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Thursday, August 15, 2002
Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Your Eminences, Your Excellencies, Members of the Bishops’ Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs:
Humbly kneeling at your feet, and kissing the
sacred purple, we come to express to Your Lordships our heartfelt concern, and
to alert you to the irreconcilability of your most recent document with
Immemorial Tradition and the unchangeable doctrine of the Catholic Church. It is much to our chagrin that we are driven
to write this letter regarding your recent pastoral letter, pertaining to the
evangelization of those belonging to the Jewish religion (“Reflections on
Covenant and Mission”). Firmly and
steadfastly adhering to the one true Catholic Faith which we have received,
instituted by Christ our Lord and God, preserved by the Apostles, their
successors and the perennial Magisterium of the Universal Church, we share with
you the following (all emphasis is mine):
1.
That it has been the constant practice of the Church of
God to “target for conversion” all those outside her bosom, that they may be
come to know the Truth and be saved;
2.
That it has been the Tradition of both Christendom as a
whole, and the Roman Church in particular to pray for the conversion of the
Jews (cf. Missale Romanum 1962, Holy Week liturgy, "pro conversione Judaeorum");
3.
That, although those who are invincibly ignorant of the
Catholic religion can, indeed, through the Church, be saved (cf. Holy Office,
Aug. 8, 1949, to +Richard Cardinal Cushing; early Church
Fathers on the Baptisms
of Desire and Blood; Council of Trent, Session VI, Ch. IV, cf. Dz. 796; invincible ignorance not sinful
– see “Singulari Quidem,” (March 17, 1856) – declaration IV, Blessed
Pius IX; “Baltimore Catechism;” “Lumen Gentium,” Second Vatican
Council; for more references to the Baptism of Desire and invincible ignorance, see Dz. 388, 413, 796, 1292, 1646, 1677), there is still no salvation outside of
her, and that she is the salvific source of the merits of Christ’s
Redemption for all mankind (the following are infallible definitions, stated ex
cathedra by the holy Roman Pontiff):
a.
"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." – The Creed “Quicumque” or the
Athanasian Creed, one of the four official Creeds of the Church (cf. Enchiridion
Symbolorum, Definitionum et Declarationum Rebus Fidei et Morum; or The
Sources of Catholic Dogma, Henry Denzinger; 30th edition, Dz. 39)[1]
b.
"If anyone, however, either suggests or believes
or presumes to teach contrary to this faith, let him know that he is condemned
and also anathematized according to the opinion of the same Fathers... Consider
[therefore] the fact that whoever has not been in the peace and unity
of the Church, cannot have the Lord. [Galatians 3:7]" – Pope Pelagius II,
circa 585 A.D. (cf. Dz. 246)
c.
"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 which we believe that no one is saved." – Pope
Innocent III, 1208 A.D. (cf. Dz. 423)
d.
"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 which there is no salvation
nor remission of sins..." – Pope Boniface VIII, 1302 A.D. (cf. Dz. 468)
e.
"...we declare, say, define, and proclaim to every
human creature that they by necessity for salvation are entirely subject to the
Roman Pontiff." (cf. Dz. 469)
f.
Sacred
Ecumenical Council of Florence, Pope Eugenius IV, 1442 A.D - “It firmly
believes, professes, and proclaims that those not living within the Catholic
Church, not only pagans, but also Jews, and heretics and schismatics
cannot become participants in eternal life, but will depart 'into everlasting
fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels' [Matt. 25:41], unless
before the end of life the same have been added to the flock; and that the
ecclesiastical body is so strong that only to those remaining in it are the
sacraments of the Church of benefit for salvation, and do fastings, almsgiving,
and other functions of piety and exercises of Christian service produce eternal
reward, and that no one, whatever almsgiving he has practiced, even if he has
shed blood for the name of Christ, can be saved, unless he has remained in the
bosom and unity of the Catholic Church.” (cf. Dz. 714)
This dogma (“extra Ecclesiam,
nulla salus” or “outside of the Church, no salvation”) was affirmed by Pope
Gregory XVI in 1832, Pope Pius IX in 1854, Pope Pius IX in 1863 A.D, explained
under Pius XII in 1949, against Fr. Leonard Feeney, S.J. (confirming the
constant belief in invincible ignorance and the three baptisms, viz. the
Sacramental one, of water, that of blood, i.e. martyrdom, and that of desire), reaffirmed once more by Pope
John XXIII on June 29, 1961, Pope John Paul I, on August 27, 1978, Pope John
Paul II on October 21, 1981.
4.
That the Second Vatican Council teaches that
there is no salvation outside of the Church of Christ, which subsists in the
Catholic Church. – “Lumen Gentium” (That "many elements of
sanctification and of truth are found outside of [the] visible structure [of
the one True Church]" is, of course, both an affirmation of 1) the fact
that all religions seek Truth and that even heretical ones do contain some
Truth, although incomplete; and 2) that those who, by NO FAULT OF THEIR OWN are
not members of the Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation,
could then be saved through her by means of invincible ignorance. This, however, does not allow for
religious indifferentism, nor the right to say that all outside of the Church are
invincibly ignorant, for it is likely that most are not – and, of course, it
does not allow for one to make the statement that “salvation exists outside the
Church,” in any respect, including that of some continued “‘saving covenant’
with God” on the part of the Jews.)
5.
That the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, and
its Prefect, His Eminence Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, with the ratification and
approbation of His Holiness Pope John Paul II, now gloriously reigning, in the
declaration “Dominus Jesus” on the “Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus
Christ and the Church” (June 16, 2000), affirms this immemorial dogma, in
stating that "there is
only one salvific economy of the One and Triune God" (cf. Dominus Jesus
12), as it is the Church’s very mission to evangelize. There is no salvation without Jesus Christ
and His Church.
6.
That the statement, “campaigns that target Jews for
conversion to Christianity are no longer theologically acceptable in the
Catholic Church” (cf. Reflections on Covenant and Mission) is itself
theologically unacceptable, erroneous, and inherently heretical.
7.
That those who knowingly deny Christ or the Catholic
Church through their own fault, cannot be saved.
8.
That Christ and the Church are necessary elements in
God’s plan for salvation.
9.
To state that the biblical covenant between Jews and God is
valid and therefore Jews do not need to be saved through faith in Jesus Christ is erroneous and heretical in nature.
10.
That it is a
good and wholesome thought to evangelize all men, sharing with them the Gospel
of Christ. This includes Jews.
11.
That the Old
Covenant was superceded by the New Covenant, and that the Catholic Church is
now the true Judaism, the fulfillment and continuation of the Hebrew religious
tradition. St. Paul is an example of a
Jew converted by God, subsequent to the advent of Christ’s New Covenant – for
He did not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it.
12.
That the
Catholic Church is not equal to any other religious body on Earth, as it is the
true Church of God.
13.
Finally, that
unity with the Church is necessary for salvation is affirmed by the new
universal Catechism of the Catholic Church:
CCC 816 "The sole Church of Christ [is that] which our
Savior, after his Resurrection, entrusted to Peter's pastoral care, commissioning
him and the other apostles to extend and rule it.... This Church, constituted
and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in the Catholic
Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in
communion with him." 267
The
Second Vatican Council's Decree on Ecumenism explains: "For it is
through Christ's Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward
salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained. It was
to the apostolic college alone, of which Peter is the head, that we believe
that our Lord entrusted all the blessings of the New Covenant, in order to
establish on earth the one Body of Christ into which all those should be fully
incorporated who belong in any way to the People of God."
CCC 817 In fact, "in this one and only Church of God from
its very beginnings there arose certain rifts, which the Apostle strongly censures
as damnable. But in subsequent centuries much more serious dissensions appeared
and large communities became separated from full communion with the Catholic
Church - for which, often enough, men of both sides were to blame."
269 The ruptures that wound the unity of Christ's Body - here we must
distinguish heresy, apostasy, and schism 270 - do not occur without
human sin:
Where
there are sins, there are also divisions, schisms, heresies, and disputes.
Where there is virtue, however, there also are harmony and unity, from which
arise the one heart and one soul of all believers. 271
Therefore we, and all those Catholics who are
loyal to Rome and the teachings of the Church, express our deep sorrow, formal
rejection and resistance of the erroneous theological tenets contained within
“Reflections on Covenant and Mission,” which carries with it no true authority
– neither is it infallible, nor does it affect individual Catholics or the
doctrine of the Church. It blatantly
contradicts the call of the Second Vatican Council to “evangelize all men;” it
is neither an official document, as it were, nor is it in any way binding. We profess our allegiance to John Paul II,
the Supreme Pontiff, as well as our firm belief in all articles of the Creeds,
and all of Catholic doctrine. May we
keep this Faith unto death, so help us Almighty God and the Holy Gospels.
Those interested in keeping
abreast of this issue, or in supporting this retaliation, please contact Corey
Zelinski at: coreyzelinski@yahoo.com.
Please join the news forum and
resistance network mailing list and discussion group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/defenders-of-the-faith/
Read the Boston Globe article: http://nl9.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=0F565D522C4823AF&p_docnum=1
[1] “Singulari
Quidem,” Pius IX, 3/17/1856, declaration 5: “It is an impious and deadly
error to hold that salvation may be attained in any religion.”