The Catholic Omission

By S.L. McCrudden

What doctrine or position of the Roman Catholic Church could have rendered it impotent in saving the lost? How was the promise of restored relationship through Jesus traded? What possible singular omission could empty the Roman Catholic Church of its very essence as a vehicle for God to bring forgiveness and eternal life to a dead and dying world through Jesus? Is the Catholic Church just a big Christian denomination? This author knows firsthand the burdensome path of striving to be loved by God through words. In this account, she exposes the empty ritual and distorted doctrine that drove her to a life without God. But the love of the Father, through grace, revealed His eternal plan and the Catholic omission.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 27, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644719152

Book preview

9781644719152_cover.jpg

THE

CATHOLIC

OMISSION

S.L. McCrudden

ISBN 978-1-64471-914-5 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64471-915-2 (Digital)

Copyright © 2019 S.L. McCrudden

All rights reserved

First Edition

All Scripture is from the New King James Version,

Thomas Nelson, 1982.

The portions of personal narrative are historical. Some names of persons and places have been altered in respect for privacy.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books, Inc.

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Acknowledgments

Growing Up Catholic

Catholic Dogma

The Bible

Church Law

Sin

The Sacraments

Indulgences

Sacramentals

God Intervenes

The Charismatic Renewal

The Bad News

The Good News

Born Again

Baptisms(4)

Gifts of the Godhead

Catholic Divergence

Conclusion

The Catholic Omission

Apostasy: Universalism/Inclusivism

Personal Forgiveness for You

Postscript

About the Author

But I fear, lest, somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:3)

Preface

Is the Catholic Church just a very large Christian sect, competing with the Protestant denominations and evangelical churches? It believes only Catholics are saved, the Pope is infallible in judgment, and no visiting Christian is welcome to receive at the Lord’s table, only baptized Catholics, with no divorce in their history.

With 1.2 billion calling themselves Catholics, why is there so little fruit born of their faith? And why is the Great Commission to preach the message of the kingdom and salvation found only through Jesus Christ not promoted in this religious organization? Not only are statues of stone and wood seen as a powerful connection to God and His saints, but also, historically and currently, body parts of deceased saints are preserved and venerated! There is thought to be divine power in this decaying flesh and objects that are believed to have touched these mere men.

The selling by the church of passes from corporal punishment for sins marked the tipping point for the Protestant Reformation. Yet this machination persists in the awarding of indulgences for good works and good words to be applied to the sentenced time in an interim place of recompense for sins, named Purgatory by men.

How have we reconciled the perverse recent history of international sexual abuse of parochial school children by clergy? In the United States alone, there are a known and prosecuted four thousand parish priests, many with multiple victims over many years from 1950 to 2000. These criminal perversities against innocent, trusting youth were covered up by the highest levels of authority in this religious organization. Trials and litigations in America have yielded over $1 billion in settlement payouts, and still counting. Is evil found among the priests of God?

Currently, the Vatican stands often with the world on moral and social freedom, advising each to act according to his conscience. The Pope himself affirms that believing in, and accepting the work of the Cross of Christ is not required for Jews, Hindus, atheists, etc., to receive the cancelled debt of our sins, as long as they strive to do good, a heresy called Universalism or Inclusivism.

What is behind the troubling fact that for every Catholic convert, six Catholics disassociate themselves from the Roman Church. Thirteen percent of America describes themselves as former Catholics.

The author is one who claims that as part of her identity. Raised in a predominantly Catholic community in the northeast during the fifties and sixties, she has a firsthand experience of the futility, indoctrination, idolatry, and eventual emptiness of pursuing God through the law and men’s commandments and their prescribed world view of our Creator. The Catholic Church is a slave master to the law, which only brings the discouraging revelation of how, as fallen men, we are utterly unable to reform our souls, yielding frustrated, defeated religionists and then secularists, lost, and thinking we are saved.

Membership in this large religion is predominantly inherited at birth, the false message of a salvation by works and ritual, passed on to the following new generations. The Hound of Heaven, our loving God, sent His Son to become a man like us except without sin, baptizing Him with the Holy Spirit to do the works of His Father, and to give His life a ransom for all who would receive. Where and how in Catholic history did the power of the Gospel detour in to the efforts of sinful man to save himself by adherence to the law?

Join me as we shine the light on the road that led to the Catholic Omission.

Introduction

Dear readers,

This is my personal story of surprise and delight when Jesus was revealed to me in my young adult life. All that I had discarded was set right in the embrace of my Father’s arms, as I knelt before the Savior and received the gift of faith and forgiveness of my sins and the righteousness of God. Thus began the dance of love, the intimacy with God, the passion for Jesus, the infilling by the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies us and endues us with power.

I exhort you!

Come, my Catholic loved ones, and let God’s light give light. Let us lay it out and judge the truth. Come, you brethren, who believe the Catholic Church to be a bit legalistic in doctrine but in alignment with the Truth according to God’s revelation through His Son and His word.

Religion is form with no substance. God desires relationship, partnership built on love and meekly receiving the implanted seed of life. Jesus never asked us to do it because we can’t. He wants to do it all and is faithful to do so. The invitation is for you, weary one.

Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with Me.

Revelation 3:20

Acknowledgments

I praise and bless God my Father in heaven, who placed me in a family who loved me and sensed the value of educating their children in the disciplined setting of religious schooling. Through it I received excellence in academia and a faith that only a child at a tender age can receive.

Generally, the sisters who taught us were caring and well intentioned. The parish priests were also respected and kind.

I am confident the old wine and wineskins of religion were used by God to prepare me for the new wineskins and the true wine, Jesus Christ.

Part 1

Growing Up Catholic

The visual that appears when my mind wanders to my peaceful yet strained childhood is uniforms : an (hopefully) ironed maroon uniform with a simple white round collar blouse and a maroon beanie with a monogram in gold PSP, matching the one over my heart on the slip pocket. Oh please, don’t let me forget the maroon clip-on bowtie, white socks, anklet or bobby, and dark-colored shoes. That was my identity from kindergarten to third grade. The new colors of the next neighborhood parish school at least provided a change!

Our first house was seated on a busy corner in a small suburban NYC village across the street from Saints Peter and Paul Church and School. Local lore had it the house was built in the late 1800s. It was confirmed pretty much, Dad said, by the coal bin and furnace in the cellar and the only bathroom clearly being a large bedroom converted to a rustic bathroom, our only one. It consisted of a basic sink and medicine cabinet, and a claw-foot bathtub with a handheld spritzer that always came off the faucet, much to my over six-foot-tall dad’s displeasure.

My older sister, Linda, and I would alert one another to the subtle preparations that we knew would lead to my dad taking his biweekly shower It was a room of no privacy, much like the stage at the Girl Scout house, where no one was lost in the crowd and no curtain shielded you from the critical eye of your older scout sisters. Linda was the ringleader, as I was easily enticed but not in possession of the tactical knowledge nor the more mature rebellion that would soon take over.

There was only one other substantial item in that spacious bathroom, and that was a very tired, overused wicker hamper, an imperfect but unsuspecting hideout (providing arrangements were made). We would quickly remove all dirty clothes and stuff them in that bathbedroom closet.

Linda would get in first since I, a considerably smaller first grader, could not sustain the pressure of her weight. What then, you ask? We would wait and then wait and then wait, fighting all the while but both committed to the one peek we might have at a male body in full living color. Finally, Dad would enter in his robe, jiggle the spritzer hose, turn on the faucets to properly mix the temperature, pull the squeaky tub curtain to enclose it, and then remove his robe.

We both held our breaths, shrugging off the guilt of sin until later. How many times we were sure we had situated under the radar, only to be rebuffed. Gee, did we not think our parents knew when there was no sign of the two of us in this not-so-big house?

Each time—teasing us a bit, I think—Dad would walk over in his boxer shorts, open the hamper, remove the towel from atop us, and announce, Okay, girls, get out so I can take my shower! I think he enjoyed our ingenuity and persistence!

Back to drawing magazines in the back of Flickerman’s stationery store! And then of course, National Geographic on a high shelf in the school library held promise.

In the 1950s, all was simple and compartmentalized. Each of my parents was second-generation Americans from western European descent. Nana Marie, Dad’s mom, was German. It is said she did the best Irish jig in Germantown, and that would have been for the delight of my grandpa, James, who hailed from County Donegal in northwest Catholic Ireland.

Scotch Irish was what his family was labeled. His father had come over in the big wave of European immigrants, and he and his brothers settled in Philadelphia. He started a successful pub (what’s an Irishman to do?) and his brother, Michael, started as a stonemason, which led into his successful home design and building. Daniel also did well in home and school building.

Mother’s mom was a Scottish lass from the O’Neil clan. She married into an Irish family from County Cork. Mom never took much to the Irish side, preferring the images of bagpipes, heather, and Lassie trekking the Scottish countryside. Although her mother (my Nana) had warned her of the shanty Irish association, her choice of husband, my grandfather, John, was a self-made man, attorney and mayor of a large northwest City. His father too settled in Boston and attended Harvard, working out his own law degree before there was one.

We were, above all, Catholic. There was no wiggle room on that, much like though one is Irish and says not, she still is.

In fact, most everyone in that village was also Catholic by birth, all of western European descent. There were two Catholic parishes, one (very scary, we thought) Presbyterian Church, and one well-endowed and populated Jewish synagogue.

After third grade, with the addition of a new baby sister, my parents made the big move to the other side of town. It was the side closest to the water with nicer homes, different stores, and a new parish.

St. Ambrose had the same uniforms, but green, with gold insignia, and the thrilling anticipation of summer uniforms for those sticky, hot days of May and June. Girls could choose from three pastel-colored shirtwaist dresses, and boys wore casual shirts with no tie and khaki pants. Finally, one had an opportunity to express in some way, the other you that no one had known.

Life on the upside of town was still the same parish-centered, good-works-seeking life as we all knew. Sts. Peter and Paul, St. Ambrose, and all surrounding parishes in this village-rich suburban area was the center and source of all moral judgment and guidance on proper conduct and behaviors pleasing to the triune God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It was also the center and source of all social activities. It was the reference for all you did and all that you did not do.

Part 2

Catholic Dogma

Religious Training

The Catechism was to our learning of God what should have been the Scripture. But as you may know, the Roman Church had added their own commandments to God’s. To make certain we understood the House Rules, Catechism questions had to be memorized to perfection. No article or preposition could be left out or added, or the entire answer was wrong. As you would guess, Catechism became the beast in the broth, the broth being the savory truth of God’s infinite love. The questions started out with the basic wonderment of man’s creation.

Q: Who made us?

A: God made us

Q: Why did God make us?

A: God made us to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in heaven.

Q: What must we do to