Feeneyism according to Wikipedia : with comments

Feeneyism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Feeneyism is the doctrinal position associated with Leonard Feeney (1897–1978), a Jesuit priest and founder of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who advocated a strictinterpretation of the doctrine extra Ecclesiam nulla salus ("outside the Church there is no salvation").

Lionel: 

Feeneyism is the traditional doctrinal position of the Catholic Church over the centuries  and before the Council of Trent on the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus, defined by three Church Councils.This was the doctrinal understanding of the saints including St. Bellarmine and St. Francis Xavier i.e it was the 'strict interpretation' of the dogma on exclusive salvation in the Church. They were Feeneyites.

Feeneyism  does not consider being saved with the baptism of desire or blood, or in invincible ignorance, as exceptions, since these cases do not exist in our reality, they are not objective to be exceptions.Invisible cases cannot be exceptions.

All need to be formal members of the Church and being saved in invincible ignorance etc has nothing to do with the 'strict intepretation' of the dogma.

Feeneyism is opposed by Cushingism which postulates known exceptions to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. This includes being saved with the baptism of desire and blood and in invincible ignorance, allegedly without the baptism of water.

Cushingism gets its name from the Archbishop of Boston Cardinal Richard Cushing and the Holy Office 1949. They assumed there were known exceptions to the dogma on salvation. Hypothetical cases were assumed to be objective exceptions to the strict interpretation of the dogma on salvation.

Cushingism also has its roots in the Baltimore Catechism which assumed that the desire for the baptism of water by a catechuman who dies before receiving it,  was not a  hypothetical but a known case. So it was assumed that this hypothetical case being explicit, makes the desire for the baptism of water by an unknown catechuman, a baptism like the baptism of water. So the baptism of desire was placed in the baptism of water section and it was assumed the effects of this 'explicit' baptism was the same as that of the baptism of water, even though no one knows of a baptism of desire case and this baptism cannot be given or repeated like the baptism of water.This was all speculation. This fantasy is the basis of the theology of Cushingism.

Cushingism, is irrational and non traditional. It is heretical since it denies the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.It makes it obsolete.It also changes the Nicene Creed's 'I believe in one baptism for the forgiveness of sin' to ' I believe in three or more known baptisms'.It negates the Athanasius Creed which for centuries affirmed the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus and did not mention any exceptions.

Wikipedia, like most Catholics, interprets Vatican Council II with Cushingism. This makes the Council a break with the strict interpretation of the dogma.So we now have a Vatican Council II interpreted with Cushingism or Feeneyism.

I, Lionel, interpret Vatican Council II with Feeeneyism i.e there are no known exceptions to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. For me LG 16, LG 8, NA 2, UR 3 do not refer to objective cases. They are hypothetical for me.So they cannot contradict the strict intepretation of the dogma according to Fr. Leonard Feeney.

I differ with the communities of Fr.Leonard Feeney, in the USA, the St. Benedict Centers. They interpret the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus  with Feeneyism i.e there are no known exceptions, no visible exceptions.However, like the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) bishops and priests, they interpret Vatican Council II with Cushingism. LG 16 for instance, refers to explicit cases, so LG 16 is a break with 'the rigorist  interpretation' of the dogma on salvation.
They have never said that Vatican Council II is Feeneyite.

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Contents

  [hide] 

• 1Fr. Leonard Feeney
• 2Salvation and baptism
• 3Splits
• 4Notes
• 5External links

Fr. Leonard Feeney[edit]

Main article: Leonard Feeney

Fr. Feeney was a Roman Catholic priest and a member of the Jesuits. The Jesuit order dismissed Fr. Feeney in 1949 on account of disobedience, and on 4 February 1953, theCongregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (known then as The Holy Office) declared him excommunicated "on account of grave disobedience to Church Authority, being unmoved by repeated warnings".^[1] He was reconciled to the Church in 1972.^[2] Fr. Feeney co-founded the group known as the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Salvation and baptism[edit]

See also: Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus

Catholics traditionally believe that sacramental baptism ("baptism of water") is the only way to be properly baptized.

Lionel: 

Period. It is the only way.

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 In addition, "the Church has always held the firm conviction that those who suffer death for the sake of the faith without having received Baptism are baptized by their death for and with Christ. This Baptism of blood, like the desire for Baptism, brings about the fruits of Baptism without being a sacrament."

Lionel: 

This is the theology of Cushingism.

Assuming it did bring about the same fruits, there is no such case known to us. 

There is no such case in history. This is speculation in the Baltimore Catechism.

The Baltimore Catechism does not make the objective-

subjective, visible-invisible distinction.

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Fr. Feeney felt that, in the previous two centuries, some tended to broaden the notion of "baptism of desire" to cover the situation of all who try to live good lives, even to those who desired no relationship with the Catholic Church.

Lionel:

He was correct.

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 Fr. Feeney argued that those who are truly sincere will be led by God to the Catholic Church.

Lionel:

Yes, there are only Catholics in Heaven. The Catholics in Heaven are there without mortal sin. Since outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation, the ecclesiology of the Catholic Church has always been exclusivist.

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 He also accepted no form of baptism as opening the way to salvation other than by water and only within the Catholic Church, but he did say that this was an opinion.

Lionel:

This was the dogmatic teaching.

Also there were no known cases of the baptism of desire and blood with or without the baptism of water.

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 He denied the salvational efficacy of the mere wish alone, even the explicit wish to be baptized, and held that God must have provided those martyrs who apparently died for the faith without being baptized with a minister and water to baptize them before their death.

Lionel:

He accepted the baptism of desire and blood. They would be followed with the baptism of water in the Catholic Church, for him.

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Father Feeney and his followers maintain that there is a contradiction between the Second Vatican Council's document Lumen gentium and earlier authoritative statements that they interpret as saying that non-Catholics are indiscriminately damned.

Lionel:
According to Vatican Council II (AG 7, LG 14) all need faith and baptism for salvation. This is Feeneyism.Lumen Gentium (8,14,16) do not contradict AG 7. Since LG 8, LG 14 and LG 16 refer to hypothetical cases, they do not contradict the orthodox passages in Vatican Council II (AG 7, LG 14) .They also do not contradict the strict interpretation of the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

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His followers interpret the Catholic Church's declarations that outside of the Church there is no salvation as excluding from salvation people like the American Indians who lived between the times of Christ and Columbus, because they could not have been baptized, except on the hypothesis that some Christian missionaries did manage to reach them and baptize them in the Catholic faith...

Lionel:
The natives in N.America before the arrival of the 

missionaries were oriented to Hell since  they did not 

have 'faith and baptism'(Ad Gentes 7, Lumen Gentium

14,Vatican Council II) which are needed for salvation.

-Lionel Andrades