Cita Iniciado por Alejandro O'Reilly Ver mensaje
You are right to be confused by this, and Hyeronimus is correct. The reason for the illogicallity here is due to a false premise - that God is all-forgiving.
That is not so, at least it doesn't form a part of Catholic belief.
God's mercy is in that he can forgive just about anything so long as the sinner is truly contrite and sincerely desires forgiveness.
But forgiveness is also a gift, a grace. And God does not force such graces on people. Graces may be rejected and the unrepentant sinner does not truly seek forgiveness. And thus it is not given to him.

"Ask, and it shall be given unto you".
But if you don't ask, if you don't desire, then you will not recieve.

Funny, I'm having a similar discussion now on what exactly is required to be saved.
To be baptised, I would say yes. And also to be a member of Christ's Church. But these I would deem as necessary conditions rather than sufficient conditions.
Calvinists would disagree, however. For them - once saved, always saved. I find this a very problematic doctrine and it is liable to lead to all sorts of horrific logical consequences,which in turn have prompted a large amount of sophistry in order to counter. But for a Catholic there are some basic requirements - valid baptism and faithful membership and participation in the life of the Church. But these are not enough in themselves. Catholicism deems faith and works as being necessary, so good deeds are required too. As St James said - "Faith without works is dead"
Well, I was baptised as an infant as a Protestant Christian (Methodist in the tradition of John Wesley), and later confirmed into the Methodist tradition in my early teen years. A good 20 years ago, and Methodism has largely gone downhill since then, trust me.

I ask questions about traditional Catholicism because I've only really ever encountered the watered-down Catholic Church from the Vatican II period. The liberalized Church, in other words. When I go to a Catholic mass in the U.S.A. these days, it's little more than a Protestant service. The father gives a nice sermon, communion is taken, hymns are sung, and everyone goes home feeling happy-go-lucky. No Bible readings, no mentions of, say, the Beatitudes, no uttering of the Pater Noster, Ave Maria, etc.

So, you may wonder why I have questions.