Tuesday, September 29, 2009

CATHOLIC MISSION OFFICE TO THE JEWS AND GENTILES IN ROME


A pamphlet in Italian is available on the Internet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjtBSRM5YgQ

Please edit it, adapt it and use it.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmcbsIggS1k



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojLAf6iPdWM


There is no office or telephone number available (with no intention of having an office in future) however Mission-work has continued here for the last seven years. Our Office is figuratively, in the catacombs.

We do not ask for donations nor submit an address for donations. The word office is part of the name.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9mDj0I2Djo

WHAT I BELIEVE (SEVEN POINTS)


1) Does the Catholic Church teach that non-Catholic religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam etc) are not paths to salvation (to go to Heaven and to avid Hell)? YES


2) Does the Catholic Church teach that Catholic Faith and the Baptism of water are needed for all people in general, except for the exceptions, those in invincible ignorance etc, for salvation? YES


3) When I meet a Mr. Harrisburg, a Jew in New Hampshire, I can tell him kindly that the Catholic Church teaches that he needs Catholic Faith and the Baptism of water to go to Heaven and avoid Hell? YES


4) If a Jew in Boston would ask me if the Catholic Church teaches that he needs Catholic Faith and the Baptism of water urgently to avoid Hell and go to Heaven would I answer yes? YES


5) When we say that a non-Catholic can be saved through the baptism of desire, we need to also say that this is the extraordinary way. Otherwise this would be indifferentism. It would suggest that non-Catholics can be saved implicitly and in general by Jesus and the Catholic Church, within their religions. It would suggest that they do not have to convert? YES


6) The Holy Office (1949) in a Letter to Cardinal Richard Cushing relative to Fr. Leonard Feeney said (like CCC 1257) that the Baptism of water is the general, ordinary means to eternal beatitude and the reference was to the baptism of water and not the baptism of desire, which we do not administer when we meet non-Catholics? YES.


7) In Inter religious dialogue it needs to be kept in mind that the Church is the ordinary means of salvation (Redemptoris Missio 55)? YES


ADDITIONAL POINTS FOR REFLECTION

1. Ad Gentes 7, Vatican Council II says that all people need to enter the Catholic for salvation. All people include Protestants.


2.Lumen Gentium 14 refers to the ordinary means of salvation for all people in general. Lumen Gentium 16 refers to those saved extraordinarily.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om0mrS_H4w4


3.When we meet a Protestant we cannot judge if he or she is in the extraordinary category. Only God knows we do not. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZePY-LxSAgM


4. When we meet a Protestant we assume he needs Catholic Faith, not because we can judge personally but because the Church says so. This is the Church teaching in the past and in Vatican Council II.


5.Only the Catholic Church has been given the KEYS. It is the sole moral authority to explain objective truth. A Catholic may believe in Jesus and read the Bible daily (like a Protestant) and attend Mass but of he is mortal sin at the time of death he is oriented to Hell. So a Protestant may believe in Jesus but is in heresy if he is not in the Catholic Church. The Bible says not all those who say “Lord, Lord” will enter Heaven but those who do the will of God the Father. It is the will of God that all people worship Him in the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church is the only Ark of Noah that saves in the flood (CCC).


6.Pastorally, at the practical level when I met a Protestant, I know that all Protestants need to enter the Catholic Church for salvation. This is the teaching of the Church and not a personal view.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iscBXGfHmiA


7. At the intellectual, theological level, I know that Protestants can be saved and those who are saved are known only to God. We can judge.


8. When speaking/writing on this subject it is important to clarify when one is referring to (1) the practical and theological level and the (2) extraordinary and ordinary means of salvation.


9.Jesus says “Go out into the whole world and proclaim the Good News, those who believe will be saved, those who do not will be condemned.” Jesus was speaking here about the ordinary means of salvation at the practical level.


10.If you ask a Catholic if a non Catholic can be saved and he answers “Yes”, he is referring always to the extraordinary means of salvation at the intellectual level.


11.If you do not say that all people; everyone, needs to enter the Catholic Church (practical level) it would contradict past Church Councils, teachings of the popes and the Bible. It would contradict Vatican Council II (Ad Gentes 7 Lunen Gentium 14).


12The sedevantists, Most Holy Family Monastery, USA, mix up the practical and intellectual level. They say that everyone needs to enter the Catholic Church for salvation. This is correct, at the practical level, the level of missionary outreach. They say that there are no exceptions (baptism of desire etc) otherwise it would contradict the earlier teaching i.e. all need to enter the Catholic Church at the practical level. They are correct here. However they do not acknowledge at the intellectual/ theological level that there can be exceptions known only to God. These exceptions do not contradict the Church’s teaching at the practical level, the level of evangelisation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNiO7NWawCs

13.So Father Leonard Feeney was correct with his 'rigorist interpretation' at the practical level, the level of personal outreach to non-Catholics. He said that there are no exceptions (baptism of desire). There are no exceptions at the practical level which we can judge as exceptions. We do not know. We do not know specific cases. So he was correct.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvo6nxFeWDU



In the book The Bread of Life, he asks who in America does not know that Jesus is the centre of the world’s salvation. He assumes that in America in general, people are informed; they know, through modern communication and education. So they have an obligation to enter the Catholic Church (Lumen Gentium 14) to avoid Hell. He was indirectly suggesting that there could be exceptions, those who do not know. The communities he founded, Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary acknowledge the exceptions (invisible ignorance etc) at the intellectual/theological level. Fr. Leonard Feeney was not excommunicated for heresy but for disobedience. He did not go to Rome to defend himself. The excommunication was lifted by the Catholic Church without him having to change his teaching on outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2q79EjCueQ


14.The Catholic Church at the practical level acknowledges that unknown to us, there can be people who are saved. John 3:5 refers to everyone needing the baptism of water in the Catholic Church. The good thief on the cross is the exception.


15. We cannot say that the baptism of desire is the ordinary way of salvation and the baptism of water is also the ordinary way of salvation. We cannot say that Lumen Gentium 14 and Lumen Gentium 16 are both the ordinary way of salvation. This would be contrary to the principle of non-contradiction taught to Catholic seminarians in Philosophy.


Comments, questions, clarifications are welcome.






Lionel Andrades Catholic layman in Rome


E-mail: lionelandrades10@gmail.com



http://it.youtube.com/LionelAndrades



Blog : http://eucharistandmission.blogspot.com/

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