Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Cardinal Cushing and the Jesuits made a factual error in the text of Vatican Council II ?

Cardinal Cushing and the Jesuits made a factual error in the text of Vatican Council ?
The Archbishop of Boston Cardinal Richard Cushing assumed that the baptism of desire and being saved in invincible ignorance were known, explicit,visible on earth exceptions to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus as interpreted by Fr.Leonard Feeney.

The Archbishop of Boston maintained the excommunication of Fr.Leonard Feeney for some 19-plus years with the support of the Holy Office (CDF,Vatican).
The Archbishop never issued a clarification when the Boston newspapers reported that the Catholic Church has changed its teaching on salvation.
In other words, the hypothetical and invisible for us cases saved with the baptism of desire or in invincible  ignorance were supposed to be visible on earth and so exceptions to the literal interpretation of the dogma according to Fr.Leonard Feeney.
Pope Pius XII never issued a correction and the Archbishop was made a cardinal.He was active at Vatican Council II along with the Jesuits of Boston.The Jesuits had expelled Fr.Leonard Feeney from their community.
Catholics throughout the world without thinking assumed that the baptism of desire could be a known exeception to the traditional interpretation of the dogma on exclusive salvation.Possibilities of salvation with the baptism of desire were considered to be defacto and known in reality.
In the text of  Vatican Council II we see so many statements which are possibilities and known only to God, made to appear relevant to the dogma on salvation and the traditional teaching on other religions and  Christian communities.

Here is Ad Gentes 7 for example:
 This missionary activity derives its reason from the will of God, "who wishes all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, Himself a man, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself as a ransom for all" (1 Tim. 2:45), "neither is there salvation in any other" (Acts 4:12). 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 (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. And hence missionary activity today as always retains its power and necessity.
By means of this activity, the Mystical Body of Christ unceasingly gathers and directs its forces toward its own growth (cf. Eph. 4:11-16). The members of the Church are impelled to carry on such missionary activity by reason of the love with which they love God and by which they desire to share with all men the spiritual goods of both its life and the life to come.
Finally, by means of this missionary activity, God is fully glorified, provided that men fully and consciously accept His work of salvation, which He has accomplished in Christ. In this way and by this means, the plan of God is fulfilled - that plan to which Christ conformed with loving obedience for the glory of the Father who sent Him,(18) that the whole human race might form one people of God and be built up into one temple of the Holy Spirit which, being the expression of brotherly harmony, corresponds with the inmost wishes of all men. And so at last, there will be realized the plan of our Creator who formed man to His own image and likeness, when all who share one human nature, regenerated in Christ through the Holy Spirit and beholding the glory of God, will be able to say with one accord: "Our Father."(19)

'made known by the Church's preaching'

This is a Cushing dead wood statement. We do not know who converted after being preached to and was saved. This is known only to God.So why mention it?

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."

who though aware ?  This is known only to God, so why mention it? Every one needs to enter the Church with 'faith and baptism' as it is stated in AG 7. If a person is in invincible ignorance or was 'aware', would be known only to God. The ordinary means of salvation is 'faith and baptism' (AG 7). If some one is saved with the baptism of desire it would not be known to us.So it is not an exceptio to all needing to enter the Catholic Church in 2014 for salvation.

'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)'

We do not know a single case saved  inculpably ignorant of the Gospel so why mention it ? How is it relevant to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus ? How does it change the traditional teaching on other religions ? It is possible that a non Catholic could be saved in invincible ignorance but this person  would not be known to us and so it is not an exception to the traditional extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

'provided that men fully and consciously accept His work of salvation, which He has accomplished in Christ'

'provided that men fully and consciously'? Do we know who is saved by fully and consciously accepting Jesus' work of salvation. Is it relevant to Ad Gentes 7 which states  'all' need 'faith and baptism' for salvation?
These dead wood statements are found also in other passages of  Vatican Council II. We have to remember that they refer to what is implicit, invisible for us, accepted in principle but not objectivily known. They are known only to God. So they are not exceptions to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus or Ad Gentes 7 ( all need faith and baptism).


Once this distinction is made Vatican Council II no where contradicts the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus as it was interpreted by the saints Robert Bellarmine, Francis of Assisi, Maximillian Kolbe and others - and the courageous priest from Boston, Leonard Feeney.
-Lionel Andrades
Feast of St.Joseph. 

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