Tuesday, May 31, 2005
NO SALVATION OUTSIDE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
is a contested point of doctrine since Vatican II. Some of the passages in John R. Willis, S.J.'s book The Teachings of the Church Fathers, Ignatius Press, 2002, address this point.
According to St. Augustine:
One cannot have [salvation] except in the Catholic Church. Outside of the Catholic Church one can have everything except salvation. One can have honor, one can have the sacraments, one can sing the alleluia, one can answer Amen, one can have the Gospel, one can have faith in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and preach, but never can one find salvation except in the Catholic Church. (p. 60)
According to Lactantius:
Therefore it is the Catholic Church alone which retains true worship. This is the fountain of truth, this is the abode of faith, this is the temple of God; into which if any one shall not enter, or from which if any shall go out, he is estranged from the hope of life and eternal salvation. (p. 60)
According to St. Jerome:
As I follow no leader save Christ, so I communicate with none but your blessedness, that is with the chair of Peter. For this, I know, is the rock on which the Church is built! This is the house where alone the paschal lamb can be rightly eaten. This is the ark of Noah, and he who is not found in it shall perish when the flood prevails. (p. 60)
According to St. Fulgentius:
Firmly hold and never doubt that every baptized person outside of the Catholic Church cannot share in eternal life, if before the end of his life he does not return and is incorporated into the Church.
Most firmly hold and never doubt that not only all pagans but also all Jews, all heretics and schismatics who finish this life outside of the Catholic Church, will go into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. (p. 61)
How does one get from that understanding of the faith which held firm until Vatican II to the present acceptance of Pentecostalism, to the courting of the Jews and Muslims, to appropriating Buddhist meditation practices, to dabbling with the idea that other religions hold portions of the one true faith that belongs to the Catholic Church? You can't have it both ways.
St. Augustine on heretics:
For both heretics and schismatics style their congregations churches. But heretics, in holding false opinions regarding God, do injury to the faith itself; while schismatics, on the other hand, in wicked separations break off from brotherly charity, although they may believe just what we believe. Wherefore neither do the heretics belong to the Church catholic, which loves God; nor do the schismatics form a part of the same, inasmuch as it loves the neighbor. (p. 58)
Based on those quotations, it would appear that ecumenism is not on solid ground. Yet Pope Benedict has reiterated John Paul II's enthusiasm for the charismatics. At the Zenit website today is an article titled "Parishes Urged to Be Open to Ecclesial Groups" which says in part:
Benedict XVI called on parishes to be missionary and to be open to the dynamism of the new ecclesial movements and communities. ...
"It is very important, in this connection, that communion be reinforced between the parish structures and the various charismatic realities that have arisen in the last decades, amply present in Italy, so that the mission reaches all realms of life," the Pope said.
