"
2	"All religions lead souls to heaven (i.e., to salvation)."
3	"Christ (God of the Christians) and Ganapati (the Hindu 'god') are one"
4	"Christ is merely a demigod or great teacher but not God incarnate, and that Christ Jesus is effectively merely a demigod."
5	"Catholics ought not to criticize pagan religions such as Hinduism and Mohammedanism since the followers of these religions can ask Catholics awkward and embarrassing questions to which we cannot give reasonable answers concerning Mother Mary's maternity of Jesus Christ, given her youth and unmarried state at the time of conceiving Christ Jesus."

Apologies For An Error

Due to an oversight, in my tabulation at the end of the survey, I missed out the fourth proposition, which reduces the Messias to merely a "demigod" or "demiurge", and thus reduced the total number of propositions to only four instead of five.

Therefore, it was only Dr. Armesto (of the Miami-based Cuban Resistance to the terrorist Fidel Castro's Communist-Red Fascist regime) who answered all five propositions.

The Responses, in Chronological Order

"For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." — Our Lord Jesus Christ. Gospel of St. Mathew, xii. 37

"Every one therefore that shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. But he that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven." — Our Lord Jesus Christ. Gospel of St. Mathew, x. 32-33.

I was very, very, very angry to be told such things by people who pretend to be Catholic, and I was in a very murderous mood. Yet, all is not, apparently lost, for there seem to be many who retain still some modicum of the true and orthodox Catholic faith. This is not a call for complacency, but for a fervent return to the Faith of St. Francis Xavier on an urgent basis, before more souls are lost! I am grateful for those, both known and unknown, who cared to reply and thus sooth my fury and rage at hearing such unspeakable blasphemies!!! — Lucio Mascarenhas

Jim Condit Jr., U.S.A., Mon, Oct 16, 2006 at 7:19 PM:
No; No; No; NO.

Obviously these propositions are all rank heresy. I think the people you asked must be corrupted by the New Religion — however, many people follow the crowd when an easy way is presented. I did so in the matters of fasting and other disciplines as a young man when the changes came — but I was always a rigorist on the intellectual concepts and had a good training.

Lucio: Mr. Condit got 100 marks out of 100.

Mrs. Teresa Stanfill-Benns, U.S.A. Mon, Oct 16, 2006 at 10:23 PM:
An emphatic NO to all premises!

Lucio: Mrs. Benns gets 100 marks out of 100.

Fr. Anthony Eugene Wohrlin, U.S.A. Mon, Oct 16, 2006 at 11:13 PM: :
Dear Lucio,

NO IN ALL CASES.

CHECK OUT WEB SITE: JohnTheBaptist.us

God bless you!

Lucio: I am happy about all the "Nos!", but I am not happy with the fact that Fr. Wohrlin directs me to the website of the Feeneyite heretic Richard Ibranyi!

John Dayal, New Delhi, India. Tue, Oct 17, 2006 at 9:30 PM:

christ is the saviour

but one respects other people's reverence for their faith, without of course saying that we too worship their gods, or think that all relgions are one.

a relgion in which dalits are born untoucbable hardly is the one i would ever want to join

Paul Danon, England. Saturday, October 21, 2006 12:41 AM: I cannot agree with Mr Dayal's respect for reverence for false religious. Such reverence is tragic, suicidal and, if spread through proselytisation, mortally dangerous to others. If Christ is the saviour, how may one in any way respect the beliefs of those who reject him?

Lucio: I am surprised to have the famous Mr. Dayal reply (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dayal). I am further surprised that he does not espouse the Conciliar heresies!!!

Christians are, of course, required to love all men and seek their conversion to the Truth, Christ Jesus. Some confuse the commandment to love all men as meaning a commandment to respect all men, but, as Mr. Danon correctly points out, to respect all men is to respect their errors.

Judith P. Fernandes, Bombay, India. Wed, Oct 18, 2006 at 6:19 AM:

1	"All gods are one"	NO
2	"All religions lead souls to heaven (i.e., to salvation)."	NO
3	"Christ (God of the Christians) and Ganapati (the Hindu 'god') are one"	NO
4	"Catholics ought not to criticize pagan religions such as Hinduism and Mohammedanism since the followers of these religions can ask Catholics awkward and embarrassing questions to which we cannot give reasonable answers concerning Mother Mary's maternity of Jesus Christ, given her youth and unmarried state at the time of conceiving Christ Jesus"	When questioned about it, I would answer what I learnt about this from the Church

Lucio: Can't say that I am happy about the answer no. 4

Dr. Eladio Jose Armesto, Director, Jose Marti Radio Station, Miami, U.S.A. Oct 19, 2006 4:45 AM:

1	"All gods are one"	NO. It is insane to affirm this because the statement is contradictory and contradiction is evidence of insanity.
2	"All religions lead souls to heaven (i.e., to salvation)."	NO. It is insane to affirm this because the statement is contradictory and contradiction is evidence of insanity. Religions teach contradictory things. They cannot be right at the same time. Right Reason teaches that there is only ONE Truth. Two times two can only be four. Error is infinite; Truth is only one.
3	"Christ (God of the Christians) and Ganapati (the Hindu 'god') are one"	NO. It is insane to affirm this because the statement is contradictory and contradiction is evidence of insanity.
4	"Christ is merely a demigod or great teacher but not God incarnate, and that Christ Jesus is effectively merely a demigod"	NO, this is NOT what Christ or His Church teach. If Christ is to be believed, then he is God because that is what He taught He was.
5	"Catholics ought not to criticize pagan religions such as Hinduism and Mohammedanism since the followers of these religions can ask Catholics awkward and embarrassing questions to which we cannot give reasonable answers concerning Mother Mary's maternity of Jesus Christ, given her youth and unmarried state at the time of conceiving Christ Jesus"	NO. The love of Christ COMPELS us to criticize error and defend the truth. TRUE CHARITY REQUIRES Catholics to refute pagan religions, unmask them as false.

Lucio: The best, the most vigorous answer I have received.

Anthony Martyris, India. Oct 19, 2006 3:40 PM:
This is interesting, but the questions cannot be answered with a simple Yes or No.

There is only one God, therefore there is no question of a Hindu God or a Christian or Muslim God. It is the understanding of God that is different. Christians believe in the Trinity, Muslims don't. For Hindus also there is one God - Brahman and a Trinity which is understood differently from Christians. Hindus see the presence of God in all creation, hence they call everything God - stone, father, mother etc. What they really mean is that all are images of God. We too are expected to see the Presence of God of Love in everything, but do we? If we did, we would not be killing one another or murdering each others' reputations.

The Church has pronounced that salvation is only through Christ and this is also what the Scriptures say. However the Church also says that salvation is possible outside the Catholic Church and that such souls do meet Christ in a mysterious way either in this life or the next and can be saved. The Church has for many years in the past talked of a Baptism of Desire. This means that people of other faiths who live good lives can be saved. Jesus Himself was not a Christian, but a Jew and He said that we may be surprised when we see who will be found in the kingdom of heaven - he also gave the example of the good Samaritan. Samaritans were not Jews and Jesus was open to all types - sinners, prostitutes, Greeks, Romans etc. and anybody who met Him got transformed. So it is not religions that lead people to heaven, but the way we live out Christ's kingdom messages - e.g. the Beatitudes, his teachings on love, compassion, forgiveness, preference for the poor etc. Jesus wanted that we live these messages in this life to get a foretaste of what heaven was like. Hence He called them the kingdom of heaven messages.The Catholic religion is supposed to best lead us in this path, though sadly we find that many of its adherents are more concerned with rituals, dogmas and not at all concerned about their neighbour or the poor. Jesus has told us how we will be judged! Other religions do have many of these messages, but we are asked to love as Christ loved. Our faith is Person-oriented, not only ritualistic. If they try to live out their way faithfully, how can a merciful God punish them?

Jesus is not fictional, but a historical figure mentioned by Roman historians of that period. He is the HUMAN FACE OF GOD. The Trinity sent one of their three Persons as a human being to show us how to live our lives, so at least 90 times in the New Testament He tells us how to do this. This was not to the taste of many of his hearers and touched some tender nerves of the leaders, clergy etc. so they decide to kill Him and the Cross is the way He chooses to bring about the salvation of the world, which only God can do. He is unique in history. How He was born His miracles, His Resurrection are all matters of a comination of faith and reason and cannot be explained by pure reason of the human mind, because our reason is limited, God's is unlimited. He is God (the Son) who came as a human being. He was inclusive when it came to interacting with people of all religions and His main goal was not to make everyone a Jew (or Catholic), but to transform people to His way of life.

Therefore it is right that we should not criticise other religions, but listen to them and after being thoroughtly educated in our faith, tell them what we and Christ stand for without argument. This is dialogue with respect.

With warm regards.

Lucio: Absolutely the worst reply I got. This person, Anthony Martyris, veers into heresy at least on three counts, if not on four. It is very evident that this man is neither a Catholic nor possesses the foggiest idea of what it would mean to be one. He only regurgiates the anti-Catholic heresies, lies, slanders and calumnies of the Modernists and Liberals, although I have heard it stated in far more vicious forms — such as the statements from my brother-in-law and others that instigated this exercise. This is truly a man that I can pity, a man who deludes himself that he is Catholic but who is woefully ignorant of what Catholicism is!!!

Lucio: See also the replies, and my responses, to a pagan, a former co-worker: http://www.geocities.com/livrant/is-christ-a-demiurge.html

PUBLISHED on the Internet: ___________.

P U R P O S E

Written with the purpose of educating people in matters concerning the Catholic Resistance to the Modernist Apostasy, and based on the principles elucidated by the Church, that the truth is never afraid, and that the Church is never afraid of the Truth, and on the principles elucidated by Frs. Rumble & Carty and by Fulton Sheen in his essay, "The Art of Controversy". — Benedicamus Deus, Lúcio.

This page is part of my pages on Christianity vs. Paganism.
Please go to the Index page.