Votum ecclasiae implicitum vs votum ecclesiae explicitum

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tstande2

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I am a Reformed Protestant who is doing a little studying into Roman theology. I will say from the start I am not interested in converting to Rome, I am just doing some research for apologetical purposes. I was reading a book and came across the doctrine of the votum ecclesiae implicitum and votum ecclesiae explicitum and was wondering how the church distinguishes between the two. What is the indicator that someone has a votum ecclesiae implicatum vs a votum ecclesiae explicitum? I would appreciate any help I can get.
Thank you!
 
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votum ecclesiae implicitum is a teaching by Pope Pius XII’s in the 1943 Encyclical Mystici Corporis.

The full explanation of this teaching is found in the Vatican II document “Lumen Gentium”
I believe you will find all you need in those 2 documents.
 
This letter from the Holy Office (now called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) is helpful:
http://matt1618.freeyellow.com/appendixe.html

Some key excerpts:
The same in its own degree must be asserted of the Church, in as far as she is the general help to salvation. Therefore, that one may obtain eternal salvation, it is not always required that he be incorporated into the Church actually as a member, but it necessary that at least he be united to her by desire and longing.

However, this desire need not always be explicit, as it is in catechumens; but when person is involved in invincible ignorance, God accepts also an implicit desire, so called because it is included in that good disposition of soul whereby a person wishes his will to be conformed to the will of God.
…
But it must not be thought that any kind of desire of entering the Church suffices that one may be saved. It is necessary that the desire by which one is related to the Church be animated by perfect charity. Nor can an implicit desire produce its effect, unless a person has supernatural faith: “For he who comes to God must believe that God exists and is a rewarder of those who seek Him” (Hebrew 11:6). The Council of Trent declares (Session VI, chap 8): Faith is the beginning of a man’s salvation, the foundation and root of all justification, without which it is impossible to please God and attain to the fellowship of His children" (Denzinger, n. 80l).
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The key is that supernatural faith and charity are what motivate any salvific desire. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) states:
The necessity of faith

161 Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation.42 "Since “without faith it is impossible to please [God]” and to attain to the fellowship of his sons, therefore without faith no one has ever attained justification, nor will anyone obtain eternal life ‘But he who endures to the end.’"43
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But we also acknowledge that even “in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him” (CCC 848).
 
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Hi tstande2, the other posters have given you good information on this, but please understand that when you are addressing Catholics, use of the words “Rome”, “Roman”, “Romish” etc by you as a Protestant is somewhat offensive.

The correct term is just “Catholic”, unless you were somehow distinguishing between Eastern Catholic and Western Catholic in which case you could say “Western Catholic” or “Latin Catholic”.

I am not flagging you because this is your first post and you might not be aware, but if you repeatedly use these types of terms like “Rome”, “Roman” etc on here, you will likely draw flags from somebody.
 
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No one “converts to Rome”. They convert to Catholicism, which includes the Archdiocese of Rome, which happens to be the center of the Catholic Church.
 
If you are investigating, that is very good and God is smiling on you. However, something worth doing is also worth doing correctly and completely. Dig into the early Church fathers. From Ignatius of Antioch onward. The letter of Clement to the Corinthians. Read the Didache - a very brief, succinct description of Apostolic age liturgy. Start early and bring your investigation forward. When attempting to investigate backward, there are too many pitfalls, preconceived notions and personal biases to arrive at the complete truth.
 
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