Thursday, November 21, 2013

Robert Spencer ignores Vatican Council II's reference to Mohammad and Islam

Vatican Council II  says all need faith and baptism for salvation and all need to enter the Church as through a door(AG 7).Mohammad did not have Catholic faith and neither was he baptized with water.  
Being saved with the baptism of water and Catholic faith is the ordinary means of salvation.In general all Muslims need to be visible members of the Church for salvation.
 We cannot say that Mohammad was saved with the baptism of desire or in invincible ignorance since even if there was such a case , God could send a preacher to baptise the person in ignorance. So every one who enters Heaven is Catholic with Catholic faith and the baptism of water.
 
Being saved with the baptism of desire etc is a possibility  known only to God. There is no such case known to us.Neither can be  expect to know, any such case in the present times.
 
So we cannot meet anyone  in the present times who will be saved with the baptism of desire or invincible ignorance. Since the ordinary means of salvation is visible entry into the Catholic Church (with faith and baptism of water) and there are no cases of the baptism of desire etc for us, in 2013.
 
We cannot say that Mohammad was saved in invincible ignorance since the only means to go to Heaven is the baptism of water given to adults with Catholic Faith.He was also not ignorant of the Catholic Faith.
 
The Koran shows that Mohammad  knew about Jesus and the Church and yet choose not to enter. Vatican Council II (LG 14) says those who know about the Church and its  necessity for salvation but do not enter, are oriented to Hell.
Vatican Council II (AG 7) is placed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church under the title outside the church no salvation.
 
AG 7 is in agreement with the defined dogma extra eclesiam nulla salus based on John 3: 5 and Mark 16:16.
 
There are no known exceptions mentioned in Vatican Council II to AG 7 or the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.In the present times we do not know anyone saved through good and holy things in their religion (NA2) , seeds of the word , invincible ignorance or a good conscience (LG 16) . So these cases are not exceptions to all needing to convert into the Church through faith and baptism ; all need to be visible members of the Catholic Church to go to Heaven and avoid Hell(for salvation).
 
Vatican Council II agrees with the popes and saints in saying Mohammad is in Hell. The official teaching of the Catholic Church,acccording to magisterial documents , before and after Vatican Council II, and including Vatican Council II, have not changed.
 
Islam is not a path to salvation. (CDF,Notification, Jacques Dupuis S.J, Dominus Iesus 20, Vatican Council II ,AG 7,LG 14).Muslims need to visibly convert into the Church to avoid Hell. (CCC 845,846, Ecclesia di Eucharistia, Cantate Domino , Council of Florence 1441, extra ecclesiam nulla salus).
 
The founder of Islam, a religion  which has good and holy things in it and politically is one of the 'great religions' like Judaism, was oriented to Hell.
 
This is a truth of the Catholic Church which still teaches exclusive salvation.Since there are no known cases of Muslims or other non Catholics saved, outside the Church, there is no basis for a theology of religions or a new ecclesiology. Catholic ecclesiology is still ecclesiocentric, based on Vatican Council II (LG 14,AG 7). There is exclusive salvation in only the Catholic Church according to Vatican Council II,which does not mention any exception to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus or to AG 7 (all need faith and baptism for salvation). 
We need Catholic Mission based on Vatican Council II. This is not just a personal view. Cardinal Angelo Amato in an interview with Avvenire,Italy called for mission based on Vatican Council II which for him is missionary. He specifically mentioned LG 14 and AG 7. 
For St.Alphonsus Ligouri Mohammad is in Hell, like other Muslims. This would not be accepted by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops( USCCB) since they assume that there are known exceptions to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. For them invincible ignorance and the baptism of desire are known exceptions in 2013. In other words the dead who are saved are visible to us physically. So for them Vatican Council II is a break with extra ecclesiam nulla salus and the traditional teaching on Islam and other religions. Vatican Council II (AG 7,LG 14) indicates 'faith and baptism' is the ordinary means of salvation.This is contradicted by the USCCB. This would be their reasoning.  
This is their irrational reasoning:-
False Premise : We can physically see , know a Protestant in 2013 saved as such.
Conclusion:
Cases of imperfect communion with the Church are visible to us so they are known exceptions to extra ecclesiam nulla salus.
Without the False Premise: UR 3 refers to a possibility known only to God. Since it is unknown to us it cannot be an exception to the dogma on exclusive salvation.

False Premise: We can physically see, know a Jew or Hindu who is 'good and holy' and is saved in 2013.
Conclusion:
Cases of good and holy non Catholics who are saved or going to be saved, are known exceptions to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.
Without the False Premise: NA 2 is a possibility , a hypothetical case. It is irrelevant to the dogma on salvation.

False Premise: Those saved with the ' seeds of the Word' (AG 11 etc) are personally known to us. We can meet them.
Conclusion: Since these cases are personally known to us , they are visible exceptions to the dogma outside the church there is no salvation.
Without the False Premise: There are no known exceptions to the traditional teaching on other religions.NA 2 is not one of them.
 
Here is the USCCB interpretation. They will choose irrational Cushingism:

1. VATICAN COUNCIL II
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."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 (Heb. 11:6), yet a necessity lies upon the Church (1 Cor. 9:16), and at the same time a sacred duty, to preach the Gospel...-Ad Gentes 7,Vatican Council II.

FEENEYISM (rational): The orange text does not contradict the text in yellow since the cases referred to are defacto not known to us, personally .We do not know and cannot know these cases. So they are not exceptions to the literal interpretation of the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.
CUSHINGISM( irrational): The orange text contradicts the text in yellow .It is assumed that thse cases are known to us in the present times. We can see the dead who are known exceptions to the literal interpretation of the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus according to Fr.Leonard Feeney.

2.CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
 
"Outside the Church there is no salvation"  
846 How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers?335 Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body:  
 
Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the 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, 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.-Catechism of the Catholic Church 846 
FEENEYISM (rational): The orange text does not contradict the text in yellow since the cases referred to are defacto not known to us, personally .We do not know and cannot know these cases. So they are not exceptions to the literal interpretation of the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. 
CUSHINGISM( irrational): The orange text contradicts the text in yellow .It is assumed that thse cases are known to us in the present times. We can see the dead who are known exceptions to the literal interpretation of the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus according to Fr.Leonard Feeney. 
 Robert Spencer
Robert  Spencer, a Catholic was not allowed to speak in  the Catholic Diocese of Worcester by  Bishop Robert J. McManus. In the diocese of Worcester, there are two communities, who have canonical status. They are the Sisters of St.Benedict Center and the St.Benedict Center, Still River. They  affirm the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus, in a traditional way. For the St. Benedict Centers, all Muslims need to convert to go to Heaven and avoid Hell. However on their website the bishop does not allow them to affirm the Catholic teaching on exclusive salvation. They even had to remove a reference to Dominus Iesus of Pope John Paul II.
 
Bishop Robert J.McManus  does  not say that the Catholic Church teaches officially, according to Magisterial texts, that all Muslims and other non Catholics are oriented to Hell and that there are no known exceptions in 2013.The personell in his diocese, like the USCCB and the Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Sean O Malley use the false premise in the interpretation of Vatican Council II and other magisterial documents.- Lionel Andrades