Universalism at RCIA

[robin_hood]

Next week at RCIA class which I help at we are all discussing the last things( Eschatology) and I am the only Catechist that does not believe that in the end everybody will be saved.
Outside of scripture(which obviously does not support Universalism) can any body share any quotes from Popes and councils which debunk Universalism which will help in my debate.

 

[paulCT]

Universalism was a fairly commonly held view among theologians in early Christianity. The two major theologians opposing it were Tertullian and Augustine. In the first five or six centuries of Christianity there were six known theological schools, of which four (Alexandria, Antioch, Cesarea, and Edessa or Nisibis) were universalist, one (Ephesus) accepted conditional immortality, and one (Carthage or Rome) taught the endless punishment of the lost.[1] In later centuries, universalism has become very much a minority position in the major branches of Christianity, though it has a long history of prominent adherents.

In Catholicism, this idea of universalism was originally called Apocatastasis or Apokatastasis. The Catholic Encyclopedia has an excessively wordy definition of this, but I think this excerpt on the teachings of St. Gregory of Nyssa sum it all up very nicely:

…] in speaking of the punishment by fire assigned to souls after death, he compares it to the process whereby gold is refined in a furnace, through being separated from the dross with which it is alloyed. The punishment by fire is not, therefore, an end in itself, but is ameliorative; the very reason of its infliction is to separate the good from the evil in the soul. The process, moreover, is a painful one; the sharpness and duration of the pain are in proportion to the evil of which each soul is guilty; the flame lasts so long as there is any evil left to destroy.

You might find this website helpful in your research. There is an interesting article on Universal Salvation and the Roman Catholic Church.

 

[antimon]

You might find this website helpful in your research. There is an interesting article on Universal Salvation and the Roman Catholic Church.

I am quite confused by the second link… will everybody be in heaven regardless of how they lived? If so, a lot of the New Testament wouldn’t make sense…

 

[Eileen_T]

Vatican Council II addressed this point in its “Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium),” “Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do His will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience – those too may achieve eternal salvation” (no. 16).

In short, those who are truly unaware of what God requires of them are not held responsible; rather they are judged by what they did with the truth they had.

Prior to Vatican II Pope Pius IX, in his encyclical “On Promotion of False Doctrines (Quanto Conficiamur Moerore),” said the following:

We all know that those who suffer from invincible ignorance with regard to our holy religion, if they carefully keep the precepts of the natural law which have been written by God in the hearts of all men, if they are prepared to obey God, and if they lead a virtuous and dutiful life, can, by the power of divine light and grace, attain eternal life. For God, who knows completely the minds and souls, the thoughts and habits of all men, will not permit, in accord with His infinite goodness and mercy, anyone who is not guilty of a voluntary fault to suffer eternal punishment (no. 7).

He also said the same thing in “On the Church in Austria (Singulari Quidam);”

It must, of course, be held as a matter of faith that outside the apostolic Roman Church no one can be saved, that the Church is the only ark of salvation, and that whoever does not enter it will perish in the flood. On the other hand, it must likewise be held as certain that those who are affected by ignorance of the true religion, if it is invincible ignorance, are not subject to any guilt in this matter before the eyes of the Lord (no. 7).

This does not apply to those who think all religions are the same and it doesn’t matter which one you belong to. That is indifferentism and holds the opinion that ‘a way’ is just as as good as “The Way.” Which goes against the Teaching of Jesus.

Not everyone will make it to Heaven, we all face an individual judgment where we will be called to account for how we have lived our lives. Those who die in a state of mortal sin will suffer for all eternity in hell.