Editor’s Note: Trent Horn, a convert to the Catholic Faith, is a notorious misinformation agent. In this article he smears his ignorance on the Sacrament of Baptism, saying, that an adult who became rich by sins, can repent of these sins in Baptism and thus avoid all responsibility in keeping the wealth made from a life of sin.
This is so wrong on so many levels.
First, because repentance to be authentic requires the restitution of all ill gotten gains, whether by theft, exploitation, or any other unjust title. Getting rich in the porn industry is an illicit and gravely immoral means of employment, and thus, if one were to truly repent of it he would have to give away the ill gotten monies in reparation, to the poor or a foundation which fights addiction to porn.
Second, Baptism does not forgive all sins and culpability or moral responsibility without repentance. Thus, if you do not have true repentance, which requires restitution, you do not validly receive the Sacrament nor the forgiveness it normally would confer.
Third, what Trent Horn says is wildly scandalous and will destroy many souls into thinking that working in the porn industry is a legitimate source of employment.
It is shameful that Catholic Answers gives and continues to give Trent Horn a platform to teach such grave errors against the Catholic Faith. And, on account of this perverse opinion of Horn’s, who is himself an adult convert, we Cradle Catholics need to ask if his own Baptism was valid or not, seeing that he discounts the necessity of restitution before Baptism to receive that Sacrament validly.
Trent Horn is not alone in his grievous error. I have encountered Catholic converts who were never told of their need to repent of their mortal sins, which they committed before being baptized, prior to Baptism. I have also noticed that Ann Barnhardt, in her own article on her own conversion to the Faith, never mentioned the need to repent of her past sins.
Baptism to be valid for an adult requires not only the acceptance of all the teaching of God, Christ, the Apostles and the Church, but also the acceptance of a life of moral rectitude in accordance with that teaching, including making restitution for past sins, since without the firm proposal to make restitution, there is no repentance from injustice. And Christ puts repentance ahead of faith, when He preached, “Repent, and believe!”
St. Eulogius
Thank you Brother Alexis. Valid point re the author.
You err on Ann Barnhardt, with all due respect. She often notes the duty of penance for past sins. I don’t know why people kvetch about converts. St. Paul was a convert. There’s no great grace to being a cradle Catholic if one doesn’t live the faith as Christ demanded, which many don’t. Catholics are Catholics, the proof is in the pudding—not when it came out of the oven.
As to Ann on restitutionary penance, see here, for example: https://www.barnhardt.biz/2013/03/13/penance-penance-penance/.
To my knowledge she has never claimed her baptism relieved her of her duty to make restitution and penance for past sins. Quite the contrary, is the gist I get from her writings.
By contrast, I can give you an interesting anecdote from this past Quinquagesima Sunday. One of the men of the parish, Catholic from cradle to nuns in grade school on up, from my traditional Latin Mass parish in Brooklyn, and I were discussing Confession, and I suggested that we both go for the start of Lent (if not more frequently). He agreed, but brought up one time he went to confession and he got himself “in a real quagmire,” as he put it.
This was at the Church of the Holy Innocents, the flagship Latin Mass parish of the archdiocese of New York, where the priests are in general marvelous confessor, and one in particular is stickler for detail.
My friend exclaimed, “He told me I had to give the money back !” I.e, had to make restitution. Shocking. He, good ‘cradle Catholic’ that he is refused, and has yet to pay the money back to this day. This, despite my telling him that the good priest was right.
He contrasted this confession with another one, where a client asked him for some blank invoices, and thereafter made up (without his knowledge) three false bills & submitted them to the government for funding at the time of one of the hurricanes. The client months later handed him a check for $10,000, saying “Don’t worry, I did even better.” So my friend confessed this, but “this priest was from Malta.” Who said, well, “you didn’t really steal it. It was from a government program. Don’t worry about it.”
So, the bottom line remains: No Absolution, Without Restitution. I’m sure you and Ann would agree.
Br Bugnolo and AJ have highlighted many grifters who are converts. Their conversion is not geniune and they are out to mislead those who follow them. Taylor Marshall, and Candace Owens are just two that come to mind but there are many others.
And what do you think about me confessing deliberately not telling on an item I had put inside another item when paying and walking off with it? When confessing snd saying i would bring it back to the shop the confessor remarked I could give the money to the church instead… I was really put off by this..
You must bring the item back to the store, and in strict justice, you should tell the shop owner you stole from him and allow the police to arrest you. Otherwise you are not really sorry or repentant for the sin. To steal more than 20 euros worth of anything is a mortal sin, and to die without repenting and making restitution for even one such sin, dooms a soul to eternal hell fire. Giving the monies to charity is only licit when the one from whom the item is dead, disappeared and has no heirs or legal successors.
Thank you. I did bring it back to store and paid for it. The shop was amazed and the priest shunned me further, me being happy with that..
P. S. Your review shows what a sad joke the misnomered Catholic Answers is.