Friday, November 19, 2010

CDF PLEASE REVIEW MICHAEL MAZZA AND FR. MOST'S ARTICLES ON THE INTERNET FOR DOCTRINAL ERRORS : EXTRA ECCLESIAM NULLA SALUS

There is a report on the Internet by Michael Mazza a former Director of Catechetics for the Diocese of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA . It is titled EXTRA ECCLESIAM NULLA SALUS: FATHER FEENEY MAKES A COMEBACK by Michael J. Mazza. It is based on an article on the EWTN website by the late Fr. William Most. Mazza suggests that his and the EWTN report is ‘magisterial evidence’.Many Catholics and non Catholics assume that it really is the teaching of the Magisterium.

Michael Mazza, Fr. Most and EWTN indicate that:

1. The Catholic Church has retracted the strict interpretation (‘stringent’ according to Mazza) of the ex cathedra dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

2. The Catholic Magisterium has changed the original ‘stringent interpretation’ of extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

3. The Church teaches that those saved through invincible ignorance and the baptism of desire are known not only to God but are known also to us humans.

Mazza, Fr. Most and EWTN do not provide any Magisterium text to support these three hypothesis.However they ‘prove’ their assertion by not using the traditional defacto-de jure analysis of magisterial texts. Instead it is replaced with a defacto-defacto analysis which comes through as irrational and heretical; a rejection of the ex cathedra dogma Cantate Domino (1) , Council of Florence, on extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

For example

Pope Pius IX in an Allocution, December 9, 1854 wrote:
 
"We must hold as of the faith, that out of the Apostolic Roman Church there is no salvation; that she is the only ark of safety, and whosoever is not in her perishes in the deluge; we must also, on the other hand, recognize with certainty that those who are invincible in ignorance of the true religion are not guilty for this in the eyes of the Lord. And who would presume to mark out the limits of this ignorance according to the character and diversity of peoples, countries, minds and the rest?". –EWTN, Fr.William Most.
For me it says: Everybody de facto needs to enter the Catholic Church for salvation and there are no exceptions, de jure (in principle, as an acceptable concept) those in invincible ignorance of the true religion; the Catholic Faith can be saved, in ‘certain circumstances’ (Letter of the Holy Office 1949) and so they would be known to God only.

For Mazza, Fr. Most and EWTN it says: Everybody de facto needs to enter the Catholic Church for salvation and those who are in invincible ignorance are de facto known to us and so do not de facto have to enter the Church. So this is an exception to the ex cathedra Cantate Domino.

Pope Pius IX is saying de facto every one needs to enter the Church with no exceptions (Cantate Domino) and de jure there could be those saved in invincible ignorance etc and they would be known only to God.

Mazza, Fr. Most and EWTN interpret Pope Pius IX’s statement with a de facto-defacto analysis. This is contrary to the Principle of Non Contradiction. It’s also irrational. It’s also a rejection of Cantate Domino and so is a first class heresy.

This is the pattern used throughout the Mazza, Fr. Most, EWTN reports. Illogical logic.

So now we have two interpretations of extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

1. The EWTN, Jewish Left media  interpretation of extra ecclesiam nulla salus and

2. the traditional, centuries old interpretation.

Mazza, Most and EWTN suggest that the Magisterial text supporting their Interpretation, N.1, is Lumen Gentium 16.

So we have two interpretations of extra ecclesiam nulla salus (EENS), outside the church there is no salvation. The key difference between the two is Lumen Gentium 16, Vatican Council II.

If Lumen Gentium 16 refers to explicit, knowable-to-us, cases of persons saved in invincible ignorance then it contradicts Cantate Domino. So we have the liberal, Jewish Left media, EWTN ,Mazza, Fr. Most interpretation saying just this.

If LG 16 refers to those saved in invincible ignorance etc and which is known only to God then it does not contradict Cantate Domino. We have the traditional, centuries old interpretation.

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.
So which one is correct?

The issue is not really of theology. The answer is known also through  familiar common sense.

If a First Communicant explains it clearly to you that only God can finally know who is saved in invincible ignorance that should be the end of one interpretation of EENS.

It means there is no text in Vatican Council II which contradicts Cantate Domino.

There is no Magisterial text which contradicts Cantate Domino.

That’s the end of some 50 - plus years of propaganda on extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

With Vatican Council II (LG 16) out of the way, Mazza clutches  the last straw for ‘magisterial proof’ i.e the Catechism of the Catholic Church. He cites CCC 846.

CCC 846 refers to everyone being saved through Jesus and the Church. Everyone means those who have received the baptism of water with Catholic Faith and those saved in invincible ignorance , the baptism of desire etc. This is the first half of CCC 846.

The second half of CCC 846 quotes Vatican Council II and says ‘He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door.’ Mazza never mentions this. He omits the second half of CCC 846, It affirms the ‘stringent interprtation’ of extra ecclesiam nulla salus.Neither does he cite CCC 845 which does the same.

The first half of CCC 846 does not contradict the second part and so we have the Catechism affirming the rigorist interpretation of extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

 So Mazza, Most and EWTN have not been able to cite any Magisterial text (Vatican Council II, Catechism of the Catholic Church) to refute Cantate Domino.This means the Cantate Domino is still the teaching of the Magisterium which Pope Pius XII referred to in 1949 as ‘the dogma’, the infallible statement’. (Haec Suprema, Letter of the Holy Office to the Archbishop of Boston ).


It was affirmed in 2000 by Pope John Paul II.
 
Above all else, it must be firmly believed that “the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and baptism (cf. Mk 16:16; Jn 3:5), and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through baptism as through a door”.77 This doctrine must not be set against the universal salvific will of God (cf. 1 Tim 2:4); “it is necessary to keep these two truths together, namely, the real possibility of salvation in Christ for all mankind and the necessity of the Church for this salvation”.-Dominus Iesus 20. (Emphasis added)
 CONCLUSION

1. They have no Magisterial evidence but use a new false analysis of Magisterial texts and pretend it’s the ‘church’s teaching’ since the secular media helps them promote it.

2. We do not know who in particular 'knows about the Church and yet does not enter 'or who is in genuine invincible ignorance. So why mention it ? Is it to intentionally confuse people? Neither do we know who is in partial communion with the Church, has perfect contrition or a conscience which Jesus will judge as 'good' on the Day of Judgement. The dogma says everyone needs to be a formal member of the Church and there are no exceptions. So it is false for Mazza, Fr. Most and EWTN to suggest these de jure cases, accepted in principle as a possibility, ‘in certain circumstances’ contradict the need for everyone to explictly, de facto enter the Catholic Church ; the rigorist interpretation of extra ecclesiam nulla salus.


The Cantate Domino is still the official Magisterial teaching of the Catholic Church and it says everyone with no exception needs to be a formal member of the Church for salvation.


I would request the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to please clarify this issue where false claims of 'magisterial evidence' are being made. The Mazza report is being used by the websites Catholic Culture and Catholicpage.com and other media.

In Christ

Mr. Lionel Andrades, Catholic layman in Rome,


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1.


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