Tuesday, October 18, 2011

MAGDI ALAM CALL FOR AN EVANGELIZATION BASED ON VATICAN COUNCIL II AND THE DOGMA EXTRA ECCLESIAM NULLA SALUS

Member of the European Parliament and journalist speaks at Luci sull’Est conference calling on Christians to discover their identity

At the Conference held at the St. John Lateran University last month Magdi Alam said that it is necessary “to have the certainty of who we are, the certainty of the truth” since these are “not negotiable values, like the sacredness of life and religious freedom”. He called to find the force “to testify to the certainty in Christ in a Christian earth. Only if we are strong within, we have the authority to ask for the freedom of all the Christians in the world”.

Without the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus Catholics have lost their identity Magdi Alam must note. There can be no true proclamation of the Gospel and mission without proclaiming the necessity of the Church for the salvation of all people, including all Christians. If you give up this dogma then there is nothing sacred in the Catholic Church, in the sense, everything is open to change and relativism.

We need an evangelization based on Vatican Council II and the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

This was the unheard call of Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Vatican. In an interview in Avvenire he called for Mission based on Lumen Gentium 14 and Ad Gentes 7. He specifically cited these texts from Vatican Council II which he related verbatim to the interviewer. ( Amato: il dialogo non exclude l'nnuncio ' Stefano Andrini da Bologna Dec.3.2009, Avvenire p. 16 Catholica).

Magdi Alam converted to the Catholic Faith and was baptized at St. Peters’ in 2008 by Pope Benedict XVI.

Magdi Alam could bring coherence in the secular media reporting on the Catholic dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. The media claims that Vatican Council II has contradicted the dogma when in reality Vatican Council II supports the dogma. This is an injustice to Catholics since their faith is being misrepresented.

It is important for Catholics to know that Vatican Council II (LG 14, AG 7) is in accord with the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. Similarly the Catechism of the Catholic Church says God the Father wants all people to be united in the Catholic Church .(CCC 845).The Catechism also says all people need to enter the Church as through a door (CCC 846).

Vatican Council II (LG 14, AG 7) indicates that the ordinary means of salvation is the Catholic Church. The media suggests that the ordinary means of salvation is non Catholics being saved in invincible ignorance (LG16).We do not know of any explicit case of a non Catholic being saved in invincible ignorance. So this is not an exception to the dogma as the media allege.Since being saved in invincible ignorance or the baptism of desire is implicit, the Church Councils did not mention it with the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

This is the Catholic teaching in the past, in Vatican Council II, and after Vatican Council II. This is the teaching known in the Church for centuries.It is the teaching of the Church according to magisterial texts.

It is in this dogma that Christians can be united  and they can find their true identity in the Catholic Church. -Lionel Andrades

FR.MASIMILLIANO DEGASPARI EXPLAINS THE IMPORTANCE OF A DOGMA

Father Masimillian Degaspari refers  to the dogma of the Assumption into Heaven of Our Lady, in body and soul as Pope Pius XII taught (1). The Church believes in the Assumption of the Mother of God in body and soul.

Fr. Masimillino Degaspari F.I has explained the dogma of the Assumption into Heaven of Our Lady, body and soul in Il Settimanale di Padre Pio, the weekly of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate.

Similarly extra ecclesiam nulla salus is also a dogma of the Church defined by three councils. It is a dogma of the Church which does not refer to those saved in invincible ignorance or the baptism of desire. It does not claim that these are exceptions to the dogmatic teaching  that every one needs to convert into the Catholic Church to avoid the fires of Hell. (Cantate Domino, Council of Florence).

There are no Church documents also which claim that those saved in invincible ignorance (Lumen Gentium 16, Vatican Council II) are explicitly known and so contradict the dogma.

To suggest that everyone needs to enter the Church except for those in invincible ignorance or the baptism of desire is heresy. It is rejecting the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

The three Popes  who  gave us the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus knew that those saved in invincible ignorance and the baptism of desire are implicit and so do not contradict the dogma. So they did not mention it.

Similarly St. Thomas Aquinas mentioned the possibility of the man in the forest in ignorance, who could be saved but at the same time St. Thomas Aquinas affirmed the ‘rigorist interpretation’ of extra ecclesiam nulla salus.
The Letter of the Holy Office 1949 did not say that Fr.Leonard Feeney was excommunicated for heresy but for disobedience. The excommunication was lifted without the priest having to recant.
The participants at this seminar allege that everyone on earth does not have to enter the Church through Catholic Faith and the baptism of water since there could be some people saved with the baptism of desire or in invincible ignorance. They assume that these cases are  not implicit but explicit and so are exceptions to the dogma which Pope Pius XII called an ‘infallible statement’ (Letter of the Holy office 1949).
This is the error being made by priests and seminarians at the Philosophy Seminary of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate in Boccea, Rome where Fr. Settimo Manelli F.I is the Rector. Fr. Settimo, one of the speakers at the symposium along with Fr. Massimiliano DeGaspari ,will not publicly affirm the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.http://eucharistandmission.blogspot.com/2011/07/seminarian-of-franciscan-friars-of.html#links 
This is also the error (heresy?) of Fr. Giovanni Manelli F.I, on of the speakers at this symposium who consider those saved in invincible ignorance and the baptism of desire as explicitly known and so contradicting the dogma.

Both of them are admirable, good priests and are probably just picking up what others repeat without thinking.
-Lionel Andrades
_________________________________________

1.
Fr.Masimilliano Degaspari F.I says:

The fundamentals of a dogma are not strictly  theological, biblical or patristic  reasoning but Faith that is universal and which the Church teaches. A faith that helps define a dogma with the universal consensus of the ordinary magisterium of the Church.Il Settimanale di Padre Pio, Ottobre 2, 2011. Speciale Simposio Mariologico Internazionale di Padre Serafico M. Lanzetta F. I)

Its a mortal sin to deny the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. It is a sacrilege to receive the Eucharist in this condition- Fr. Gabrielle, priest of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate
http://eucharistandmission.blogspot.com/2011/07/its-mortal-sin-to-deny-dogma-extra.html#links

Photo from Approfondimenti di "Fides Catholica" Il Settimanale di P. Pio, n. 29, 25 luglio 2010, pp. 15-25