Catholic Youth celebrate Mission in Rome every October and the program includes groups of young people spontaneously going on the streets singing songs and playing their guitar wearing colorful T-shirts which say Gesu al Centro. I have not seen any of them this year however I am told they are here in the city.However in this program sponsored by the Rome Vicariate for these young people mission is not saying all need to enter the Church to avoid Hell (AG 7, LG 14) but non Catholics can be saved in general in their religion.
I have spoken to some of these young people at previous Gesu al Centro mission weeks in Rome.
What they have to proclaim is not the Catholic Faith but a politically approved version of the Catholic Faith with no supporting magisterial text. They do not have a Catholic identity since they do not know about the dogma outside the Church there is no salvation.
They could be handing out tracts about Jesus just like the Jehovah’s Witnesses on the streets of Rome on Saturdays and Sundays.The tracts have pictures of Jesus, Jesus without the Catholic Church.
These Catholic young people could be playing the guitar and singing about Jesus just like the Pentecostals and Protestants not knowing that Vatican Council II indicates all Protestants and Orthodox Christians are oriented to Hell unless they convert into the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church teaches through Vatican Council II that millions of souls are oriented to Hell without Catholic Faith and the baptism of water.
In the Nicene Creed the youth pray ‘I believe in one baptism for the forgiveness of sin’. I believe in the baptism of water for the forgiveness of Original Sin. The Sacrament of baptism is necessary for salvation from Hell and it is given to adults with Catholic Faith. Orthodox Christians and Protestants are not saved because they do not have Catholic Faith (Vatican Council II LG 14, AG 7); the Sacraments and Catholic belief.
Jesus died to save all people from Hell, all people, including Orthodox Christians and Protestants and Jehovah Witnesses. However to receive this salvation all people need to enter the Church (Dominus Iesus 20). The Church is necessary.
It’s nice to see these young people proclaim Jesus, this is a good program, but this is being done without the doctrine of:
- All need to convert visibly into the Church to avoid Hell. (Catechism of the Catholic Church 845, 846, Vatican Council II, Cantate Domino, Council of Florence etc)
The Jehovah’s Witnesses also distribute literature that is ‘neutral’, often with articles on secular subjects. However once you attend their talks you realize that they are saying there is salvation in only their sect.
The Gesu al Centro youth also have a neutral approach in their evangelization but at no stage do they or their teachers say there is salvation in only the Catholic Church (Vatican Council II)
They cannot say there is salvation in only the Catholic Church and all need to enter to avoid Hell since they believe, are taught, that those saved in invincible ignorance, the Word of God or with the baptism of desire are explicitly known to us. So there could be people whom you could meet on the streets of Rome who are among these exceptions.
This is of course is a lie. We do not know of any such explicit case. They are always implicit and known only to God. We do not know even if there is a single such case in the present times. There is also no Church document which says non Catholics can be saved in general in their religion, or that cases of baptism of desire etc are explicitly known to us.
-Lionel Andrades
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