Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Fr.Gerald O’Collins S.J omits the all important text in Ad Gentes which supports the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus :Kurt Koch needs to clarify the SSPX position

Ad Gentes on Other Religions

Chapter:
(p.109) Five Ad Gentes on Other Religions
Source:
The Second Vatican Council on Other Religions
Author(s):

Gerald O’Collins S.J.

Publisher:
Oxford University Press

DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199672592.003.0005

This chapter examines Vatican II’s Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity (Ad Gentes), promulgated on 7 December 1965, the last working day of the Council. Drafted in part by Yves Congar, this text retrieved the ancient theme of ‘the seeds of the Word’ hidden everywhere. It recognized that the divine self-revelation and responding human faith can take place among those who follow ‘other religions’. Christ, who is ‘secretly present’ and reveals the Father universally, is ‘the author’ of elements of ‘truth and grace’ found ‘among the nations’. Thus the divine pedagogy prepares the way for the Gospel. In the case of those who accept the Gospel, the good already ‘sown in their hearts and minds’ is ‘healed, elevated, and consummated’. Ad Gentes points to Hebrews 11 and its account of faith, which can be happily applied to the followers of other religions. The chapter ends by developing and applying the vision of faith found in Hebrews.
 Hebrews.http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199672592.001.0001/acprof-9780199672592-chapter-5
 
Fr.Gerald O’Collins S.J omits the all important text in Ad Gentes which supports the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

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.-Ad Gentes 7, Vatican Council II

According to Ad  Gentes 7 all non Catholics need faith and baptism for salvation.This means  Vatican Council II is saying that all Jews, Muslims and others need to enter the Church to go to Heaven and avoid Hell.Ad Gentes 7 contradicts the false interpretation of Nostra Aetate.
 
Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Vatican Council for Christian Unity and relations with the Jews needs to state that Vatican Council II says that Jews need to convert into the Church with 'faith and baptism'. He needs to clarify that Vatican Council II says Jews need to convert for salvation.
He must also agree that there is nothing in Nostra Aetate which contradicts Ad Gentes 7. Since those saved with a 'a ray of that Truth' are not known to us in 2014. So they cannot be exceptions to extra ecclesiam nulla salus. Neither are they exceptions to Ad Gentes 7 .

Fr.Gerald O Collins S.J when writing on Nostra Aetate ignores the passage from Ad Gentes 7 which indicates the followers of other religions need to convert into the Catholic Church for salvation ( to avoid Hell).
 
Vatican Council II is traditional on the subject of other religions and Christian communities.
 
So when Cardinal Kurt Koch says that the Society of  St.Pius X must accept Nostra Aetate this would be easy for the SSPX if all camps accept (1) that there are no cases known of a non Catholic saved with ' a ray of that Truth'  and (2)  Ad Gentes 7, indicates that the Jews need 'faith and baptism' to avoid Hell-fires.This is Vatican Council II and not the views of a traditionalist who does not accept Vatican Council II.

The SSPX has every right to canonical status with no questions asked since Ad Gentes 7 and Nostra Aetate agree with their traditional Catholic doctrine.
 
We see here that the Jesuit writing for the Oxford University Press has made the same mistake as Prof.Gavin D'Costa , on the website of the University of Bristol, England.The same error on Nostra Aetate is also there in the video of D'Costa on the website of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of England and Wales. No SSPX priest in Britain has noted the factual error. The video assumes that the dead-saved with a 'ray of that Truth' in other religions are visible to us on earth, like a dead man walking in England.Then it assumes that Nostra Aetate mentions explicit exceptions of non Catholics saved with a 'ray of that Truth' etc. These are factual mistakes. We cannot see the dead and Nostra Aetate does not claim that we can see the deceased.
The Second Vatican Council on Other Religions$

Nostra Aetate on Other Religions

Chapter:
(p.84) Four Nostra Aetate on Other Religions
Source:
The Second Vatican Council on Other Religions
Author(s):

Gerald O’Collins S.J.

Publisher:
Oxford University Press

DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199672592.003.0004

This chapter is dedicated to the Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions (Nostra Aetate). Promulgated on 28 October 1965, this document not only significantly contributed to Catholic-Jewish dialogue but also created a basis for dialogue with Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and other religions. For the first time in the history of Catholic Christianity, a general council considered Buddhism and Hinduism, and encouraged Catholics to dialogue with the followers of other religions and collaborate with them in promoting ‘spiritual and moral goods’. According to Nostra Aetate, what is ‘true and holy’ in other religions reflects ‘the Truth that enlightens’ everyone. Citing the biblical teaching about all people being created in ‘the divine image’, the declaration proclaimed that divine likeness as the basis for human dignity and rights. This chapter argues that Nostra Aetate implied that the divine self-revelation in some real sense reaches Hindus, Muslims, and followers of other religions.


-Lionel Andrades

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