A Crisis of Faith

I took this last month off from writing in order to spiritually recharge during a time of multiple Feast days as well as the fact the entire month is dedicated to the Blessed Mother. What better time for that sort of thing? A natural result of soul searching is that you tend to come to grips with things that you believe and why you believe them. Sometimes the end result is an “attic cleaning” of spiritual clutter and sometimes a sharper focus on what remains.

I’m not so sure that what I’m thinking about constitutes as much a “crisis of faith” as a “crisis of the implications of our faith. One of the blessings (or once in a while the curse) of being trained and educated in Theology is you tend to look deeper into the “nuts and bolts” of our belief system than the average Catholic may. One doctrine alone has been wandering about in my mind for the past month and the implications of it are the focus of this article.

Is There Salvation Outside of the Catholic Church?

When I was growing up in the Roman Catholic Church of the 1950’s and early 1960’s it was taught that outside of the Catholic Church there is no salvation. “Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus” is the Latin phrase. Baptists, Methodists, and so on, were not “separated brethren” but were outside of the means of God’s Grace and lost in error and heresy.

Here are three Ex Cathedra pronouncements on this subject. Both these and the statements which follow are cited from Orestes Brownson’s (1803-1876) great article under the Latin term and subsection “The Dogma of Faith”

"There is only one universal Church of the faithful, outside of which no one at all can be saved." (Pope Innocent III, Fourth Lateran Council, 1215)

"We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff." (Pope Boniface VIII, in the bull, Unam Sanctam, 1302)

"The Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes, and teaches, that none of those who are not within the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but Jews, heretics and schismatics, can ever be partakers of eternal life, but are to go into the eternal fire 'prepared for the devil, and his angels' (Mt. 25:41)., unless before the close of their lives they shall have entered into that Church; also that the unity of the ecclesiastical body is such that the Church's sacraments avail only those abiding in that Church, and that fasts, alms deeds, and other works of piety which play their part in the Christian combat are in her alone productive of eternal rewards; moreover, that no one, no matter what alms he may have given, not even if he were to shed his blood for Christ's sake, can be saved unless he abide in the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church." (Mansi, Concilia, xxxi, 1739; Pope Eugene IV, in the bull, Cantate Domino, 1441).

Three additional statements in support of this Dogma of the Faith, although not of the same authority as ex cathedra in weight:

"It is a sin to believe that there is salvation outside the Catholic Church."
- Venerable Pope Pius IX

"There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church. Anyone who resists this truth perishes."- St. Louis Maria de Montfort

"We must believe that the Roman Catholic Church is the only true church; hence they who are out of our Church or they who are separated from it, cannot be saved." - St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

In recent years there has been effort to soften this language in the interest of ecumenism.  There are several problems with trying to weaken this dogma to make it palatable to Protestants. One is that the restated version tends to be as clear as mud. What you end up with is a muddled mess that pretty much says that everyone has a “hope of salvation” … a nonsensical notion that has support neither in Scripture nor in the historic dogma of the Church.

What the Scriptures Say

“So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:53-54)

These verses alone should be the clincher. The Lord says that unless we eat His Flesh and drink His Blood we have no life in us. This is talking about spiritual, eternal life and not physical life. There is no way to get around what He says here within the context of Scripture. That He is talking about the Eucharist is plain from the phrases used which are repeated by Him again at the Last Supper.

 “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this IS my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this IS my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” (Matthew 26:26-28)

Saint Paul reiterates these words in his letter to the Corinthians in the 11^th Chapter. His words to them make it plain as day that he views Communion as much more than a “nice ritual” that is completely without importance in the salvation of the soul. He tells the Corinthians that if they partake in an unworthy manner (unconfessed sin) that they eat and drink damnation unto themselves. In fact, in verse 30 he says: “That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.”

The Dogma of the Real Presence in the Eucharist is clearly in view in both the words of the Lord and Saint Paul. This is taught nowhere else than the Catholic Church and is only available through those who the Lord ordained to dispense it and those who followed after them through Apostolic Succession. This has been the clear teaching of the Church for 2,000 years.

The Crisis

As a revert to the Church from Evangelical Christianity this is a hard pill to swallow. The implication of it is that there are millions and millions of well-meaning people who I once called my brothers and sisters in Christ who are in reality on the road to perdition. It surrenders any hope of ecumenical reconciliation and lays the groundwork for schism within the Church if this dogma is abandoned in the interest of “getting together”. It also means that if I, during my time away, had passed away I would not have been going to the Heaven that all Evangelical Christians think they are bound for eventually.

I want to bring people into the Truth of the one, holy and apostolic Catholic Church. But this cannot be done at the expense of that Truth. If this Truth drives the people away that will be nothing new. The same thing happened to the Lord when He told the people what He did in Saint John’s Gospel. The people refused to hear it and believe it, walked away and followed Jesus no more… only the Disciples were left. The same thing happened in 1517 AD and has been on-going ever since. But the Truth is the Truth rather believed or not.

Invincible Ignorance

In attempting to soften the impact of this dogma terminology has applied that is poorly understood by many people. Here is the definition of the two types of “ignorance” quoted from James Akins' article by that name:

“Moral theology divides ignorance into a number of categories. The two I will consider here are invincible and vincible. Ignorance is invincible if a person could not remove it by applying reasonable diligence in determining the answer. Ignorance is vincible if a person could remove it by applying reasonable diligence. Reasonable diligence, in turn, is that diligence that a conscientious person would display in seeking the correct answer to a question given (a) the gravity of the question and (b) his particular resources.”

It is not “invincible ignorance” to willfully disregard evidence contrary to one’s belief system. If this type of ignorance allows one to be “saved” then all apologetics and all evangelism goes out the window. In fact, by giving the Protestant the facts we do them a disservice and condemn them to Hell by informing them of the Truth. The same with the pagan.

Yes, it is the Lord God Who will make the final determination of who goes to heaven and who goes to hell among those truly ignorant of the Truth through no fault of their own. But that doesn’t apply to the willfully ignorant for whom it’s not a matter of “can’t believe” but of “won’t believe”.

The Choice

Our choice is the same as those offered to the Apostles after the rest walked away. “After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘Do you want to go away as well?”" (John 6:66-67) I pray that, as I have done, you will answer as Saint Peter did “Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.’" (John 6:68-69)