Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, ably and thoroughly refuted this particular heresy in his letter to the Galatians, the summation of which is grace + works = works. My point in this week’s Catholicism in Focus is to show that the term “cult” is often loaded with a lot of definitions and particularly hard to define. I don’t talk to any fetuses, but I do talk to women all the time — and I will not betray their citizenship.

For thou art the shepherd, thou art the physician, thou art the director, thou art the husbandman, finally thou art another God on earth. Cultic activity has taken place since the practice of religion was established thousands of years ago. This merging began in the year 313AD when Roman emperor Constantine issued his Edict of Milan, granting tolerance to Christians within the Roman Empire. There ought to be a strength to preaching the entire Gospel, but there should be overwhelming mercy in the pastoral care of souls.Sometimes it was as a simple expression of surprise, fear, shock, and other times to genuinely ask the Lord for help. While the church is primarily a community of believers, it also functions as an institution through which believers encounter the ministry of the Word and the sacraments (baptism and the Lord’s Supper). What they do not realize, however, is that if both of these religious bodies are non-Christian, then there was no authentic Christian church during most of the medieval period. These include apostolic succession, worship of saints or Mary, prayer to saints or Mary, the pope / papacy, infant baptism, transubstantiation, plenary indulgences, the sacramental system, and purgatory. Francis of Assisi and Sister Lucia of Fatima submitted their private revelation to their competent Church authority.

The documentary of “Heaven Gate Cult” perfectly shows the four ways for the cult to promote their group thinking. What if she decides to mistreat or starve herself to try to force a miscarriage because she is disgusted about carrying the baby of a violent, mentally screwed up man and doesn’t want her whole life affected by this rape? These are doctrinal writings or sayings that cannot be found anywhere in the Bible, but are exalted to the same level as Scripture. It is important that we not think with such a black-and-white mindset in these issues, definitively declaring certain aspects to be bad, as we might find that we are condemning ourselves.It is a red flag for a canonist if the leader or leaders of a new movement have a history of falling out with other groups. If anyone says that after the reception of the grace of justification the guilt is so remitted and the debt of eternal punishment so blotted out to every repentant sinner, that no debt of temporal punishment remains to be discharged either in this world or in purgatory before the gates of heaven can be opened, let him be anathema.