Tuesday, April 14, 2015

University of Bristol Islamic Society, Bristol Muslim Cultural Society note this is an irrational and non professional interpretation of the Catholic Faith by Prof. Gavin D'Costa. It is poor scholarship


On the website of the University of Bristol,U.K  there is a video of Prof. D'Costa saying "People are not damned if they are not Catholics" (5:09) The same video has been made available on the website of the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales.Gavin's message is false and is not the teaching of the Catholic Church.
This is a false image of the Catholic Church he would have presented to Dr Mustafa Baig, Research Fellow, Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter , who participated in an event on Feb10,2015 at the University of Bristol .
This is also the false image he presents to the University of Bristol Islamic Society and the Bristol Muslim Cultural Society and Muslims who study at the university.
They do not know that:
1.According to Vatican Council II (Ad Gentes 7) 'all' need 'faith and baptism' for salvation. The Catechism of the Catholic Church also says all need to enter the Church 'as through a door', it also says the Church knows of no means to eternal beatitude other than the baptism of water (CCC 1257).The video does not state this (1).
2.Muslims are not informed that there is no Church text, in Vatican Council II or any other magisterial document, which states there are known exceptions, in the present times, to the Ad Gentes 7 teaching .All need faith and baptism.The video does not state this.
3.Gavin D'Costa does not know any one personally who does not need to enter the Catholic Church with 'faith and baptism' to avoid Hell.There is no such case in Britain.The video does not state this.
4.The dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus says all need to be formal members of the Church. Gavin D'Costa does not mention this.He contradicts Vatican Council II and a defined dogma and personally does not know of any exceptions.Yet he says all do not need to convert.
As a professor of theology he uses these irrational three points to reject the traditional and only rational interpretation of the Catholic Church.This is a common error among Catholics in Britain. 



 
1. The physically dead for us, who are now saved in Heaven in invincible ignorance or with the baptism of desire are considered exceptions to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.They are not known or visible to us on April 14,2015.Yet salvation in Heaven is objectively seen on earth for D'costa and others, to postulate these cases as living exceptions to the dogma. Vatican Council II (LG 16,LG 8,UR 3, NA 2 etc ) cannot refer to exceptions since these cases would only be known to God.Yet they are exceptions for D'Costa and other Catholics. AMuslim scholar would agree that there cannot be exceptions to the dogma for us humans.He would contradict D'Costa's reasoning.
2. Similarly someone who allegedly died centuries back without the baptism of water would not be an explicit exception to the dogma on exclusive salvation in the Catholic Church today, April 14,2015.A hypothetical case cannot be a defacto exception today.A theoretical case of the past cannot be objectively seen today.So D'Costa cannot consider a case of the past as being a defacto case and an exception in the present times.Yet he does. This would be philosophical reasoning gone wrong.Yet this is being done at the University of Bristol's Department of Religion and Theology.
3.Similarly the University of Bristol faculty would not personally know of someone today April 14, 2015 who would be saved in future, without faith and baptism and so would not need to be a formal member of the Catholic Church, to avoid Hell as the dogma teaches.They cannot posit someone living today in Britain as being an exception to Ad Gentes 7 ( all need faith and baptism) and Cantate Domino, Council of Florence 1441, which says outside the Church there is no salvation (extra ecclesiam nulla salus).Yet this irrationality is maintained by the Faculty in this department.
Students in a seminarAs a Catholic lay man I reject the irrationality in these three points.They are promoted by the University of Bristol and Prof. Gavin D'Costa even after they have been informed. I do not interpret Catholic Church documents using this irrationality, which I refer to as Cushingism.The error comes from a mistake Cardinal Francesco Marchetti Selvaggiani made in 1949 in the Letter of the Holy Office to the Archbishop of Boston. The error was accepted and implemented in the Catholic Church by Cardinal Richard Cushing, the Archbishop of Botson.
sermon
Gavin D'Costa as a professor , even after being informed, uses this Marcheti-Cushing error to interpret Vatican Council. This is unethical.
He is not willing to affirm the traditional rigorist interpretation of the dogma and is changing the Church's teaching with an irrational premise and inference.
His irrational premise is: Catholics in general see the dead now saved in Heaven with 'seeds of the Word'(AG 11) or 'that ray of that Truth'(NA 2).
His irrational inference then is "People are not damned if they are not Catholics" .Everyone does not need to formally enter the Catholic Church for salvation since there are known exceptions.
His non traditional conclusion then is that Vatican Council II contradicts the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. Vatican Council II would also contradict itself for him i.e Ad Gentes 7 would be contradicted by NA 2 ( saved with a ray of the Truth and allegedly without the baptism of water).NA 2 refers to a case of someone saved outside the Church, i.e without faith and baptism. 
 
How can there be exceptions to the dogma on salvation unless he is implying in his premise, that we Catholics can see persons in Heaven and on earth today who are exceptions.How can people in Heaven be exceptions on earth? 
 
The University of Bristol Islamic Society and the Bristol Muslim Cultural Society must note that this is an irrational and non professional interpretation of the Catholic Faith by Prof. Gavin D'Costa. It is poor scholarship.
-Lionel Andrades

1.
Video

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/religion/study/

Gavin D'Costa presents an irrational view of the Catholic Faith to the Islamic Society of the University of Bristol and visiting Muslim professors
 Muslim professors must know exactly what are the teachings of the Catholic Church about Islam and other religions, before and after Vatican Council II
 






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