Pope Benedict Breaks Silence and Affirms the Thrice Defined, Infallible Dogma, No Salvation Outside of the Catholic Church

"Council Cast Church and Faithful into a Double Crisis"  - Interview of Benedict XVI

(Rome) Pope Benedict XVI. has broken his silence that he  undertook in connection with his unexpected resignation. Since 2013 he has lived in retirement in the convent, Mater Ecclesiae in the Vatican. Now has given  Avvenire, the daily newspaper of the Italian Bishops' Conference a long interview, which was published in today's issue.

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"Let us allow ourselves to be formed by Christ," is the title of a spiritual interview which addresses faith and theology.  It does not involve daily affairs and church politics.

The interview was conducted by the Belgian Jesuit, Jacques Servais, director of the Casa Balthasar in Rome. Father Servais was under Cardinal Ratzinger from 1985-1990 an official in  the CDF and from 1993-1996, the professor of dogmatic theology at the Institute of John Paul II. in Rome. He has published works on Cardinal Newman, Hans Urs von Balthasar and Adrienne von Speyr.

"Without being bound by salvation even the faith is baseless"

The central question of the interview is: "What is the faith and how does one come to believe?"

Emeritus Benedict XVI. spoke to the Church crisis in the interview:

"The missionaries of the 16th century were convinced that the unbaptized were lost forever. After the Council this conviction was abandoned. This resulted in a deep crisis. Without being bound to salvation the faith is baseless."

On the anthropological aspect of man, technology and love:

"People expect in their hearts that the Good Samaritan comes to their aid. In the hardness of the technological world in which feelings count for nothing, the expectation increases of a saving love that is unselfishly bestowed."

For increasing importance of charity:

"It is a sign of the times that the idea of ​​mercy coming from Sister Faustina  becomes ever more central and more dominant."

Father Servais asked  Benedict XVI. about the justification dispute of Martin Luther and the struggle of St. Francis de Sales, who had followed in the wake of the Apostle Paul  for the pastoral care of as many "infidels" as possible against the "terrible fate being eternally lost."  Benedict XVI. proceeds in his reply in detail on the "development of this dogma" Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus, because since the beginning of modern times, the historical perspectives with respect to the Middle Ages had changed "radically".

By giving the up the Church's necessity for  salvation, the Council sparked a "double crisis"

"Double crisis" of Church and Faith

Thus, with the fact that the Second Vatican Council has "definitely" abandoned the belief  that there is no salvation for unbaptized, the Church and the faith had fallen into a "double crisis".

"On the one hand  it seems to withdraw any motivation a future missionary commitment. Why convince people of accepting the Christian faith, even if they can be saved without it?
But for Christians, the question on the necessity of faith and manner of life was uncertain and problematic. If there are those who can be saved in other ways, it is ultimately not evident why the Christian should be linked to the need of the Christian faith and its morals. But if the faith and salvation are not dependent on each other, the faith is also groundless.
Recently, various attempts have been made ​​to bring to reconciliation the universal need of the Christian faith with the opportunity to save oneself without them."

Rahner's "anonymous Christian" and the "superficiality" of pluralistic theories of religion are not solutions

Benedict XVI. then addresses two of these "attempts", including the thesis of Karl Rahner's "anonymous Christian",  in the being of Christ is synonymous with humanity. "It is true that this hypothesis is intriguing," but it excludes  "the drama of change and renewal, which is central for Christianity."

"Even less acceptable is the solution proposed by the pluralistic religious theories  for all religions, each in their own way, are ways of salvation  and to be considered in this sense, in their effects, as equivalent. The religious criticism, the way it is practiced on the Old Testament and of the primordial church, is much more realistic, concrete and true in its examination of the various religions." The pluralistic religious theories are "superficial" and "is not appropriate to the size of the question." 

Finally, Benedict XVI names a third solution proposed,  that of Henri de Lubac,  "and some other theologians" who had placed their emphasis on the standing substitute that vicarious substitution. So that it may be that  "the problem is not solved completely."  But it would involve a "material intuition", where it is total but "clear", "that we must think about the whole issue."

The complete interview in the Italian original (Avvenire) .

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Avvenire (Screenshot / Vaticanva / OR

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

Professional translation also by the Maike Hickson...

AMDG

Pope Francis Renews His Rejection of Mission and Return?

(Rome) At conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Pope Francis refused the mutual "poaching" of believers among Christian denominations. Another rejection of conversion and mission? What to mission, the Church?

Since the Second Vatican Council, there has been double trouble in the Catholic Church in terms of mission and conversion. On the one there is the question of the relationship to other Christian denominations. Secondly, the question of relations with other religions. The question is complex and has a variety of facets. Ecumenism and religious freedom are two main keywords.

Pope Francis fell at first in his short pontificate on several occasions by ambivalent statements about mission, proselytism and conversions. Statements that came close to an actual distancing from any constructive conversions or even explicitly made such an expression. What Pope Francis says exactly can be barely made out with accuracy because a diffuse use of certain terms cancels any substantive focus. The tendency, therefore, the observer receives more of an impression that in turn must remain ambivalent.

No "poaching" among Christians

At the conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in the Roman Patriarchal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls Pope Francis uttered a refusal of "poaching" of believers among Christian churches in his homily last Sunday.

"The shared commitment to proclaim the Gospel, allows the overcomiing of any form of proselytism and the temptation to be embroiled in competition," he said at the Ecumenical Service that takes place at the end of the year in Rome Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in St. Paul Outside the Walls.

All Christians are "in the service of one and the same gospel" said the Pope. At the same time he urged in the Church of Saint Paul Outside the Walls to put aside "all polemical or apologetic behavior" and jointly seek what binds all Christians. So could be overcome "many disputes inherited from the past among Christians".

"Serene, Meeting Another Without Animosity"

Next, the Pope turned against intellectual showiness in ecumenical dialogue in his sermon. Christian unity will not be the result of "sophisticated theoretical discussions," in which each is trying to convince others of the validity of their own views. Christians must come to the realization that they "need each other" to penetrate into the depth of the mystery of God, said Francis. In order to understand each other and grow in love and truth, one must "stop, accept each other and listen to each other. In this way one begins to experience unity," Francis said.

The Pope pointed to the example of Jesus Christ. There he encouraged them, a "serene, meeting without animosity" looking at one who is different than you. Jesus shows that such an encounter with the stranger "can make us grow."

Historical and New Denominations

Again in the ecumenical prayer service was attended by high-ranking representatives of the historic Christian denominations. Together with the Pope, they prayed before the start of the Gospel at the tomb of the Apostle Paul.

Pope Francis has advanced ecumenical dialogue between Christian denominations around the Evangelicals and Pentecostal movements, while he personally and out of protocol gives the historic Protestant denominations less attention.

Rejection of Proselytizing and Conversion

But it is not only a rejection of a mutual "poaching" among Christians. Pope Francis issued in 2013 a rejection of proselytism (see Canonization of a Missionary, but Rejection of mission? ) and gave his first interview interview with the atheist Eugenio Scalfari a kind of blanket refusal of conversions (see No to Conversions, Yes to Mission - The Pope contradict Himself? ).

The contradictions in the statements of Pope Francis beginning in October 2013 already took the legal philosopher Mario Palmaro shortly before his death position (see Christ is not an option among many, certainly not for his representative on earth ). An analysis and critique that has lost none of its importance.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi

image: Wikicommons

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches.... AMDG

Pope Francis: "No Way For Christians Without the Holy, Hierarchical, Mother Church"

Francis Pearl of the day: Mary and the Church: two women - two mothers. As there would have been no Jesus Christ without Mary, there is no way for Christians without the Church. Through suffering, obedience is learned: the way of Christ. By Armin Schwibach

Rome (kath.net/as) Without the Church, which is our mother, we can not go on. This was confirmed by Pope Francis in his sermon for the feast of the Dolors of Mary at Holy Mass in the chapel of the Vatican guest house "Domus Sanctae Marthae."

After the liturgy of the Exultation of the Cross, we are show us in the present day, a humble and gentle mother. In the Letter to the Hebrews (Heb 5:7 to 9), the apostle Paul emphasizes three powerful words: "Jesus taught, he obeyed and he suffered" ("Though he was a Son, he learned obedience through suffering"; V. 6). The Pope explains this is the contrary of what happened with the progenitor, Adam. He did not want to learn the Commandments of the Lord, nor did he want to suffer or obey. Though he was God, Jesus offered Himself on the other hand, He humbled Himself by becoming the servant: "This is the glory of the cross of Jesus".

"Jesus came into the world," said Francis, "to learn to be human, to be human, to go with the people. He came into the world, to obey, and he obeyed. But he has learned this obedience through suffering. Adam has left from paradise with a promise, the promise that has been going on over the many centuries. Today, with this obedience, this self-destruction, with this self-humiliation of Jesus, that promise is to hope. And the people of God go ahead with this certain hope. The Mother, 'the New Eve,' as Paul called her, would share this way with her Son: she learned, suffered and obeyed. And she became a mother."

The Gospel (Jn 19:25 - 27) shows us Mary at the foot of the Cross. Jesus says to John: "Behold your mother" (verse 27). Thus Mary would be "anointed as the mother:"

"And this is our hope. We are not orphans, we have mothers: Mother Mary. But the Church is the mother, and the Church is anointed as mother and she strikes out on the same way as Mary and Jesus, the way of obedience, the way of suffering, and if it continues that attitude to keep learning the way of the Lord. These two women - Mary and the Church - bring forward in hope, which is Christ, they give us Christ, they bear witness to Christ in us. Without Mary, there would have been no Jesus Christ. . "Without the Church, we can not precede."

Two women and two mothers," Francis continued, "and next to them our soul, which - as the monk Isaac, Abbot of Stella († 1178), has said - is feminine and Mary resembles the Church":

"If we now look at this woman at the cross, who was the successor of her son in suffering, was quite firm to learn obedience, so we look to you, to the Church, and we look to our Mother. And we also look at our little soul that will never get lost, even if it continues to remain a 'woman', who has close ties to these two great women who accompany us in life: Mary and the Church. And as our first parents have gone out of paradise with a promise, so can we go ahead with a hope: the hope, our Mother Mary gives to us, who remains firmly at the cross, and our sacred hierarchical Mother Church. "
 Link to kath.net...
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Post-Conciliar Disorientation and Clarity of Tradition

(Rome) The Second Vatican Council was to be the start of a new flower, to a new "spring" of the Church of charismata and strong religious faith of the people. The Council, at least in the conviction of not a few  prelates, clergy and laity of the 60s, was to  make "all things" new, especially the relationship between society and the Church. Through the Council,  Christianity would reach   all people, all ideologies, even embracing all other religions and in a new world that was Christian through and through.   

And yet some, still undaunted, agree to  praises of the Council. An attitude which imposes two explanations.  Some, because they welcome the negative effects  in the post-Conciliar period internally. The others, because they force themselves in a denial of reality and try to keep these effects to which they object inside, to desperately to ignore them, because criticism of the council was made successfully into a taboo.

So where does the beginning of the 21st century, lead to the weakness of the Church in the West? According to a caricature of the traditional American website The Remnant, it's from their post-conciliar disorientation. In other words, from the mistaken belief that the Church must in its interior, be a replica of the plurality of the world, instead of being a clear voice in a pluralistic world.

Necessity for Salvation in the Church

Today, many doubt the necessity for salvation in the Church. Can it be that there is no salvation outside the Church? The only question is more rhetorical, comparable to the question of Pontius Pilate: "What is truth?" The question is dressed in the form of a statement by relativists. Similarly relativistic is the cultural climate today. Each "truth" is allowed, except for the absolute truth, the Incarnate Truth. It may not exist. It is not permitted as the exclusive, because it would put all other "truths" in question. The prevailing climate is also subjective, because everyone can lay out the "truth" that he wants.

The Church teaches something entirely different. The necessity for salvation for every human being remains unchanged and independent of these current fashionable trends of thought. Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus is the pregnant statement   of  the fathers. No arrogance, but irrefutably part of the truth of faith, which was repeated by the Fathers and the Magisterium throughout the Church's history. Here is a brief compilation, based on an article published a few years ago, which is based on a  contribution in the weekly magazine Il Padre Pio di Settimanale. It is the magazine published by the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, who more recently - like their provisional managed brothers - have been placed under traditionally hostile Visitatorixes.

The Fathers

Origen (185-254): "(...) let no one deceive himself: outside this house, outside the church no one is saved" (Homil.3, in Iosue 5).

Cyprian of Carthage (200-258): "Outside the Ark is the deluge and death; outside the Church condemnation " (De Unitate Ecclesiae, VI).

Lactantius (250-320): "Only the Catholic Church has the true cult. In it is the source of truth, the seat of faith, the temple of God; whoever does not enter into it or goes out of it, has no hope of life or salvation." (Institutiones Divinae 4.30, II).

Jerome (347-420): "I know that the Church was built on this rock [the Chair of Peter]. Anyone who eats the Lamb outside this house is profane. If someone is not in the Ark of Noah, he will perish in the deluge " (Epistola ad Damasum, 2).

Augustine (354-430): "Man can not attain salvation except in the Catholic Church. Outside the Church he can have everything, but not salvation. He can have honor, have Sacraments, he can sing Hallelujah reply amen, he may have the Gospel, preach the faith and the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, but nowhere if not in the Catholic Church will he will be able to find salvation" (Sermo ad Ecclesiam Caesarienses plebem, 6).

And again Augustine: "Anyone who is separated from the Catholic Church, is destined for the divine wrath" (Epistola CXLI).

The Magisterium

Fourth Lateran Council (1215): "Outside the Church, absolutely, absolutely no one can ever be saved."

Pius IX. (1792-1878): "(...) outside of it [the Catholic Church] there is neither  true faith nor  eternal salvation, because one can not have God as his Father, if one has not the Church for mother, and wrongly does  someone possess the illusion, however, to belong to the Church, if he is separated from the See of Peter on which the Church is built "(Singulari quidam, 22).

Pius XII. (1876-1958): "Among the things that has always been preached in the Church and they will never cease to teach, is this infallible statement, which states that outside the Church there is no salvation" (letter to the Holy Office November 8, 1949).

John XXIII. (1881-1963): "(...) people can only attain salvation with certainty when they are connected to him [the Roman Pontiff], because the Roman Pontiff is the Vicar of Christ and the person representing on earth" (Homily on Coronation Day, November 4, 1958).

And even the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) can also be read as follows: "All people who know the Catholic Church and know what is willed by God through Christ necessary for salvation, but do not go to the Church or do not have the resistance to stay in it, can not be saved "(Lumen Gentium, 16).

Likewise: "For according to the will of Christ is the Catholic Church, the teacher of truth; their job is to preach the truth which is Christ, and to teach authentic, at the same time, authoritatively to explain the principles of the moral order, resulting from the nature of man himself and to confirm "(Dignitatis Humanae, 14)

. Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) by Dignitatis Humanae quoted: "For according to the will of Christ is the Catholic Church, the teacher of truth; their task is to proclaim the truth which is Christ, and authentically teaching, at the same time, authoritatively to explain the principles of the moral order, resulting from the nature of man himself and to confirm "(Veritatis Splendor, 64).

The New Testament

"And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature! He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned "(Mark 16.15 to 16).

"He who hears you, hears me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; but he who despises me, the "(Luke 10:16) despises him that sent me.

"And I say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18).

"If they do not receive you, and does not listen to your words, so going away from that house or city, shake off the dust from your Fü0en" (Matthew 10:14).

"He will not hear on these, tell the community; he listens to the community does not, then he be unto thee as the heathen and like the publican "(Matthew 18:17).

"But even if we or an angel from heaven preached unto you any other gospel than we have preached to you, let him be accursed" (Galatians 1.8).

If the Church for the salvation would not be necessary, why would Jesus send the disciples with the mission to proclaim the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the Earth? The order would also be "superficial" and "pointless" as ultimately the cross that Christ has taken upon himself, if it's not connected to the salvation of the people. If one wants the sacrifice of Christ, in order not annul his suffering and death, the necessity for salvation of the Church must be recognized. Because outside of it there is no salvation.

Text: Il Padre Pio di Settimanale / Martha Weinzl
image: The Remnant

AMDG

Reformation Anniversary: Dialogue Paper Between the Vatican and Evangelicals?

(Washington / Rome) According to reports from U.S. media, the Vatican intends to Reformation 2017 with the Evangelicals to publish a common "dialogue paper". The aim of the declaration is  a "shared commitment to mission" as the Boston Globe reported.

In 2017 the Protestant world will celebrate  500 years of "Reformation" with Martin Luther's theses at Wittenberg. In 2017   the Catholic Charismatics will also celebrate 50 years of "Revival" by the "Spirit Baptism".

According to the Pope's biographers and journalist Austen Ivereigh in the Boston Globe,  it is a joint document on the "Reformation" which will include three priorities: "the Nicean-Constantinople Creed, which Catholics and evangelicals share; the core of the Catholic-Lutheran declaration of 1999 making clear there is no disagreement over justification by faith; as well as a final section asserting that Catholics and evangelicals are now “united in mission because we are declaring the same Gospel,”  as the KAP reported.

Tony Palmer Handed Pope Francis Text Draft

According Ivereigh the recently deceased Anglo-Irish Bishop, Tony Palmer, passed away on the 24th of June, had issued  in Rome at a meeting of the Pope with Evangelical representatives to draft a joint statement. The title of the document reads: "Declaration of Faith in Unity for Mission."   2017 would be an appropriate occasion for publicly signing  a joint declaration, said Palmer and other Evangelical televangelists,  because of the Reformation anniversary year (1517) and   in the same year, the 50-year anniversary of the emergence of the Charismatic Renewal in the Catholic Church (1967 ).

Since the beginning of Pope Francis sent out a number of benevolent signals towards Evangelicals and Pentecostals. These include several informal meetings at the Vatican, a video message and on 28 July the "private visit" the Pope at an evangelical denomination in Caserta. Here, the Catholic Church leader sent a request for forgiveness to 300 invited from all over the world evangelical representatives.

 Relations Between Catholic Church and Evangelicals in Latin America

Observers have put the papal efforts  in the context of the strained relationship between the Catholic Church and the Evangelical Free Churches in Latin America. For several decades Evangelical groups have drawn from the Catholic Church's masses of believers. A movement that is being done in the United States and again is  also associated with the political interests of the United States in its "backyard". Sociologists of religion see in the spread of evangelicalism   among a number of attempts, to export the American Way of Life.

Mission or Cessation of Mission?

Critics accuse the Pope of sacrificing the necessity for salvation of the Catholic Church and indiscriminately recognizing  groups that call themselves Christian or nominally appointed to Christ. Pope Francis was several times to understand that it waives a conversion to the Catholic faith. This raises the question of what a joint statement with the Evangelicals might just mean to the issue of Mission. A shared commitment to evangelization of non-Christians or an official recognition of a mutual  cessation of mission? Along with the one-sided embedding of the "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification" of 1999, the Catholic-evangelical "dialogue paper" it would  pass over in precedence, the more significant for the Catholic Church and especially more binding declaration Dominus Iesus of the year 2000.

Already in 2013 the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) have published a dialogue paper for the  "Reformation Jubilee",  whose relevance has remained in an almost imperceptible range. From the Lutheran side there were hesitations for the "Luther Year" in 2017, at a mutual recognition several times of  "Lord's Supper".

500 Reformation, 50 years Charismatic Renewal - And 100 years Fatima?

2017 marks not only the 500th year of the "Reformation" and the 50th anniversary of the emergence of the Charismatic Movement in the Catholic Church, but also for the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of Fatima. It's an anniversary that has so far remained unnoticed in Rome.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: unavox.it

Mission of RC-TV? Nulla Salus Extra Ecclesiam

Edit:  This is really what's at the heart of a few professional Catholics' denunciations of Voris.  There's nothing substantial there.  It's this Dogma that the world and the Devil hate so much.

CNA Consults with Folk Singer About Eternal Salvation

Not sure why CNA talked to John Micheal Talbot about this new book. They should be more careful about asking recent converts the hard questions. In any event, Talbot is a hippie folk singer, not a Catholic theologian. You may have been tortured by his music at a Mass near you at some point in your life:

The Catholic Church denies the possibility of either post-mortem repentance or a temporary hell, and most Catholic theologians have regarded universal salvation as an impossibility. Pope John Paul II wrote that the “silence of the Church” was “the only appropriate position” on the question of whether any particular person was saved or lost.

Bell also speculates that some non-Christians may reach salvation through a type of implicit or unconscious relationship to Christ. The Catholic Church accepts this notion as a possibility, in instances where individuals have failed to receive the Gospel message by no fault of their own.

John Michael Talbot, a Catholic recording artist with close ties to the evangelical world, told CNA that all Christians must be careful in approaching the subject of death, judgment, and the afterlife – particularly those who rely upon “scripture alone,” without the Church's definitive teaching authority.

Talbot, who left evangelicalism and founded a Franciscan brotherhood, described many contemporary evangelicals as feeling “a hunger for something less legalistic, more mystical and intellectually rich,” than the “rather shallow answers” they are often given in response to questions about salvation and judgment.

But Talbot said Bell, and other like-minded evangelicals, “lack the full set of tools to find those deeper answers” – which Catholics are given through “sacred scripture, apostolic tradition, and the magisterium [sic], or teaching authority, of the church.”

He indicated that Catholic teachings on salvation could provide more definitive answers to the kinds of questions that led Bell to write “Love Wins.”

“Those who have never had the good news of Jesus written on their hearts by the Spirit are only responsible for what they know,” Talbot said, paraphrasing what the Second Vatican Council taught in its Dogmatic Constitution on the Church.

“Therefore,” he stated, “those who are not Christians may be saved.”

Link to full article, here at CNA.

If JMT sounds familiar, it's probably because his act is inspired in part by the work of a child predator and fellow folk musician, Peter Yarrow. What does Peter Yarrow have to do with Talbot? Neither one of them should be consulted for Catholic teaching, and it's certain that neither should be left near Catholic children either.

Don't get us started on Gandhi...

New Forum: Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus

A few members have come to find themselves here, at this new forum with all the trappings and a spicy layout, here.