CARDINAL LUIZ LADARIA S.J, SECRETARY, CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH, VATICAN INDICATES THE LETTER OF THE HOLY OFFICE 1949 OF POPE PIUS XII MADE A MISTAKE!

Implicit desire and invincible ignorance cases are not known on earth so they cannot contradict Fr.Leonard Feeney.

Cardinal Luiz Ladaria S.J, the Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has stated in the paper Christianity and the World Religions 1997 of the International Theological Commission of which he was the President, that the :

The opposition of the American Jesuit Leonard Feeney, who insisted on the exclusivist interpretation of the expression extra ecclesiam nulla solus, afforded the occasion for the letter of the Holy Office, dated 8 August ,1949, to the archbishop of Boston, which rejected Feeney s interpretation…(1)

It is alleged that Fr.Leonard Feeney held the traditional literal interpretation of the thrice defined dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.He rejected implicit desire and invincible ignorance as being exceptions to the dogma.

Cardinal Luiz Ladaria says:

In the case of invincible ignorance the implicit desire of belonging to the Church suffices; this desire will always be present when a man aspires to conform his will to that of God (DS 3870). (1)

Here’s the catch!

Implicit desire is only a possibility we do not know any case. It is implicit for us and accepted in faith and it is  explicit only for God. Unless the Letter of the Holy Office assumed it was explicit for us and so an exception to the literal interpretation of the dogma ???

59. The Letter of the Holy Office to the Archbishop of Boston (1949) offers further specifications. “To gain eternal salvation, it is not always required that a person be incorporated in reality (reapse) as a member of the Church…- The Hope of Salvation for Infants who die without Baptism-2007 ITC.(2)

'It is not always required that a person be incorporated in reality as a member of the Church…' !! Mama mia!!!!

The dogma says it is always required that a person be incorporated in reality as a member in the Church.See the text of the dogma.(3)

Did the Letter assume that those saved in invincible ignorance and implicit desire are known to us and so ‘ it is not always required that a person be incorporated in reality as a member of the Church’?

So since there are ‘known exceptions’ :-

10. Exclusivist ecclesiocentrism…is no longer defended… after the clear statements of Pius XII and Vatican Council II on the possibility of salvation for those who do not belong visibly to the Church (cf, e.g., LG 16; GS 22).(4)

But we don’t know any of these exceptions. So the Cardinal-Secretary of the Holy Office today (CDF) indicates that there could be a mistake made in 1949 in the Letter of the Holy Office.

- Lionel Andrades

____________________________________________

1.

66. In his encyclical Mystici Corporis, Pius XII addresses the question, How are those who attain salvation outside visible communion with the Church related to her? He says that they are oriented to the mystical body of Christ by a yearning and desire of which they are not aware (DS 3821). The opposition of the American Jesuit Leonard Feeney, who insisted on the exclusivist interpretation of the expression extra ecclesiam nulla solus, afforded the occasion for the letter of the Holy Office, dated 8 August ,1949, to the archbishop of Boston, which rejected Feeney s interpretation and clarified the teaching of Pius XII. The letter distinguishes between the necessity of belonging to the Church for salvation (necessitas praecepti) and the necessity of the indispensable means of salvation (intrinseca necessitas); in relationship to the latter, the Church is a general help for salvation (DS 3867—69). In the case of invincible ignorance the implicit desire of belonging to the Church suffices; this desire will always be present when a man aspires to conform his will to that of God (DS 3870). But faith, in the sense of Hebrews 11:6, and love are always necessary with intrinsic necessity (DS 3872).-Christianity and the World Religions 1997

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_cti_1997_cristianesimo-religioni_en.html

2.

59. The Letter of the Holy Office to the Archbishop of Boston (1949) offers further specifications. “To gain eternal salvation, it is not always required that a person be incorporated in reality (reapse) as a member of the Church, but it is necessary that one belong to it at least in desire and longing (voto et desiderio). It is not always necessary that this desire be explicit as it is with catechumens. When one is invincibly ignorant, God also accepts an implicit desire, so called because it is contained in the good disposition of soul by which a person wants his or her will to be conformed to God’s will”.-The Hope of Salvation for Infants who die without Baptism-2007 ITC.

(http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_cti_index-doc-pubbl_en.html )

3.

“Outside the Church there is no salvation” (extra ecclesiam nulla salus) is a doctrine of the Catholic Faith that was taught By Jesus Christ to His Apostles, preached by the Fathers, defined by popes and councils and piously believed by the faithful in every age of the Church. Here is how the Popes defined it:

o “There is but one universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved.” (Pope Innocent III, Fourth Lateran Council, 1215.)

o “We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.” (Pope Boniface VIII, the Bull Unam Sanctam, 1302.)

o “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.) - from Catholicism.org

http://catholicism.org/category/outside-the-church-there-is-no-salvation

4.

10. Exclusivist ecclesiocentrism—the fruit of a specific theological system or of a mistaken understanding of the phrase extra ecclesiam nulla salus—is no longer defended by Catholic theologians after the clear statements of Pius XII and Vatican Council II on the possibility of salvation for those who do not belong visibly to the Church (cf, e.g., LG 16; GS 22).-International Theological Commission, Christianity and the World Religions 1997.