How do you discern whether or not a person is invincibly ignorant? Then, if a person is ignorant and can get to heaven, why preach the Gospel, which could damn the person soul to hell since he/she has received the knowledge of truth? Also If wwe believe the ignorant can be saved, what about evangelization, and missionaries?
Here’s the sections on ignorance from the Catechism. Look them over
ccc.scborromeo.org.master.com/texis/master/search/?sufs=0&q=ignorance&xsubmit=Search&s=SS
Some excerpts (emphasis mine)
1801 Conscience can remain in ignorance or make erroneous judgments.
Such ignorance and errors are not always free of guilt.
1791 ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility. This is the case when a man “takes little trouble to find out what is true and good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of committing sin.” In
such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he commits.
1860 Unintentional ignorance can diminish or even remove the imputability of a grave offense. But
no one is deemed to be ignorant of the principles of the moral law, which are written in the conscience of every man. The promptings of feelings and passions can also diminish the voluntary and free character of the offense, as can external pressures or pathological disorders. Sin committed through malice, by deliberate choice of evil, is the gravest.
1859 Mortal sin requires full knowledge and complete consent. It presupposes knowledge of the sinful character of the act, of its opposition to God’s law. It also implies a consent sufficiently deliberate to be a personal choice.
Feigned ignorance and hardness of heart do not diminish, but rather increase, the voluntary character of a sin.
Re: invincible ignorance.
· If we were talking of subject matters that required a very high I.Q., to understand, (like high levels of math and science for example) then anyone below that required I.Q. level, would have a tough time understanding the subject matter…true?. To a lesser or greater degree then, depending on one’s I.Q., folks for the most part would be invincibly ignorant on the subject because no matter how hard they studied, they wouldn’t understand the subjects being taught…true?
· If one is mentally challenged, even simple matters are not going to be completely understood.
Truth be told, all of us are ignorant about alot of things. It doesn’t mean we are invincibly ignorant about these things, only that there’s lots of things we don’t know but could know if we were taught about them.
Bottomline, regarding our faith imo, I think it’s tough for the mass majority of people, to qualify for invincible ignorance status. iow, One has to be real careful not to fool themselves into thinking they’re getting a pass on invincible ignorance, when they really might fall under #'s 1791 or 1859 above…
