L
lumendelumine
Guest
I think we should sort all this out a bit…
The Catholic doctrine of Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus (EENS) is, like most parts of Catholic doctrine, very wide, deep and even paradoxical.
So, it is similarly true that
But: It has to be known and preached that belonging to the Church is necessary for salvation because if we know that we are saved through the Church which Christ established and we know and understand that this Church is the Catholic Church, then we are putting our souls into grave danger if we reject it or if we leave her.
See for example the following article on the Feeneyite heresy:
catholicculture.org/docs/doc_view.cfm?recnum=963:
"In its letter to Archbishop Cushing on the Boston heresy case (the protocol to which Pope Pius XII had so carefully attended), the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office noted that “the Church has always preached and will never cease to preach. . . that infallible statement by which we are taught that there is no salvation outside the Church.” The protocol goes on to say, however, that
In other words, the magisterial texts used by Fr. Feeney and his followers can only be interpreted in context and in the light of other, equally authoritative Magisterial teachings not only in order to avoid confusion or charges that the Church has changed her teaching, but because it is only in harmony with the Magisterium of today that magisterial texts of yesterday may be rightly understood."
Or see how Bl. Pius IX. states it in QUANTO CONFICIAMUR MOERORE (1863):
“Here, too, our beloved sons and venerable brothers, it is again necessary to mention and censure a very grave error entrapping some Catholics who believe that it is possible to arrive at eternal salvation although living in error and alienated from the true faith and Catholic unity. Such belief is certainly opposed to Catholic teaching. There are, of course, those who are struggling with invincible ignorance about our most holy religion. Sincerely observing the natural law and its precepts inscribed by God on all hearts and ready to obey God, they live honest lives and are able to attain eternal life by the efficacious virtue of divine light and grace. Because God knows, searches and clearly understands the minds, hearts, thoughts, and nature of all, his supreme kindness and clemency do not permit anyone at all who is not guilty of deliberate sin to suffer eternal punishments.”
So what the Catechism says today is what the Catholic Church has always taught. There is NO change of doctrine here.
And finally, some food for thought: If all those people who do not belong to the visible Catholic Church (together with those Catholics who are damned) will all go to Hell - hasn’t then Satan triumphed???
The Catholic doctrine of Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus (EENS) is, like most parts of Catholic doctrine, very wide, deep and even paradoxical.
So, it is similarly true that
- outside the Church there is no salvation and
- people who have lived and dies outside the visible Church can be and are saved.
But: It has to be known and preached that belonging to the Church is necessary for salvation because if we know that we are saved through the Church which Christ established and we know and understand that this Church is the Catholic Church, then we are putting our souls into grave danger if we reject it or if we leave her.
See for example the following article on the Feeneyite heresy:
catholicculture.org/docs/doc_view.cfm?recnum=963:
"In its letter to Archbishop Cushing on the Boston heresy case (the protocol to which Pope Pius XII had so carefully attended), the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office noted that “the Church has always preached and will never cease to preach. . . that infallible statement by which we are taught that there is no salvation outside the Church.” The protocol goes on to say, however, that
Code:
*(T)his dogma must be understood in that sense in which the Church herself understands it. For, **it was not to private judgments that Our Saviour gave for explanation** those things that are contained in the deposit of faith, but to the teaching authority of the Church (Suprema haec sacra, in The American Ecclesiastical Review, 1952, vol. 127, pp. 308-15).*Or see how Bl. Pius IX. states it in QUANTO CONFICIAMUR MOERORE (1863):
“Here, too, our beloved sons and venerable brothers, it is again necessary to mention and censure a very grave error entrapping some Catholics who believe that it is possible to arrive at eternal salvation although living in error and alienated from the true faith and Catholic unity. Such belief is certainly opposed to Catholic teaching. There are, of course, those who are struggling with invincible ignorance about our most holy religion. Sincerely observing the natural law and its precepts inscribed by God on all hearts and ready to obey God, they live honest lives and are able to attain eternal life by the efficacious virtue of divine light and grace. Because God knows, searches and clearly understands the minds, hearts, thoughts, and nature of all, his supreme kindness and clemency do not permit anyone at all who is not guilty of deliberate sin to suffer eternal punishments.”
So what the Catechism says today is what the Catholic Church has always taught. There is NO change of doctrine here.
And finally, some food for thought: If all those people who do not belong to the visible Catholic Church (together with those Catholics who are damned) will all go to Hell - hasn’t then Satan triumphed???
