Saturday, September 29, 2012

Encyclopedias at the Angelicum University library provide false reference information for researching students

Students at the University of St.Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), Rome have thumbed through a page of an encyclopedia at the entries Salvation Outside the Church and Fr.Leonard Feeney.They have left marks and stains on the paper.
The researching student at the Angelicum University collects wrong information from two American encyclopedias.It is used in writing  a thesis. It is used in writing on a subject related to salvation or Fr.Leonard Feeney.The faculty professor approves the work with the false information.One of them is Fr. Robert Christian O.P an American who teaches ecclesiology at the Angelicum.

Whatever is the opinion expressed by the writers in the encyclopedia entry, they all are factually incorrect when they assume that implicit desire/baptism of desire is an exception to the literal interpretation of the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

The editors of these two encylopedias in English take it for granted that those saved with the baptism of desire or in invincible ignorance are exceptions to Fr.Leonard Feeney's  literal interpretation of the dogma.

So the students copy this error and then use this information. They assume there is salvation outside the church since superficially implicit desire etc seem exceptions to the traditional interpretation of the dogma defined by three Church Councils.

The Angeliucm has announced new courses in English this academic year, which cost 1000 euros a semester. One of them is on Ecumenism and Inter religious dialogue. Students will have access to these encyclopedias with the false information on Catholic salvation.They will assume that there is known salvation outside the church in the present times.


The errors are there in the Our Sunday Visitor's Catholic Encylopedia.(Editor. Rev.Peter M.J Stravinskas) and Encyclopedia of Catholicism (Editor Fr. Richard P.McBrien) and are available in the reference section of the Angelicum library. -Lionel Andrades

American Catholic encyclopedias assume invincible ignorance cases are exceptions to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus and to Fr.Leonard Feeney!.

Fr. Richard McBrien did not know that the baptism of desire and invincible cases are not known to us