Catholic Culture offers theology programs which are leftist propaganda

Is There Salvation Outside the Church?
by Fr. Alfred McBride, O. Praem.

Fr. Alfred McBride gives a brief, summary of the Catholic Church's teaching on whether salvation is possible outside the Church. Also covers Fr. Leonard Feeney.

Some years ago, a popular Jesuit writer named Father Leonard Feeney charmed readers with his humorous essays and books, such as "Fish on Friday." A lighthearted apologist and defender of the Church, his insistence on doctrine delivered with a sense of humor prompted the comment that he was "as Catholic as St. Thomas Aquinas and as American as Mark Twain."

In 1943, Father Feeney became the popular chaplain for the students at St. Benedict's Center, which served Catholics from Harvard and Radcliffe.

And then something happened, He began to preach that the axiom of Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303) — "Outside the Church, no salvation" — meant that formal membership in the Catholic Church was necessary for salvation. The Vatican's Holy Office rejected his restrictive view by distinguishing between those who really belong to the Church (in re) and those who belong by desire (in voto).

Lionel:
The Letter of the Holy Office 1949 only mentioned those who belong in re and in voto. It did not state that this was a contradiction to Fr.Leonard Feeney. Catholic Culture assumes it.

Only God decides who is in re and in voto so it is irrelevant to Fr.Leonard Feeney's interpretation which was traditional.

If we personally do not know any of these cases how can they be exceptions or relevant to the dogma.

The desire would be explicit in those who were catechumens and implicit in those people of goodwill who would join the Church if they knew it to be the one, true Church of Christ.

Lionel:
Acceptable and these cases are invisible for us.

Father Feeney refused an order from his Jesuit superiors to leave St. Benedict's Center. The following year he was dismissed from the Society of Jesus. In the meantime, he established a religious community for men and women for his followers at Still River, Mass. In 1972, through the efforts of Bishop Bernard Flanagan of Worcester, Father Feeney and some of his followers were reconciled to the Church. He died in 1978.

The Fathers of the Church often taught that "outside the Church there is no salvation" (e.g., St. Augustine, Sermon 96, 7, 9). Stated positively, this means that all salvation comes from Christ, the Head, through the Church, which is His Body.

Lionel:
That all salvation comes from Christ is not to posited against the dogma since we do not know any one who is saved without the baptism of water. Catholic Culture is about to assume there that we know these exceptions.There are no known exceptions.

Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Second Vatican Council teaches that the Church is necessary for salvation. Christ is the mediator and way of salvation. He is present to us in His body, which is the Church. He explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and baptism. By doing so, He affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church, which people enter through baptism. Because of that, there are people who 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 remain in it (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 846).

Lionel:
So CCC 846 (above) says all need faith and baptism for salvation and we do not know any exceptions.Ther sub title of CCC 846 is Outside the Church There is No Salvation.

Vatican II teaches that the Church is the "Sacrament of Salvation." (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, no. 1; Catechism, no. 780). Christ intended that the Church be a sacrament of the inner union of all people with God. This means that the Church is an effective sign of salvation for all who will be saved. Not just a signpost — like "exit 34" on a freeway — but an actual instrument of salvation. Jesus accomplishes His saving work in and through the Church.

Lionel:
Yes!

But what about the billions of people who do not know Christ or the Church?

"Those, who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and moved by grace, try in their actions to do His will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience — those too may attain eternal salvation" (Catechism, no. 847). Sincere non-Christians can be moved by grace to seek God and know and do His will. When they do so according to the dictates of their conscience they can be saved, for by God's will they are associated with the paschal mystery of Christ.

Lionel:
Yes they can be saved but CCC 847 does not state that we personally know these cases. So they are not exceptions to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.Catholic Culture assumes these cases are personally known and so they are exceptions to Fr.Leonard Feeney.

What about those outside the Church who belong to other Christian faiths or world religions? I do not have enough space here to give an adequate answer to this question. I strongly recommend studying the Catechism's coverage of this matter in nos. 836-845. The opening statement is instructive: "All men are called to this catholic unity of the People of God. . . . And to it, in different ways, belong or are ordered: the Catholic faithful, others who believe in Christ, and finally all mankind, called by grace to salvation" (no. 836).

Lionel:
Salvation is open to all, Jesus died for all. To receive it one needs to enter the Church visibly. This was the traditional teaching. It is expressed in Dominus Iesus 20.

Members of other Christian churches who believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are in a certain, though imperfect, union with the Catholic Church. With the Orthodox churches, this union is so close that it lacks little to attain the fullness that would permit a common celebration of the Eucharist.

Lionel:
It is possible for a person to be saved in imperfect communion with the Church (UR 3) but we cannot name these cases. So they are not exceptions to Ad Gentes 7 which says all need faith and baptism for salvation. Ad Gentes 7 like the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus, defined three times, indicates Christians need to enter the Catholic Church to go to Heaven and avoid Hell.

The Church maintains a special relationship with the Jewish people. As the People of God in the New Covenant, the Church has a deep link with the Jewish people, who were the first to hear God's Word. "Unlike other non-Christian religions, the Jewish faith is already a response to God's revelation in the Old Covenant."

Lionel:
According to Vatican Council II ( Ad Gentes 7) and the Catechism of the Catholic Church 846(cited above) Jews need to convert into the Catholic Church for salvation.


Regarding the Messiah, Jews and Catholics have similar goals about the future. Catholics await the return of the Messiah, who died and rose from the dead and is recognized as Lord and Son of God. Jews await the coming of a messiah whose features remain hidden until the end of time. Their expectation, therefore, is accompanied by the mystery of their not knowing or misunderstanding Jesus Christ when He comes again.


Lionel:

According to Vatican Council II and other Magisterial documents, Jews need to believe in the Messiah and enter the Catholic Church for salvation.


The Catechism proceeds to discuss the Church's positive relationships with the Muslims and other non-Christian religions that developed quite independently of Judaism and Christianity. "The Catholic Church rejects nothing which is true and holy in these religions" which "often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men" (Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, no. 2).

Lionel:

We appreciate all that is good and holy in other religions however NA 2 does not state that we know good and holy Muslims who are saved in Heaven without Catholic Faith and the baptism of water. So NA 2 does not contradict Fr.Leonard Feeney or Ad Gentes 7, Vatican Council II which says all need to convert into the Church with faith and baptism.


The commitment of the Church to ecumenical and interfaith dialogue with other believers is a major effort to fulfill the Father's will that all people be gathered together into His Son's Church.


Lionel:

In inter religious dialogue it must be remembered that the Church is the ordinary means of salvation (Redemptoris Missio 55). This was also the view of Fr.Leonard Feeney.

"The Church is the place where humanity must rediscover its unity and salvation," St. Augustine wrote (Sermon 96, 7). "The Church is the world reconciled. She is the bark which in the full sail of the Lord's Gross, by the breath of the Holy Spirit, navigates safely in this world."

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Norbertine Father Alfred McBride is the author of "Essentials of the Faith: A Guide to the Catechism of the Catholic Church" (Our Sunday Visitor).


© Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.

This item 674 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org

March 20, 2013
CATHOLIC CULTURE ASSUMES CASES OF INVINCIBLE IGNORANCE SAVED IN HEAVEN ARE VISIBLE TO US AND SO ARE EXCEPTIONS TO FR.LEONARD FEENEY

In the standard theology textbooks used in all the seminaries at the end of the 19th century and throughout the first half of the 20th, in Tanquerey's Moral Theology, for instance, you will commonly see a sentence from one address Pius IX gave to some bishops, in which Pius IX declared that he — and the Catholic bishops in general — perfectly well knew that it is not a sin for persons to remain outside the Church if they are invincibly ignorant of the true religion — don't know it and without any guilty negligence on their part really can't find out about it.

And, furthermore, though he does not use this odd modern word, of course, psychological factors matter — some things are impossible because they are morally impossible, humanly impossible, psychologically impossible. He said that in view of the indescribable real complexity and mysteriousness of the many factors that might limit a person's ability to understand the claims of the Church, there is no way as a rule to know who is or is not invincibly ignorant.

The Leonard Feeney Quarrel and Pius IX on Invincible Ignorance
by Farley Clinton http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=2650

it is not a sin for persons to remain outside the Church if they are invincibly ignorant of the true religion — don't know it and without any guilty negligence on their part really can't find out about it.
Lionel:
Yes it is not a sin and we do not know personally any such case. The popes have also not said that we can physically see such cases. The writer and Jeff Mirus of Catholic Culture assumes that these cases are visible to us and so they presume they are known exceptions to Fr.Leonard Feeney.

there is no way as a rule to know who is or is not invincibly ignorant.

Lionel:
Precisely we cannot know who will be saved in invincible ignorance and Vatican Council II (AG 7) says all need faith and baptism for salvation. Redemptoris Missio 55 says the Church is the ordinary way of salvation (not being saved in another religion or in invincible ignorance).

So there is no case against Fr.Leonard Feeney-period!
-Lionel Andrades

Pope Pius IX never said that someone could be saved "outside the Catholic Church." In fact, he said the exact opposite:

And here, beloved Sons and Venerable Brethren, it is necessary once more to mention and censure the serious error into which some Catholics have unfortunately fallen. For they are of the opinion that men who live in errors, estranged from the true faith and from Catholic unity, can attain eternal life. This is in direct opposition to Catholic teaching. We all know that those who are afflicted with invincible ignorance with regard to our holy religion, if they carefully keep the precepts of the natural law that have been written by God in the hearts of all men, if they are prepared to obey God, and if they lead a virtuous and dutiful life, can attain eternal life by the power of divine light and grace. For God, Who reads comprehensively in every detail the minds and souls, the thoughts and habits of all men, will not permit, in accordance with his infinite goodness and mercy, anyone who is not guilty of a voluntary fault to suffer eternal torments (suppliciis). However, also well-known is the Catholic dogma that no one can be saved outside the Catholic Church, and that those who obstinately oppose the authority and definitions of the Church, and who stubbornly remain separated from the unity of the Church and from the successor of Peter, the Roman Pontiff (to whom the Saviour has entrusted the care of His vineyard), cannot attain salvation. ( Quanto conficiamur, 7-8 )