Catholic Beliefs

1. To gain the happiness of heaven we must know, love, and serve God in this world. Man must know, love and serve God in a supernatural manner in order to gain happiness of heaven. Man is raised to the supernatural order only by grace, a free gift of God.
2. We learn to know, love, and serve God from Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who teaches us through the Catholic Church.
3. In order to be saved, all persons who have attained the use of reason must believe explicitly that God exist and that he rewards the good and punishes the wicked; in practice they must also believe in the mysteries of the Blessed Trinity and the Incarnation.
4. By the Blessed Trinity we mean one and the same God in three divine persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
5. By the Incarnation is meant that the Son of God, retaining His divine nature, took to Himself a human nature, that is, a body and soul like ours.
6. The Church is the congregation of all baptized persons united in the same true faith, the same sacrifice, and the same sacraments, under the authority of the Sovereign Pontiff and the bishops in communion with him.
7. We find the chief truths taught by Jesus Christ through the Catholic Church in the Apostles' Creed.