Saturday, January 13, 2018

I affirm BOD and EENS

Generally in the Catholic Church today it is assumed that the baptism of desire (BOD) is an exception to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus(EENS).'Is it not an exception to the dogma EENS for you,' I am asked, and I respond saying that, 'We can affirm the baptism of desire and EENS.It does not have to be either-or.'
Since for the popes and the cardinals BOD refers to a known person saved outside the Church,  it becomes a visible and known exception to the dogma EENS. It is then definitely either the baptism of desire or EENS.
For me BOD refers to an unknown person in 2018, it is an invisible case. It is a reference only to something which is hypothetical, a possibility known only to God if it happened.So it is not an exception to EENS for me.It does not have to be either BOD or EENS . I affirm hypothetical BOD and also the necessity for all needing to be members of the Catholic Church with no known exceptions. I affirm BOD and EENS.Eat your cake and have too, in this case.
So I accept BOD in its historicity, I do not have a problem with it.Since only someone who exists in our reality can be an exception to EENS, if someone does not exist, if there are no cases of BOD, then BOD cannot be an exception or relevant to the traditional, centuries old interpretation of EENS.
-Lionel Andrades

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