Bishop
Sanborn publishes an “Anti-Feeneyite” Catechism, while he believes that pagans
and idolaters can be saved
By Bro. Peter Dimond, O.S.B.
Bishop
Sanborn is a “traditionalist” bishop who has aggressively attacked those who
don’t believe in baptism of desire. Many
don’t know that, in addition to holding this false position, Sanborn also (like
almost every other “traditionalist” priest today) believes that souls can be
saved in false religions. He thus
rejects the dogma Outside the Church There is No Salvation in its defined
meaning.
Bishop Donald Sanborn, Sacerdotium V, p. 24: “Wojtyla’s
ecclesiology goes a step beyond Vatican II, a little step for man, but a great
step for apostasy. While the Council
seems to draw the line of the Mystical Body
around those ‘who in faith look towards Jesus’ – whatever that means –
Wojtyla [John Paul II] is ready to sign up the entire human race in the
Mystical Body by the fact, as he says, that all are united to Christ by means
of the Incarnation. With this principle,
the Novus Ordites are in ‘communion’ not only with the Anglicans and the
Orthodox, but with everything: Moslems, Buddhists, Hindus, spiritists, Jews,
Great Thumb worshippers. You name it;
they are in communion with it. Vatican
II’s idea of the Church is heretical, since it identifies organized religions
of pagans and idolaters with the Mystical Body of Christ. The truth is that in no way are pagans and idolaters, as pagans and
idolaters, united to the Mystical Body of Christ. If,
by some mystery of Providence and Predestination, they [pagans and idolaters]
are united to the soul of the Church, and by desire to its body, it is in spite
of their paganism and idolatry.
It is due to an invincible ignorance of their error.”
As
we see here, Bishop Donald Sanborn is a heretic who rejects the dogma that the
Catholic Faith is necessary for all for salvation. His words above prove that he rejects the
dogma. He bluntly indicates that it’s
possible for pagans and idolaters to be united to the Church and be saved. This is clear-cut heresy. He has repeated this heresy on numerous
occasions. For instance, in a sermon on
2/17/08, Sanborn stated again that people can worship a false god without guilt
through invincible ignorance and that souls can be saved in false religions.
Pope
Gregory XVI, Summo Iugiter Studio (# 2), May 27, 1832:
“Finally
some of these misguided people attempt to persuade themselves and others
that men are not saved only in the Catholic religion, but that even heretics may attain eternal life.”
Pope
Eugene IV, Council of Florence, “Cantate Domino,” 1441, ex
cathedra:
“The Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes
and preaches that all those who are outside the Catholic Church, not only
pagans but also Jews or heretics and schismatics, cannot share in eternal
life and will go into the everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and
his angels, unless they are joined to the Church before the end of their lives; that
the unity of this ecclesiastical body is of such importance that only those who
abide in it do the Church’s sacraments contribute to salvation and do fasts,
almsgiving and other works of piety and practices of the Christian militia
productive of eternal rewards; and that nobody can be saved, no matter how
much he has given away in alms and even if he has shed blood in the name of
Christ, unless he has persevered in the bosom and unity of the Catholic
Church.”
Bishop
Sanborn is preaching a new gospel directly contrary to Sacred Scripture. He is preaching that idolaters can actually
be saved.
1 Corinthians 6:9- “Know you not
that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers,
nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God.”
Bishop
Sanborn holds the same heresy that Archbishop Lefebvre held. It is also the same heresy that is held by
the CMRI, SSPV, SSPX, FSSP, Dolan, Cekada, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc. Almost all priests in the country today hold
the same horrible heresy that souls can be saved in false religions (heresy),
and even as idolaters and pagans. They
say that these idolaters and pagans (Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, etc.) are united
to the Church and saved in spite of their
false religion. But it makes no
difference that they say that the pagans and idolaters are saved in spite of
their paganism and idolatry, because they are saying that people who don’t have
the Catholic Faith – and are in false religions – can be saved, which is
blatant heresy.
Pope
Eugene IV, Council of Florence, Sess. 8, Nov. 22, 1439, ex cathedra:
Whoever wishes to be saved, needs above all to hold the Catholic
faith; unless each one preserves this whole and inviolate, he will without a
doubt perish in eternity.– But the Catholic faith is this, that we worship
one God in the Trinity, and the Trinity in unity… Therefore let him who wishes to be saved,
think thus concerning the Trinity.
“But it is necessary for eternal salvation
that he faithfully believe also in the incarnation of our Lord Jesus
Christ...the Son of God is God and man... This is the Catholic
faith; unless each one believes this faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved.”
Bishop
Sanborn told someone we know named Keith McKay that a Christ-hating Jew could
possibly be saved without the Catholic Faith.
But this shouldn’t really surprise people, considering what Sanborn says
above about pagans and idolaters being saved.
Another friend of ours named Matt L. told us the following:
“I spoke to Bishop Sanborn in
December 2004. And I asked him does a
Jew who is taught to denounce Christ have a better chance to go to heaven than
a so-called ‘Feeneyite.’ His response
was ‘yes.’”
This
heretical teaching that non-Catholics can be united to the Church and be saved
without the Catholic Faith was actually the key to the Great Apostasy. Once this heresy was imbibed, Vatican II and
the post-Vatican II Church could then justify almost anything because “we
cannot say that all of them are lost.”
All of Vatican II’s heresies on ecumenism, religious liberty, etc. are
directly connected to what Sanborn and priests like him believe. In fact, if you were to ask a Novus Ordo
priest about the dogma Outside the Church There is No Salvation and the
necessity of the Catholic Faith, you would receive an answer very similar to
Donald Sanborn’s answer above. The Novus
Ordo priest would tell you about invincible ignorance, the soul of the Church,
etc.
There
is another interesting point in regard to this heresy. Bishop Sanborn has denounced at length the
heretical teaching of John Paul II that Christ is united with men by the Incarnation itself. I heard an audiotaped talk which Sanborn gave
on this topic. Bishop Sanborn correctly
pointed out that if men are united with Christ by the Incarnation itself, as John Paul II says, then the Church is
meaningless, the Passion is meaningless, etc.
Bishop Sanborn pointed out that John Paul II’s heresy is worse than
Martin Luther’s, because Luther held that one must at least believe in the Cross to be united with
Christ; but John Paul II holds that union comes without any belief in Christ,
the Cross or the Church.
But
Bishop Sanborn fails to recognize that
he holds and teaches the same heresy as John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla), just not
on the same scale. Sanborn teaches
that men can be united to Christ without belief in Christ or the Church, just
like John Paul II. So when he correctly
denounces the wicked heresy of John Paul II, he is actually denouncing himself.
Bishop Sanborn: “Wojtyla [John Paul
II] is ready to sign up the entire human race in the Mystical Body by the fact,
as he says, that all are united to Christ by means of the Incarnation. With
this principle, the Novus Ordites are in ‘communion’ not only with the
Anglicans and the Orthodox, but with
everything: Moslems, Buddhists, Hindus, spiritists, Jews, Great Thumb
worshippers…”
Here we see what I’m talking about.
He condemns the Novus Ordo/Vatican II heresy for putting the Mystical
Body of Catholics in communion with “Moslems, Buddhists,
Hindus, spiritists, Jews, Great Thumb worshippers.”
But he holds exactly what he is denouncing. He holds that certain Moslems, Buddhists,
Hindus, spiritists, Jews and Great Thumb worshippers can be in communion with
the Mystical Body, as proven above. He holds that certain of these people, in
spite of their paganism and idolatry, “are united to the soul of the
Church, and by desire to its body.” So
while exposing the Novus Ordo heresy, he is simply illustrating the stupidity
of his own. This also shows us again
that the pre-Vatican II heresy held by Sanborn and others was only a short step
away from the Vatican II apostasy.
Bishop Sanborn is not of the same Faith as the
Catholic saints. Take St. Isaac Jogues,
for instance. St. Isaac believed in the
dogma Outside the Church There is No Salvation; Bishop Sanborn doesn’t. And because he believed in the dogma, St.
Isaac believed what Sanborn doesn’t believe.
St. Isaac knew that all those ignorant heathen who did not come to know
the Catholic Faith and get baptized simply were not preordained for eternal life.
St. Isaac Jogues: “Although, in all probability, I
could escape [from the Iroquois] either through the Europeans or through the
other savages living around us, if I should wish it, I decided to live on this
cross on which Our Lord had fixed me in company with Himself, and to die with
His grace helping me… Who could instruct
the prisoners who were being constantly brought in? Who could baptize them when they were dying,
and strengthen them in their torments?
Who could pour the sacred waters on the heads of the children? Who could look after the salvation of the
adults who were dying, and after the instruction of those in good health? Indeed, I believe that it happened not
without a singular providence of the Divine Goodness, that I should have fallen
into the hands of these very savages… These
savages, I must confess, unwillingly and reluctantly have thus far spared me,
by the will of God, so that thus
through me, although unworthy, they might be instructed, they might believe,
and be baptized, as many of
them as are preordained for eternal life.” (Francis Talbot, Saint Among Savages: The Life of St. Isaac Jogues, p. 300.)
SANBORN’S HERESY
REJECTS THAT ALL IN THE CHURCH HAVE THE SAME FAITH
This
is perhaps the most important point in refuting the heresy of Sanborn and those
who believe as he does. Besides
rejecting the dogma that all who die without the Catholic Faith are lost, OUR
READERS NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT Sanborn’s heresy that pagans and idolaters can
be united to the Church DENIES THE DOGMA THAT THERE IS ONLY ONE FAITH IN THE
CATHOLIC CHURCH. IT MAKES A MOCKERY
OF THE SUPERNATURAL MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH IN WHICH ALL HAVE ONE FAITH!
Pope Leo X, Fifth Lateran Council, Session
11, Dec. 19, 1516: “For, regulars and seculars, prelates and subjects, exempt
and non-exempt, belong to the one universal Church, outside of which
no one at all is saved, and they
all have one Lord and one faith.”
SANBORN
HOLDS THAT TWO PEOPLE CAN BE IN THE SAME CATHOLIC CHURCH WHILE WORSHIPPING TWO
DIFFERENT GODS! That really
cuts through all wicked attempts to justify this abominable heresy. The idolater, according to Sanborn, who
worships a false god, can be in the same Church as he who worships Jesus Christ
and the Holy Trinity (the true God). So, besides utterly rejecting the dogma
Outside the Church There is No Salvation, the Athanasian Creed, all of the dogmas on the necessity of
accepting Christ and the Catholic Faith for salvation, etc., Sanborn rejects
that there is only one Faith in the Catholic Church.
Pope
Clement V, Council of Vienne, Decree # 30, 1311-1312: “… one universal Church, outside of which there
is no salvation, for all of whom there is one Lord, one
faith, and one baptism…”
It’s also
important to note that heretics like Bishop Sanborn and Bishop McKenna attempt
to justify their heresy, that Jews, idolaters, etc. can be saved, by saying
that these individuals are united to the soul of the Church. They admit that these non-Catholics are not
in the Body of the Church. But this
heresy is refuted by the fact that the Catholic Church infallibly teaches that
unless one is in the Body of the Church he cannot possibly be saved or
united with Christ or the Church.
Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos (#
10), Jan. 6, 1928: “For since the mystical body of Christ, in the same manner
as His physical body, is one, compacted and fitly joined together, it were
foolish and out of place to say that the mystical body is made up of
members which are disunited and scattered abroad: whosoever therefore is
not united with the body is no member of it, neither is he in communion
with Christ its head.”
Notice that
Pope Pius XI teaches that whoever is not united with the Body cannot be
part of the Church at all or united with Christ. This utterly refutes those who say that one
can be a part of the Church without being united to the Body. Moreover, below we see again that it is de
fide that all must be IN the Body to be saved!
Pope
Eugene IV, Council of Florence, “Cantate Domino,” 1441, ex
cathedra: “The Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes, and
proclaims that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not
only pagans, but also Jews, heretics and schismatics can become participants in
eternal life, but they will depart ‘into everlasting fire which was prepared
for the devil and his angels’ [Matt. 25:41], unless before the end of life they
have been added to the flock; and that the unity of THIS
ECCLESIASTICAL BODY (ecclesiastici corporis) is so strong that
only for those who abide in it are the sacraments of the Church of benefit for
salvation, and do fasts, almsgiving, and other functions of piety and
exercises of a Christian soldier productive of eternal reward. No one,
whatever almsgiving he has practiced, even if he has shed blood for the name of
Christ, can be saved, unless he has persevered within the bosom and unity of
the Catholic Church.”
This
defines that all who are outside (that is, all who are not in) this
ecclesiastical BODY are lost.
This utterly refutes the attempts of heretics like Sanborn to justify
their false teaching.
And this is
precisely why Bishop Sanborn – and those heretics who believe as he does – have
such animosity toward Fr. Feeney and those who actually believe that the Catholic
Faith is necessary for salvation.
Sanborn attacks those who hold this dogma because they convict him of his
rejection of it. He attacks true
believers on this issue because they convict him of his denial of the unity of
the Faith. They convict him of his denial the necessity
of Christ and the necessity of the Catholic Faith for salvation. That is why he is now promoting an
“Anti-Feeneyite” Catechism, while at the same time he holds that Jews who
reject Our Lord Jesus Christ can get to heaven.
Bishop Sanborn is a heretic, who corrupts people’s faith in the
necessity of Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church. He is a heretic who despises the truth of
Jesus Christ that all men must be incorporated into His Body to be saved, and
that all men must be born again of water and the Holy Ghost in baptism to be
saved.
Pope Paul III, The Council of Trent, Sess.
7, Can. 5 on the Sacrament of Baptism, ex cathedra: “If
anyone says that baptism [the Sacrament] is optional, that is, not necessary
for salvation (cf. Jn. 3:5): let him be anathema.”
Pope Eugene IV, The Council of Florence,
“Exultate Deo,” Nov. 22, 1439, ex cathedra: “Holy baptism, which is the gateway to
the spiritual life, holds the first place among all the sacraments; through it
we are made members of Christ and of the body of the Church. And since death entered the universe
through the first man, ‘unless we are born again of water and the Spirit, we
cannot,’ as the Truth says, ‘enter into the kingdom of heaven’ [John 3:5]. The matter of this sacrament is real and
natural water.”
Since Sanborn is not only is a heretic, but also one who imposes his
heresy upon his church-goers, no Catholic should receive the sacraments from
him or any priest who holds the same position (i.e., who imposes his heresy
upon the people). This would include Fr.
Cekada, Bishop Dolan, Bishop McKenna, SSPV, etc., etc. Those who support such priests after being
aware of these facts sin mortally.