This "holy card" shows the Virgin Mary goddess holding "baby Jesus" as they watch angels comforting poor souls suffering in purgatory.

When you ask a Roman Catholic if he is sure that if he died tonight he would go to heaven, he cannot answer with assurance. In the back of his mind is this image of a place between heaven and hell where he must go after death to suffer for some of his own sins until they are "purged."

While Catholicism teaches that Christ died for our sins, it adds this teaching that effectively denies the adequacy of Christ's finished sacrifice on the cross. In practice, the purpose of this teaching becomes obvious. One way to escape purgatory is for the family to pay the priests to say Masses for a dead loved one in hopes his suffering will be shortened.

The holy card is published by the Scapular Guild. Notice in the picture the baby is holding a string with two squares attached. This is called a scapular, a kind of good luck charm worn around the neck, like a juju.

The newsletter says that the "Blessed Virgin" appeared to a Saint Simon Stock and told him, "Whosoever dies wearing this Scapular shall not suffer eternal fire."

The scapular is offered free by the Scapular Guild to anyone who asks. Can anyone who believes this superstition really be Christian?