Expert: Rick Jackson - 9/1/2006

Question
hi! ok..a couple of questions

1. Do you believe that non-catholics go to hell? and if so is that a universal catholic belief?

2. where is the pope addressed in the bible?

thanks!  

Answer
1. NO.  In fact Catholic Christians are taught the opposite.  For more about what Catholics are taught about non-Christians, see here:
http://www.kofc.org/publications/cis/catechism/getsection.cfm?partnum=1&SecNum=2...

In the section just before that it confirms in black and white that Catholics are taught that non-Catholic Christians are our brothers and sisters in Christ: Fellow Christians.

2. Nowhere.  Instead, though, we do see that Christ set up leaders for his Church and taught them to lead and to teach.  We see in Acts that the Apostles recognized the need to replace the leaders - as they replaced Judas.  We find nowhere an exhortation to rely solely on Scripture (as the New Testament was not established until 300 years after Christ) but instead to rely on the leaders for sound teaching.

Of course volumes and volumes have been written on these subjects...I hope I've at least shed some light on it for you.

You may be interested in a project I am undertaking here: www.catholictruths.com.  You are welcome to read the materials I've got up there so far and even join the forum and post questions or comments if you like.

Peace and Blessings, Katie!

Rick.