Friday, December 14, 2012

YEAR OF THE FAITH : VATICAN COUNCIL II AND THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AFFIRMS THE LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF THE DOGMA EXTRA ECCLESIAM NULLA SALUS

YEAR OF THE FAITH: VATICAN COUNCIL II SAYS OUTSIDE THE CHURCH THERE IS NO SALVATION
http://eucharistandmission.blogspot.it/2012/10/year-of-faith-vatican-council-ii-says.html#links
 
THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AFFIRMS THE LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF THE DOGMA EXTRA ECCLESIAM NULLA SALUS


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THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AFFIRMS THE LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF THE DOGMA EXTRA ECCLESIAM NULLA SALUS

We can interpret passages in agreement with the literal interpretation of the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus or as a break with the dogma.

We  can interpret passages rationally, knowing that we  cannot see the dead on earth. Or irrationally, we can assume the dead are visible.

The false premise of the dead being saved and visible to us would be a rupture with Tradition.Without this premise the Catechism,like Vatican Council II is in accord with Tradition.

Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) 1281:
Those who die for the faith, those who are catechumens, and all those who, without knowing of the Church but acting under the inspiration of grace, seek God sincerely and strive to fulfill his will, can be saved even if they have not been baptized (cf. LG 16).


IRRATIONAL INTERPRETATION:
These catechumen are known to us in 2012 and so they are explicit exceptions to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus which says all need to convert into the Church for salvation(to avoid Hell).

RATIONAL:
We do not know any of these catechumens in 2012 so they are not an exception to the dogma on exclusive salvation in the Catholic Church.


CCC 1257 :
The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation. He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them. Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament. The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are "reborn of water and the Spirit." God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments.


IRRATIONAL:
 God is not bound by his sacraments and so every one on earth does not need the baptism of water for salvation.


RATIONAL:

 God is not bound by his sacraments and we accept this in principle, as a possibility,only. We do not known any such case in 2012 and so it does not contradict the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. CCC 1257 and CCC 1281 are in accord with the thrice defined dogma on salvation.

It is irrational to assume that the dead who are saved are visible.


CCC 1258:
The Church has always held the firm conviction that those who suffer death for the sake of the faith without having received Baptism are baptized by their death for and with Christ. This Baptism of blood, like the desire for Baptism, brings about the fruits of Baptism without being a sacrament.

IRRATIONAL:
 The baptism of desire and blood are exceptions to extra ecclesiam nulla salus.


RATIONAL:
 Baptism of desire and blood refer to cases known only to God. So they cannot be exceptions to the dogmatic teaching on salvation.


CCC 1259 :
For catechumens who die before their Baptism, their explicit desire to receive it, together with repentance for their sins, and charity, assures them the salvation that they were not able to receive through the sacrament.


IRRATIONAL:
 The catechumens can be saved without the baptism of desire and these cases are known to us.So they are exceptions to the dogma.

RATIONAL
:
 Yes in principle as a possibility they can be saved without the baptism of water if God chooses it as such. However this is a hypothetical case. In 2012 all need the baptism of water for salvation since we cannot meet any exceptions to the dogmatic teaching.

CCC 1260:
"Since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partakers, in a way known to God, of the Paschal mystery."63 Every man who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can be saved. It may be supposed that such persons would have desired Baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity.

IRRATIONAL:
 A man who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and his Church can be saved. So this is an exception to Tradition and especially the dogma on salvation.


RATIONAL:
A person can be saved in invincible ignorance and these cases are irrelevant to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. We cannot know who is saved with implicit salvation. It is not explicit for us.


CCC 1261:
As regards children who have died without Baptism, the Church can only entrust them to the mercy of God, as she does in her funeral rites for them. Indeed, the great mercy of God who desires that all men should be saved, and Jesus' tenderness toward children which caused him to say: "Let the children come to me, do not hinder them,"64 allow us to hope that there is a way of salvation for children who have died without Baptism. All the more urgent is the Church's call not to prevent little children coming to Christ through the gift of holy Baptism.

RATIONAL:
We can entrust them to the mercy of God.


CCC 846 :
How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers?335 Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body:

Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches 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, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.
IRRATIONAL:
 All who are saved are saved through Jesus and the Church and so these cases are an exception to the dogma.


RATIONAL:
 Yes there can be people saved through Jesus and the Church and since we do not know them this does not contradict the dogma. We cannot meet someone on the street who we know is saved by Jesus and the Church.
 
CCC 847 :
This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:


Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.


IRRATIONAL:
 Those who are through no fault of their own are exceptions to the dogma.

RATIONAL
:

They are unknown to us in 2012 so they are irrelevant to the dogma on exclusive salvation.

CCC 848:
 "Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men."

IRRATIONAL:
 They can be saved who are in ignorance through no fault of their own.

RATIONAL
:
Invincible ignorance and the baptism of desire are not exceptions to the dogma. It was Cardinal Richard Cushing, the Archbishop of Boston, in the Fr.Leonard Feeney case who assumed that those saved in ignorance were exceptions to the literal interpretation of the dogma. If Fr.Leonard Feeney accepted or rejected these cases it was irrelevant to his literal interpretation of the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

The liberal, non traditional interpretation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church comes from assuming that the dead who are saved are visible to us and so are an exception to extra ecclesiam nulla salus.This interpretation has no basis in the Catechism .The Catechism does not state that these cases are visible or are an exception to the dogma. This is implied by many Catholics.They cannot provide any reference from the Catechism for their error.

So when the pope says non Catholics do not have to convert in the present times (Light of the Worrld ,Ignatius) then it contradicts the Catechism of the Catholic Church.When Vicka at Medugorje says most people go to Heaven it contradicts the Catechism of the Catholic Church.When the International Theological Commission in its position paper Christianity and the World Religions 1997,assumes there is known salvation outside the church in the present times,it contradicts the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

CCC 846 states, 'He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. '

CCC 845 states that the Church 'alone saves from the flood' and is 'prefigured by Noah's Ark'. God the Father wants every one to enter the Catholic Church, extra ecclesiam nulla salus.
845 To reunite all his children, scattered and led astray by sin, the Father willed to call the whole of humanity together into his Son's Church. The Church is the place where humanity must rediscover its unity and salvation. The Church is "the world reconciled." She is that bark which "in the full sail of the Lord's cross, by the breath of the Holy Spirit, navigates safely in this world." According to another image dear to the Church Fathers, she is prefigured by Noah's ark, which alone saves from the flood.

The Catechism is in accord with the literal interpretation of the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.-Lionel Andrades