ROBERTO de MATTEI’S RADICI CRISTIANI ENDORSES LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF THE SALVATION DOGMA BUT DOES NOT INTERPRET VATICAN COUNCIL II ACCORDING TO THE DOGMA

Roberto de Mattei is critical of Vatican Council II since he is not aware of the Cushing Error. He assumes those saved are explicit exceptions in Vatican Council II to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

If he could affirm the literal interpretation of the dogma, Vatican Council II would have, for him, the SSPX values on religious liberty, ecumenism and other religions.

Once at a conference in Rome where he was one of the speakers I asked him in writing a basic question about the dogma and Vatican council II. He did not answer.

However his magazine Radici Cristiani has carried a report by the Italian apologist Corrado Gnerre, endorsing the literal interpretation of the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

Corrado Gnerre also mentions that Pope Pius XII called extra ecclesiam nulla salus ‘a dogma’ and an ‘infallible statement’. (Letter of the Holy Office 1949).Gnerre and Mattei teach at a Legionaries of Christ University in Rome.

So like the SSPX communiqué last month the magazine endorses the literal interpretation of the dogma.However it does not interpret Vatican Council II according to the dogma since it assumes there are exceptions to the dogma.

There are so many books and articles by Roberto de Mattei which seem to take it for granted that LG 16 (Invincible ignorance) contradicts  AG 7(all need Catholic Faith).This is how the liberals interpret the Council and so this is the only interpretation he uses in his writings.

Recently Rorate Caeli posted a report by Mattei on religious liberty.

If Robert Mattei and the U.S Bishops affirmed the literal interpretation of the dogma there would be a new perspective on religious liberty.

If the U.S bishops believed in the literal interpretation of the extra ecclesiam nulla salus then they would state that every one has a moral obligation to enter the Catholic Church and only the doctrines of the Church should be taught and not those of other religions.

Even though in a secular state religious liberty is there for all people to proclaim their faith, no one is physically stopped, we still have the obligation to believe and teach that there is only one true faith, outside of which there is no salvation. And only this religion has the obligation to tell the truth.

This is not proclaimed while a Communist type ‘state religion’ is emerging and being enforced.

Due to the Richard Cushing Error U.S Bishops do not believe in the literal interpretation of the dogma and they interpret Vatican Council II with heresy and modernism which Roberto de Mattei criticizes.Without the Richard Cushing  Error Mattei's perspective on Vatican Council II would change and so would the bishops' understanding of the Council become traditional.The dogma is linked to religious liberty.

For instance Muslims believe there is exclusive salvation in only the Mohammedan religion and the state must protect only one religion. So now non Muslims  are penalised legally for living their faith or proclaiming it in public. Exclusive salvation is linked to religious liberty.

So if Roberto de Mattei would say, and he does not, that  those saved in invincible ignorance etc are not known to us and so there are no exceptions to extra ecclesiam nulla salus and Vatican Council II,this would be interpreting religious liberty and Vatican Council according to Tradition and not according to the liberals.-Lionel Andrades