Friday, August 24, 2012

Religious Superiors

I have been e-mailing this post to Catholic Religious Superiors of Congregations. If you ,reader, would know any Religious Superior please send him or her this post and ask for permission to cite them.Send me their reply.

Question:
Can all Catholic religious communities, affirm Vatican Council II in accord with the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus and the founders of their community ?

Here is the text of Ad Gentes 7,Vatican Council II and the defined dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

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.
Here is the thrice defined dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

No magisterial text claims there are known exceptions( of invincible ignorance or implicit desire) or that there are exceptions to the dogma on exclusive salvation or Ad Gentes 7.


When magisterial texts refer to in principle (implicit) exceptions to the dogma one has to assume that they are defacto (explicit, known) exceptions to the dogma. The text does not say it.

They have to be only in principle (dejure, implicit) exceptions since we cannot know any de facto (explicit) case on earth saved in invincible ignorance, who has not had the Gospel preached to him through no fault of his own.

Since those who are saved in invincible ignorance etc are known only to God we do not know if there is any such case in 2012 or ever. We cannot know if these ‘exceptions’ are saved with the baptism of water or without the Sacraments. However this does not contradict the dogma, either way.

The Letter of the Holy Office 1949 affirms the dogma and the literal interpretation of Fr. Leonard Feeney in the earlier paragraphs. If in the latter paragraphs it assumes implicit desire is an explicit exception to the dogma then it made an objective mistake.

Implicit desire is irrelevant to the dogma. We do not know any particular case.

If Lumen Gentium 14 assumes that we know those saved in invincible ignorance and so only those who ‘know’ about Jesus and the Church and who do not convert are oriented to Hell, then this would be an objective mistake. However I interpret it as only God can decide who is in invincible ignorance and who ‘knows’ so there is no controversy here.


So can all Catholic religious communities, affirm Vatican Council II in accord with the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus and the founders of their community ?-Lionel Andrades
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