Saturday, February 23, 2019

CDF mistake on invincible ignorance


The Secretaries of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), Archbishops Morandi and Di Noia, refer to invincible ignorance in the text of Vatican Council II or the Catechism of the Catholic Church, as being  an exception to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus(EENS).But the text of Vatican Council II and the Catechism of the Catholic Church does not state that invincible ignorance refers to 1) personally known people saved outside the Church 2) physically visible non Catholics saved outside the Church.
The text only mentions invincible ignorance which is always hypothetical for us on earth.
So the Secretaries of the CDF  wrongly infer that invincible ignorance refers 1) to personally known people saved outside the Church 2) and physically visible non Catholics saved outside the Church.They would have to be physically visible and known for them to be exceptions to the strict interpretation of the dogma EENS.
 CCC 847-848( invincible ignorance) does not contradict the dogma EENS or CCC 846 ( AG 7- all need faith and baptism for salvation).The CDF Secretaries have officially made a  mistake in public, in their communication with Brother Andre Marie MICM, Prior, St. Benedict Center in the Diocese of Manchster,USA.
The Secretaries asked Brother Andre Marie to accept CCC 847-848 as exceptions to the Feeneyite interpretation of the dogma EENS. 
Cases of being saved in invincible ignorance do not exist in 2016-2019.
Similarly Ad Gentes 7 ( all need faith and baptism) is not contradicted by Lumen Gentium 16 ( invincible ignorance).
The CDF Secretaries assumes that this is what the Council Fathers believed especially in Lumen Gentium 14.
Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved...
But we know that I.I is always hypothetical and so it cannot be an exception to EENS.The Council Fathers made a mistake in LG 14. 
Though even with the mistake( in red)  LG 14 does not contradict EENS, since it always refers to a hypothetical  case. 


14. This Sacred Council wishes to turn its attention firstly to the Catholic faithful. Basing itself upon Sacred Scripture and Tradition, it teaches that the Church, now sojourning on earth as an exile, is necessary for salvation. Christ, present to us in His Body, which is the Church, is the one Mediator and the unique way of salvation. In explicit terms He Himself affirmed the necessity of faith and baptism(124) and thereby affirmed also the necessity of the Church, for through baptism as through a door men enter the Church. Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved...

Catechumens who, moved by the Holy Spirit, seek with explicit intention to be incorporated into the Church are by that very intention joined with her. With love and solicitude Mother Church already embraces them as her own.

The passages in red refer to hypothetical cases and are not 1) to personally known people saved outside the Church 2) and physically visible non Catholics saved outside the Church.
The CDF needs to correct their mistake.
-Lionel Andrades

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