Saturday, October 26, 2013

No known exceptions in Nostra Aetate to extra ecclesiam nulla salus

 
I was talking to a priest of the Society of St.Pius X (SSPX) who believed that Nostra Aetate, Vatican Council II contradicted the traditional teaching on other religions. I thought it did not. He insisted it did but could not remember the text.
Here are some passages from Nostra Aetate. They do not clash with Ad Gentes 7 and Lumen Gentium 14 which says all need to enter the Church 'as through a door', all need 'faith and baptism' for salvation.Neither does it say that there are any known exceptions to AG 7 and LG 14, the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus or the Syllabus of Errors.
 
Dominus Iesus (20) tells us that salvation is available for all, Jesus died for all but to receive this salvation all need to accept Jesus as the Saviour, in the Catholic Church. The Church is necessary for salvation.
 
Nostra Aetate
1.One is the community of all peoples, one their origin, for God made the whole human race to live over the face of the earth.One also is their final goal, God. His providence, His manifestations of goodness, His saving design extend to all men, until that time when the elect will be united in the Holy City, the city ablaze with the glory of God, where the nations will walk in His light.
Lionel:
True, one is the community of all peoples but not all will go to Heaven.Those without 'faith and baptism' are oriented to Hell unless they convert into the Church. They have an option.
 
2.The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men. Indeed, she proclaims, and ever must proclaim Christ "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6), in whom men may find the fullness of religious life, in whom God has reconciled all things to Himself.
Lionel:
The Catholic Church rejects nothing which is good and holy in other religions. However these religions are false paths to salvation(AG 7,LG 14). So even though there are good and holy things in other religions it is not enough. There members need to convert according to Vatican Council II (AG 7).
01
4.Thus the Church of Christ acknowledges that, according to God's saving design, the beginnings of her faith and her election are found already among the Patriarchs, Moses and the prophets. She professes that all who believe in Christ-Abraham's sons according to faith -are included in the same Patriarch's call, and likewise that the salvation of the Church is mysteriously foreshadowed by the chosen people's exodus from the land of bondage.
Lionel:
Catholics accept the Old Testament, the Jewish Prophets.The Jewish people were once the people of God the chosen people. They now need to accept the Jewish Messiah in the Catholic Church for salvation. Unlike the Jews today, the Church has the Sacrifice, in the Mass,the Eucharist, the Ark of the Covenant, in the tabernacle and Catholics are the new people of God (NA 4).
03
The SSPX priest agreed that there were no known exceptions to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. The SSPX priests have also agreed that being saved in invincible ignorance(LG 16) and imperfect communion with the Church(UR 3) are possibilities but not known exceptions to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.
In Nostra Aetate 1, 2 and 4 also there are no known exceptions mentioned, to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.
09
So the Catholic Church's traditional teaching on other religions and ecumenism has not been changed by Vatican Council II as many believe.
 
The un-noticed error is caused by assuming that there are known exceptions to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus and assuming wrongly that we can see the dead-saved who considered exceptions to all needing to convert into the Church in the present times.
-Lionel Andrades
 
 
http://eucharistandmission.blogspot.it/2009/12/lse-propa-ganda-on-nostra-aetate-lacks.html#links
 

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