WHY IS THE ITALIAN PRIEST FR. GIUSEPPE CELLUCCI OMI NOT EXCOMMUNICATED LIKE FR. TISSA BALASURIYA OMI?

Fr. Giuseppe Cellucci OMI is a priest at the Church of San Nicola di Bari, Rome and is also a chaplain for university students. Today like his community colleague, Fr. Tissa Balasuriya OMI he denied an ex cathedra dogma.

Today morning I was speaking with him at his church in the centre of Rome and he said extra ecclesiam nulla salus must be interpreted in the context in which a person lives. In Africa it could be different he said.

The Catholic Church is now open and no rigid anymore he observed.

This was a new doctrine I observed. He replied ‘No’.

He said extra ecclesiam nulla salus never meant that everybody needed to be a visible member of the Catholic Church.

I asked him if he believed that all the Muslims in Rome are on the way to Hell.

He said no. We cannot judge.

I reminded him that the founder of his community Eugene of Mazenod believed in extra ecclesiam nulla salus as everybody needing to become visible member of the Church. He said that it was in another time.

Fr. Giuseppe was in first class heresy and so are his Superior and the local bishop Earnesto Mandara if he knows about this and allows this priest to continue like this. It is a contradiction of the Creed where we pray I believe in one baptism for the forgiveness of sin. We also pray I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church. It is the Holy Spirit which taught the Church its ex cathedra teaching on extra ecclesiam nulla salus. However this priest could assert we can change the meaning of the Creed in context. It depends on the local situation for him, whatever that means for him.

He himself brought up the name of Tissa Balasuriya in our conversation and his affirmation of the Catholic Faith. H was disappointed that Fr. Balasuriya rejected the Marian dogma of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He recanted after Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger excommunicated him. Some of his supporters including a member of the Dominican Curia in Rome, Fr.Chrys McVey, promote a new way to deny a dogma. They call it ‘contextual theology’.

I reminded Fr. Giuseppe (Giuseppe_cellucci@fastwebnet.it giuseppecellucci@omifastwebnet.it ) that there could be no fixed Church teachings for him. He could change teachings in context on abortion, contraception etc.

I did not tell him that he was in the same state as Fr. Balasuriya before he was excommunicated.

I mentioned that Vatican Council II and the Catechism of the Catholic Church affirm the dogma. He observed so did Ecclesiam Suam.

So does Evangelli Nuntiandi of Pope Pius VI.

But, he observed that when the dogma, which is respected and accepted theoretically, is applied, its meaning can change depending on the context or situation one is in.

This was a case for me of ‘doctrines develop’ or ‘doctrines evolve’ or modernism.

In 1998 I was accepted by the Diocesan Council in the Archdiocese of Karachi, Pakistan as a candidate for the diocesan ministerial priesthood. The Archbishop, the late Simon Pereira however believed that doctrines evolve. They do not change he wrote to me in a memo but doctrines change in our understanding of them. The issue there too was extra ecclesiam nulla salus.
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OMI Superior in Rome:
Superiore Provinciale

p. Nicola Parretta
via Tuscolana, 73
00044 Frascati RM
tel. 069408377
superiore.provinciale@omi.it