Saturday, February 23, 2019

Franciscan Friar mistakes me for a Lefebvrist traditionalist

I was telling a Franciscan Friar the other day, whom I met on the bus, that all Jews, Muslims, Protestants, Pentecostals, Orthodox Christians and atheists are on the way to Hell unless they enter the Catholic Church, Jesus' Mystical Body, with Catholic Faith and the baptism of water.Faith and baptism in the Catholic Church.
This is my faith. This is also the Catholic Faith for me.
This is the teaching of Vatican Council II for me . He agreed that this was the teaching of Vatican Council II and the Catholic Church.It was also there in the Catechism and other Church documents, but for him Vatican Council II also said there were exceptions.
He referred to invincible ignorance(I.I) . I said that for me (I.I) was a hypothetical case only on earth. It was only a possibility.We cannot see or meet someone saved in invincible ignorance within or outside the Catholic Church.
For him a possibility was a real person and he asked if for me it meant something that was true or not true and I answered Yes.Finally it could only be known to God.
For him a possibility was a real person saved outside the Church. He thought this was the teaching of Vatican Council II. So he switched on his cellular phone and went to Lumen Gentium in Vatican Council II.
Before he got to the text he asked why are we checking Lumen Gentium. We agreed, that it was to see if when invincible ignorance was mentioned, it referred to someone known in the past ( passato) or it referred to being saved in the present or a possibility in the future(essere).
He checked the text of Lumen Gentium 14-16 and there was no mention of someone saved in invincible ignorance who was known in the past.
 Infatti, quelli che senza colpa ignorano il Vangelo di Cristo e la sua Chiesa ma che tuttavia cercano sinceramente Dio e coll'aiuto della grazia si sforzano di compiere con le opere la volontà di lui, conosciuta attraverso il dettame della coscienza, possono conseguire la salvezza eterna -Lumen Gentium 16.
 possono conseguire la salvezza eterna  They also could be saved.
They could be saved as a possibility, hypothetically. Lumen Gentium 16 does not mention actual cases saved in the past or the present. Obviously, how could it be mentioned. Since we cannot see people saved in Heaven in invincible ignorance.
Physically, no one knew of any  one saved outside the Catholic Church in 1965.
So I told him that I had no problem with I.I in Vatican Council II and the Catechism of the Catholic Church since it refers to a hypothetical case, invisible in 2019.It does not contradict the strict interpretation of extra ecclesiam nulla salus. It never did.
So he knew that the Catholic Church teaches that faith and baptism are the ordinary means of salvation.The norm. The rule.While the Council-text does not state that we personally or physically know of any case of being saved in  I.I.
So I assured him that when I say that all non Catholics and non Christians are oriented to Hell(CDF, Notification, Dupuis,n.7) I was citing Vatican Council II and the Catechism( 1994) and not only referring to the Council of Trent and pre-Vatican Council II documents, as he originally thought.
-Lionel Andrades


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