Sunday, May 12, 2013

Richard Cushing Error in Ad Gentes 7 and Nostra Aetate

Cardinal Richard Cushing was active at Vatican Council II. The excommunication of Fr.Leonard Feeney was still being maintained and the Boston newspapers were saying that the Jesuit priest was excommunicated for denying the possibility of non Catholics being saved in invincible ignorance etc which were exceptions to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. The Archbishop of Bishop did not issue a clarification. Instead he was letting the world believe that these cases saved, were visible to us and so exceptions to the traditional centuries- old- interpretation of the dogma.


He then brought this error to Vatican Council II- helped by the Jesuits there. Till today there is so much confusion in the texts of Ad Gentes, especially AG 7.


Ad Gentes 7 says all need faith and baptism for salvation.It also says those who know about the Church and do not enter are on the way to Hell.Then  non Catholics in invincible ignorance can be saved it states.Superficially this all seems contrary to the Principle of Non Contradiction. How can every one need to enter the Church for salvation and also some people do not need to do so ?

The key to solving the puzzle in Ad Gentes 7 is to know that those saved in Heaven are not physically visible to us.We cannot meet them personally. So they cannot be an exception to the traditional teaching on other religions, ecumenism and salvation.

Defacto we do not know any such case saved in 2013. However de jure  (in principle) we accept the possibility of a non Catholic being saved as such. So explictly ,yes. Implicitly,no- we cannot see any such case. In practise we cannot meet any one now in Heaven. In theory we can accept that a person can be saved in invincible ignorance, seeds of the word (AG 11), imperfect communion with the church (UR), a good conscience (LG 16) etc.

So lets analyse AG 7.

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. Therefore those men cannot be saved, who though aware that God, through Jesus Christ founded the Church as something necessary, still do not wish to enter into it, or to persevere in it."(17) Therefore though God in ways known to Himself can lead those inculpably ignorant of the Gospel to find that faith without which it is impossible to please Him -Ad Gentes 7,Vatican Council II.

This is the traditional teaching.
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.

This too is the traditional teaching. Extra ecclesiam nulla salus.
Therefore, all must be converted to Him,...and all must be incorporated into Him by baptism and into the Church which is His body.

This too is traditional but it is referring to invisible to us cases. It was here where Cardinal Richard Cushing made an error.
Therefore though God in ways known to Himself can lead those inculpably ignorant of the Gospel to find that faith without which it is impossible to please Him

Those who know about Jesus and the Church and do not enter cannot be saved. Again it is important to remember that these cases are known only to God.These cases are invisible for us.
Therefore those men cannot be saved, who though aware that God, through Jesus Christ founded the Church as something necessary, still do not wish to enter into it, or to persevere in it."

Since these cases are invisible for us they do not contradict the traditional teaching cited above. They are irrelevant.

There is confusion now.
made known by the Church's preaching  
Yes made known by the Church's preaching  as distinguished from those who are in invincible ignorance.Both cases would be judged by God.We do not know any such case saved. Since they are invisible for us-They are possibilities only and not exceptions to the dogma or Ad Gentes 7 saying all need faith and baptism for salvation.
 
The Church teaches that all non Catholics defacto need to convert in the present times for salvation and that de facto we do not know any case  who knows, is made known by the Church's preaching and is saved, who is  inculpably ignorant of the Gospel and savedso,  '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.'
 
 So' 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.' and there are no known exceptions.
 
Ad Gentes 7 becomes simple and clear.It is traditional without any confusion.Similarly when Ad Gentes 11 mentions 'seeds of the word' we know AG 11 does not contradict AG 7 since we do not know any case saved with the 'seeds of the word'.
 
The same confusion can be prevented in Nostra Aetate.
Lionel Andrades

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