One questioner politely asked the host Alan Schreck if he was not ‘muddying the water’ when one consider the Bull Unam Sanctum of Pope Boniface VIII which was ex cathedraand said everyone needs to enter the Church for salvation. Another caller-in asked why is Feenyism wrong? He said that there some communities of Fr. Leonard Feeney who have been accepted by the Catholic Church in Massachusetts and that Fr. Feeney was not asked to recant by the church?
His entire theology was faulted and this became obvious when a caller asked if there was a ‘false religion’. Schreck had to be diplomatic here and tip toe carefully since, Vatican Council II refers to the other religions (monotheistic?) as ‘the great religions’.
He was not prepared to really say that ‘the great religions’ are not paths to salvation according to post Vatican Council II teaching (CDF, Notification, Dupuis 2001, Dominus Iesus 2000, Redemptoris Missio etc) and that there members need to enter the Catholic Church to avoid Hell (Dominus Iesus 20 etc).He seemed vague and confused here.
However in other instances they did say that Jesus Christ founded only one Church, the Catholic Church and it is through Jesus that God made a Covenant for all time with all people. So the Chosen People of God are now only Catholics ( those baptized with the baptism of water and those with the baptism of desire etc).
Their repeated errors were the following :
1. They both assumed Lumen Gentium 16 referred to explicit and not implicit Baptism of desire and invincible ignorance.
2. They seemed unaware that the dogma is ex cathedra, like the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady, and says everyone with no exception needs to be a formal member of the Church to avoid Hell.
3. They ignore Ad Gentes 7 which says all people need Catholic Faith and the baptism of water for salvation.
They make no distinction between de facto and dejure salvation, salvation in principle.
They obviously would have trouble with the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1257 which says the Church knows of no means to eternal beatitude other than the Baptism of water and also says God is not limited to the Sacraments.
Since they believe LG 16 refers to explicit Baptism of Desire they violate the Principle of Non Contradiction. They would be reasoning that de facto everyone needs the Baptism of Water and Catholic Faith to go to Heaven (AG 7,CCC 1257) and de facto there can also be people saved without the Sacrament of the Baptism of water (LG 16, CCC 1257). It does not make sense.
However if they both considered LG 16 as referring to de jure implicit salvation, something that we can accept in principle but which is only known to God( it is only explicit for God and we do not know a single case of Baptism of Desire) then it would not violate the Principle on Non Contradiction.
CCC 1257 would clearly mean that de facto everyone needs the Baptism of water for salvation while de jure (in principle) a person can be saved without the Sacraments and this would be known only to God.
God would provide the person with the helps of salvation (St. Thomas Aquinas) like he did when he sent the Franciscan Friars to be present to the Sultan whom St. Francis of Assisi evangelized. They baptized the Muslim Sultan on his death bed and then escaped with their life.
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“The most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go into the eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless before death they are joined with Her; and that so important is the unity of this ecclesiastical body that only those remaining within this unity can profit by the sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and they alone can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, their almsgivings, their other works of Christian piety and the duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ, can be saved, unless he remain within the bosom and the unity of the Catholic Church.” (Pope Eugene IV, the Bull Cantate Domino, 1441.) Ex cathedra
– from the website Catholicism.org and “No Salvation outside the Church”: Link List, the Three Dogmatic Statements Regarding EENS
Therefore, all must be converted to Him, made known by the Church's preaching, and all must be incorporated into Him by baptism and into the Church which is His body. For Christ Himself "by stressing in express language the necessity of faith and baptism (cf. Mark 16:16; John 3:5), at the same time confirmed the necessity of the Church, into which men enter by baptism, as by a door.-Ad Gentes 7,Vatican Council II
Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience.-Lumen Gentium 16, Vatican Council II.
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1 comment:
"There were some good questions put to Schreck and Staples on this radio talk show on the subject of extra ecclesiam nulla salus which shows that the faith in the Catholic Church is still pure and the extra ecclesiam nulla salus movement is growing."
You are not the only person that I have heard this from which is a good thing. I think that there are still dark times ahead for the Church that are just around the corner in terms of persecutions but I believe wholeheartedly that they will only serve to strengthen orthdoxy and dogma. When all is said and done the muddleheaded thinking will eventually fade away for a time.
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