The Rapture?

Quote:

Do Catholics believe in "the rapture"?

"Rapture" is often known as an "Ecstasy" in Catholic discussion and refers to visions and such that some very holy saints have experienced. I think one example would be St. Padre Pio and another would be St. Francis of Assisi.

However, if you mean the second coming teaching that a great many (not all) n-Cs believe and the "Left Behind" series of books and movies propagates as fact...no we do not.

That whole teaching has only been around from around 1825 and was concocted by a Church of Ireland preacher named John Nelson Darby. It wasn't even held by many n-Cs until it was included in the notes of C. I. Scofield's reference Bible.

Quote:

The Scofield Reference Bible is a widely circulated annotated study Bible edited and annotated by the American Bible student Cyrus I. Scofield. Published by Oxford University Press and containing the traditional King James Version text, it first appeared in 1909 and was revised by the author in 1917. (From Wikipedia)

Prior to that the teaching was virtually unknown and the only supposedly Catholic to even talk about it was a known heretic from about the 3rd or 4th century (I think).

One of the very best Bible studies on this is offered on a FREE MP3 download from John Martignoni called The Rapture and the Bible and his study notes are here.
It is very much worth your time. If someone is trying to tell you you should believe this, then you might want to download that and then burn them a CD and give it to them. Be sure to listen to it yourself first of course...

Simple answer: No, Catholics do not believe in the rapture because (in spite of all the hype to the contrary) it is not actually taught in the Bible, and it was never believed by the early church...or the rest of the church during it's 2,000 year history.

That would make it a new wind of doctrine and a teaching of men.
Neither is something that Christians are supposed to get into.