Can a Judge or U.S Court clarify if the dogma per se indicates that everyone with no exception must be a card – carrying member of the Church to avoid Hell?
There is an article posted on the Internet over the last few years and it has factual errors about the Catholic Church and its teachings.
The report: Tragic Errors of Fr. Leonard Feeney has been placed by Trinity Communications, independently, and for Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN).
The report indicates that the Catholic Church’s ex cathedra dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus does not say that everyone needs to be a formal, visible member of the Catholic Church to avoid Hell.
Here is the ex cathedra dogma at issue:
1. “There is but one universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved.” (Pope Innocent III, Fourth Lateran Council, 1215). Ex cathedra.
2.“We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.” (Pope Boniface VIII, the Bull Unam Sanctam, 1302.).Ex cathedra.
3.“The most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go into the eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless before death they are joined with Her; and that so important is the unity of this ecclesiastical body that only those remaining within this unity can profit by the sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and they alone can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, their almsgivings, their other works of Christian piety and the duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ, can be saved, unless he remain within the bosom and the unity of the Catholic Church.” (Pope Eugene IV, the Bull Cantate Domino, 1441.)
Ex cathedra – from the website Catholicism.org and “No Salvation outside the Church”: Link List, the Three Dogmatic Statements Regarding EENS
http://nosalvationoutsideofthecatholicchurch.blogspot.com/
Can a Judge or U.S Court clarify if the dogma per se indicates that everyone with no exception must be a card – carrying member of the Church to avoid Hell?
There are numerous people who are being mislead by this post on the Internet and I have personally have had to experience many difficulties and obstacles here in Rome.
The report states:
What the disobedient Feeney said amounted to this: he insisted that all who did not formally enter the Church would go to hell. Hence he had to say, and he did say, that unbaptized babies go to hell.Further, all adults who did not formally enter the Church - get their names on a parish register - would also go to hell, even if they never had a chance to hear there was a Church, e.g., those in the western hemisphere during the long centuries before Columbus.
Therefore Feeney consigned literally millions upon millions to hell, even though He gave them no chance.-Tragic Errors of Fr.Leonard Feeney by Fr.William Most (Trinity Communications
(Jeffrey A. Mirus, Ph.D., Trinity Communications, Trinity Consulting, Fax 703-636-7654, jmirus@trincomm.org has placed this propaganda-piece on the Internet titled: Tragic Errors of Fr. Leonard Feeney by Fr.William Most. )
The Oct.13, 1952 the U.S magazine Times had a report Religion: I Preach Hatred. It said the Archbishop of Boston suspended the Jesuit priest ( Fr.Leonard Feeney) because 'he took literally the Catholic doctrine that “outside the church there is no salvation” i.e. insisting that everyone who is not a good Catholic will go to hell...'
This is what the dogma actually says and it is the official teaching of the Catholic Church.The Times report is a misrepresentation of the Catholic faith and an injustice to Catholics in general and many persons in particular.Times does not have the right to spread false information about the Catholic Church.
Yet this is also being done by the rest of the media in the USA and not only Times. They are using the media to create confusion.Catholics assume that this is the official teaching of the Catholic Church.
Vatican Council II supports the ' rigorist interpretation' of the dogma yet this is not reported.Here is Ad Gentes 7 with the same message.
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.
The secular media never quotes Ad Gentes 7. The interpretation of Vatican Council II in the secular media, Catholics believe is the official teaching of the Church,even though there is no text in Vatican Council II which supports this interpretation.
The secular media interpretation of Vatican Council II also indicates that Lumen Gentium 16 (LG 16) contradicts the infallible teaching when in reality LG 16 supports it.
Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience.-Lumen Gentium 16, Vatican Council II.
We do not know any case of explicit Baptism of desire. Only God can judge.So why has implicit Baptism of Desire to be placed in opposition, as an exception, to everyone needing Catholic Faith and the Baptism of water, with no exceptions for salvation? There is no Catholic Magisterial document which recommends it.
Everyone with no exception needs to be a formal, visible member of the Catholic Church to go to Heaven and avoid Hell and if there is anyone with the Baptism of desire, invincible ignorance or a good conscience, ‘in certain circumstances’ (Letter of the Holy Office 1949) it will be known only to God.
This interpretation of Vatican Council II is in accord with the ex cathedra dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus and other Church Documents (Dominus Iesus 20, CDF, Notification, Fr.Dupuis S.J, 2001, Redemptoris Missio 55 etc)
The Letter of the Holy Office to the Archbishop of Boston states:
Now, among those things which the Church has always preached and will never cease to preach is contained also that infallible statement by which we are taught that there is no salvation outside the Church.
However, this dogma must be understood in that sense in which the Church herself understands it. For, it was not to private judgments that Our Saviour gave for explanation those things that are contained in the deposit of faith, but to the teaching authority of the Church…-Letter of the Holy Office 1949 to the Archbishop of Boston (Emphasis added)
Pope Pius XII was referring to the ex cathedra dogma which indicated that all Jews in Boston are on the way to Hell unless before they die they enter the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII was affirming the very teaching of Fr. Leonard Feeney so how can the Jewish Left media keep repeating that the Letter of the Holy Office contradicted Fr. Leonard Feeney.
Another falsehood that is not checked legally by Catholics is the claim that the Letter of the Holy Office 1949 issued by Cardinal Ottaviani during the pontificate of Pope Pius XII indicated that a person could be saved with the Baptism of desire. Hence the claim is made that Fr. Leonard Feeney and so the ex cathedra dogma is wrong since it says everyone with no exception needs to be a formal member of the Church with Catholic Faith and the Baptism of water.
We know that the Catholic Church has always accepted implicit Baptism of desire and the possibility of someone being saved in this condition ‘in certain circumstances’ (Letter of the Holy Office 1949) and which is known only to God. So if someone has been given this grace it does not conflict with the infallible teaching that everyone on earth needs to enter the Church with no exception.
So even Lumen Gentium 16,Vatican Council II was referring to an implicit baptism of desire or invincible ignornance and so LG 16 does not contradict the infallible teaching.
The disinformation continues on the Internet against Catholic teaching. Access extra ecclesiam nulla salus on the Internet and Wikipedia gives you this:
The Roman Catholic Church also teaches that the doctrine does not mean that everyone who is not visibly within the Church is necessarily damned.
Do not Catholics have the right to have the truth of their Catholic teachings expressed on the media and not fed someone’s personal interpretation of what they should believe?
UPDATED APOLOGETICS: EXTRA ECCLESIAM NULLA SALUS
1. LETTER OF THE HOLY OFFICE 1949
In the Letter of the Holy Office 1949 Pope Pius XII said all Jews in Boston are on the way to Hell and they need to convert. He indicated this when he referred to the ‘dogma’, ‘the infallible teaching’.
(The Trinity Communications report Tragic Errors of Fr.Leonard Feeney indicates the Letter of the Holy Office 1949 said otherwise)
2. VATICAN COUNCIL II, LUMEN GENTIUM 16
There cannot be an explicit baptism of desire that we know of, neither can we judge cases of explicit invincible ignorance since we cannot read the heart of any person.
LG 16 refers to something implicit, known only as a concept. Probable, possible but not a reality. We do not know explicitly or implicitly (in principle) any case of a good conscience, the baptism of desire or blood or invincible ignorance in the present times or the last 100 years (If the Church declares that someone is a martyr only the Church has the right to judge).
( Trinity Communications and Jeffrey Mirus have been suggesting that Lumen Gnetium refers to an explicit baptism of desire)
3. FR. LEONARD FEENEY NOT EXCOMMNICATED FOR HERESY
There is no church document which says he was excommunicated for heresy. He was excommunicated for disobedience. Over time it has become clear that it was the Archbishop and Jesuits at Boston who rejected the rigorist interpretation of the ex. cathedra dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.The Archbishop Richard Cushing never issued a clarification when the Boston newspapers reported that eh Church has changed its centuries old teaching.
(Trinity Communications and Jefferey Mirus suggest he was excommunicated for heresy and not disobedience to the archbishop)
4. INFALLIBLE DOGMAS DO NOT DEVELOP
There is no Church document to support the position that the ex cathedra dogma extra excclesiam nulla salus has been ‘developed’ or ‘changed’ or ‘retracted’. Infallible teachings defined three times do not 'develop'.
(Trinity Communications and Jeffrey Mirus would suggest that the developed dogma now reads everybody needs to enter the Catholic Church EXCEPT for those invincible ignorance, the baptism of water or blood or with a good conscience)
5. SALVATION OF CHRISTIANS (NON CATHOLICS)
Ad Gentes 7, Vatican Council II says all people need Catholic Faith and the baptism of water for salvation. No church document says Christians (non Catholics) religions are the ordinary way to salvation. If a Christian is saved in his religions it will be known to only God. God can provide the helps in this exceptional case, which could include the baptism of water. In Heaven there are only Catholics.
(There position on this issue is not clear)
6.HERESY
In the Apostles and Nicene Creed we pray, ‘I believe in one baptism for the forgiveness of sin’ and ‘I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church’. Everyone needs the baptism of water to remove Original sin for salvation. It is the Holy Spirit which guides the Church to teach through the centuries the ‘rigorist interpretation’ of extra ecclesiam nulla salus. To reject the Nicene and Apostles Creed is a first class heresy in the hierarchy of truths. It would also be a rejection of the Athanasius Creed which states outside the church there is no salvation.
(Trinity Communications Jeffrey Mirus is in heresy since he rejects the rigorist inrepretation of the ex cathedra dogma)
7. EUCHARIST
So it is mortal sin to change an ex cathedra dogma or to reject its meaning. It is a first class heresy.A person is automatically excommunicated.He has no right to receive the Eucharist at Mass.Neither can he offer Mass if he is a priest.He first needs to receive absolution in the Confessional and remove the public scandal.
(Mirus has not right to receive the Eucharist)
8.SUPERIOR HAS TO BE A CATHOLIC
A Superior ( juridical person according to Canon Law ) has to be a Catholic. So he needs to affirm in public every ex cathedra dogma.Otherwise he cannot hold his office.Neither can one receive the Eucharist in this condition.
9.THERE ARE TWO INTERPRETATIONS OF VATICAN COUNCIL II
The first is: everyone needs to enter the Catholic Church for salvation (Ad Gentes 7) except for those in invincible ignorance, the baptism of desire etc (LG 16).
The second is: everyone needs to be a visible, formal, ‘card-carrying member’ of the Catholic Church and there are no exceptions (AG 7) and if there was someone in invincible ignorance, the baptism of desire or a good conscience it would be known only to God.
Fr.Settimo an Italian priest who offers Mass at St.Mary Majors and Fr.Lucas Dempsey O.P at St.Mary Majors who hears Confession there have said that it is possible to have two interpretations of Vatican Council II on this issue.
(Trinity Communications and Jeffrey Mirus are using one interpretation. It is heresy if it suggests that everyone does not need to enter the Catholic Church with no exceptions to avoid Hell and go to Heaven)
10. BAPTISM OF DESIRE IS NOT OPPOSED TO THE DOGMA
Baptism of desire is usually interpreted as being opposed to the dogma which says that everyone needs to be a visible, formal member of the Church with no exceptions. We can also interpret Vatican Council II as saying that everyone needs to be a visible member of the Church to avoid Hell and if there is anyone with the Baptism of desire or in invincible ignorance it will be known only to God.
There is no Church Document which suggests that baptism of desire, invincible ignorance should be placed in opposition to the need of formal entry into the Catholic Church for everyone with no exception.
(Trinity Communications and Jeffrey Mirus use an interpretation of Vatican Council II in which the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus is supposedly opposed to the exceptions of baptism of desire and blood and invincible ignorance)
By Lionel Andrades
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