Tuesday, November 2, 2010

VATICAN RECOGNIZES FR.LEONARD FEENEY'S COMMUNITIES WHO HOLD THE 'RIGORIST INTERPRETATION' OF EXTRA ECCLESIAM NULLA SALUS

Worcester, Manchester officially recognize the spiritual children of a courageous priest faithful to the Catholic Church creating a new development for Catholic catechesis and mission

The diocese of Manchester, USA recently appointed a chaplain for the St. Benedict Centre, Richmond, New Hampshire and approved their chapel. The diocese of Worcester has granted canonical status to the St. Benedict’s Abbey monks and the Sisters of St. Benedict Center and the community in Still River, Massachusetts, St. Anns House. The Abbey was recognized as early as 1988 with the approval of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

All these communities inspired by Fr. Leonard Feeney uphold the ex cathedra dogma outside the church there is no salvation which is in accord with Ad Gentes 7, Vatican Council II, the Catechism of the Catholic Church 845, 846, Dominus Iesus 20 and the Letter of the Holy Office 1949 issued during the pontificate of Pope Pius XII.

The recognition by the diocese was also formally approved by Ecclesia Dei, Vatican since they use the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, permitted by the moto proprio Summorum Pontificium.

Founded by associates of Fr.Leonard Feeney, these are third and fourth generation communities.They have been opposed by the liberals and traditionalists, and all shades and ideologies in between, but they held firm to the Catholic Faith for all of us.

Vatican Council II came and supported them but the secular media maintained the attack. Ad Gentes 7 said ‘all people’ need Catholic Faith and the baptism of water to avoid Hell. Yet no one in the media or in homilies reported the coincidence with Fr. Feeney’s teachings.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church said that the Church was like the Ark of Noah (845) in which all people need to enter as if entering ‘a door’ (N.846).Wikipedia quotes the Catechism differently and omits these passages .

Dominus Iesus 20 states salvation is open to all, but to receive it one must enter the Church. This was an acknowledgement of the rigorist interpretation of extra ecclesiam nulla salus in the Jubilee Year.

But the Jewish Left mainstream media maintained the propaganda. They claimed that the Letter of the Holy Office 1949 condemned Fr. Feeney for heresy. Even though a passage of the Letter refers to’ the dogma’, the ‘infallible’ teaching and the text of this ‘dogma’ indicates all Jews in Boston need to convert into the Catholic Church to avoid Hell.

Pius XII was saying in the Letter of the Holy Office all Jews in Boston need Catholic Faith and the baptism of water to avoid Hell.(1) The Letter (Haec Suprema) issued by Cardinal Ottaviani supported Fr. Feeney on doctrine and criticized him for being disobedient to the Archbishop of Boston whom it was believed then was faithful to the Church on doctrine. The first part of the Letter referred to doctrine/dogma and the second part to discipline/disobedience.

Over time it became clear that it was the Archbishop of Boston and the Jesuits at Boston College who were in dissent. Even today the Jesuits in Boston will deny the dogma. Meanwhile the Jewish Left media have offered Catholics ‘a more comfortable understanding’ of an infallible truth and Catholics assume it is the official teaching of the Catholic Church.

It cannot be the official teaching of the Catholic Church not for the communities of Fr. Leonard Feeney now officially recognized by the Magisterium.

The media interpretation cannot also be official since they intentionally or unintentionally omit the defacto-de jure interpretation of Magisterial texts like the Catechism of the Catholic Church. They use a 'defacto-defacto' analysis.

With the defacto-dejure analysis the media cannot claim that Lumen Gentium 16, Vatican Council II contradicts the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. Since LG 16 cannot refer to de facto (explicitly knowable) salvation but to de jure salvation (accepted in principle, it’s a possibility, only as a concept for us, since it is known only to God).There is no de facto (explicit) invincible ignorance or the baptism of desire that we can know of. Even th0ose who claim that we can know cannot cite a single case in the present times or the last 100 years.

So if LG 16 refers only to de jure (in principle) salvation, it does not contradict the rigorist interpretation of extra ecclesiam nulla salus, which is, everyone needs explicit Catholic Faith and the baptism of water for salvation, and there are no exceptions.

The LG 16 text is neutral and does not use the word ‘explicit’ or ‘formal’. Also LG 16 is the ordinary Magisterium. So how can it contradict an infallible teaching?Therefore how can the media claim a ‘development of doctrine’ based on LG 16, Vatican Council II?

Most Catholic religious, priests, have done a two year study of Philosophy and so are familiar with Logic and the defacto-dejure analysis and also the Principle of Non Contradiction.

The principle of non Contradiction is violated in the media’s interpretation of Vatican Council II and what the media dubs the Boston Heresy Case.

There is no Magisterial document which states that Fr. Feeney was excommunicated for heresy. The Letter of the Holy Office included in the Denzinger –Enchiridion refers to only ‘disobedience’. The Letter really supported Fr.Feeney with ‘the dogma’. So it is factually incorrect to say the priest was excommunicated for heresy or that LG 16 refers to defacto, explicit, see able invincible ignorance etc.

So Scott Hahn, like Fr. Feeney and the Magisterium, says in answer to a question, that when he meets a Jew, or Muslim or other non Catholic in Boston he will assume that this person needs Catholic faith and the baptism of water to be saved.

Obviously he would not know if anyone of them had received the baptism of desire or was in genuine invincible ignorance.

So Scott Hahn believes everyone de facto needs to enter the Church for salvation and there could be people saved de jure with the baptism of desire, invincible ignorance or a good conscience and it will be known only to God.

For Scott Hahn it is all clear but not for the Society of St. Pius X priests.They have been critical of Fr. Leonard Feeney’s communities since hey misunderstand Bishop Lefebvre’s.

Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Against the Heresies, p. 216:
“Evidently, certain distinctions must be made. Souls can be saved in a religion other than the Catholic religion (Protestantism, Islam, Buddhism, etc.), but not by this religion. There may be souls who, not knowing Our Lord, have by the grace of the good Lord, good interior dispositions, who submit to God...But some of these persons make an act of love which implicitly is equivalent to baptism of desire. It is uniquely by this means that they are able to be saved.”[Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Against the Heresies, Angelus Press, 1997, p. 216]

Bishop Lefebvre, Address given at Rennes, France: “If men are saved in Protestantism, Buddhism or Islam, they are saved by the Catholic Church, by the grace of Our Lord, by the prayers of those in the Church, by the blood of Our Lord as individuals, perhaps through the practice of their religion, perhaps of what they understand in their religion, but not by their religion…” [Quoted in Bro. Robert Mary, Fr. Feeney and the Truth About Salvation, p. 213]

Pages 217-218: “This is then what Pius IX said and what he condemned. It is necessary to understand the formulation that was so often employed by the Fathers of the Church: ‘Outside the Church there is no salvation.’ When we say that, it is incorrectly believed that we think that all the Protestants, all the Moslems, all the Buddhists, all those who do not publicly belong to the Catholic Church go to hell. Now, I repeat, it is possible for someone to be saved in these religions, but they are saved by the Church, and so the formulation is true: Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus. This must be preached.”[Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Against the Heresies, pp. 217-218]

  The founder of the Society of St. Pius X was correct when he said that souls can be saved in a religion other than the Catholic religion (Protestantism, Islamism, Buddhism etc) however this is only a possibility, de jure ‘in certain circumstances’ (Letter of the Holy Office 1949).Otherwise, we know everyone with no exception needs to explictly enter the Catholic Church to avoid Hell (Cantate Domino, Council of Florence, ex cathedra extra ecclesiam nulla salus, Ad Gentes 7, Vatican Council II, Catechism of the Catholic Church n.836, Dominus Iesus 20 etc).This is the Catholic Deposit of Faith.

The above two passages quoted are in accord with the rigorist interpretation of the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. There are those who can be saved with the baptism of desire etc and they are known only to God. There is no explicit or implicit baptism of desire that we can know of. It is always a probability not an actual reality for us. So the dogma stands: everybody needs to explicitly be a member of the Catholic Church with no exception to avoid Hell.

When an SSPX priest agrees that there is no external-seeable baptism of desire (explicit) that anyone of us can know he is in agreement with the communities of Fr. Leonard Feeney. He is saying the same thing. There is no baptism of desire (external or implicitly knowable)

When an SSPX priest realizes that the baptism of desire, invincible ignorance can only be a concept we accept in principle (as Abp. Lefebvre in the passage quoted above) then he is saying the same as the Saint Benedict Centre, (SBC) New Hampshire and the Sisters of St. Benedict Centre, Worcester,USA. The SBC has posted a definition of the baptism of desire on their website (Catholicism.org). So the SBC states there is a baptism of desire as a concept. in heresy?

On the issue of there being no explicit or implicit baptism of desire that we can know of the SSPX and the communities of Fr. Leonard Feeney are in agreement.

On the issue of the ex cathedra dogma saying there are no exceptions to everyone needing to enter the Church with no exception Archbishop Lefebvre is in accord with Fr. Leonard Feeney.

We can use the same de facto de jure analysis for the Catechism of the Catholic Church and Dominus Iesus. The Catechism 1257 indicates that the Church knows of no means to eternal beatitude other than the baptism of water given de facto to adults with Catholic Faith. CCC 1257 at the same time says God is not limited to the sacraments and so de jure a person be saved without the visible, explicit use of the Sacraments.

So the Catechism gives us the interpretation of extra ecclesiam nulla salus which is the same as the one over the centuries.

Dominus Iesus 20 says de facto everyone needs to be a member of the Church for salvation while Dominus Iesus 21 suggests de jure there could be people in invincible ignorance or with the baptism of desire who can be saved and be unknown to us.

Dominus Iesus is affirming the rigorist interpretation of extra eccleisam nulla salus.

Similarly in the Bible, John 3:5 and Mark 16: 15-16 asks us to proclaim the Good News that everyone needs the baptism of water and Catholic Faith, in the only Church Jesus founded and which he called “my church”, to go to Heaven and avoid Hell. Yet elsewhere in the Bible we see the possibility of people, known only to Jesus, who can be saved, who do not visibly belong to His Church.

‘He who does not gather with me scatters’ and ‘he who is not against you…’ is now not so mysterious.

The Cantate Domino, Council of Florence, ex cathedra indicates all Protestants, Orthodox Christians and other non-Catholics need to de facto enter the Catholic Church to avoid Hell. Also all Hindus, Jews, Muslims and other non Christians need to de facto enter the Mystical Body of Jesus, The Church to avoid Hell. If there was anyone saved de jure (in principle) among them it would be known only to God. The Council and the popes were indicating that they would not know any case in particular of a person being saved explicitly (de facto) without Catholic Faith and the baptism of water. Even if there were cases of the baptism of desire(de jure) it would be unknown to them.

Similarly the Church Fathers taught that the Catholic Church was like the Ark of Noah that saved in the Flood and everyone needed de facto to enter the Church for salvation. The Church was compared to a great Door through which all must enter to be saved. There was always the possibility, dejure (in principle) of someone being saved who was not a formal member of the Church and it would not be known to man but only to God.

If we do not use this de facto-dejure philosophical tool we can end up with a lot of confusion. We are up with:

Pope Pius IX said everyone de facto needs to enter the Church for salvation and there are also those who can be saved de facto with the baptism of desire and invincible ignorance and so everyone does not de facto have to enter the Church.

It makes sense ? Everyone needs to de facto enter but some do not!?

We could be saying:

St.Thomas Aquinas says that everyone de facto needs to be a visible member of the Catholic Church for salvation and that there could be a man in the forest in invincible ignorance whom we de facto know and who could be saved.

Something is wrong somewhere?

We could be saying.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church 1257 on the Necessity of Baptism indicates that the Church de facto knows of no way to eternal beatitude other than the baptism of water given de facto to adults with Catholic Faith and CCC 1257 also says God is not limited to the Sacraments, so de facto we accept that a person could be saved, in principle, without the Sacrament of the baptism of water.

This is contrary to the Principle of Non Contradiction!

Yet it is not contrary to the Principle of Non Contradiction if we say:-

Pope Pius IX in an Allocution, December 9, 1854 wrote (source not cited):
" We hold as of faith, that out of the Apostolic Roman Church there is no salvation; that she is the only ark of safety, and whosoever is not in her perishes in the deluge; we must also, on the other hand, recognize with certainty that those who are in invincible ignorance of the true religion are not guilty for this in the eye of the Lord. And who will presume to mark out the limits of this ignorance according to the character and diversity of peoples, countries, minds and the rest".

Pope Pius IX is saying de facto everyone needs to enter the Church, the only Ark of Salvation De facto everyone needs to enter the Church and de jure there can be people saved with invincible ignorance etc.

That they can be saved is only a possibility, it is not de facto. If it was de facto then it would contradict the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus which says everyone needs to explicitly be a visible member of the Catholic Church to avoid Hell. There are no exceptions.

This is not vague. Neither does he contradict the dogma.It is in keeping with Tradition on this subject.

St. Thomas Aquinas held that everyone with no exception needs to de facto enter the Church for salvation while de jure there could be a man in the forest in invincible ignorance.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church 1257 on the Necessity of Baptism indicates that the Church knows of no way to eternal beatitude other than the baptism of water given de facto to adults with Catholic Faith and CCC 1257 also says God is not limited to the Sacraments, so de jure we accept that a person could be saved, in principle, without the Sacrament of the baptism of water.

So if we say that everyone needs to enter the Church for salvation but there could be people in invincible ignorance or with the baptism of desire who can be saved, without formal entry into the Church, then we must clarify this statement.

We could be precise and say, everyone de facto needs to enter the Church for salvation but there could de jure (in principle) be people in invincible ignorance or with the baptism of desire who can be saved without formal entry into the Church.

Now it is rational and logical and makes sense.

With the defacto and dejure analysis however we have the basis to begin dialogue with all the sedevacantists.

The Vatican official recognition of the communities of Fr. Leonard Feeney has now opened the possibility of reconciliation with sedevacantists like the Most Holy Family Monastery, NY whose main difference with the Catholic Church has been, extra ecclesiam nulla salus and the Novus Ordo Mass in the vernacular.

There now is the possibility for Ecclesia Dei to use the de facto- de jure analysis of Magisterial texts to show the sedevacantists we are in agreement with them on extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

The Extraordinary Form of the Mass is available for them in the Catholic Church. The MHFM interprets Vatican Council II according to the secular liberal media and assumes it is the interpretation of the Catholic Church.

We also interpret Vatican Council II according to Sacred Tradition.

Pope John PauliI said inte religious didalogue must be a aprt of the Catholic Mission, this was the spirit of Assisi and other ointer faith meetins.

Neither Pope John Paul II nor Pope Benedict XVI retracted outside the church there is no salvation (Church has not retracted outside the Church no salvation, stated the headline in the magazine Christ to the World,May-June 1991 English Edition).

Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Joseph  Ratzinger excommunicated Fr.Tissa Balasuriya OMI for denying an ed cathedra  dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady.

Extra eccleiam nulla salus is also an ex cathedra dogma, defined three times.

To deny or change an ex cathedra dogma is grave matter,one of the  conditions for mortal sin. When committed in public by a priest it is a manifest public mortal sin. Canon 915 states a priest in persistent mortal sin must not be allowed to offer Mass.

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). Ex cathedra.

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, 1302.).Ex cathedra.

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.) Ex cathedra – from the website Catholicism.org and “No Salvation outside the Church”: Link List, the Three Dogmatic Statements Regarding EENS http://nosalvationoutsideofthecatholicchurch.blogspot.com/
Vatican Council II also endorses the rigorist interpretation of the dogmas as does the Catechism of the Catholic Church


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
CCC 846 also affirms the rigorist interpretation of the ex cathedra dogma outside the church there is no salvation. All need to enter as through a door, this is the language of the Church Fathers on ecclesiam nulla salus.
Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they 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 to remain in it (Emphasis added)
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church , outside the Church there is no salvation means 1) everyone who is saved, explicitly with the baptism of water and Catholic faith or implicitly, unknown to us and known only to God, are saved by Jesus and His Mystical Body the Catholic Church (CCC 846).2) everyone needs Catholic Faith and the baptism of water, and there are no explicit or implicit, exceptions that we can know of, to go to Heaven avoid Hell (CCC 845).Outside the Church there is no salvation and everyone needs to be a formal, explicit member to avoid Hell.

No where in the Catechism (CCC 836,837,838,846,847,849-852 etc) is there a contradiction of the rigorist interpretation of the ex cathedra dogma. The Catechism is in accord with Fr. Leonard Feeney.

CCC 847 and 848 refer to those saved with a good conscience or invincible ignorance and who are unknown to us human beings but only known to God. They are saved ‘in certain circumstances’ (Letter of the Holy Office 1949).So the ordinary way of salvation is the baptism of water with Catholic Faith; the explicit, formal means of salvation. The ordinary way of salvation for non Catholics according to the Letter of the Holy Office cannot be the baptism of desire, invincible ignorance or a good conscience.CCC 845 indicates that the only way of salvation that we humans ‘know’ is the explicit, formal means which includes the baptism of water. CCC 847, 848 refer to hypothetical cases, a possibility known only to God and which we can accept only in principle. We do not know any particular case of invincible ignorance.

Neither do we know any person whom Jesus will judge as having a good conscience on the Day of Judgement. So CCC 847,848 (implicit, hypothetical salvation) does not contradict CCC 845 (the need for explicit entry into the Church as if entering a Door).

All people (Ad Gentes 7, Vatican Council II, and CCC 845) with no exceptions that we know of need Catholic Faith and the baptism of water to go to Heaven and avoid Hell. Outside the Church there is no salvation. The exceptions (CCC 847) are unknown to us.

Lumen Gentium 16 (LG 16) does not contradict the infallible teaching.
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.-Lumen Gentium 16, Vatican Council II.
Lumen Gentium 16 does not refer to explicit, knowable Baptism of desire and invincible ignorance. Those who will be judged with a good conscience are not explicitly known to us.

If one assumes that LG 16 refers to explicit baptism of desire then there would be trouble also with the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1257.

CCC 1257 states that the Church knows of no means to eternal beatitude other than the Baptism of water and also says God is not limited to the Sacraments. There could be some, or many, saved without the Sacrament of Baptism.

It would violate the Principle of Non Contradiction. It would mean de facto everyone needs the Baptism of Water and Catholic Faith to go to Heaven (AG 7,CCC 1257) and de facto there can also be people saved without the Sacrament of the Baptism of water (LG 16, CCC 1257). It does not make sense.
So the Vatican recognition of the  communities of Fr.Leonard Feemey is only an affirming of the Catechisim of the Catholic Church and Vatican Council II.

1257 The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation... God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments.



1

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. For, it was not to private judgments that Our Savior gave for explanation those things that are contained in the deposit of faith, but to the teaching authority of the Church.-Letter of the Holy Office 1949 (Emphasis added)
Note: The dogma says all Jews in Boston need to convert into the Catholic Church for salvation. The Letter was addressed to the Archbishop of Boston.

http://eucharistandmission.blogspot.com/2010/11/vatican-recognizes-frleonard-feeneys.html



Lionel Andrades, Catholic layman
E-mail: lionelandrades10@gmail.com
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