Saturday, October 17, 2015

One small point....

Immagine correlata321. How can those be saved who through no fault of their own have not received the sacrament of Baptism?
Those who through no fault of their own have not received the sacrament of Baptism can be saved through what is called baptism of blood or baptism of desire.

322. How does an unbaptized person receive the baptism of blood?

An unbaptized person receives the baptism of blood when he suffers martyrdom for the faith of Christ.
Greater love than this no one has, that one lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)

323. How does an unbaptized person receive the baptism of desire?

An unbaptized person receives the baptism of desire when he loves God above all things and desires to do all that is necessary for his salvation. - Baptism. Lesson 24 from the Baltimore Cathechism
Immagine correlataYes being saved with implicit desire for the baptism of water by a catechumenan who dies before receiving it  and a person who dies as a martyr, is acceptable but why was it placed in the baptism section, when these cases are not physical like the baptism of water ?
Why were they considered exceptions to all needing the baptism of water in the Catholic Church, when physically we cann not know of a single case?
So it was wrongly inferred that these were explicit, known cases on earth and so were exceptions to all needing to be formal members of the Church, all needing 'faith and baptism.(AG 7, LG 14).
 So placing these 'new baptisms' in the Baltimore Catechism in the Baptism section, was a mistake. Since it is a fact of life that these baptisms cannot be given and no one can know if there were any such case.We cannot know of someone saved without the baptism of water. There is no known salvation, for us human beings,  outside the Church.
 The Nicene Creed says 'I believe in one baptism for the forgiveness of sins' and in the Baltimore Catechism it is postulated that there are three baptisms.Three known baptisms.This is the stuff of fiction.
The Athanasius Creed says outside the Church there is no salvation and in the Baltimore Catechism it is postulated that there is salvation outside the Church, even when there are no known cases.There are no known cases this is a fact.
The saints tell us that God can send a person back from the dead only to be baptised with water ( St. Francis Xavier)  or if there is a man in the forest in invincible ignorance , God will send a preacher to him, to be baptised if he is to be saved( St. Thomas Aquinas).
 So there was an irrationality in the Baltimore Catechism they did not make the distinction between what is visible and invisible, practical and hypothetical, real and theoretical, fact and fiction. Some may say it was academic and a thing of the past but today (2015)  we see it has importance in the common interpretations of Vatican Council II and concrete situations in the Church.
 It was concrete in the excommunication of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.It is real for the Society of St. Pius X's canonical requirement. It is relevant for the  Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate priests offering the Traditional Latin Mass with the old ecclesiology.These are concrete cases.
 It's also concrete in the reporting of Vatican Council II by the secular and Catholic media .
It is based on this small point , not recognising the irrationaolity, that communities remain in sedevacantism and wrongly blame Vatican Council II.
-Lionel Andrades