What is the teaching of the Church on "Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus"?
This doctrine finds one of its most famous expression in the profession of faith given in the eleventh session of the council of Florence.
"It 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 catholic church before the end of their lives; that the unity of the 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 his blood in the name of Christ, unless he has persevered in the bosom and the unity of the catholic church."
This teaching of the council of Florence is one of the most misinterpreted texts of the Church on EENS. Some extremists go so far as to hold that it teaches that unless one receives baptism of water, he cannot be saved. Others, more moderate, hold that it teaches that those who do not have at least a desire of entering the Church, together with explicit faith in Christ and the Trinity, cannot be saved.
As we shall see, both of these positions fall short of the constant teaching of Holy Mother Church.
The Church teaches in an absolute way that "there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church." Nevertheless, the Church also teaches that those who are outside the visible Church through no fault of their own, may still be united to her by a mysterious means known to God alone. This union can be attained on the part of the one who is invincibly ignorant even without any explicit faith in Christ or even any knowledge of the Church.
In my next few posts, I will begin to show that this is the official teaching of the Church on this matter.
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Can dogma be interpreted? I thought dogma WAS the interpretation.
ReplyDeleteClearly dogma can be interpreted. It is quite certain that this statement is a dogma of the Church: "There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church." However, the interpretation of this dogma consists in understanding precisely what the Church intends to signify by this statement.
ReplyDeleteVatican I teachs us that:"If anyone says that it is possible that at some time, given the advancement of knowledge, a sense may be assigned to the dogmas propounded by the Church which is different from that which the Church has understood and understands: let him be anathema."
It is clear that the Church is understanding that dogmas of the Church have a certain sense in which they are understood by the Church. This is what interpretation of a dogma means, interpreting what the Church intends to signify by it.
Who interprets the interpretation then?
ReplyDeleteThe Church means to signify exactly what it says when it says "FIRMLY believes and professes".
Do you interpret the dogma on the Eucharist or on the Immaculate Conception too?
Like maybe it is not LITERALLY Christ's body, blood, soul and Divinity....
You contradict yourself because this whole blog is called "Outside the Church there is no salvation" but the your whole point is to convince us how there IS salvation outside the Church or at least to redefine membership in the Church based on fallible sources.
Additionally, the CDF allows the approval of four groups in the Diocese of Worcester that hold the strict interpretation of Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus. If Baptism of Desire were a dogma, I think we would have heard of it from a more credible source than a blog, such as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
ReplyDeleteYou seem to be misunderstanding the point. The 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 catholic church before the end of their lives."
ReplyDeleteNow I ask you: if we are to understand this dogma, is it not necessary to understand what the Church means by, for example, heretics and schismatics. It makes a great deal of difference to what exactly it is that the Church firmly believes and professes.
For example, if I mistakenly believe, not through my own fault, that the Church holds that the Eucharist is not really the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ, am I a heretic or not? Clearly the Church does not hold that I am, since she has declared some of the early fathers who mistakenly held false positions about the truths of the faith saints, in spite of this belief.
Similarly then, is it not necessary to understand what exactly the Church means by "those who are outside the Church?" in order to understand this Dogma?
It is precisely for this reason that I am not contradicting myself. There is no salvation outside the Church. This is the teaching of the Church. The point of this blog is to show what the Church herself means by this.
In response to your last point, I am not giving my own opinions, but those of the fathers and the Church. Starting with my next post, I will be posting the teachings of the Church on this matter from magisterial sources.