Saturday, January 11, 2014

According to the International Theological Commission Pope Pius XII made an objective mistake

According to the Vatican's International Theological Commission (ITC)  Pope Pius XII made an objective mistake in the Letter of the Holy Office, when he mistook implicit desire and being saved in invincible ignorance, as referring to people still alive on earth.It is an objective fact that the dead cannot be seen on earth.
 
When one is invincibly ignorant, God also accepts an implicit desire, so called because it is contained in the good disposition of soul by which a person wants his or her will to be conformed to God’s will”. -Letter of the Holy Office 1949.
 
So what? Is implicit desire and being saved in invincible ignorance  visible to us ? Can they be exceptions to the dogma on salvation? How is it relevant to Fr.Leonard Feeney's interpretation?.
The ITC assumes it is relevant! For the ITC there is no more 'an exclusive interpretation' of the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. Since there are objective, known cases of salvation outside the church for them.
In other words : Pope PIus XII made a mistake. He assumed that we can all see the dead who are saved with implicit desire.These are the known exceptions!
This is a factual error. We cannot see the dead for them to be exceptions to all needing to convert into the Church for salvation.
The Letter does not directly say that there are known exceptions to the interpretation of Fr.Leonard Feeney but this is what is assumed by the ITC.
So they affirm the traditional teaching in  Singulari Quadam and then reject it with the Letter of the Holy Office to the Archbishop of Boston, by assuming implicit desire etc are explicit for us.-Lionel Andrades 

International Theological Commision
from 'The Hope of Salvation for Infants who die without being baptized'
58. In the face of new problems and situations and of an exclusive interpretation of the adage: “salus extra ecclesiam non est”,[88] the magisterium, in recent times, has articulated a more nuanced understanding as to the manner in which a saving relationship with the Church can be realized.
The Allocution of Pope Pius IX, Singulari Quadam (1854) clearly states the issues involved: “It must, of course, be held as a matter of faith that outside the apostolic Roman Church no one can be saved, that the Church is the only ark of salvation, and that whoever does not enter it, will perish in the flood. On the other hand, it must likewise be held as certain that those who live in ignorance of the true religion, if such ignorance be invincible, are not subject to any guilt in this matter before the eyes of the Lord”.
59. The Letter of the Holy Office to the Archbishop of Boston (1949) offers further specifications. “To gain eternal salvation, it is not always required that a person be incorporated in reality (reapse) as a member of the Church, but it is necessary that one belong to it at least in desire and longing (voto et desiderio). It is not always necessary that this desire be explicit as it is with catechumens.
When one is invincibly ignorant, God also accepts an implicit desire, so called because it is contained in the good disposition of soul by which a person wants his or her will to be conformed to God’s will”.

 
 

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