re: Can you be Catholic without agreeing with the pope?

Every day

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Bible says that Jesus is the only mediator between God and man. Ask anything in His name and it will be given to you.

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No doubt! But that does not preclude asking the saints (or a friend or family member) to pray for you.

“Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects” (James 5:16-17).

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But the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place among whom are the Muslims: these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day.”

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that’s pretty crazy. So according to Catholics the crusades were for nothing?

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that’s pretty crazy. So according to Catholics the crusades were for nothing?

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The Crusades weren't about salvation. They were about wanting to reclaim the "Holy Land" from the Muslims.

That is the simplistic answer, anyway.

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Pretty much this. But, if you’re interested and want to learn more about the topic , see link below.

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Thanks! I'll bookmark that for later.

A few years ago I read a book called "Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages" by Dan Jones. It was not all about the Crusades, but it covered the history of them.

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Well yeah but to reclaim the holy land was because they didn’t want it held by infidels. If you think they’re still going to heaven why would you care? I mean the real reason for the crusades was giving the knights of Europe something to do so they’d stop killing each other. It’s just wild that Catholics would say anyone who believes in the Jewish god goes to heaven. What was the point of Jesus then? I thought it said in the Bible only through the blood of Christ can you be saved and enter the kingdom of heaven? Do they believe Jews and Muslims go to purgatory then?

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Vatican II came a long time after the Crusades were over.

I'm not Catholic, so I can't definitively answer your questions, but based on the documentation from Vatican II, it would seem so.

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It’s just wild that Catholics would say anyone who believes in the Jewish god goes to heaven.

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This is not the teaching of the Catholic Church. We believe that the only way to the father is through Jesus. Just like he proclaimed in the Bible. You have to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. There is no getting around that in Catholic Dogma. Rejecting his gift of salvation willfully will not get you to the Kingdom of God.

You may have some misguided, modern, neo-liberal Catholics who may latch on to other beliefs, but the Church emphatically affirms that Jesus is the way.

I grew up with a Catholic mother and Baptist father. I routinely went to church with either my mother or my dads parents (who were also Baptist) and honestly I can say Protestants and Catholics have FAR, FAR, more in common than we realize. As a kid and even now, I never understood why Christian's of different paths had to be at odds with each other in modern times.

I feel fortunate that I grew up in the community that I did. We were a very small town and both our local Catholic priest and the Baptist preacher routinely worked together to deliver the word of God to the people. They frequently visited families together to minister to them.

Last week we had a funeral for one of my older cousins. He was once Baptist but converted to Catholicism close to 30 years ago because of his wife. Despite not attending Baptist services in 3 decades, his former preacher attended the services and helped provide funeral services as the attending people were a mix of both faiths. Our local priest performed the Funeral mass and then the Baptist preacher performed his funeral service.

It was a beautiful experience and shows that we should work together and not against each other.