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Rambo wrote:the wine and that host really turn into the blood and flesh of Jesus?
yes, but there is more to it than that

2. that babies have sin and need to be baptized?
No, they are born with the predisposition to sin, and baptism is protection against taking the wrong path

3. that the pope is infallible?
only when he speaks ex cathedra, saying that this is now doctrine, which rarely happens

4. that you should light candles and pray to Mary or other saints?
lighting candles is just a devotional practice. We ask the saints to intercede for us, it is like a prayer multiplication machine, since we are so busy with daily living

5. that you gain forgiveness by saying hail Mary's?
If I believe so, then it is so. If I take on penance, then it lightens Jesus' load. I look at Him on the cross, and how He suffered, and I want for Him to suffer less. More practical, however, is helping my fellow human beings.

6. that voting for who should be pope is really the will of god?
Better than arbitrarily choosing the oldest in the hierarchy. No, it has not always worked, but, it is better than the LDS way.

7. that someone has to be Catholic to be saved?

Chap wrote:This discussion does not belong on this forum.

Chap wrote:This discussion does not belong on this forum.

Rambo wrote:the wine and that cracker really turns into the blood and flesh of Jesus?

1333 At the heart of the Eucharistic celebration are the bread and wine that, by the words of Christ and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, become Christ's Body and Blood. Faithful to the Lord's command the Church continues to do, in his memory and until his glorious return, what he did on the eve of his Passion: "He took bread...." "He took the cup filled with wine...." the signs of bread and wine become, in a way surpassing understanding, the Body and Blood of Christ; they continue also to signify the goodness of creation. Thus in the Offertory we give thanks to the Creator for bread and wine,152 fruit of the "work of human hands," but above all as "fruit of the earth" and "of the vine" - gifts of the Creator. the Church sees in the gesture of the king-priest Melchizedek, who "brought out bread and wine," a prefiguring of her own offering.

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P3Z.HTM

that babies have sin and need to be baptized?

1250 Born with a fallen human nature and tainted by original sin, children also have need of the new birth in Baptism to be freed from the power of darkness and brought into the realm of the freedom of the children of God, to which all men are called.50 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.51

1251 Christian parents will recognize that this practice also accords with their role as nurturers of the life that God has entrusted to them.52

1252 The practice of infant Baptism is an immemorial tradition of the 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.

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P3K.HTM

You may especially want to read this recent Vatican document on the salvation of unbaptized infants:

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congr ... ts_en.html

The important quote:

103. What has been revealed to us is that the ordinary way of salvation is by the sacrament of Baptism. None of the above considerations should be taken as qualifying the necessity of Baptism or justifying delay in administering the sacrament. Rather, as we want to reaffirm in conclusion, they provide strong grounds for hope that God will save infants when we have not been able to do for them what we would have wished to do, namely, to baptize them into the faith and life of the Church.

that the pope is infallible?

890 The mission of the Magisterium is linked to the definitive nature of the covenant established by God with his people in Christ. It is this Magisterium's task to preserve God's people from deviations and defections and to guarantee them the objective possibility of professing the true faith without error. Thus, the pastoral duty of the Magisterium is aimed at seeing to it that the People of God abides in the truth that liberates. To fulfill this service, Christ endowed the Church's shepherds with the charism of infallibility in matters of faith and morals. the exercise of this charism takes several forms:

891 "The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys this infallibility in virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful - who confirms his brethren in the faith he proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals.... the infallibility promised to the Church is also present in the body of bishops when, together with Peter's successor, they exercise the supreme Magisterium," above all in an Ecumenical Council.418 When the Church through its supreme Magisterium proposes a doctrine "for belief as being divinely revealed," and as the teaching of Christ, the definitions "must be adhered to with the obedience of faith." This infallibility extends as far as the deposit of divine Revelation itself.

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2A.HTM

that you should light candles and pray to Mary or other saints?

Lighting candles isn't that important, but prayer to the saints is certainly encouraged, but not required. Here are a couple of links from the catechism:

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2B.HTM
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2C.HTM

that you gain forgiveness by saying hail Mary's?

1459 Many sins wrong our neighbor. One must do what is possible in order to repair the harm (e.g., return stolen goods, restore the reputation of someone slandered, pay compensation for injuries). Simple justice requires as much. But sin also injures and weakens the sinner himself, as well as his relationships with God and neighbor. Absolution takes away sin, but it does not remedy all the disorders sin has caused.62 Raised up from sin, the sinner must still recover his full spiritual health by doing something more to make amends for the sin: he must "make satisfaction for" or "expiate" his sins. This satisfaction is also called "penance."

1460 The penance the confessor imposes must take into account the penitent's personal situation and must seek his spiritual good. It must correspond as far as possible with the gravity and nature of the sins committed. It can consist of prayer, an offering, works of mercy, service of neighbor, voluntary self-denial, sacrifices, and above all the patient acceptance of the cross we must bear. Such penances help configure us to Christ, who alone expiated our sins once for all. They allow us to become co-heirs with the risen Christ, "provided we suffer with him."

The satisfaction that we make for our sins, however, is not so much ours as though it were not done through Jesus Christ. We who can do nothing ourselves, as if just by ourselves, can do all things with the cooperation of "him who strengthens" us. Thus man has nothing of which to boast, but all our boasting is in Christ . . . in whom we make satisfaction by bringing forth "fruits that befit repentance." These fruits have their efficacy from him, by him they are offered to the Father, and through him they are accepted by the Father.

If a priest asks us to say a Hail Mary as part of our penance it would be a good idea to do so, but I'm not sure that it is required to gain forgiveness. Before a person leaves the confessional and before person has the opportunity to perform the penance the priest offers absolution from the sin confessed.

that voting for who should be pope is really the will of god?

Why wouldn't it be? The Cardinals get together, ask for the Holy Spirit to guide them and then vote until a Pope is chosen.

that someone has to be Catholic to be saved?

"Outside the Church there is no salvation"

846 How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers?335 Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body:

Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.336

847 This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:

Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.337

848 "Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men."