Sunday, January 20, 2013

CARDINAL LUIZ LADARIA FERRER MADE A FACTUAL ERROR IN THE ITC REPORT ON LIMBO

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger approved the same error in the ITC paper Christianity and the World Religions and then again as pope in The Hope of Salvation for Infants who die without being baptized.

The theological paper on Limbo was flawed. It had a factual error. This error was the basis of a whole new theology.The pope didn't notice it. Or he just let it pass.

He approved the International Theological Commission paper on Limbo titled  'The Hope of Salvation for Infants who die without being baptized ,which indicates that the dead who are saved are not just possibilities for us and explict for God.For him these cases are explicit and so an exception to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

In March 2004, Luiz Ladaria Ferrer was named Secretary-General of the International Theological Commission and led the Commission's evaluation, beginning in 2006, of the concept of limbo, that is, of the fate of children who die without having received the sacrament of Baptism. The Commission concluded that there is hope that these children are able to receive salvation and enjoy the beatific vision according to Wikipedia.

On 9 July 2008, Ladaria Ferrer was appointed Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Titular Archbishop of Thibica by Pope Benedict XVI. He continued to be general secretary of the International Theological Commission[1] until 22 April 2009, when he resigned and was succeeded by Charles Morerod, O.P.

He is now Cardinal Luiz Ladaria Ferrer S.J, Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Vatican and he led the Vatican side in the secret talks with the Society of St.Pius X (SSPX).

In the ITC paper on Limbo he assumes that the baptism of desire etc was not just a possibility but an exception; it was a known exception to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.For him these cases were not just possibilities but they actually existed in real life to be an exception.

So if there are known cases who contradict extra ecclesiam nulla salus then they speculate that every one does not need the baptism of water for salvation. So Fr.Leonard Feeney was wrong for the ITC.

They conclude that infants who die with Original Sin and without the baptism of water can be saved in general.

Hence the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1257 says God is not limited to the Sacraments.

It all began when the ITC assumed that there was known salvation to the thrice defined dogma on salvation.

The ITC paper contradicts itself.It states
(A) The Second Vatican Council has reiterated this faith conviction: “Basing itself on Scripture and tradition, it [the Council] teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism (cf. Mk 16:16; Jn 3:5), and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door.

Then it states:
(B) “To gain eternal salvation, it is not always required that a person be incorporated in reality (reapse) as a member of the Church,

B does not contradict A since it is accepted only in principle.

It then says 

(C) It is not always necessary that this desire be explicit as it is with catechumens.

C does not contradict A since we do not personally know this catechumen. So if he does not exist in 2013 how can he be an exception to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

If he is an exception to all needing faith and baptism for salvation then he must be a dead man walking on the earth saved with the baptism of desire and visible to us human beings.

The dead are not visible to us as the ITC implies.This is a factual error on their part.-Lionel Andrades

57. Catholic tradition has constantly affirmed that the Church is necessary for salvation as the historical mediation of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. This conviction found its classical expression in the adage of St. Cyprian: “Salus extra Ecclesiam non est”.[87] The Second Vatican Council has reiterated this faith conviction: “Basing itself on Scripture and tradition, it [the Council] teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism (cf. Mk 16:16; Jn 3:5), and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it, or to remain in it” (LG 14). The Council expounded the mystery of the Church at length: “The Church, in Christ, is in the nature of [a] sacrament - a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of the unity among all men” (LG 1); “Just as Christ carried out the work of redemption in poverty and oppression, so the Church is called to follow the same path if she is to communicate the fruits of salvation to men” (LG 8). “Rising from the dead (cf. Rom 6:9) he [Christ] sent his life-giving Spirit upon his disciples and through him set up his Body which is the Church as the universal sacrament of salvation” (LG 48). What is striking in these quotations is the universal extent of the Church’s mediating role in ministering God’s salvation: “the unity among all men”, “salvation of [all] men”, “universal sacrament of salvation”.

58. In the face of new problems and situations and of an exclusive interpretation of the adage: “salus extra ecclesiam non est”,[88] the magisterium, in recent times, has articulated a more nuanced understanding as to the manner in which a saving relationship with the Church can be realized. The Allocution of Pope Pius IX, Singulari Quadam (1854) clearly states the issues involved: “It must, of course, be held as a matter of faith that outside the apostolic Roman Church no one can be saved, that the Church is the only ark of salvation, and that whoever does not enter it, will perish in the flood. On the other hand, it must likewise be held as certain that those who live in ignorance of the true religion, if such ignorance be invincible, are not subject to any guilt in this matter before the eyes of the Lord”.[89]

59. The Letter of the Holy Office to the Archbishop of Boston (1949) offers further specifications. “To gain eternal salvation, it is not always required that a person be incorporated in reality (reapse) as a member of the Church, but it is necessary that one belong to it at least in desire and longing (voto et desiderio). It is not always necessary that this desire be explicit as it is with catechumens. When one is invincibly ignorant, God also accepts an implicit desire, so called because it is contained in the good disposition of soul by which a person wants his or her will to be conformed to God’s will”.[90]

60. The universal salvific will of God, realized through Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit, which includes the Church as the universal sacrament of salvation, finds expression in Vatican II: “All men are called to this Catholic unity which prefigures and promotes universal peace. And in different ways to it belong, or are related: all the Catholic faithful, others who believe in Christ and finally all mankind called by God’s grace to salvation” (LG 13). That the unique and universal mediation of Jesus Christ is realized in the context of a relationship with the Church is further reiterated by the post-Conciliar papal magisterium. Speaking of those who have not had the opportunity to come to know or accept Gospel revelation – even in their case, the encyclical Redemptoris Missio has this to say: “Salvation in Christ is accessible by virtue of a grace ... which has a mysterious relationship to the Church”.[91]


International Theological Commision
from 'The Hope of Salvation for Infants who die without being baptized'
58. In the face of new problems and situations and of an exclusive interpretation of the adage: “salus extra ecclesiam non est”,[88] the magisterium, in recent times, has articulated a more nuanced understanding as to the manner in which a saving relationship with the Church can be realized.

Lionel:
'a more nuanced understanding' based on in-principle cases being known in reality ?

The present Magisterium assumes that we know cases of persons saved in invincible ignorance and so it is a defacto exception to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus ? This is factually incorrect. We do not know those who are in Heaven except for the saints.

On this faulty premise a whole theology has been built up i.e the visibly-known cases of those saved in invincible ignorance and the baptism of desire.

International Theological Commision
The Allocution of Pope Pius IX, Singulari Quadam (1854) clearly states the issues involved: “It must, of course, be held as a matter of faith that outside the apostolic Roman Church no one can be saved, that the Church is the only ark of salvation, and that whoever does not enter it, will perish in the flood. On the other hand, it must likewise be held as certain that those who live in ignorance of the true religion, if such ignorance be invincible, are not subject to any guilt in this matter before the eyes of the Lord”.

Lionel:
The Allocution of Pope PIus IX clearly does not state in the passage cited above that those saved in invincible ignorance are explicitly known and so are exceptions to the dogma which says whoever does not enter into the Church will perish.

International Theological Commission
59. The Letter of the Holy Office to the Archbishop of Boston (1949) offers further specifications. “To gain eternal salvation, it is not always required that a person be incorporated in reality (reapse) as a member of the Church, but it is necessary that one belong to it at least in desire and longing (voto et desiderio). It is not always necessary that this desire be explicit as it is with catechumens.

Lionel:
Yes in principle a person can be saved with the baptism of desire. In reality, explicitly we do not know any case of a person saved in Heaven with the baptism of desire. So it is not an issue with respect to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

The ITC is mixing up in principle, for in fact, de jure for defacto, in theory for in practise, what is hypothetical for something known personally, the invisible with being seeing physically.