July 12, 2007
Did Pope Benedict XVI really reassert that other Christian denominations are not true churches?
Recently, a hot topic for the media has been a certain document issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith entitled RESPONSES TO SOME QUESTIONS REGARDING CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE DOCTRINE ON THE CHURCH. It's classic to me how the media feels it necessary to make it sound like Pope Benedict is personally making comments anytime the Magisterium issues a document. Yes, each issued document is "ratified and confirmed...and ordered (for) publication" by the pope, but I believe the media simply enjoys stirring up controversy when it come to reporting on the pope.
Many of the articles I've read attempt to make it sound like the Church is changing Her mind on the doctrine proclaimed in reference to the Church or that the issuing of this document was ill-intended. However, as is always the case, this document was issued to provide clarification as to what the Church, specifically at the 2nd Vatican Council, has taught about the Church in relation to other Christian churches and communities.
In reference to what the document had to say about the Catholic Church's understanding of God's presence within other Christian churches and communities, it stated the following:
“It follows that these separated churches and Communities, though we believe they suffer from defects, are deprived neither of significance nor importance in the mystery of salvation. In fact the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as instruments of salvation, whose value derives from that fullness of grace and of truth which has been entrusted to the Catholic Church”[12].
It also goes on to explain the Catholic Church's explanation as to why it does not refer to those Christian communities born out of the Reformation of the sixteen century as churches:
According to Catholic doctrine, these Communities do not enjoy apostolic succession in the sacrament of Orders, and are, therefore, deprived of a constitutive element of the Church. These ecclesial Communities which, specifically because of the absence of the sacramental priesthood, have not preserved the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic Mystery[19] cannot, according to Catholic doctrine, be called “Churches” in the proper sense[20].
Again, nothing new here. Pope Benedict XVI and the rest of the Magisterium are simply reasserting what the Church has always taught and believed. I highly recommend reading the entire document, I provided a hyperlink to it above.
In Christ,
Joe
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The uproar over Pope Benedict XVI's comments shows just how badly needed his comments were. This demonstrates how deeply moral relativists have misunderstood the Second Vatican Council and the gestures of Pope John Paul II.
This clear teaching in the public documents of the Second Vatican Council, repeated by our clergy, and presented in almost every first year course in Catholic ecclesiology has apparently escaped the notice of the public.
Thank God for our German Shepherd!
Posted by: Burnt Marshwiggle at July 16, 2007 11:14 AM 08.11.2007
USCCB WEBSITE SAYS CATHOLIC CHURCH NOT NECESSARY FOR SALVATION, PROTESTANT CHURCHES SAVE
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops(USCCB) on its website does not affirm that the Catholic Church is necessary for salvation and that Protestant ‘churches’ are not paths to salvation . Instead it indicates that the recent CDF document holds that Protestants can be saved within their Church and by their religion. There is not mention of the necessity for Protestants to join the ‘one, true church’ for salvation.
The USCCB has published a feature in the Ecumenical and Inter Religious Section of their official website. It is titled ‘Not-so-fully Church-The Popes message to Catholics and Protestants’ by Jared Wicks S.J http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=3580 (August 21, 2007).
It states that in July 2007 the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) reaffirmed the Catholic doctrine that the church of Christ "exists fully only in the Catholic Church”.
‘Yes, the Vatican treated the same points it discussed seven years ago in Dominus Iesus. That text stoutly maintained the unique saving role of Jesus Christ…’
The unique saving role of Jesus Christ is also acknowledged by Protestants. So it is was not an issue .However that the Catholic Church is the only path to salvation and that Protestant ecclesial bodies are not paths to salvation was the key issue in the CDF document-which the writer does not accept.
The Jesuit writer accepts that these ecclesial bodies (Protestant Churches) :
‘descended from the Reformation’ and so ‘do not have such an episcopate, and they celebrate a flawed Eucharist; consequently, for Catholic ecclesiology, they are not churches "in the proper sense," but are (using the Vatican II term) "ecclesial communities."
Can the Protestant Churches which do not have apostolic succession and an invalid Eucharist be a path to salvation?
The report on the USCCB website says yes.
‘The adjective ecclesial carries theological weight, however: it indicates that Christian elements are truly possessed by those bodies; though not complete, those communities are used by the Holy Spirit to bring salvation for their members.’(Emphasis added)
It needs to be kept in mind that the Catholic Church teaches that
1) All salvation comes from Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church, Jesus’ Mystical Body.
2) The Catholic Church is the ordinary means of salvation (Redemptoris Missio 55).
All salvation comes through Jesus and the Catholic Church says the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Vatican Council II, Ad Gentes 7 holds that all people need to enter the Catholic Church. Those Protestants, who know this truth and yet do not enter the Catholic Church, are oriented to Hell (Lumen Gentium 14).
God the Father wants all people to be united into the Catholic Church and the Catholic Church is the only Ark of Salvation that saves in the flood, all people need to enter the Catholic Church for salvation as through a Door.(Catechism of the Catholic Church)
The article then goes on to mention dissent against this teaching among Catholics.
Then starts the confusion once again. The ambiguity suggests that Protestants can be saved in their religion through the ordinary way of salvation. When, if there is salvation for the Protestants within their religion it is through the extraordinary way (Unitatis Redintigratio 3 ,Vatican Council II).Since, even though the ordinary way of salvation is the Catholic Church in which all Protestants need to enter (Ut Unum Sint), Protestants can be saved within their religion.
‘Similarly, after affirming "the full identity of the Church of Christ with the Catholic Church" the text goes on to cite Vatican II's Decree on Ecumenism on the significance and importance of the other bodies in the economy of salvation, since "the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as instruments of salvation." …
There are good and holy things in non Catholic religions and most important, with the Protestants, we have a common belief in Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, even though their doctrines are new,being that of Martin Luther.
We also have elements in common with the Pentecostal Churches and the Christian sects, even though they themselves do not have a unity in doctrine. However they are not paths to salvation according to Responses to Some Questions regarding certain aspects of the doctrine on the Church.
The fullness of the truth exists only in the Catholic Church says Vatican Council II.
Whatever the language rule requires, the "ecclesial communities" are for Catholics not benevolent associations like Rotary Clubs.
The writer suggests again that the ecclesial bodies are means of salvation; the ordinary means of salvation. This is false.
The website goes on to say
Still, Protestant teaching, sacramental life and ministries, do fuse together qualities derived from Christ and the New Testament churches.
The ambiguity again suggests that they are the ordinary paths of salvation and that Protestants are saved through their religion, in general.
Where the elements work to form and sanctify, there is apostolicity, as is argued in the recently published Lutheran-Catholic dialogue study, The Apostolicity of the Church (Lutheran University Press, 2006).
The CDF document holds that the Anglican, Lutheran and Baptist Church have no apostolic continuity.
The writer then concedes that this apostolic continuity exists in the Catholic Church, while earlier saying it also exists in the Lutheran churches.
In Catholic theology, "ongoing continuity" with the church of Christ and the Holy Spirit is structural and sacramental, a continuity of the mediating elements of word, sacrament and ministry given by Christ through his apostles.
In the end it is not important for the writer that Lutherans enter the Catholic Church as is suggested by Pope John Paul II in Ut Unum Sint.
In the end the issue between Protestants and Catholics is not about living in the Lord with faith, hope and charity, but about the full complement of covenanted mediations by which God comes to form believers for discipleship.
God forms believers for discipleship in the ecclesial bodies without them having to join the Catholic Church, is the contrary message on the USCCB website.
Fr. Jared Wicks teaches at the John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio, USA.
Lionel Andrades Catholic layman in Rome.
E-mail: landrades@tiscali.it
What?
Posted by: skelly at November 11, 2007 05:51 PM
