Joan Lewis is the Bureau Chief of EWTN in Rome and over the last few years I have been asking her three questions about Catholic Mission and Salvation and she will not answer them. She can also be heard on Radio Vatican which continues the slander on Fr. Leonard Feeney implying all of us Catholics who agree with him are also heretics.
To reject the ex cathedra dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus is a mortal sin. So how can Joan Lewis receive the Eucharist at the Church of Santa Susanna Rome and worse still also be a Eucharistic Minister?
It is possible because the Rector of the Church of Santa Susanna,frequented by the American community in Rome, is Fr.Gregory Apparel, a Paulist Father. In a homily he openly rejected the dogma
extra ecclesiam nulla salus and cited Vatican Council II.After I corresponded with him via e-mail he asked me to stop coming to that Church.
Joan Lewis would also give the Eucharist to John Allen, a former member of the Santa Suzanna Church Parish Council. John Allen, at the National Catholic Reporter has rejected the dogma and supported homosexuality,syncretism and other evils.It is all there in public.
EWTN has a similar policy as the
Vatican Radio English Service.
The Vatican Radio Press Service press releases has a news slant that rejects the ex cathdra dogma
extra ecclesiam nulla salus. The rejection of Church teachings and the criticism of the Catholic Church is familiar on Radio Vatican (English).
Can legal action be initiaited against them under the existing laws in Italy?
According to Vatican Radio.
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About us
By virtue of its Statute, Vatican Radio is the broadcasting station of the Holy See, legally based in the Vatican City State. It is a mean of communication and evangelization created to serve the Pope’s Ministry. It was established by Guglielmo Marconi and inaugurated by Pius XI (Radio message Qui arcano Dei) on February 12th 1931.
The main task of Vatican Radio is to proclaim the Christian message freely, faithfully and efficiently and keeping the centre of Catholicism in contact with the different countries of the world by:
- diffusing the voice and the teachings of the Roman Pontiff;
- informing about the activities of the Holy See;
- giving information about the life and the activities of the Catholic Church in the world;
- helping the faithful to evaluate today’s problems in the light of the Teachings of the Church.
Vatican Radio gives advice and cooperation to Dioceses or Bishops’ Conferences in the field of radio broadcasting sector.
Vatican Radio has also the institutional task to record, amplify, and distribute the sound of all the official Vatican activities of the Holy Father and to exercise and protect, in an exclusive way, the copyright and intellectual property rights over the voice recordings of the Roman Pontiffs.
Fr. Federico Lombardi S.I. is the Director General of Vatican Radio since November 5th, 2005.
APPEAL AGAINST SLANDER AND DISINFORMATION
We the undersigned persons appeal to a Court of Law in Italy.
1. Name XYZ, Italian citizen, Address…
2................................................................
3................................................................
4................................................................
5.................................................................
Resource Person : Mr.Lionel Andrades, Catholic in Rome.
Legal firm : X,Italy
1.
Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN-5817 Old Leeds Rd.Irondale, Al.3210-2164, USA E-mail:
viewer@ewtn.com ),its Rome Bureau Chief , Joan Lewis and
Vatican Radio (English Service) suggest that Fr. Leonard Feeney was in heresy and error. (See article by the late Fr. William Most on the EWTN website (Click on
Faith, then
Teaching, then
The Catholic Church and finally
The Church and Salvation).
Here is the ex cathedra dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus
1. “There is but one universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved.” (Pope Innocent III, Fourth Lateran Council, 1215.).
2. “We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.” (Pope Boniface VIII, the Bull Unam Sanctam, 302.).
3.“The most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go into the eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless before death they are joined with Her; and that so important is the unity of this ecclesiastical body that only those remaining within this unity can profit by the sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and they alone can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, their almsgivings, their other works of Christian piety and the duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ, can be saved, unless he remain within the bosom and the unity of the Catholic Church.” (Pope Eugene IV, the Bull Cantate Domino, 1441.) – from the website Catholicism.org and “No Salvation outside the Church”: Link List, the Three Dogmatic Statements Regarding EENS)http://nosalvationoutsideofthecatholiicchurch.blogspot.com/
So how could he be in heresy? The dogma indicates that everyone with no exception needs to enter the Catholic Church for salvation. The dogma does not say that those in invincible ignorance, with a good conscience or the baptism of desire, do not de facto have to enter the Catholic Church.
2. We Catholics, affirm the ex cathedra dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus, just like Fr. Leonard Feeney. We, include the Sisters of St. Benedict Center who have been granted canonical status by the Catholic Church in the diocese of Worcester,USA.
mailto:USA.info@sistersofstbenedictcenter.org
3. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Vatican document
Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church (June 29, 2007) indicates that it is EWTN which is in heresy. EWTN has never affirmed the dogma or interpreted Vatican Council II as being accord with dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. (See CDF RESPONSES IS A WONDERFUL AFFIRMATION OF THE DOGMA EXTRA ECCLESIAM NULLA SALUS on the Blog: eucharistandmission February 15, 2010)
So how could EWTN suggest that we are heretics?
According to Mrs. Gay Caswell a columnist in Canada EWTN had a program on baptism but never mentioned that baptism was needed for the salvation of all people with no exception. According to apologist Robert Sungenis there was a program on EWTN in which Jews were allowed to say that Jews no more need to convert into the Catholic Church.On an EWTN Radio program the apologist Patrick Madrid said that evangelization is important and non Catholics need to enter the Catholic Church for salvation except those in invincible ignorance etc.This is irrational and irrelevant and contrary to the dogma and Vatican Council II.
Patrick Madrid, it's irrational!
Aside from the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus and Vatican Council II it seems irrational when people say that ‘It is important to evangelize and it is necessary that people enter the Catholic Church, of course, except for those in invincible ignorance, with the baptism of desire or a good conscience’. Perhaps if you hear one of them on the Radio or have a chance to meet an apologist could you ask?
1) Is it possible to know who has a genuine baptism of desire, is in invincible ignorance or with a good conscience?
Patrick could answer, “No we do not know specifically or personally, but I mean someone in this category in general would not have to convert into the Catholic Church."
So the follow up question could be: "So we do not know anyone specifically. Does this mean that everyone in real life, every non Catholic whom I meet needs to enter the Catholic Church to go to Heaven?
If he says yes then the question is why has he to mention that except for those in invincible ignorance….It is irrelevant.
If he continues, "No every non Catholic does not have to enter the Catholic Church since those in invincible ignorance etc…" It would be illogical.
So aside from the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus and Vatican Council II which supports the dogma, it is irrational. (From the blog: eucharistandmission March 2, 2010 )
So EWTN and Vatican Radio (English Service) is accused of slander and calumny, and misrepresenting information about us Catholics and the Catholic Church even after being repeatedly informed.
Note: Similar charges as directed at EWTN could also be made against the Inter Religious Officer, in the Inter Religious Department of the Catholic dioceses of Toronto and Calgary.
In a recent interview with the Israeili Ambassador to the Vatican and in other inter faith programs Vatican Radio never brings out the following points.
Vatican Council II says all non Catholics, including Jews, need Catholic Faith and the Baptism of water to avoid Hell (1)
Thousands of Jews in Rome are sadly to be lost to eternal death in Hell the Council indicates since they are aware of the Church yet do not enter.(2)
The dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus was referred to as ‘the dogma’, the ‘infallible’ teaching by Pope Pius XII (3).He was saying all Jews in Boston, specifically, and other cities like Rome, needed to worship God in the only religion in which God wants all people to be united in. This is also the teaching of Fr. Leonard Feeney, who was not excommunicated for heresy as the Jewish Left media reports in error.
The secular media also needs to update their information with St. Pius XII’s teaching that ‘in certain circumstances’ a non Catholic with implicit faith (baptism of desire, invincible ignorance etc) can be saved. (4)
So implicit faith (5) was never in conflict with evangelisation and mission, or with the dogmatic teaching that everyone with no exception needs to enter Jesus’ Mystical Body; the Church, to be saved, from Hell as EWTN suggests with Fr.William Mosts article on thier website, The Church and Salvation.
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1..Ad Gentes 7.
… 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…’(Emphasis added).
2.Ad Gentes 7:
‘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."…-Vatican Council II
Note:Vatican Council II indicats that billions of non Catholics in modern cities who know about the Church and yet do not enter are oriented to Hell.
3.
Now, among those things which the Church has always preached and will never cease to preach is contained also that
infallible statement by which we are taught that there is no salvation outside the Church.
However, this
dogma must be understood in that sense in which the Church herself understands it...-Letter of the Holy Office 1949 (Emphasis added).
4.
In His infinite mercy God has willed that the effects, necessary for one to be saved, of those helps to salvation which are directed toward man's final end, not by intrinsic necessity, but only by divine institution, can also be obtained in certain circumstances when those helps are used only in desire and longing.-Letter of the Holy Office 1949
5.
Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience. Nor does Divine Providence deny the helps necessary for salvation to those who, without blame on their part, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God and with His grace strive to live a good life. Whatever good or truth is found amongst them is looked upon by the Church as a preparation for the Gospel.-Lumen Gentium 16,Vatican Council II
-Lionel Andrades
E-mail :
lionelandrades10@gmail.com
We Catholics who attend in different Rites, Holy Mass, the renactment of Jesus' Supreme Sacrifice on the Cross believe:
1. Every person has to be a member of the Catholic Church though Catholic Faith and the Baptism of water for salvation and there are no exceptions (baptism of desire etc) that we can know of.
2. Implicit Faith (invincible ignorance etc) is not the ordinary means of salvation, which is, the baptism of water and Catholic Faith. So implicit faith is rare, a probability in certain circumstances and unknown to us. Only God can judge.
3. To reject the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus or to change it, is a mortal sin. A person in this condition is not to receive the Eucharist otherwise it is a sacrilege.
4.That everyone with no exception has to enter the visible Church for salvation has been the teaching of the Catholic Church for centuries. It is still the official teaching of the Catholic Church, expressed in Magisteriam documents, including Vatican Council II.
5. Fr. Leonard Feeney was not excommunicated for heresy but for discipline.
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A.The traditional teaching of the Church according to Pope Pius XII is that with implicit faith/desire a person can be saved in ‘certain circumstances’(Letter of the Holy Office 1949).So in ‘certain circumstances’, and not in general, according to the Traditional teaching of the Catholic Church there can be persons, saved.
Since only God can judge who these persons are , we do not know them personally or specifically. So their salvation and God’s Judgement can only remain a concept for us.
In His infinite mercy God has willed that the effects, necessary for one to be saved, of those helps to salvation which are directed toward man's final end, not by intrinsic necessity, but only by divine institution, can also be obtained in certain circumstances when those helps are used only in desire and longing.-Letter of the Holy Office 1949
It is something known only in principle, as a thought, intellectually. I call it collectively De jure Salvation. The word may be new but in essence it is a traditional teaching.
B.In contrast those non Catholics whom I meet face to face and know personally and who do not enter the Catholic Church, I know first hand, they are oriented to Hell. I know this because the Church says they need to convert to be saved. So this knowledge is concrete. It is not a concept. It is also based on a Traditional Catholic teaching. I call this De facto Salvation. The word may be new but in essence it refers to a traditional teaching.
A and B are not opposed to each other.
B refers to the dogma in actual fact at the Absolute Level and its expression in word and thought at the human level.
A refers to a concept at the human level of a possible fact that I cannot concretely know but of a possibility all the same.
You could reject A and agree it can be a concept a thought but an erroneous one. Fine. We still agree on the dogma, B.
“Everyone needs to believe in an ex cathedra dogma,” said Bro. Peter John F.I, he is a Friar of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, working at the St. Mary Major Basilica Sacristy.The Filipino Friar laughs and says it is unthinkable for a Catholic not to believe in an ex cathedra dogma. He has in mind the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady.Yet outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation is also an ex cathedra dogma.
The dogma above does not say that those in invincible ignorance or implicit faith do not have to enter the Catholic Church.De facto we do not know of any specific case of implicit faith. De jure we accept the possibility. (LG 16).
Lumen Gentium 14 refers to the ordinary means of salvation and Lumen Gentium 16 the extra ordinary means of salvation said Fr. Massimilliano dei Gaspari F.I, an Italian priest and a Superior of the Franciscans of the Immaculate in Rome. His views are shared by Fr. Tullio Rotondo, a diocesan Italian priest in Rome. Fr. Tullio calls attention to St. Leonardo of Port Maurice’s statement that the majority of people are damned to Hell and only a comparatively a few are saved. Vatican Council II (Ad Gentes 7) indicates billions of non Catholics in modern cities of the world today who know about the Jesus and the Catholic Church and yet do not enter are on the way to Hell.
During the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith(CDF) issued Responses to Some questions regarding certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church which affirmed the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. It was a repetition of Pope John Paul II’s teaching in Dominus Iesus and the Notification on the book by Fr. Jacques Dupuis S.J. It was in accord with Pope Paul VI's Evangelii Nuntiandi and Vatican Council II‘s Ad Gentes 7 and Lumen Gentium 14.Pope Pius XII called it our ‘infallible’ teaching. (Letter of the Holy Office 1949).
In Responses the CDF states:
This Church, constituted and organised in this world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the successor of Peter and the Bishops in communion with him”.the word “subsists” can only be attributed to the Catholic Church alone precisely because it refers to the mark of unity that we profess in the symbols of the faith (I believe... in the “one” Church); and this “one” Church subsists in the Catholic Church.-Responses to Some Questions Regarding certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church.(June 29, 2007 )
Christ “established here on earth” only one Church and instituted it as a “visible and spiritual community”, that from its beginning and throughout the centuries has always existed and will always exist, and in which alone are found all the elements that Christ himself instituted. “This one Church of Christ, which we confess in the Creed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic […].
So Responses repeats the message of Vatican Council II that the Church is a necessity for salvation (Ad Gentes 7, Lumen Gentium 14). De facto everyone needs to enter the Catholic Church; it is a necessity for salvation.
De jure (conceptually, in theory, intellectually, in theology) we could debate or discuss exceptions to the need of salvation, those without the baptism of water. However these are exceptions known only to God. They are unknown to us. They are unknown to us since only Jesus can judge. He will decide.
Responses states
If ‘“It follows that these separated churches and Communities…’ was a reference to the ordinary way of salvation then it would contradict Vatican Council II. Since Ad Gentes 7, states “all people” need Catholic Faith and the Baptism of water for salvation. All.
If de facto we know specifically, personally, that someone in ‘these separated churches and Communities’ can be saved, then it would contradict the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.
So dejure, conceptually we know “It follows that these separated churches and Communities,...''- is possible. De jure we could debate or discuss this possibility.
De facto it is clear that there are no exceptions to ' Christ “established here on earth” only one Church...'
De facto (in evangelising, in personal contact with non-Catholics) there is no one (Muslim) who specifically has the baptism of desire, who I know is in invincible ignorance or who I can judge has good conscience.
VATICAN COUNCIL II SAYS OUTSIDE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH THERE IS NO SALVATION
Vatican Council II says outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation. Extra ecclesiam nulla salus.
The Catholic Church teaches after Vatican Council II (1965) that all people need to enter the Catholic Church to go to Heaven (Ad Gentes 7, Vatican Council II). Catholic Faith with the Baptism of water is the normal, ordinary way of salvation for all people (Lumen Gentium 14, Vatican Council II).The Catholic Church is the ordinary way of salvation for all people (Lumen Gentium 14).Non Catholics however can be saved through the extraordinary means of salvation (Lumen Gentium 16).Only God knows who are the non-Catholics saved through the extraordinary means of salvation; the exceptions. We do not know who the exceptions are. We cannot judge. Jesus, the Church, Scripture and Vatican Council II indicate that the priority is Catholic Faith and the Baptism of water for all people.
So everyone needs to enter the Catholic Church which is the like the only Ark of Noah that saves in the Flood (CCC).Non Catholic religions have good things in them. However they are not paths to salvation. All salvation comes through Jesus and His Mystical Body the Church. Those non-Catholics who know the above information and yet do not enter the Church are oriented to Hell (Ad Gentes 7, Lumen Gentium 14).Those non-Catholics participating in inter religious dialogue, are educated. They know. They are oriented to Hell.
Outside the Church there is no salvation. Catholic Faith and the Baptism of water are needed for all people. This is Vatican Council II.
No where in Nostra Aetate, Vatican Council II is it said that non Catholic religions are paths to salvation.
Vatican Council II is in harmony with John 3:5, the Church Fathers, the ex cathedra councils on extra ecclesia nulla salus, the Council of Florence, Evangelii Nuntiandi, Redemptoris Missio, Catechism of the Catholic Church, Dominus Iesus, Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Notification on Fr. Jacques Dupuis etc. In ‘certain circumstances’ as Pope Pius XII states (Letter of the Holy Office 1949) those with implicit faith, those who are not Catholics ,can be saved (without Catholic Faith and the Baptism of water).So we cannot interpret ‘It follows that these separated churches and Communities….’ as referring to the ordinary way of salvation. Since only in 'certain circumstances’; exceptionally and known to God only can members of separated Churches and communities be saved without Catholic Faith in the Catholic Church. The ordinary way of salvation is the baptism of water and Catholic Faith. For example the Catechism states that the Catholic Church knows of no way to eternal beatitude other than the baptism of water (given to adults with Catholic Faith). So this is the ordinary way. Yet CCC 1257 also says salvation is not limited to the Sacraments. So here we have the dejure, extraordinary,exceptional means of salvation. In a way it is irrelevant to us since it will be judged only by Jesus.
“It follows that these separated churches and Communities, though we believe they suffer from defects, are deprived neither of significance nor importance in the mystery of salvation... ”
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