The Paulists Fathers on their official website teach a theology of religions they also reject the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. The priests are allowed by the Vatican to offer Mass in this condition and their ordinations are considered valid and not illicit.
The following is from their website on Ecumenism and Inter religious dialogue.
What are the goals of interreligious dialogue?
The goals of the ecumenical movement and interfaith dialogue are different. The goal of interfaith dialogue is not unity in faith and worship, but mutual understanding and respect, and mutual enrichment enabling us all to respond more fully to God's call. It includes collaboration wherever possible in response to the societal problems we commonly face. For this reason, the purpose of theological dialogue will not be to prove that one side is right and the other is wrong, but rather to explore respective positions in order to understand them better. When this is done, many prejudices, built on half-truths, will fall by the wayside.
What are the theological points of reference for interreligious dialogue?
The theological bases for approaching followers of other religions with respect and esteem are found dispersed throughout the various documents of the Second Vatican Council. For example:
God wills the salvation of all.
The whole human race is united in its origin and destiny.
God is active in the hearts of human beings, drawing them to God's self.
God is active in the different religious rites which give corporate expression to the human response to God.
Human beings have been created with free will and must respond freely to God according to the dictates of their conscience, while always searching for the truth.
These teachings form the basis for interfaith dialogue founded on mutual respect, binding trust, and honest friendship between the adherents of different religious traditions.
Note: God wills the salvation of all, true, but to receive this salvation they need to enter the Church .(Dominus Iesus 20).
The whole human race is united in its origin and destiny. False. Non Catholics are oriented to Hell without Catholic Faith and the Baptism of water.(Cantate Domino, Council of Florence, extra ecclesiam nulla salus, Ad Gentes 7,Vatican Council II, Catechism of the Catholic Church 845,846.
Not all their rites are good. They have deficiences, error and supersition and their members are in a deficient situation as compared to the Catholic Church which has the 'fullness of truth').
Don't you have to water down Christian beliefs about Jesus in interreligious dialogue?
Interfaith dialogue does not involve being untrue to one's own convictions of faith. On the contrary, it invites the partners to join together in a common seeking of the truth. In that process, they will share their own understanding in an honest and respectful way. For Catholics, the “uniqueness” and “universality” of Christ are understood to mean that by and in Jesus, God effected a self-manifestation in a manner that is decisive for all and can neither be surpassed or repeated.
Note: The Paulists exclude the necessity of the Church for salvation. Without this Catholic teaching they enter into inter religious dialogue and ecumenism.
The place Jesus Christ occupies in Christianity is central. No other religion attributes such a unique place to its founder. For Islam, Muhammad is the depository of the divine message, the prophet through whom God speaks. For Buddhism, Gautama is the great teacher, the Enlightened One showing the way. For Christianity, however, Jesus claims equality with God. He never refuses the title Messiah. He corrects holy writ. He insists that prophecy is fulfilled in him and that the Reign of God appears through his acts. It is the mystery of Jesus Christ himself, and not just his message, that is at the very heart of faith. It is the religion of a person, the Christ.
Note: Again we have Jesus without the Church.
What would a key biblical reference be?
There is a reference in the New Testament that holds two fundamental axioms in fruitful tension: the will of God to save all, and the central place of the mystery of Christ in the concrete realization of the divine plan.
“God wants everyone to be saved and to reach full knowledge of the truth. For there is only one God, and there is only one mediator between God and humankind, himself a man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all” (Timothy 2:4-6).
The first axiom is God's will to save all. The second accords Christ a central place in God's plan to save all. He is at the center of the mystery of salvation as the way leading to God because God and no one else—not human beings or Christianity—has put him there. This is the message of the New Testament in its entirety, the deep faith without which none of the books comprising it would have been written.
Note: John 3:5 says the baptism of water is needed for all for salvation. Catholics only give the baptism of water to adults with Catholic Faith.
Mark 16 :16 says he who does not believe will be condemned.
John 6 mentions that the Eucharist is needed for salvation.
Does this leave room for other religions to have a positive role in God's plan for the salvation of all?
When these two axioms of faith are held together, a Christian theology of religions can be characterized by an openness and a commitment to explore the many and various ways in which God has spoken to all people. To say that Christ is at the center of the divine plan for humanity is not to consider him as the final goal and exclusive end toward which the religious life of all other traditions of humanity tend. He is constituted by God as the way leading to God. God (the Father) remains the goal and end. The proper end of the interreligious dialogue, according to some Christian theologians today, is the common conversion of Christians and the members of other religious traditions to the same God—the God of Jesus Christ—who calls them together by challenging the ones through the others.
Note: The aim of conversion according to the Paulists is that all people come to God the Father and not to Jesus Christ or even excluding Jesus Christ.
In 2001 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a Notification to Fr.Jacques Dupuis S.j and corrected his concept of a theology of religions.
At the Church of Santa Susana Rome, the Parish Priest Fr.Greg Apparcel, a Paulist Father has said in a homily that they they reject the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. The Catholic religious community founded by Isaac Hecker distributes its literature in the Church.
The ordinations to the priesthood in this community are considered licit and permitted by the Vatican.
What are the goals of interreligious dialogue?
The goals of the ecumenical movement and interfaith dialogue are different. The goal of interfaith dialogue is not unity in faith and worship, but mutual understanding and respect, and mutual enrichment enabling us all to respond more fully to God's call. It includes collaboration wherever possible in response to the societal problems we commonly face. For this reason, the purpose of theological dialogue will not be to prove that one side is right and the other is wrong, but rather to explore respective positions in order to understand them better. When this is done, many prejudices, built on half-truths, will fall by the wayside.
What are the theological points of reference for interreligious dialogue?
The theological bases for approaching followers of other religions with respect and esteem are found dispersed throughout the various documents of the Second Vatican Council. For example:
God wills the salvation of all.
The whole human race is united in its origin and destiny.
God is active in the hearts of human beings, drawing them to God's self.
God is active in the different religious rites which give corporate expression to the human response to God.
Human beings have been created with free will and must respond freely to God according to the dictates of their conscience, while always searching for the truth.
These teachings form the basis for interfaith dialogue founded on mutual respect, binding trust, and honest friendship between the adherents of different religious traditions.
Note: God wills the salvation of all, true, but to receive this salvation they need to enter the Church .(Dominus Iesus 20).
The whole human race is united in its origin and destiny. False. Non Catholics are oriented to Hell without Catholic Faith and the Baptism of water.(Cantate Domino, Council of Florence, extra ecclesiam nulla salus, Ad Gentes 7,Vatican Council II, Catechism of the Catholic Church 845,846.
Not all their rites are good. They have deficiences, error and supersition and their members are in a deficient situation as compared to the Catholic Church which has the 'fullness of truth').
Don't you have to water down Christian beliefs about Jesus in interreligious dialogue?
Interfaith dialogue does not involve being untrue to one's own convictions of faith. On the contrary, it invites the partners to join together in a common seeking of the truth. In that process, they will share their own understanding in an honest and respectful way. For Catholics, the “uniqueness” and “universality” of Christ are understood to mean that by and in Jesus, God effected a self-manifestation in a manner that is decisive for all and can neither be surpassed or repeated.
Note: The Paulists exclude the necessity of the Church for salvation. Without this Catholic teaching they enter into inter religious dialogue and ecumenism.
The place Jesus Christ occupies in Christianity is central. No other religion attributes such a unique place to its founder. For Islam, Muhammad is the depository of the divine message, the prophet through whom God speaks. For Buddhism, Gautama is the great teacher, the Enlightened One showing the way. For Christianity, however, Jesus claims equality with God. He never refuses the title Messiah. He corrects holy writ. He insists that prophecy is fulfilled in him and that the Reign of God appears through his acts. It is the mystery of Jesus Christ himself, and not just his message, that is at the very heart of faith. It is the religion of a person, the Christ.
Note: Again we have Jesus without the Church.
What would a key biblical reference be?
There is a reference in the New Testament that holds two fundamental axioms in fruitful tension: the will of God to save all, and the central place of the mystery of Christ in the concrete realization of the divine plan.
“God wants everyone to be saved and to reach full knowledge of the truth. For there is only one God, and there is only one mediator between God and humankind, himself a man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all” (Timothy 2:4-6).
The first axiom is God's will to save all. The second accords Christ a central place in God's plan to save all. He is at the center of the mystery of salvation as the way leading to God because God and no one else—not human beings or Christianity—has put him there. This is the message of the New Testament in its entirety, the deep faith without which none of the books comprising it would have been written.
Note: John 3:5 says the baptism of water is needed for all for salvation. Catholics only give the baptism of water to adults with Catholic Faith.
Mark 16 :16 says he who does not believe will be condemned.
John 6 mentions that the Eucharist is needed for salvation.
Does this leave room for other religions to have a positive role in God's plan for the salvation of all?
When these two axioms of faith are held together, a Christian theology of religions can be characterized by an openness and a commitment to explore the many and various ways in which God has spoken to all people. To say that Christ is at the center of the divine plan for humanity is not to consider him as the final goal and exclusive end toward which the religious life of all other traditions of humanity tend. He is constituted by God as the way leading to God. God (the Father) remains the goal and end. The proper end of the interreligious dialogue, according to some Christian theologians today, is the common conversion of Christians and the members of other religious traditions to the same God—the God of Jesus Christ—who calls them together by challenging the ones through the others.
Note: The aim of conversion according to the Paulists is that all people come to God the Father and not to Jesus Christ or even excluding Jesus Christ.
In 2001 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a Notification to Fr.Jacques Dupuis S.j and corrected his concept of a theology of religions.
At the Church of Santa Susana Rome, the Parish Priest Fr.Greg Apparcel, a Paulist Father has said in a homily that they they reject the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. The Catholic religious community founded by Isaac Hecker distributes its literature in the Church.
The ordinations to the priesthood in this community are considered licit and permitted by the Vatican.
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