Bishop Athanasius Schneider has issued a statement on the uniqueness of faith in Christ, to remedy confusion arising from the controversial document Pope Francis signed with a Grand Imam earlier this week in Abu Dhabi.
On Monday, the Pope came under fire for signing the “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together” with Sheik Ahmad el-Tayeb, Grand Imam of Cairo’s al-Azhar Mosque, during an interreligious meeting in Abu Dhabi.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/bishop-athanasius-schneider-issues-statement-on-controversial-document
This is false.
The Catholic Faith is the sole God-willed religion.
The report on the New Oxford Review website is titled Bp. Schneider: Christianity is sole God-willed religion
The Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal and Orthodox Christian religions are not the sole God-willed religion. They are not paths to salvation according to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus (EENS) which is not contradicted by Vatican Council II and other magisterial documents read rationally.
Neither does the Catechism of the Catholic Church 846-848 contradict the strict interpretation of the dogma EENS, when the passages in red refer to only hypothetical cases and not personally known people in 2019.1 So they do not contradict the blue passages and Feeneyite EENS.
Similarly CCC 847 and 848 do not contradict CCC 846 which says outside the Church there is no salvation in support of EENS as it was known to the Magisterium and missionaries in the 16th century.
So Bishop Athansius Schneider should have said that the Catholic Faith is the only religion of God and all non Catholics need to enter, with ' faith and baptism' for salvation ( to avoid Hell).
Instead he interprets Vatican Council II like Bishop Barron and assumes there are known non Catholics saved outside the Church. So the red passages are exceptions to the blue orthodox ones which support exclusive salvation in the Church.
Every year he makes the same mistake and remains politically correct with the Left.
There is no clarification or correction from him or LifeSitesNews on this issue.The Catholic Faith is not the only religion of God. Since there is known salvation outside the Catholic Church for them.
“Christianity is the only God-willed religion,” he writes. “Therefore, it can never be placed complementarily side by side with other religions. Those would violate the truth of Divine Revelation, as it is unmistakably affirmed in the First Commandment of the Decalogue, who would assert that the diversity of religions is the will of God."-Bishop Athanasius Schneider
He has placed the Catholic Faith complementarily with other Christian religions. He has also not stated that all Muslims in general are oriented to Hell unless they enter the Church as members, with faith and baptism.
IV. On the orientation of all human beings to the Church
6. It must be firmly believed that the Church is sign and instrument of salvation for all people. It is contrary to the Catholic faith to consider the different religions of the world as ways of salvation complementary to the Church.
7. According to Catholic doctrine, the followers of other religions are oriented to the Church and are all called to become part of her- Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Notification on the book, Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism by Father Jacques Dupuis s.j.
Bishop Schnieder is supporting the Theology of Christian Religious Pluralism and Salvation which Pope John Paul II made Cardinal Ratzinger condemn, in the Notification on the Jesuit dissident in Asia.
“There is only one way to God, and this is Jesus Christ, for He Himself said: ‘I am the Way’ (John 14: 6). There is only one truth, and this is Jesus Christ, for He Himself said: ‘I am the Truth’ (John 14: 6). There is only one true supernatural life of the soul, and this is Jesus Christ, for He Himself said: ‘I am the Life’ (John 14: 6),” Bishop Schneider writes.
This is Christology without Catholic exclusivist ecclesiology, Jesus without the necessity of membership in the Catholic Church for salvation.
“True universal brotherhood can be only in Christ, and namely between baptized persons,” he insists. And “outside the Christian Faith no other religion is able to transmit true supernatural life: ‘This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent’(John 17: 3).”
“outside the Christian Faith no other religion is able to transmit true supernatural life" ?
Martin Luther said that all that is needed for salvation is faith in Jesus. The moral teachings of the Catholic Church and charity was not necessary.For him it was not necessary to be a member of the Catholic Church for salvation and to follow Catholic theology and doctrines.It seems the same with Bishop Schneider and Pope Francis.
The Incarnated Son of God taught that outside faith in Him there cannot be a true and God-pleasing religion: “I am the door. By me, if any man enters in, he shall be saved” (John 10: 9).(Jesus does not separate himself from the Church here) God commanded to all men, without exception, to hear His Son: “This is my most beloved Son; hear Him!” (Mk. 9: 7).(Again why is Jesus separated from the Church here ?) God did not say: “You can hear My Son or you can hear other founders of a religion, for it is My will that there are different religions.” God has forbidden us to recognize the legitimacy of the religion of other gods: “Thou shalt not have strange gods before me” (Ex. 20: 3) and “What fellowship has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols?” (2 Cor. 6: 14-16). (What connection do we have with Christian religions which support homosexuality, contraception, divorce etc )
The Apostles preached outside the Church there is no salvation.
God gave the Apostles and through them the Church for all times the solemn order to instruct all nations and the followers of all religions in the only one true Faith, teaching them to observe all His Divine commandments and baptize them (cf. Mt. 28: 19-20). Since the preaching of the Apostles and of the first Pope, the Apostle Saint Peter, the Church proclaimed always that there is salvation in no other name, i.e., in no other faith under heaven by which men must be saved, but in the Name and in the Faith in Jesus Christ (cf. Acts 4: 12).
The Church at the times of the Apostles and the Early Christians ( Early Catholics) also proclaimed that outside the Church there was no salvation.The Church did not proclaim that there were personally known people saved outside the Church with the baptism of desire(BOD), baptism of blood(BOB) and in invincible ignorance(I.I).The Church never proclaimed in the past that there were personally known non Catholics saved outside the Church with 'elements of sanctification and truth'(LG 8) or that there were known non Catholics saved outside the Church where the true Church subsists and this is known to us in particular cases(LG 8).
With the words of Saint Augustine the Church taught in all times: “The Christian religion is the only religion which possesses the universal way for the salvation of the soul; for except by this way, none can be saved. This is a kind of royal way, which alone leads to a kingdom which does not totter like all temporal dignities, but stands firm on eternal foundations.” (De civitate Dei, 10, 32, 1).
St.Augustine refers here to the Catholic religion.
Theological faith (the acceptance of the truth revealed by the One and Triune God) is often identified with belief in other religions, which is religious experience still in search of the absolute truth and still lacking assent to God who reveals himself.
For Bishop Athanasius Schneider there is salvation outside the Church and so other religions with only "belief" have their members saved.It is the same for non Christian and non Catholic religions for Bishop Schneider. So speculative and theoretical cases of salvation with BOD, BOB and I.I and LG 8, LG 14, LG 16, UR 3 etc are examples of personally known non Catholics saved outside the Church in other religions.Otherwise how could there be salvation outside the Church for Bp.Schneider? Since there is salvation outside the Church for him he does not affirm the strict interpretation of EENS and separates Jesus from the necessity of membership in the Catholic Church.
The Apostles and the countless Christian martyrs of all times, especially those of the first three centuries, would have been spared martyrdom, if they had said: “The pagan religion and its worship is a way, which as well corresponds to the will of God.” There would have been for instance no Christian France, no “Eldest Daughter of the Church,”...
They were martyred because they believed outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation! They proclaimed it, unlike the Kazakhistan bishop.
True universal brotherhood can be only in Christ, and namely between baptized persons.
Even if they belong to the Episcopalian Christian community and many other sects which support homosexual marriages and contraception?
Even the Jehovah's Witnesses believe in Jesus and have a baptism of water.
“Whoever believes in the Son of God is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3: 18). This truth was valid up to now in all Christian generations and will remain valid until the end of time, irrespective of the fact that some people in the Church of our so fickle, cowardly, sensationalist, and conformist time reinterpret this truth in a sense contrary to its evident wording, selling thereby this reinterpretation as continuity in the development of doctrine.
They had to believe in Jesus in a community and get baptized with water. They then had to learn the Faith and avoid mortal sins which could take them to Hell, even though they believed in Jesus.
Outside the Christian Faith no other religion can be a true and God-willed way, since it is the explicit will of God, that all people believe in His Son: “This is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life” (John 6: 40). Outside the Christian Faith no other religion is able to transmit true supernatural life: “This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17: 3).
So outside the Catholic religion, among the Christian religions there is salvation.He knows of people saved outside the Catholic Church.
This is public heresy.
He has changed the Nicene Creed to "I believe in three or more baptisms- desire, blood and ignorance, which exclude the baptism of water in the Catholic Church. They also exclude membership in the Church and they are known people to me. Otherwise how could they be exceptions to the strict interpretation of the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.
I believe in one baptism for the forgiveness of sins, even if it is in the Methodist, Baptist,Mormon or other
Christian community or church.It could also be among the Jehovah Witnesses, even though they believe Jesus and St. Michael the Archangel are one.
I believe in one baptism for the forgiveness of sins, even if it is that of a Muslim who believes in Jesus and still in public supports the tenets of Islamism."
He has rejected the Athanasius Creed and the Syllabus of Errors like the present two popes.
He has changed the Apostles Creed to mean " I believe in the Holy Spirit the Holy Catholic Church which now teaches that outside the Church there is known salvation and so all people do not need to be members with faith and baptism, as it was held, de fide, in the past."
So Bishop Schneider and I would make a different Profession of Faith.
Since there is known salvation outside the Church for him and BOD, BOB and I.I refer to known people saved outside the Church, Vatican Council II (LG 14,LG 16) would become a rupture for him with Tradition. It would be a rupture with the past exclusive ecclesiology and an ecumenism of return.
There is no ecumenism of return for him, since there are exceptions for him but which would only be hypothetical cases for me.
It means the Catechism of Pope Pius X when it mentions invincible ignorance would contradict the Syllabus of Errors on an ecumenism of return.
It would also mean the Catechism of Pope Pius X would contradict itself for Bishop Schneider, when it mentions invincible ignorance and also says that all need to be members of the Church for salvation.So the old catechisms contradict each other for him with his irrational premise and non traditional conclusion.
It is not surprise that Bishop Schneider approved the Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma by Ludwig Ott which projects BOD, BOB and I.I as exceptions to Feeneyite EENS. They would have to be objective and explicit cases, Ott and Bishop Schneider, for them to be practical exceptions to EENS.
Bishop Schneiders theology is the same as the liberals on salvation.
-Lionel Andrades
1
Ad Gentes 7, Vatican Council II
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