The magisterium has contradicted itself in the Letter of the Holy Office 1949 and the error is carried over into Vatican Council II (AG 7,LG 14 etc).However the Council can still be read as a continuity with the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.
In 2014 we do not know anyone 'made known by the Church's preaching' (AG 7) 1 and who is saved.So AG 7 does not contradict the dogma here.It is a reference to a hypothetical case. One can also assume that this theoretical case was saved also with the baptism of water . Since AG 7 says all need the baptism of water for salvation.Either way it is invisible for us and so not relevant to the dogma. It would have to be visible and known to us for this case to be an explicit exception to all needing the baptism of water in the present times for salvation.If we do not know of an exception then that 'exception' cannot be an exception.
Similarly we do not know any one in 2014 'though aware that God, through Jesus Christ founded the Church as something necessary,still do not wish to enter into it or persevere'(AG 7), who has been saved or not saved. So this is not a contradiction to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. We do not know any one saved outside the visible limits of the Church i.e without 'faith and baptism'(AG 11).
These confusing statements which mislead many Catholics and is responsible for much of the 'spirit of Vatican Council II ' interpretations originates from the objective error in 1949 in the Archdiocese of Boston.The Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Richard Cushing, the Jesuits there and the American theologians of that time, wrongly assumed that those who are saved with the baptism of desire or in invincible ignorance, or with the necessity of precept and means, were known and visible to us in real life. So they wrongly inferred that these explicit- for- them cases were known exceptions to the traditional interpretation of extra ecclesiam nulla salus according to Fr.Leonard Feeney and the St. Benedict Center.
Since the Holy Office 1949 did not correct them and neither did Pope Pius XII announce that all Jews and other non Catholics in Boston, need to convert to be saved,the confusion spread. It was made a part of Vatican Council II. In 1965 the excommunication of Fr.Leonard Feeney was still not lifted.Even Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and Michael Davis assumed that the baptism of desire referred to visible for us exceptions to the dogma on exclusive salvation in the Catholic Church.
The Magisterium in 1949 assumed that the baptism of desire was a valid exception to the dogma.So in Vatican Council II we have the phrase 'made known by the Church's preaching' as compated to those in invincible ignorance ( who have never had the Gospel preached to them through no fault of their own). Similarly the phrase was inserted 'though aware that God..'as compared to those who were not aware and could be saved.
The Magisterium assumed that those who are inculpably ignorant of the Gospel were known and visible to us in real life. So for Cardinal Cushing and the Jesuits these cases were explicit exceptions to the dogma. In other words there were known people to them who could be saved without the baptism of water.Cushing and the Jesuits were active at Vatican Council II and so AG 7 says 'can lead those inculpably ignorant of the Gospel to find that faith'.3 It was as if they knew these persons names .
They were active at Lumen Gentium 14 too. Lumen Gentium 14 in its initial paragraph supports the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus according to Fr. Leonard Feeney, the traditional interpretation.4 It then refers to those ' knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary' 5 as compared to those in ignorance. There is an orthodox statement which indicates all need to be formal members of the Catholic Church for salvation. 6 It then refers to the baptism of desire as an exception to the orthodox paragraph.
These references to salvation (with the baptism of desire or inculpable ignorance) in LG 14 and AG 7 were inferred to be of cases who are now in Heaven but also visible to the naked eye on earth. This is the irrational theology which has come to us from 1949.
It has been used by the International Theological Commission in two of its theological papers, Christianity and the World Religions and The Hope of
Infants who Die Without being Baptized. Pope Benedict XVI approved the ITC error.He also made the same mistake as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1257. This was theology gone wrong. He states ' God is not limited to the Sacraments'.In other words there is known salvation outside the Church. This known salvation contradicted the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus for him. Since the dead were visible also for him, the dogma- text was not placed in the Catechism.
It has been used by the International Theological Commission in two of its theological papers, Christianity and the World Religions and The Hope of
Infants who Die Without being Baptized. Pope Benedict XVI approved the ITC error.He also made the same mistake as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1257. This was theology gone wrong. He states ' God is not limited to the Sacraments'.In other words there is known salvation outside the Church. This known salvation contradicted the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus for him. Since the dead were visible also for him, the dogma- text was not placed in the Catechism.
-Lionel Andrades
___________________________________________
AD GENTES 7
1
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.
2.
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."-Ad Gentes 7, Vatican Council II.
3.
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.Ad Gentes 7, Vatican Council II.
LUMEN GENTIUM 14
4
Basing itself upon Sacred Scripture and Tradition, it teaches that the Church, now sojourning on earth as an exile, is necessary for salvation. Christ, present to us in His Body, which is the Church, is the one Mediator and the unique way of salvation. In explicit terms He Himself affirmed the necessity of faith and baptism(124) and thereby affirmed also the necessity of the Church, for through baptism as through a door men enter the Church
5
Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved.
6
They are fully incorporated in the society of the Church who, possessing the Spirit of Christ accept her entire system and all the means of salvation given to her, and are united with her as part of her visible bodily structure and through her with Christ, who rules her through the Supreme Pontiff and the bishops.The bonds which bind men to the Church in a visible way are profession of faith, the sacraments, and ecclesiastical government and communion.
7.
Catechumens who, moved by the Holy Spirit, seek with explicit intention to be incorporated into the Church are by that very intention joined with her. With love and solicitude Mother Church already embraces them as her own.
________________________________________
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment