Jim Russell on Church Militant TV does not refer to hundreds of reports on line saying there are no practical cases of BOD, BOB and I.I. : St. Benedict Center's theological position

 

Fr. Feeney’s Strange Doctrine

 by Jim Russell  •  ChurchMilitant.com  •  April 23, 2019 

 Problems with St. Benedict Center's theological position

Long after his death in 1978, Fr. Leonard Feeney remains a polarizing and controversial figure. 

 Lionel: Since Jim Russell and the ecclesiastics at the Vatican assume hypothetical cases of the baptism of desire(BOD), baptism of blood(BOB) and being saved in invincible ignorance(I.I) are non hypothetical. They are wrongly posited on this report on Church Militant TV, as  personally known non Catholics saved outside the Church. This is irrational.

This point is clarified by Brother Andre Marie MICM in his Letter on Doctrine to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith(2016).It is posted on the Catholicism.org website.

There is no reference to this central issue in this article by Jim Russel.

For Fr. Leonard Feeney there were no literal cases of the BOD, BOB and I.I. So there were no practical exceptions to EENS. For Russel BOD, BOB and I.I are exceptions to EENS.So he infers that there are personally known cases of non Catholics saved outside the Church. It is as if he knows their names and has met them even though they are saved in Heaven.

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While Feeney appears to have always sought the full embrace of Catholic truth, he was outside the full embrace of the Catholic Church from 1953 to 1972, excommunicated for refusing to obey his religious and hierarchical superiors.

 Lionel: Fr.Leonard Feeney's  religious superiors, like Russel, assumed invisible cases of BOD, BOB and I.I were visible exceptions to EENS. He was not willing to repeat this nonsense.

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 Mercifully, Feeney was eventually reconciled to the Church, spending the last years of his life in full communion with the Church.

Not long after he incurred his penalty, the excommunicated Feeney illicitly founded a "religious order" he called the "Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary," which would eventually end up fractured into several factions — one of these groups is the St. Benedict Center based in New Hampshire and now self-described as a de facto private association of the faithful.

Lionel: The 'illicit group' refused to say unknown cases of BOD, BOB and I.I were practical exceptions to Feeneyite EENS. So they had to remain illicit.

There is also one group in Los Angeles presently, which does not seek recognition from the Archbishop.Since he too maintains the same irrationality.

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Each faction seeks to preserve Feeney's legacy of teaching a decidedly strained and strange version of the Catholic dogma of "no salvation outside the Church." 

 Lionel : This was the interpretation for centuries. The popes and saint affirmed the strict interpretation of EENS. None of them stated that there were personally known cases of BOD, BOB and I.I.

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The conflict over Feeney's version of this teaching has now spanned decades, and there is much about it that remains unclear, unresolved and unsettling.

Lionel: The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) now want Brother Andre Marie and the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to use the irrationality in the interpretation of the dogma EENS. 

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Feeney's stance is troubling on several levels, but on a practical historical level, it is greatly difficult.Tweet

Church Militant has recently engaged to cover the plight of the above-mentioned St. Benedict Center, which is currently seeking to have its relationship with the Church fully regularized and its interpretation of "no salvation outside the Church" accepted as legitimate and permissible.

Until recently, it has experienced some clerical support for celebrating the sacraments from its local diocese, a support now withdrawn and under scrutiny. The center is pursuing a formal canonical case to address the major issues, and it publicly states its complete willingness to accept the fullness of magisterial teaching, should it be determined by the Church that any theological opinion held by its members is actually untenable.

 Lionel: The philosophical position that invisible people are visible is untenable for any good Catholic. The theological position that there is known salvation outside the Church in the present times, is contrary to common sense. It would be rejected by even a non Christian.

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At the root of these decades of uncertainty is Feeney's strange claim that water baptism is of absolute necessity for salvation. 

 Lionel: This was the dogmatic teaching of EENS as defined by three Church Councils in the extra ordinary Magisterium.It was not his personal view only.

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Whereas the Church now clearly — and dogmatically since the Second Vatican Council* — teaches that water baptism is not the only and absolute means of being incorporated into the Catholic Church,

 Lionel: Vatican Council II like the Letter of the Holy Office 1949 made an objective mistake. It misunderstood what was invisible as being visible, subjective as being objective.This is human error. So it cannot be magisterial. The Holy Spirit cannot make a factual mistake.

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 Feeney's position, inherited as a legacy by the different expressions of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, is that God goes to often-miraculous lengths to ensure that all people destined for eternal life are in fact incorporated into the Church exclusively via water baptism.

In fact, this is the "theological opinion" maintained by the New Hampshire-based St. Benedict Center recently given coverage here at Church Militant. One of its key leaders, Brother Andre Marie, emphasizes that this is "only" a privately held theological opinion. In practical terms, it necessarily means that anyone who makes it to Heaven is incorporated into the Church not non-sacramentally by, for example, "baptism of blood" or "baptism of desire," but always and everywhere by literal and actual water baptism somehow made possible by God in earthly time and space.

Lionel: Again the writer is mixing up what is unknown as being known.A person can be saved with BOD, BOB and I.I as a possibility. It would only be known to God. Brother Andre Marie has mentioned this in his correspondence with the CDF and it is posted on line. 

He does not deny BOD,BOB and I.I. Since BOD, BOB and I.I can only be hypothetical. There is no other choice for us human beings.So BOD, BOB and I.I does not have to be denied. The popes and saints did not deny BOD, BOB and I.I. The liberal theologians wrongly assumed that BOD, BOB and I.I were known non Catholics saved outside the Catholic Church.

So to affirm the strict interpretation of EENS the St. Benedict Center does not have to reject BOD, BOB and I.I.

They only reject BOD, BOB and I.I as being exceptions to EENS. Since obviously hypothetical cases cannot be objective people in the present time.So there cannot be exceptions. No one saw a BOD,BOB and I.I  case in Heaven in 1965 or 1949.

This is elementary - and it is bad reasoning from Jim  Russell.

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Fr. Leonard Feeney

Occasionally, as the theological opinion holds, this requires God to go as far as to "resuscitate" a dead person so that they may experience water baptism while living, with the person dying again immediately afterward.

 Lionel: When Russell can assume unknown cases of BOD, BOB and I.I are possibilities why is this omitted as a possibility ?

Any way this was the experience of St. Francis Xavier and many saints. It is not just a theory of the St.Benedict Center.

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 This is a decidedly odd stance to take, given that the Church has never ceased to proclaim in its doctrine, worship and prayer that we human souls are bound by the sacraments, but that God is not so bound.

Lionel: But the Church, in Vatican Council II and the Catechisms, does not say that we can know of any one saved outside the Church because God is not bound to the Sacraments(CCC 1257). This is a false inference by the writer.It is an error which is common in the Church and which is now supported by the Secretaries at the CDF.

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So, while Brother Andre Marie makes clear that the St. Benedict Center of New Hampshire accepts the Church's dogma that every soul somehow receives sufficient grace for salvation, regardless of whether a soul has heard the Gospel, it maintains that such souls absolutely require water baptism and that somehow God always provides it.

Lionel: Yes.

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This stance is troubling on several levels, but on a practical historical level, it is greatly difficult. Concretely, this effectively means that any person who can be shown absolutely to have never experienced water baptism in this life is, ipso facto, not in Heaven.

Lionel : This was the dogmatic teaching of EENS for centuries. Vatican Council II (AG 7) says all need faith and baptism. All.

The Council does not mention any exceptions to AG 7 for me, since hypothetical and theoretical cases cannot be concrete examples of salvation outside the Church in 1965-2019.

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Imagine, for example, an invincibly ignorant disabled child who dies young and whose parents remain ceaselessly with the mortal remains of their child. They know that prior to burial the child never has a moment's opportunity for water baptism. In the light of Feeney's doctrine, how can they hope for salvation for their child?

Lionel : Yes you can imagine it. You can also leave the conclusion to God. However it is an imaginary case. So do not posit it as a known exception to EENS.

Since then you would be saying that this is a personally known person.Then with the false premise comes the false inference and the new theology.This is now being thrust down the throat of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary by the CDF.

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Suddenly God seems less loving, more monstrous.

Lionel: In your imagination. It will be good to know that personally we do not know of any such case, which would be monstrous for Russel.

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At this point, it is also a merely historical exercise to examine the life and work of Fr. Feeney himself. But some dedicated people have sought to tell his story. Some say it was he who was wronged by the Church. But at this moment, I remain inclined to believe it more likely that Feeney himself did what no member of the clergy ought to do — namely, promote a private interpretation of a dogma that effectively negates the truth behind the dogma itself.

Lionel. False. Fr. Feeney was affirming the dogma EENS as it was interpreted over the centuries. He was saying there are no literal cases of the BOD, BOB and I.I and the hierarchy at that time was saying that there are.

This still is an issue today.

The Society of St. Pius X says they affirm the dogma EENS and they also say that BOD, BOB and I.l are exceptions. So the message is every one needs to enter the Church but some do not. This was not the confusing message of the Church in the 16th century for example. The writings of Bellarmine,Xavier and the others are there for us to check.

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My privately held theological opinion is that Fr. Feeney's strange doctrine does indeed cross a pretty bright line from truth into error.Tweet

Lionel: This would be the obvious conclusion of some one who mistakes unknown people as being known.

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Having read the 1949 letter from the Holy Office to the archbishop of Boston regarding Fr. Feeney (a letter that is now viewed as having magisterial value, even footnoted in the Catechism's section on "no salvation outside the Church," paragraph 847), it seems clear that the Holy Office viewed his transgression to be just that

Lionel: For the 1959 Letter invisible cases of BOD, BOB and I.I were visible exceptions to EENS. It says not every one needs to enter the Church. This is heretical. It is heresy created with a false premise and inference.

The Letter with the objective error, violating the Principle of Non Contradiction was referenced in the Denzinger by the liberals and then again in Vatican Council II and the Catechism of the Catholic Church(1994).

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 — not accepting that the Church Herself accepted and taught a much broader view of "no salvation outside the Church" than Feeney himself did.

 Lionel: The 'broader view' was based upon there being known salvation outside the Church even though we humans cannot know of any particular case.

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 And, as a cleric, his obligation was to teach the fullness of what the Church believed, not just what he personally believed.

Lionel : He was being objective. He could not see any practical case of BOD,BOB and I.I in Boston.Any honest school boy would agree with him.

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Even so, I remain willing to listen and learn —

 Lionel : There are hundreds of reports on line which mention that invisible cases of BOD, BOB and I.I are not visible exceptions to EENS and so there are no objective exceptions to EENS mentioned in Vatican Council II and Russell  has not read a single one of them?!!!

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 one hopes that in near future the Holy See will resolve the existing issues confronting the St. Benedict Center in New Hampshire, for the center's good and for the good of the faithful. In doing so, one can pray for a clear resolution to the question of whether a Catholic in full communion with the Church can indeed hold as a "private theological opinion" a doctrine that effectively negates the truths behind other doctrines long held by the Church.

Lionel: 1) That all need to enter the Church with faith and baptism is the dogmatic teaching of the Church supported by Vatican Council II (AG 7) and the Catechism of the Catholic Church ( CCC 845, 846 ).

2) That we literally cannot know of a BOD, BOB and I.I case is common knowledge. 

So this is not a private theological opinion.

To suggest the irrational and then assume it is magisterial would be private and deceptive. It would be unethical. 

We can give the writer the benefit of the doubt and assume that he has not read those hundreds of reports on line which cover this point.

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I'm willing to wait a bit longer to see how this plays out.

 Lionel : There are no practical cases of BOD, BOB and I.I in 2019. Every one agrees here, even the liberals.

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 In the meantime, however, my privately held theological opinion is that Fr. Feeney's strange doctrine does indeed cross a pretty bright line from truth into error. Nonetheless, I hope that both Fr. Feeney and the adherents to his legacy have somehow been drawn ever closer to Christ in the midst of the longstanding conflict over this teaching.

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*Note: The original conflict over Feeney's views began long before the Second Vatican Council. However, in the infallible 1964 council document Lumen Gentium, paragraph 14, (we are taught one explicitly clear instance in which water baptism is not required for being incorporated into the Church (the catechumen's baptism of desire).

 Lionel: Lumen Gentium 14 cannot be infallible since it has made an objective error. It is a fact of life that we cannot see or know any one saved outside the Church in invincible ignorance. This was the false premise used by the Council Fathers in LG 14. 

For me however LG 14 does not contradict the strict interpretation of EENS since being saved in invincible ignorance is not an exception to EENS.This is common sense.

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 The catechumen's intention alone, we are taught, is sufficient to incorporate him into the Church via non-sacramental means.

Lionel: This is the case of the unknown catechumen, it is important to clarify. 

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Here is the quote itself: "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."

 Lionel: The case of the unknown catechumen who...Mother Church already embraces as her own. Yes and they are not exceptions to Feeneyite EENS since they are unknown in personal cases.

-Lionel Andrades

 https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/fr.-feeneys-strange-doctrine