Friday, January 6, 2012

FIVE MILLION IMMIGRANTS IN ITALY

They need to know that Jesus died to save all of them, salvation is open for all of them(1), and that ‘submission to the Catholic Church and the Sovereign Pontiff is required as necessary for salvation.’(2)
-Lionel Andrades


1

20. From what has been stated above, some points follow that are necessary for theological reflection as it explores the relationship of the Church and the other religions to salvation.

Above all else, it must be firmly believed that “the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and baptism (cf. Mk 16:16; Jn 3:5), and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through baptism as through a door”.This doctrine must not be set against the universal salvific will of God (cf. 1 Tim 2:4); “it is necessary to keep these two truths together, namely, the real possibility of salvation in Christ for all mankind and the necessity of the Church for this salvation”. –Dominus Iesus 20, Pope John Paul II (2000)

2.

Now, among the commandments of Christ, that one holds not the least place by which we are commanded to be incorporated by baptism into the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church, and to remain united to Christ and to His Vicar, through whom He Himself in a visible manner governs the Church on earth.

Therefore, no one will be saved who, knowing the Church to have been divinely established by Christ,( compared to those in invincible ignorance and known only to God) nevertheless refuses to submit to the Church or withholds obedience from the Roman Pontiff, the Vicar of Christ on earth.

With these wise words he reproves .. those who falsely assert that men can be saved equally well in every religion (by implying that the baptism of desire is a defacto exception in other religions for salvation,as did the Archbishop of Boston to whom the Letter is addresed)... apply without any restriction that principle: submission to the Catholic Church and to the Sovereign Pontiff is required as necessary for salvation.-Letter of the Holy Office 1949 (emphasis added)