Fr. Richard McBrien did not know that the baptism of desire and invincible cases are not known to us

Fr. Richard P.McBrien, Editor of the Encyclopaedia of Catholicism also assumes we can see the dead. We can see the dead on earth saved in Heaven.

The dissenting priest who is the Editor of the little known  Encylopedia of Catholicism on P.5222 has a report under the title Feeney, Leonard.

It says:

‘According to Feeney only Catholics could be saved. The Vatican’s Holy Office rejected his view by distinguishing between those who “rally” (Lat. In re) belong to the Church by explicit faith and baptism for those who belong to the church “by desire” (in voto).

So what?

Those who belong to the Church “by desire” are only known to God. They are irrelevant to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus,which says all need to convert into the Church. One cannot convert 'by desire’ or give anyone the baptism of desire.

It is always implicit for us and explicit only for God, we can affirm, and so could Fr.McBrien if he wanted to, the literal interpretation of Fr. Leonard Feeney along with implicit baptism of desire. It does not violate the Principle of Non Contradiction.

Since for McBrien the baptism of desire is visible and known in real life, it contradicts the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.So he concludes there is salvation outside the Church even though we may not know a single exception in this year or the last 100 years.

According to the University of Notre Dame. Department of Theology, he has been president of the Catholic Theological Society of America (1973-74) and winner of its John Courtney Murray Award "for outstanding and distinguished achievement in Theology" (1976). He has written a syndicated weekly theology column for the Catholic press since 1966, and is a frequent on-air network commentator for Church-related events. He is a priest of the Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut. He is on sabbatical leave during the current academic year writing a one-volume ecclesiology, which will be published by HarperSanFrancisco in early 2008.

-Lionel Andrades

American Catholic encyclopedias assume invincible ignorance cases are exceptions to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus and to Fr.Leonard Feeney!

The encyclopedia authors do not realize that we do not know any one  saved in invincible ignorance or implicit desire. So rationally there cannot be an exception to Fr.Leonard Feeney's traditional interpretation of the dogma.

Even the Our Sunday Visitor encyclopedia which has a foreward by two American Archbishops, overlooks this error.

Today morning at a Pontifical University library in Rome I was browsing through some Catholic encyclopedias. They have overlooked the same error.

In Our Sunday Visitor's Catholic Encylopedia.(Editor. Rev.Peter M.J Stravinskas) on page 862 under the title Salvation Outside the Church is a report which assumes that Pope Pius IX in Singulari quidem, states that invincible ignorance is an exception to the dogma. The pope does not make this claim in the text.

This encyclopedia like the other American Catholic encyclopedias  just assume that those saved in invincible ignorance are known to us. After making this superficial  observation, they believe that the dogma on salvation and Fr.Leonard Feeney are corrected.

'This understanding of the Church's place in the economy of salvation is also found in the Second Vatican Council II. (p.862 Our Sunday Visitor encyclopedia ). Then it is assumed that Lumen Gentium 16 is an exception to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

Vatican Council II cannot contradict the dogma since we do not know of any explicit exceptions.

We do not know any one in 2012 saved in invincible ignorance or a good conscience. Fr. Stravinsky assumes we do.

There is an Introductory Remark in the encyclopedia by Archbishop Anthony J. Bevilaqua and Archbishop Theodore E.McCarrick.

Stravinsky acknowledges 'equivocation' and 'apparent antimony' which he bravely tries to resolve.-Lionel Andrades