Wednesday, March 21, 2018

The Church supports the 'rigorist interpretation' of the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. This is official. There are no known exceptions to EENS mentioned in Vatican Council II


  1. Comments:
  2. The official teaching of the Magisterium in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. 
  3. VI. THE NECESSITY OF BAPTISM

    1257 The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation.60 He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them.61 Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament.62 The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are "reborn of water and the Spirit." God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments.-Catechism of the Catholic Church.


    Lionel: The Church is saying all Jews and other non Christians are on the way to Hell without the baptism of water.
    The Church is saying theoretically God is not bound to the Sacraments.In principle God can do what he wants being God.However defacto, in real life, everyone with no known exceptions needs to enter the Church with the baptism of water.No baptism no salvation.
    The baptism of water is given to adults with faith. So Vatican Council II says all need faith and baptism for salvation.(Ad Gentes 7).
    So
    the Church supports the 'rigorist interpretation' of the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. This is official.
  4. ____________________________________________________
  5. The Church recognizes that God does not condemn those who are innocently ignorant of the truth about his offer of salvation. Regarding the doctrine in question, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (quoting Vatican II document Lumen Gentium, 16) states:
    This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church: Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience—those too may achieve eternal salvation. (CCC 847)
    Vatican II document Gaudium Et Spes teaches similarly on the possibility of salvation:

    All this holds true not only for Christians, but for all men of good will in whose hearts grace works in an unseen way. For, since Christ died for all men, and since the ultimate vocation of man is in fact one, and divine, we ought to believe that the Holy Spirit in a manner known only to God offers to every man the possibility of being associated with this paschal mystery. (Gaudium et Spes 22)
  6. Lionel:Therefore, all must be converted to Him, made known by the Church's preaching, and all must be incorporated into Him by baptism and into the Church which is His body. For Christ Himself "by stressing in express language the necessity of faith and baptism (cf. Mark 16:16; John 3:5), at the same time confirmed the necessity of the Church, into which men enter by baptism, as by a door. -Ad Gentes 7, Vatican Council II.
  7. _____________________________

    The Church recognizes that God does not condemn those who are innocently ignorant of the truth about his offer of salvation.
    Lionel: This is not a reference to an exception to Ad Gentes 7, Vatican Council II. We cannot know any one in 2018 who is 'innocently ignorant of the truth' in 2018 and is saved.
    _______________

    This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own...they know it through the dictates of their conscience—those too may achieve eternal salvation. (CCC 847)


    Lionel. This is a reference to a hypothetical case. It is not a reference to someone in particular known to be saved in invincible ignorance.So it is not relevant or an exception to the old exclusivist ecclesiology of the Catholic Church.
    So it is not an official negation.
    _________________________

    Vatican II document Gaudium Et Spes teaches similarly on the possibility of salvation:

    Lionel: A possibility is a hypothetical case. It can only be accepted as such. It must not be mistaken as being a known person saved as such.
    So GS 22, like LG 8 ,LG 16,UR 3, NS 2 etc are not exceptions to EENS as it was known to the missionaries and Magisterium of the 16th century.

    __________________

    All this holds true not only for Christians, but for all men of good will...the Holy Spirit in a manner known only to God offers to every man the possibility of being associated with this paschal mystery. (Gaudium et Spes 22)
    Lionel:. Again, this is a reference to a hypothetical case a possibility known only to God. Possibilities are not real people.
    So officially there are no known exceptions to EENS.There are none mentioned in Vatican Council II..
    -Lionel Andrades

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