Monday, October 17, 2011

CONFERENCES WITHOUT THE DOGMA

Last month there was a symposium on the 60th anniversary of the dogma of the Assumption of Our Lady in Heaven. It was an international Marian symposium. It was organised by the Franciscans of the Immaculate and was opened with a Pontifical High Mass in the Extraordinary form of the Ancient Roman Rite. It was held at the Santuario della Madonna del Buon Consiglio in Frigento,Italy.

The cardinal spoke on Our Lady as Coredemptrix:Other speakers included Frs. Settimo and Giovanni Manelli F.I, Sr. Cecilia Manelli F.I and Fr. Masimilliano Degaspari F.I

Our Lady is Coredemptrix  she shared in Jesus’ sufferings and is the Mother of the Church, the only Church Jesus founded, and in which everyone needs to formerly, visibly enter to receive the grace won for us by the Sacrifice of the only Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

We need to believe in Our Lady as Coredemptrix of all Graces in a Catholic Church which teaches that there is no non-Catholic on earth, none, who can be saved from Hell, unless he has Catholic Faith and the baptism of water and dies without the stain of a mortal sin on his soul.

Every person de facto needs to enter the Church for salvation said Fr. Massimiliano DeGaspari, one of the speakers, while speaking to me a few years back when he was the Rector of the Church Santa Maria di Annunziata, Lungotevere, Rome. De jure, in principle he said a non Catholic can be saved 'in certain circumstances’ (Letter of the Holy Office 1949). This is a possibility but we do not know of any case in the present times. De facto there are no exceptions he said. This is the exclusiveness of the dogma outside the church there is no salvation. Pope Pius XII who gave us the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady called the dogma extra eccleisam nulla salus an ‘infallible statement’.

Fr. Settimo Mannelli one of the speakers at the Conference needs to affirm this thrice defined dogma.An American Philipino priest of their community who is a formator at their philosophy seminary in Boccea, Rome, where Fr.Settimo is the Rector, says this is a confusing subject and he does not want to teach something wrong. 

Sr. Cecilia Mannelli F.I writes on the beauty of ‘the Mass of all Ages ‘but excludes any reference to the dogma which has accompanied the Mass of all Ages.

Fr. Giovanni Manelli F.I  one of the speakers, mentions the baptism of desire and invincible ignorance, when I spoke to him a few years back,  as if they are explicitly known cases and they contradict the 'infallible statement'.

Yet all of them are clear on Our Lady being Coredemptrix  and will express this teaching forthrightly.

Cardinal Raymond Burke has publicly endorsed Kolbean theology but never has spoken on the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

If the Franciscans of the Immaculate hold a conference on the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus there would be so much confusion.

In the Il Settimanale di Padre Pio (Oct 2, 2011) the magazine of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate a report says those in invincible ignorance are known only to God. They are unknown to us. The dogma mentions exclusiveness of salvation being there in only the Catholic Church. Everyone needs to convert into the Church, formally, visibly.This is the only ‘one way of salvation’ for all people in the present times.

Cases of ‘those saved through Jesus and the Church’ are hypothetical. Those saved by following their good conscience is a concept. There are no defacto cases known. It is unknown in the present times if anyone is saved who was ‘ignorant of the Gospel through no fault of this own’. We accept the possibility of this happening but do not know of any specific case. Neither is there any church document which refers to explicitly known baptism of desire or invincible ignorance. The Church Fathers never said that there were exceptions to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. We do not know of any non Catholic saved by following natural law. Also if someone was following natural law with a good conscience the Holy Spirit would have led him to the Catholic Church.

The possibility of all who are saved are ‘saved by Jesus and the Church ‘does not rule out the need for everyone in the present times to formally enter the Church for salvation. It also still means that millions of non Catholics are oriented to the fires of Hell (Cantate Domino, Council of Florence).


ASSISI
A seminar was held on Oct 1, 2011 in Rome on the subject of the interfaith meeting to be held at Assisi.

According to the teachings of the Catholic Church there is exclusive salvation in only one Church and we know that all the non Catholic participants at Assisi are not in this one, true Church.

According to Vatican Council II, the non Catholic participants are out of the ‘ordinary means of salvation’ for all people (Catholic Faith and the baptism of water, Lumen Gentium 14, Ad Gentes 7).The Christian participants have the baptism of water but not the necessary Catholic Faith; the Sacraments and the interpretation of the Gospel. The non Catholics participants cannot be saved through invincible ignorance or the baptism of desire since this is not the ordinary means of salvation.

We need programs on Mission, which convey these Church teachings to Catholic and non Catholics. We need conferences that express these Catholic teachings.-Lionel Andrades