The claimed Sacramental System
The format of Rome's sacraments is sevenfold; she calls them, Baptism, Confirmation,
Eucharist, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Matrimony, and Holy Orders.
1. Baptism
The Roman Catholic teaching on Baptism is given in her Code of Canon Law and in the
Catechism of the Catholic Church. (1994). Rome officially declares in Canon 849,
"Baptism, the gate to the sacraments, necessary for salvation in fact or at least in intention, by which men and women are freed from their sins, are reborn as children of God and, configured to Christ by an indelible character, are incorporated in the [Roman Catholic] Church, is validly conferred only by washing with true water together with the required form of words." In her Catechism, she states, "...The [Roman Catholic] Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude..." (Para. 1257)
"By Baptism all sins are forgiven, original sin and all personal sins, as well as all punishment for sin." (Para. 1263)
"...The sheer gratuitousness of the grace of salvation is particularly manifest in infant
Baptism. The Church and the parents would deny a child the priceless grace of becoming a child of God were they not to confer Baptism shortly after birth." (Para. 1250)
"The practice of infant Baptism is an immemorial tradition of the [Roman Catholic] Church. There is explicit testimony to this practice from the second century on, and it is quite possible that, from the beginning of the apostolic preaching, when whole 'households' received baptism, infants may also have been baptized." (Para. 1252) |
