imes a few words
make a great impression and bring about conversion. St. Francis Xavier
was a worldly young man, learned and ambitious, and he heard from St.
Ignatius these words of Our Lord: "What doth it profit a man if he gain
the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?" He went home and
kept thinking of them till they impressed him so strongly that he gave
up the world, became a priest and by his labors and preaching in India,
converted to the true religion many thousand pagans. In the lives of the
saints there are many examples of a few words, by God's grace, bringing
men from a life of sin to a life of great holiness.

*322 Q. How do we fail to try to know what God has taught?
A. We fail to try to know what God has taught by neglecting to learn the
Christian doctrine.

*323 Q. Who are they who do not believe all that God has taught?
A. They who do not believe all that God has taught are the heretics and
infidels.

There are many kinds of unbelievers: atheists, deists, infidels,
heretics, apostates, and schismatics. An atheist is one who denies the
existence of God, saying there is no God. A deist is one who says he
believes God exists, but denies that God ever revealed any religion.
These are also called freethinkers. An infidel properly means one who
has never been baptized--one who is not of the number of the faithful;
that is, those believing in Christ. Sometimes atheists are called
infidels. Heretics are those who were baptized and who claim to be
Christians, but do not believe all the truths that Our Lord has taught.
They accept only a portion of the doctrine of Christ and reject the
remainder, and hence they become rebellious children of the Church. They
belong to the true Church by being baptized, but do not submit to its
teaching and are therefore outcast children, disinherited till they
return to the true faith. A schismatic is one who believes everything
the Church teaches, but will not submit to the authority of its
head--the Holy Father. Such persons do not long remain only schismatics;
for once they rise up against the authority of the Church, they soon
reject some of its doctrines and thus become heretics; and indeed, since
Vatican Council I, all schismatics are heretics.

*324 Q. Who are they who neglect to profess their belief in what God has
taught?
A. They who neglect to profess their belief in what God has taught are
all those who fail to acknowledge the true Church in which they r