The baptism of desire is visible only to God so how can it be an exception to Fr.Leonard Feeney's interpretation of extra ecclesiam nulla salus ?
Further, all adults who did not formally enter the Church - get their names on a parish register - would also go to hell, even if they never had a chance to hear there was a Church, e.g., those in the
western hemisphere during the long centuries before Columbus...
western hemisphere during the long centuries before Columbus...
Later Magisterium texts speak of those who pertain to the Church or are joined to the Church by even an unconscious desire, contained in the will to do what is right. John Paul II spoke of a mysterious grace.
For Fr. Feeney, the doctrine meant very simply that to he saved one must actually be a baptized member of the Catholic Church. That is to say, one must have been incorporated into the Church by Baptism of Water. The position of Fr. Feeney could be summed up by saying: Without Baptism of Water there is no salvation. And this is so even though, contrary to a popular impression, Fr. Feeney did believe in Baptism of Desire. He quite readily admitted that a person could he justified and put into the State of Sanctifying Grace by desire for Baptism before he actually received the waters of Baptism.
Having said that, let us move to the larger question. It is clear from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) promulgated by Pope John Paul II that the Church currently promotes a less exclusive understanding of the dogma ‘Outside the Church no salvation’ (EENS) as well as the effects of desire for baptism (BOD) and pre-baptismal martyrdom for the faith (BOB). Lest I be accused of bias in my canonical opinion, I want to note up-front that I personally accept the teaching on these issues outlined in the CCC...
-Peter Vere
...a censure can be removed only by lawful absolution, which is described as a withdrawal from "contumacy" or "persistent disobedience" and acts by the penitent such as "satisfaction and reparation of scandal." But Mr. Vere has correctly noted that Fr. Feeney and his "spiritual descendants" were allowed to "reconcile" with the Church without first having to renounce or recant their interpretation of the dogma EENS. In other words, without withdrawing from contumacy or persistent disobedience and without having made satisfaction and reparation of scandal. This has resulted in even more scandal within the Church and has caused so much confusion among so many Catholics today...
Just two decades later, the Second Vatican Council further clarified the position of the Magisterium:
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 (Lumen Gentium, #16).
-Lionel Andrades
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