The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Doctrinal Committe (1) indicates that Islam is not a path to salvation and that Muslims need to convert into the Church.
The USCCB was repeating Vatican Council (LG 14,AG 7) which also indicates that all Muslims need to enter the Church visibly,with 'faith and baptism'(AG 7) to go to Heaven and avoid Hell.
However there was ambiguity and error in the USCCB Notification on Fr.Peter C.Phan when it repeated that invincible ignorance and the baptism of desire are exceptions to all Muslims, Jews, Hindus and others entering the Catholic Church.
This was an error since we cannot name any one saved in invincible ignorance and the baptism of desire and neither does Vatican Council II or any other magisterial document make this claim. There are no exceptions mentioned in AG 7 and LG 14 to all needing faith and baptism for salvation. All need to enter the Church as through a door(CCC 846 Outside the Church there is no salvation).
The USCCB Doctrinal Committee does not directly say that all need to enter the Church 'as through a door'(CCC 846) since it assumes there are known exceptions in the present times.
The USCCB Committee said that "because the Church is the universal sacrament of salvation, whatever grace is offered to individuals in whatever various circumstances, including non-Christians, must be seen in relationship to the Church, for she is always united to Jesus Christ, the source of all grace and holiness." This is true. We accept this is in principle. As a possibility a non Catholic can be saved in invincible ignorance etc however these cases are not explicit for us.So they are only possibilities and not exceptions. They are not exceptions to the traditional teaching on exclusive salvation in the Catholic Church and all needing to enter the Church, with no exceptions.
NO KNOWN EXCEPTIONS- ARCHBISHOP THOMAS E. GULLICKSON
There are no known exceptions to the literal interpretation of the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus as it was expressed over centuries by Church Councils, popes and saints who did not acknowledge any known exceptions in the present times.
This point was also omitted by the Americans Michael Voris and Patrick Archbold,likewise Louie Verrecchio. While the apologist John Martigioni has said that there are no known exceptions to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. This was also the view of the American Archbishop Thomas E. Gullickson .
-Lionel Andrades
(1)
The Doctrine Committee took action after the Vatican Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith asked it to evaluate the book by Father Phan, a priest of
the Diocese of Dallas, Texas, who holds the Ellacuria Chair of Catholic Social
Thought in Georgetown's Department of Theology. Over a period of two years, the
Committee asked Father Phan to clarify points of concern.
On the first point, the Committee objected to Father Phan's qualifying the uniqueness of Christ and saying that terms referring to Christ as "unique" "absolute" and "universal" "should be jettisoned and replaced by other, theologically more adequate equivalents."
"It has always been the faith of the Church that Jesus is the eternal Son of God incarnate as man. The union of humanity and divinity that takes place in Jesus Christ is by its very nature unique and unrepeatable," the Committee said.
"Because humanity and divinity are united in the person of the Son of God, He brings together humanity and divinity in a way that can have no parallel in any other figure in history," it said.
On the second point, the salvific significance of non-Christian religions, the Committee states that Father Phan's book questions the Church's mission to spread the Gospel to all. He states that "non-Christian religions possess an autonomous function in the history of salvation, different from that of Christianity," and that "they cannot be reduced to Christianity in terms of preparation and fulfillment."
The Committee said that "[s]ince the book as a whole is based on the idea that religious pluralism is indeed a positively-willed part of the divine plan, the reader is led to conclude that there is some kind of moral obligation for the Church to refrain from calling people to conversion to Christ and to membership in his Church. According to the book religious pluralism 'may not and must not be abolished' by conversion to Christianity."
The Committee notes that "[t]his call for an end to Christian mission is in conflict with the Church's commission, given to her by Christ Himself: 'Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations �."'
"Moreover," the Committee said, "if one accepts that Jesus Christ is in fact the one affirmed by Christian faith as the eternal Son of God made man, through whom the universe was created and by whose death and resurrection the human race has the possibility of attaining eternal life, then it is incoherent to argue that it would somehow be better if certain people were not told this truth."
"The Church's evangelizing mission is not an imposition of power but an expression of love," the Committee said also.
Regarding the Church as the unique and universal instrument of salvation, the Committee criticizes the book for saying that the Church's claim for uniqueness and universality "should be abandoned altogether" given the Church's human failings and historical entanglement with sin and injustice.
The Committee acknowledged that members of the Church have failed, but said that "the holiness of the Church is not simply defined by the holiness (or sinfulness) of her members but by the holiness of her head, the Lord Jesus Christ."
The Committee said that "because the Church is the universal sacrament of salvation, whatever grace is offered to individuals in whatever various circumstances, including non-Christians, must be seen in relationship to the Church, for she is always united to Jesus Christ, the source of all grace and holiness."
The Committee said that because all grace flows through Jesus, one cannot consider the Church as just one way of salvation "alongside those constituted by the other religions, seen as complementary to the Church or substantially equivalent to her." http://old.usccb.org/comm/archives/2007/07-200.shtml
On the first point, the Committee objected to Father Phan's qualifying the uniqueness of Christ and saying that terms referring to Christ as "unique" "absolute" and "universal" "should be jettisoned and replaced by other, theologically more adequate equivalents."
"It has always been the faith of the Church that Jesus is the eternal Son of God incarnate as man. The union of humanity and divinity that takes place in Jesus Christ is by its very nature unique and unrepeatable," the Committee said.
"Because humanity and divinity are united in the person of the Son of God, He brings together humanity and divinity in a way that can have no parallel in any other figure in history," it said.
On the second point, the salvific significance of non-Christian religions, the Committee states that Father Phan's book questions the Church's mission to spread the Gospel to all. He states that "non-Christian religions possess an autonomous function in the history of salvation, different from that of Christianity," and that "they cannot be reduced to Christianity in terms of preparation and fulfillment."
The Committee said that "[s]ince the book as a whole is based on the idea that religious pluralism is indeed a positively-willed part of the divine plan, the reader is led to conclude that there is some kind of moral obligation for the Church to refrain from calling people to conversion to Christ and to membership in his Church. According to the book religious pluralism 'may not and must not be abolished' by conversion to Christianity."
The Committee notes that "[t]his call for an end to Christian mission is in conflict with the Church's commission, given to her by Christ Himself: 'Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations �."'
"Moreover," the Committee said, "if one accepts that Jesus Christ is in fact the one affirmed by Christian faith as the eternal Son of God made man, through whom the universe was created and by whose death and resurrection the human race has the possibility of attaining eternal life, then it is incoherent to argue that it would somehow be better if certain people were not told this truth."
"The Church's evangelizing mission is not an imposition of power but an expression of love," the Committee said also.
Regarding the Church as the unique and universal instrument of salvation, the Committee criticizes the book for saying that the Church's claim for uniqueness and universality "should be abandoned altogether" given the Church's human failings and historical entanglement with sin and injustice.
The Committee acknowledged that members of the Church have failed, but said that "the holiness of the Church is not simply defined by the holiness (or sinfulness) of her members but by the holiness of her head, the Lord Jesus Christ."
The Committee said that "because the Church is the universal sacrament of salvation, whatever grace is offered to individuals in whatever various circumstances, including non-Christians, must be seen in relationship to the Church, for she is always united to Jesus Christ, the source of all grace and holiness."
The Committee said that because all grace flows through Jesus, one cannot consider the Church as just one way of salvation "alongside those constituted by the other religions, seen as complementary to the Church or substantially equivalent to her." http://old.usccb.org/comm/archives/2007/07-200.shtml
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