Heresies
of the Week Relating to the Salvation Dogma
By Bro. Michael
Dimond, O.S.B.
and Bro. Peter Dimond,
O.S.B.
Week of 5/26/06:
This Rock Magazine and “Catholic” Answers’ horrible
rejection of the salvation dogma
“Fr.”
Ray Ryland, “No Salvation Outside the Church,” This Rock, Dec. 2005: “Why does the Catholic Church teach that
there is "no salvation outside the Church"? Doesn’t this contradict
Scripture? God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the
knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4). "I am the way, and the truth,
and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). Peter
proclaimed to the Sanhedrin, "There is salvation in no one else, for there
is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved"
(Acts 4:12).
“Since God intends (plans, wills) that every human being should go to heaven,
doesn’t the Church’s teaching greatly restrict the scope of God’s redemption?
Does the Church mean—as Protestants and (I suspect) many Catholics believe—that
only members of the Catholic Church can be saved?
“That is what a priest in Boston, Fr. Leonard Feeney, S.J., began teaching in
the 1940s. His bishop and the Vatican tried to convince him that his
interpretation of the Church’s teaching was wrong. He so persisted in his error
that he was finally excommunicated, but by God’s mercy, he was reconciled to
the Church before he died in 1978.
“In correcting Fr. Feeney in 1949, the Supreme Congregation of the Holy Office
(now the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) issued a document entitled
Suprema Haec Sacra, which
stated that " extra ecclesiam, nulla salus" (outside the
Church, no salvation) is "an infallible statement." But, it added,
"this dogma must be understood in that sense in which the Church itself
understands it."
“Note that word dogma. This teaching has been proclaimed by, among others, Pope
Pelagius in 585, the Fourth Lateran Council in 1214, Pope Innocent III in 1214,
Pope Boniface VIII in 1302, Pope Pius XII, Pope Paul VI, the Second Vatican
Council, Pope John Paul II, and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
in Dominus Iesus.
“Our point is this: When the Church infallibly teaches extra ecclesiam, nulla
salus [outside the Church there is no salvation],
it does not say that non-Catholics cannot be saved. In fact, it affirms the
contrary. The purpose of the teaching is to tell us how Jesus
Christ makes salvation available to all human beings…Extra ecclesiam, nulla
salus does not mean that only faithful Roman
Catholics can be saved. The Church has never taught that.”
(http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2005/0512fea3.asp)
Allow
me to repeat that one: “When the Church
infallibly teaches extra ecclesiam, nulla salus, it does not say that
non-Catholics cannot be saved. In fact, it affirms the contrary.”
So,
when the Catholic Church says that there is no salvation outside the Catholic
Church – that all who die without the Catholic Faith and outside the Catholic
Church are lost – it actually means JUST THE OPPOSITE! Wow, that might be the clearest denial of the
dogma, and the most outrageous perversion of its meaning, that I’ve seen by
someone who claims to believe in it. And
this is coming from a Novus Ordo “priest” who is
writing for the largest American apologetics organization in the Vatican II
sect, “Catholic Answers.” This shows us
again that the Vatican II sect is not Catholic, but totally apostate – remember, this is what is coming from its “conservative” apologetics
organizations! – and that the number one crime of the Vatican II sect, the
crime which permeates all of its other crimes, is the rejection of Outside the
Church There is No Salvation.
Also
notice that this heretical “priest” attempts to use the Fr. Feeney incident to
advance his heresy, just like all the other heretics who hate the dogma. His line of argumentation to justify his
heresy is the same line of argumentation used by the SSPX, SSPV, CMRI, etc.,
etc., etc. to justify their belief that souls can be saved without being
Catholic. This should illustrate, once
again, what the Fr. Feeney controversy was all about. Those who stood with him stood for the
necessity of the Catholic Faith for salvation, while those who stood against
him rejected the necessity of the Catholic Faith for salvation. For those who aren’t familiar with all the
particulars of this affair, see the book I’ve written: Outside the Catholic Church There is Absolutely No Salvation. There are numerous sections which deal in
depth with the Fr. Feeney case.
Pope Gregory XVI, Summo
Iugiter Studio, May 27, 1832, on no salvation
outside the Church: “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… You know how zealously Our
predecessors taught that article of faith which these dare to deny,
namely the necessity of the Catholic faith and of unity for salvation… Omitting
other appropriate passages which are almost numberless in the writings of
the Fathers, We shall praise St. Gregory the Great who expressly testifies
that THIS IS INDEED THE TEACHING OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. He says: ‘The holy universal Church
teaches that it is not possible to worship God truly except in her and asserts
that all who are outside of her will not be saved.’ Official acts of the Church proclaim the
same dogma. Thus, in the decree
on faith which Innocent III published with the synod of Lateran IV, these
things are written: ‘There is one universal Church of all the faithful
outside of which no one is saved.’
Finally the same dogma is also expressly mentioned in the profession of
faith proposed by the Apostolic See, not only that which all Latin churches
use, but also that which… other Eastern Catholics use. We did not mention these selected testimonies
because We thought you were ignorant of that
article of faith and in need of Our instruction. Far be it from Us to
have such an absurd and insulting suspicion about you. But We are so
concerned about this serious and well known dogma, which has been attacked with
such remarkable audacity, that We could not restrain Our pen from reinforcing
this truth with many testimonies.”
Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari
Vos (# 13), Aug. 15, 1832: “With the admonition
of the apostle that ‘there is one God, one faith, one baptism’ (Eph. 4:5) may
those fear who contrive the notion that the safe harbor of salvation is open to
persons of any religion whatever. They
should consider the testimony of Christ Himself that ‘those who are not with
Christ are against Him,’ (Lk. 11:23) and
that they disperse unhappily who do not gather with Him. Therefore, ‘without a doubt, they will
perish forever, unless they hold the Catholic faith whole and inviolate”
(Athanasian Creed).
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 for 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 produce 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.”
Week of 3/4/05:
John Paul II references the three ex cathedra statements on Outside the Church There is No Salvation
and then rejects the dogma!
Antipope
John Paul II, General Audience, May 31, 1995:
“Since
Christ brings about salvation through his Mystical Body, which is the Church,
the way of salvation is connected essentially with the Church. The
axiom extra Ecclesiam nulla
salus – ‘outside the Church there is no salvation’ –
stated by St. Cyprian (Epist. 73 21, PL 1123 AB),
belongs to Christian tradition and was included in the Fourth Lateran Council
(DS 802), in the Bull Unam sanctam of Boniface VIII (DS 870) and in the Council of
Florence (Decretum pro Jacobitis,
DS 1351)….
“For those, however, who have not received the Gospel proclamation, as I
wrote in the Encyclical Redemptoris missio, salvation is accessible in mysterious ways,
inasmuch as divine grace is granted to them by virtue of Christ’s redeeming
sacrifice, without external membership in the Church, but nonetheless always in
relation to her (cf. n. 10). It is a ‘mysterious relationship’:
mysterious for those who receive the grace, because they do not know the
Church and sometimes even outwardly reject her…” (L’Osservatore Romano, June 7, 1995, p. 11.)
Comment: This is a quote that I discovered in my
reading of all of John Paul II’s speeches a number of
years ago. We’ve had this quote in our
possession for quite some time, but we didn’t get around to exposing it until
now. This is a very important and
interesting heresy, for a number of reasons.
First, this quote proves that John Paul II is well aware of the three
most famous ex cathedra statements on
Outside the Church There is No Salvation. Notice
that John Paul II even provided the Denzinger-Schonmetzer
numbers [DS] for where they can be found!
Second, after referencing the dogma, notice that he affirms his
heretical belief that non-Catholics can be saved who don’t know the Church and even reject her! This is formal heresy against Outside the
Church There is No Salvation; no one can claim that
John Paul II is not well aware of the dogma he has contradicted many times by
his words and actions.
This
quote also shows that when John Paul II constantly praises non-Catholic sects
and false religions he is an obstinate heretic; for he knows that the Church
teaches that these sects are false and that it teaches that their members will
be lost without becoming Catholic.
(This,
of course, does not detract in any way from the fact we have already
established elsewhere in our writings: John Paul II would be a formal apostate,
even if he were unaware of this dogma, because he rejects the essential
mysteries of Faith necessary for all above reason to hold to be Catholic. He rejects that Christ is the one true God by
holding that non-Christian religions are great; he is thus an apostate even if
he weren’t aware of any other Catholic teachings – which he clearly is, as we
can see.)
Week of 1/14/05
Antipope John Paul II teaches that all the deceased victims of the
Tsunami are saved
Antipope John Paul II, General
Audience, Dec. 29, 2004: “The news that continues to arrive from Asia
demonstrates the magnitude of the huge catastrophe that has hit India,
Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand in particular…I entrust to the divine mercy the countless persons who have lost their
lives. Let us pray for them all,
singing the Our Father together.” (L’Osservatore Romano, Jan. 5, 2005, p. 11.)
Comment: Antipope John Paul II prays for all who died
in the Tsunami. This clearly indicates
that he considers that all of them are among the saved. Most of those who were killed in the Asian Tsunami were Muslims, and
many were Hindus. Catholics cannot pray
for those who die as non-Catholics, since those who
do die as non-Catholics are lost eternally without any doubt (de fide). If there is no evidence that a person
converted before his death to the Catholic Faith, then he is considered to have died as he lived and cannot have Masses
or prayers offered for him.
Canon 2200.2, 1917
Code: “Positing an external violation of the law, malice in the external forum is presumed until the contrary is proven.”
St. Thomas Aquinas,
Summa Theologica,
Suppl. Q. 71, A. 5: “Gregory
says (Moral xxxiv. 19): There is the same reason for not praying then (namely
after the judgment day) for men condemned to everlasting fire, as there is now
for not praying for the devil and has angels who are sentenced to eternal
punishment, and for this reason the saints do not pray for dead
unbelieving and wicked men, because, forsooth, knowing them to be
already condemned to eternal punishment, they shrink from pleading for them
by the merit of their prayers before they are summoned to the presence of the
Judge.”
St. Thomas Aquinas,
Summa Theologica,
Suppl. Q. 71, A. 5: “Further, the text (iv. Sent. D. 45) quotes the words of Augustine (De Verb. Apost. Serm.
Xxxii): ‘If a man
depart this life without the faith that worketh
by charity and its sacraments, in vain do his friends have recourse to such
acts of kindness [prayers and suffrages for him].’ Now all the damned come under that head. Therefore suffrages profit them not.”
But
Antipope John Paul II’s teaching that all who died in
the Tsunami are saved (by praying for all of them) is perfectly in line with
the fact that Antipope John Paul II
holds and teaches that in the Incarnation the Son of God united himself with
every man in an unbreakable union, which makes it impossible, according to him,
for anyone to go to Hell. Antipope John
Paul II explicitly teaches that this union between Christ and each man lasts
forever.
Antipope John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis (# 13), March 4, 1979:
“We are dealing with each man, for each one
is included in the mystery of the Redemption and with each one Christ has
united Himself forever through this mystery.”
Antipope John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio (# 4), Dec. 7, 1990:
“The Redemption event brings salvation to all, ‘for each one is included
in the mystery of the Redemption and with each one Christ has united himself forever through this mystery.’”
Antipope John Paul II, Centesimus Annus (# 53):
“We are not dealing here with man in the ‘abstract,’ but with the real,
‘concrete,’ ‘historical’ man. We are
dealing with each individual, since each one is included in the
mystery of the Redemption and through this mystery Christ has united
himself with each one forever.”
Week of 6/11/04
Antipope John Paul II and Thomas Droleskey pray for the eternal rest of the deceased
non-Catholic heretic and schismatic Ronald Reagan
Worldnews.com,
June 6, 2004: “Pope John Paul II paid tribute Sunday to former President
Ronald Reagan, recalling his efforts to bring down communism that ‘changed the
lives of millions of people,’ a
Comment:
Ronald Reagan was not a Catholic, but a Protestant heretic and
schismatic. It is a dogma of the Catholic Faith that those who die as
non-Catholics go to hell.
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… 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.” (Denz. 714)
It is also a dogma of the Catholic Faith that those
who are not subject to the Roman Pontiff cannot be saved.
Pope Boniface VIII,
Unam Sanctam,
Nov. 18, 1302, ex cathedra:
“With Faith urging
us we are forced to believe and to hold the one, holy, Catholic Church and
that, apostolic, and we firmly believe and simply confess this Church outside of which there is no salvation nor
remission of sin… Furthermore, we declare, say, define, and proclaim to
every human creature that they by absolute necessity for salvation are entirely
subject to the Roman Pontiff.” (Denz. 468-469)
But Antipope John Paul II prays for the “eternal
rest” of this man who was not a Catholic, but a heretic and a schismatic who
was not subject to the Roman Pontiff.
This is a total rejection of the Catholic Faith. So much for the fact that Reagan was a heretic
and a schismatic, who rejected the Papacy, the Immaculate Conception, the
binding nature of the Council of Trent, etc., etc., etc. All of this means nothing, according to
Antipope John Paul II, and none of it has to be accepted for salvation. This act shows again that Antipope John Paul
II is an apostate.
The fact is that Catholics cannot pray for those who die as
non-Catholics, since those who do die as non-Catholics are lost
eternally without any doubt. If there is
no evidence that a person converted before his death to the Catholic Faith, then he is considered to have died as he
lived and cannot have Masses or prayers offered for him, even if there is a
slim chance that such a person converted to the Catholic Faith before
death.
Canon 2200.2, 1917
Code: “Positing an external violation of the law, malice in the external forum is presumed until the contrary is proven.”
In other words, a non-Catholic heretic is presumed to have not converted and to have
died a heretic unless the contrary is proven. This
is why it is wrong to pray for Ronald Reagan or to have Masses offered for him. (By the way, this canon also
shows again how wrong it is to presume that a manifest heretic like Antipope
John Paul II is just an erring Catholic or a “material heretic.”)
If you can pray for Ronald Reagan, when there is no
evidence of his conversion to the Catholic Faith, then one can have prayers and Masses offered for anyone, including
Judas, Martin Luther and Adolph Hitler.
But that would be a sin against the Faith.
St. Thomas Aquinas,
Summa Theologica,
Suppl. Q. 71, A. 5: “Gregory
says (Moral xxxiv. 19): There is the same reason for not praying then (namely
after the judgment day) for men condemned to everlasting fire, as there is now
for not praying for the devil and has angels who are sentenced to eternal
punishment, and for this reason the saints do not pray for dead
unbelieving and wicked men, because, forsooth, knowing them to be
already condemned to eternal punishment, they shrink from pleading for them
by the merit of their prayers before they are summoned to the presence of the
Judge.”
St. Thomas Aquinas,
Summa Theologica,
Suppl. Q. 71, A. 5: “Further, the text (iv. Sent. D. 45) quotes the words of Augustine (De Verb. Apost. Serm.
Xxxii): ‘If a man
depart this life without the faith that worketh
by charity and its sacraments, in vain do his friends have recourse to such
acts of kindness [prayers and suffrages for him].’ Now all the damned come under that head. Therefore suffrages profit them not.”
But the denial of the dogma Outside the Church
There is No Salvation is so widespread today that we not only have apostates
like Antipope John Paul II praying for Reagan – without any mention of the fact
that Reagan rejected the Catholic Faith and without any mention of the dogma of
submission to the Roman Pontiff, which is all thrown out the window as totally
meaningless – but we now have so-called “traditional” Catholics saying that
Catholics must pray for the non-Catholic Reagan!
Dr. Thomas Drolesky, June 6, 2004: “The
fortieth President of the
This
is completely wrong and actually outrageous, but not really surprising coming
from this writer who is popular in the heretical publications, The Remnant and Catholic Family News. The
Church judges the external forum (i.e., what is seen), as stated above, which
means that if a baptized heretic gave no evidence of conversion to the Catholic
Faith in the external forum then he is presumed to have died unfaithfully
departed and cannot be prayed for.
And all who die as unbaptized
persons, including pagans, infidels and Jews, also cannot be prayed for, as
they are dying outside the Catholic Church.
As quoted in “The You Can’t Judge Heresy” section of my new book on
Outside the Church There is Absolutely No Salvation (p. 149), the great St.
Francis Xavier shows how a Catholic must affirm that all those who die outside
the Church are definitely lost, as he does in regard to a pagan privateer who
died on a ship on which he was traveling.
St. Francis Xavier, Nov. 5, 1549: “The corsair who
commanded our vessel died here at Cagoxima. He did his work for us, on the whole, as we
wished… He himself chose to die in his
own superstitions; he did not even leave us the power of rewarding him by
that kindness which we can after death do to other friends who die in the
profession of the Christian faith, in commending their souls to God, since
the poor fellow by his own hand cast his soul into hell, where there
is no redemption.” (The
Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier by Henry James Coleridge, S.J. Originally published: London: Burns and Oates, 1874 Second
Reprint, New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, 2004, Vol. 2, p. 281.)
But
Antipope John Paul II not only prays for baptized, non-Catholic heretics like Reagan,
but also for pagan Hindu idolaters such as Mahatma Gandhi. Antipope John Paul II prayed at Gandhi’s tomb
(while taking off his shoes out of respect for this infidel), and allegedly
said: “May Gandhi live forever!”
But
getting back to Reagan, not surprisingly, EWTN, the television network run by
the apostate Mother Angelica, also mentioned on its show The World Over that John Paul II prayed for the eternal rest of
Reagan’s soul. I wonder how many of the
“Catholics” watching EWTN had a problem with this? I wonder how many of them said, “wait a second, what about the necessity to
be a Catholic?” How many of them
said, “didn’t the fact that Reagan rejected the Catholic
Faith and the Primacy of the Roman Pontiff mean anything in regard to his
salvation?” But these things aren’t
even considered as the apostate host Raymond Arroyo nonchalantly mentions that
John Paul II prayed for the “eternal rest” of the schismatic and heretic
Reagan. The necessity to be Catholic for salvation
isn’t even considered, because Arroyo and his “Catholic” audience are simply
following the apostate religion of their leader, Antipope John Paul II, who
teaches them that the Catholic Faith is totally unnecessary for attaining
salvation.
Week of 12/19/03
At the Recent Fatima Conference the
Novus Ordo Clergy called the dogmatic definition of
the Council of Florence “horrible”!
Catholic
Family News, Dec. 2003, pp. 20-21: “… I have covered a number of
these post-conciliar conferences including New
Evangelization Seminars, Rock’n’-Roll World Youth
Days, screaming charismatic meetings, and evenings of Jewish-Catholic dialogue. Yet the most explicit heresy I have ever heard at any of
these events came from the mouth of the Belgian Jesuit Father Jacques Dupuis,
only a few hundred yards from where Our Lady of Fatima appeared…On the point of
‘outside the Church there is no salvation,’ Fr. Dupuis said in disgust, ‘There
is no need to invoke here that horrible text from the Council of Florence in
1442.’”
Comment: A few weeks back we documented how the
Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima was going to be turned into an interfaith Shrine
open to all religions. At the Fatima
conference where that diabolical endeavor was put forward, Fr. Jacques Dupuis
called the following dogmatic definition of the Council of Florence on outside
the Church there is no salvation “horrible.”
Pope Eugene IV, Council of
Florence, “Cantate Domino,” 1441-1442, 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.”
The editor of Catholic Family News, who was present at the conference, reports
that Msgr. Guerra (the Fatima Shrine Rector), Antipope John Paul II’s own Apostolic Delegate to Portugal and the Bishop of Leiria-Fatima were also present and applauded Fr. Dupuis’
heresy. Ladies and gentlemen, this
means that the man put in charge of Our Lady’s shrine by the Vatican II sect,
as well as the Bishop over the territory, applauded the aforementioned
speech! This is the Church of John Paul
II! Does one need to say any more? The crowd in attendance also applauded the
speech, which speech, besides calling the above truth of divine revelation
“horrible” (and therefore calling God a liar for revealing this truth), was
filled with apostasy and heresy throughout.
But what is particularly horrible (no pun
intended) is that the editor of Catholic
Family News, John Vennari, who did some good
reporting on this incredible heresy, still isn’t convinced that the
aforementioned apostates (Fr. Jacques Dupuis; Msgr. Guerra; Antipope John Paul II’s Apostolic Delegate to Portugal; and the Bishop of Leiria-Fatima) are even heretics who are outside the
Catholic Church!
John Vennari, Catholic Family News, Dec. 2003, p. 25: “… We can
conclude that Father Jacques Dupuis, Cardinal Jose da
Cruz Policarpo of Lisbon, Bishop Serafim.. and Fatima Shrine Rector
Monsignor Guerra have promoted
Modernism and are therefore sinners against the Catholic Faith and also
common perjurers. It is a crime against
God and justice that these men should hold authority in the land of
Portugal where Our Blessed Mother appeared.’”
Mr. Vennari says that these men have promoted
Modernism and are “sinners against the Catholic Faith,” but avoids saying that
they are heretics who are outside the Church.
He explicitly says that they “hold authority in the land of Portugal
where Our Blessed Mother appeared.” What
will convince him that these people are not Catholics? To maintain the Faith, it is not enough to
oppose these incredible abominations, heresies and outright idolatries, if one
still affirms communion and faith with these men. To
affirm communion and faith with such men is to deny the Faith by mixing Fatima
with apostasy, by saying that one can be an apostate and hold the authority of
the Church of Christ in Fatima.
One cannot oppose this apostasy and stand for Catholicism if one shares
communion with non-Catholics and a non-Catholic sect. This is why one must recognize that the whole
hierarchy of the Vatican II sect – from Antipope John Paul II to his apostate
bishop in Fatima, to his apostate bishops in America – does not constitute the
hierarchy of the Catholic Church, but constitutes the hierarchy of the
non-Catholic/Vatican II sect, the counterfeit church of the last days (a.k.a.
the great harlot).
Pope St. Leo the Great, Sermon 129:
“Wherefore, since
outside the Catholic Church there is nothing perfect, nothing undefiled… we are in no way likened with those who are
divided from the unity of the Body of Christ; we are joined in no communion.”
Pope Innocent III, Eius exemplo, Dec.
18, 1208:
“By the heart we believe and by
the mouth we confess the one Church,
not of heretics, but the Holy
Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Church outside of which we believe that no one
is saved.”
Week of 11/14/03
The Editor of The Remnant Speaks Heresy on the dogma,
Outside the Church There is No Salvation
Michael
Matt, The Remnant, “Luther,”
October 31, 2003, p. 11: “Perhaps some will protest that we’ve been too hard on
Dr. Luther, and that his well meaning spiritual descendants in our day surely
mustn’t share his anathemas. I have no
desire, were it somehow within my power, to condemn baptized Lutherans to eternal hellfire. As the Church has always taught, we must
leave such judgments to God.
But, when considering how Protestantism came into being – in protest (protestant) of Christ’s Church and in
defiance of His Vicar – it seems
foolhardy to presume that all good Lutherans are guaranteed eternal
bliss. If I cannot say as much about
myself or my beloved wife, family and friends who are Catholic (and who are, as
Christ advocated, trying to ‘work out’ their salvation by the ‘sweat of their
brow’), how can I say it of these poor souls who’ve been robbed of the grace of
Christ’s sacraments and who languish outside His Mystical Body?
“Protestants
are not ‘pious Hindus’ living on that proverbial desert island. They know Jesus Christ; reason tells them
where His Church is and where it is not.
They cannot stand behind the shield of invincible ignorance. We must pray for them, then, as we must
recognize our own sacred duty before God to commit ourselves entirely to their
conversion to the only true and sure means of salvation known to man – the Holy
Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation.”
Comment: As we’ve pointed out, it is a fact that
almost all of those who profess to be “traditional Catholics” today reject the
Church’s teaching on the dogma Outside
the Church There is No Salvation, no matter how much they claim to hold
it. This week’s heresy proves our point
again. Michael Matt, the editor of The Remnant, actually wrote an article
on how the new film Luther (about the
arch-heretic Martin Luther) attacks the dogma Outside the Church There is No Salvation, as if Mr. Matt believed
in that dogma. But in his article Mr.
Matt shows what he really believes by clearly indicating (see quote above) that
both Lutherans and Hindus can be saved without the Catholic faith, and that “we
must leave such judgments to God” – a cleverly heretical way of stating that we don’t know if God’s judgment that
all who die as non-Catholics will not be saved (already revealed to the
Church as infallibly true) is true.
This is totally heretical – a flat out rejection of the divinely
revealed truth that all who die without the Catholic
Faith cannot be saved. And Matt is
deceiving because he presents himself as one who adheres to and even defends
the dogma when in truth he rejects it.
Mr. Matt is such a heretic, in fact, that he says:
“it seems foolhardy to presume that all
good Lutherans are guaranteed eternal bliss,” clearly indicating again that he holds that Lutherans can be saved and
that the only point of contention is how
many can be saved. Matt then
tries to show the reader that the Lutherans are still under some obligation to
enter the Church (even though he has already clearly indicated that some if not
most can be saved outside of her) by pointing out that the Lutherans are not
the “pious Hindus” who are “invincibly ignorant” of Christ. In other words, while Lutherans can be saved,
it would be foolish to assert that they are all saved since they have
heard of Christ and should know the Church; the “pious Hindus,” on the other
hand, living in “invincible ignorance” have not. This
clearly indicates that, according to Matt, Hindus also can be saved, since they
are even less culpable than the Lutherans whom he has already indicated can be
saved. What a bold rejection of
Catholic teaching! And at the end of
spewing his heretical explanation, Matt says “the Holy Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation” –
in the typical fashion of the dishonest heretics who pretend to believe in this dogma while they obstinately deny it and
empty it of its meaning.
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 Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos (# 13),
Aug. 15, 1832: “They should consider the
testimony of Christ Himself that ‘those who are not with Christ are against
Him,’ (Lk. 11:23) and that they disperse
unhappily who do not gather with Him. Therefore, ‘without a doubt, they will perish
forever, unless they hold the Catholic faith whole and inviolate” (Athanasian Creed).
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.”
Week of 10/3/03
Bishop McKenna and the CMRI Reject
Catholic Dogma
Bishop Robert Mckenna,
“The Boston Snare,” printed in the CMRI’s Magazine The Reign of Mary, Vol. XXVI, No. 83: “The doctrine, then, of no salvation outside
the Church is to be understood in the sense of knowingly outside the Church… But, they may object, if
such be the sense of the dogma in question, why is the word ‘knowingly’ not
part of the formula, ‘Outside the Church no salvation’? For the simple reason that the addition is unnecessary. How could anyone know of the dogma and not be
knowingly outside the Church? The ‘dogma’ is not so much a doctrine
intended for the instruction of Catholics, since it is but a logical
consequence of the Church’s claim to be the true Church, but rather a solemn and material warning or declaration for the
benefit of those outside the one ark of salvation.”
Comment: Frankly, this has to be one of the most
stupid statements ever made by a person purporting to be a traditional Catholic
Bishop. Bishop Robert Mckenna’s writing above comes in the context of an article
which he wrote to defend his heretical “version” of the Catholic dogma, Outside the Church there is no salvation. Bishop McKenna, like almost every modern
priest, rejects the true meaning of this dogma and holds that non-Catholics
can be saved without the Catholic Faith.
So, in order to defend his heretical version of Outside the Church there is no salvation, a version according to which
there is salvation outside the Church, McKenna admittedly must change the
understanding of the dogmatic formula proclaimed by the Popes. He tells us that the “true” meaning of the
dogma is that only those who are “knowingly”
outside the Church cannot be saved. Oh
really? Where was that qualification
ever mentioned in the dogmatic definitions on this topic? Nowhere.
Recognizing that such an understanding runs
contrary to the clear words of the dogmatic definitions on the topic – none of
which ever mentioned “knowingly” and all of which eliminated all exceptions
– McKenna attempts to explain away the problem. He
states that,
“The ‘dogma’ is not so much a
doctrine intended for the instruction of Catholics… but rather a solemn and material warning or declaration for the
benefit of those outside the one ark of salvation.”
Excuse me?
The dogma Outside the Church there
is no salvation, according to Mckenna and the
heretical CMRI which printed this article in their magazine (Vol. XXIV, No.
83), is not a truth from heaven, but a warning or admonition written for
non-Catholics! This is grotesque
theological nonsense and flat out heresy!
Pope Pius X, Lamentabile, The Errors of the Modernists, July 3,
1907, #22: “The dogmas which the Church professes as revealed are not
truths fallen from heaven, but
they are a kind of interpretation of religious facts, which the human
mind by a laborious effort prepared for itself.”- Condemned
As we can see here, dogmas are truths fallen from heaven which cannot possibly contain
error. They are not merely human
statements written to warn non-Catholics which are subject to correction and
qualification. Dogmas are infallible
definitions of the truth which can never be changed or corrected, and have no
need to be changed or corrected since they cannot possibly contain error. Further, dogmas are defined so that Catholics
must know what they must believe as true from divine revelation without any
possibility of error, exactly the opposite of what McKenna and the CMRI assert. But they must deny that dogmas are truths
from heaven and belittle them to fallible warnings for non-Catholics that can
be corrected, in order to attempt to justify their heretical belief in
salvation for those “unknowingly” outside the Catholic Church, which
belief, as they unwittingly admit by such argumentation, is directly contrary
to the clear words of the dogmatic definitions.
And this is perhaps what is most important about
this week’s heresy: namely, that the dogma deniers, that is, those who believe
in the heresy that “baptism of desire” and “invincible ignorance” can save
those who die as non-Catholics, such as Bishop McKenna and the CMRI and almost
every modern priest be he “traditional” or Novus Ordo,
are revealing by such ridiculous and theologically perverse argumentation that their “version” of this dogma is incompatible
with the words of the dogmatic definitions; for if their version were
compatible with the dogmatic definitions they would never be forced into
heretical statements such as those above.
Pope Pius IX, First
Vatican Council, Sess. 3, Chap.
2 on Revelation, 1870, ex cathedra: “Hence, also, that understanding
of its sacred dogmas must be perpetually retained, which Holy Mother Church has
once declared; and there must never be a recession from that meaning under
the specious name of a deeper understanding.”
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.”
Week of 9/26/2003
Comment: As we documented in issue #6 of our
magazine, the denial of the dogma Outside
the Catholic Church there is no salvation – which has been the key to the
Great Apostasy we are now living through – was well in place before Vatican
II. Here we see the famous Irish priest
Fr. Denis Fahey, whose writings are lauded by many who call themselves
“traditional Catholics,” teaching that Jews who reject Our Lord Jesus Christ
can be saved. This is truly an
abomination.
By making such a statement, Fr. Fahey reveals
(unfortunately) that he wasn’t a Catholic, but a blatant heretic. If Fr. Fahey had spent more time getting to
know the truth of Jesus Christ, His Gospel and His dogma, rather than writing
large volumes on “the forces of organized naturalism,” he would have discovered
that the core focus of the entire Gospel – and the very central truth of the
universe along with the dogma of the Trinity – is that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God, and that you must believe in Him to have eternal life.
“For God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son: that
whosoever believeth in Him, may not perish, but may have life
everlasting.” (John 3:16)
“He that believeth
in the Son hath life everlasting: but he
that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but
the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36)
To assert that one can attain salvation while
rejecting Jesus Christ is to say that one can attain salvation while rejecting
salvation itself. It is almost the worst heresy that one could utter.
“Now this is life everlasting, that they may
know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”
(John 17:3)
“I am the good
shepherd, and I know mine, and mine know me.” (John 10:14)
“And he said to
them [the Jews]: You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world,
I am not of this world. Therefore, I
said to you, that you shall die in your sins: for if you believe not that I am He, you shall die in your sin.”
(John 8:23-24)
“Amen, Amen, I say
to you: he that entereth
not by the door into the
sheepfold, but climbeth up another way, the same is a
thief and a robber… I am the door.” (John 10:1, 9)
“Jesus saith to them: I am the way, and the truth, and the
life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6)
“If anyone abideth
not in me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall
gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth.”
(John 15:6)
“And when he [the Paraclete] is come, he will convince the world of sin, and
of justice, and of judgment. Of sin indeed: because they have not
believed in me.” (John 15:8-9)
“For this was I
born, and for this came I into the world, that I should give testimony to the
truth: every one who is of the truth, heareth my voice.”
(John 18:37)
“… the name of
Our Lord Jesus Christ… Nor is there salvation in any other. For there is no other
name under heaven, given to men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
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.”