Anathema is the curse put on rebels in Catholicism and why sectarianism is the Mark of Real Catholicism

“Extra ecclesium, nulla salus” – Outside the Church, there is no salvation.

The Roman Catholic Church claims to be the one true Church and that this is proven by the Church being one, holy, Catholic and apostolic. The word Catholic conveys all time, all teachings, all nations, all eternity.  It is a way of saying, "The Church has the unchangeable truth".  The Roman Catholic Church claims to be the one true Church and that this is proven by the Church being one, holy, Catholic and apostolic. The Church also claims to be infallible. The Catholic Church regards its claim to be the true Church to be its biggest credential for it argues from this that it is the only visible Church that can trace its origin back to Christ. But this claim is bogus and making it is sufficient proof that the Church is bogus.
 
The Church is a community but not primarily a community. It is a faith that a community accept as their point of unity.
 
The Church claims that it is the true Church for several reasons including the fact that it accepts the teaching of the apostle Paul, a spokesman of Jesus Christ invested with Jesus' authority. Is it really a fact? Let us not look at that now.
 
Paul said that the gospel message as he gave it must not be altered at all. Even Paul himself or an angel from Heaven must be ignored if they tried to change the good news of Jesus.
 
He wrote in Galatians 1:6 -
 
Douay-Rheims Bible

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema.
 
Young's Literal Translation

but even if we or a messenger out of heaven may proclaim good news to you different from what we did proclaim to you -- anathema let him be!
 
New International Version (©1984)

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!
 
New Living Translation (©2007)

Let God's curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you.
 
Aramaic Bible in Plain English (©2010)

But even if we or an Angel from Heaven should evangelize you outside of that which we have evangelized you, we or he would be damned;
 
The translations argue that if another good news appears, the person responsible must be treated as extremely and eternally to be avoided and his message abhorred to the extreme.
 
"Let him be accursed - Greek ἀνάθεμα anathēma (anathema). ... It is not improperly here rendered "accursed," or devoted to destruction. The object of Paul is to express the greatest possible abhorrence of any other doctrine than that which he had himself preached." Barnes' Notes on the Bible
 
Barnes is telling a lie. Paul could have written let his teaching be accursed but it is more personal than that.

There is no room for saying Paul only means preachers with bad intentions. If we assume that teachers mean well we will be saying "let him be anathema" of nobody at all. It would be no practical use and nobody would be safe. "We are not to patronise or countenance such preachers. No matter what their zeal or their apparent sincerity, or their apparent sanctity, or their apparent success, or their real boldness in rebuking vice, we are to withdraw from them" Barnes' Notes on the Bible.
 
Paul said that even an Angel from Heaven is to be ignored and his message detested if he makes mistakes and gives out an incorrect gospel.
 
Paul also stated that if anybody does not love Jesus let him be anathema - 1 Corinthians 16:22. The implication is that they are to be understood as completely bad in the eyes of God even if they seem okay to us.  Interestingly while Christianity has hurled anathemas against people for having beliefs it did not want them to have it has never used anathemas on tyrants or immoral people for being immoral.  This religion wants to control your mind and your morals are far from its thoughts.
 
"It is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened ... and then have fallen away, to bring them to repentance again, since they are recrucifying the Son of God for themselves and holding Him up to contempt". (Hebrews 6:6; The New American Bible, Catholic Bible Press, 1986).
 
Not all who have left the Christian fold would be extremely anti-Jesus. The author would have known this. So he simply means that all who leave are mocking Jesus and acting like those who violently crucified him and that is the case whether they know it or not. He thinks it is nonsense trying to convert them again.
 
Some Protestants have used that verse to argue that Catholics are guilty of trying to kill Jesus all over again in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The Catholics have left the biblical faith so the Letter to the Hebrews would say they are mocking and recrucifying Jesus. And thus because they are anti-God they really do intend to use the Mass to discreetly mock Jesus. They would be seen as the worst apostates just because of the Mass.
 
Catholic authors such as David Armstrong state that the anathema against the person is not primarily about the person so much as her or his errors and heresies. But note the use of the word primarily. It is a bit about the person and sometimes a bit can be a lot. Some say the anathemas are against false religions not the members but that is contradicted by the use of, "Let HIM be anathema". What they say rings hollow for it makes no sense to say a false religion is a problem and not the individuals who set it up.
 
Anyway, it is clear that if you are a heretic or an unbeliever you are accursed as a person. And a religion that commands total abhorrence of "errors" is a threat to freedom of speech if it gets too much power in society.