Read it...I don't see where reading the whole thing will change anyone's mind...Doesn't say anything relevant...Just a sales pitch to join your religion...
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.
This is an accurate statement...This is the dogma of your religion...And you can't change it...
What you have done is to put a bunch of pillows around it to soften the blow...
Never once does this Shea guy suggest that one can have salvation outside of the declaration Boniface made as Catholic dogma...
What he does suggest is that since no one in your religion knows that he is going to heaven til he gets there, that it doesn't matter if one is a member of a non-Catholic church as long as the person was baptized, that that person can be considered a brother in Christ...
But the clincher is still the dogma...Everyone can be a brother in Christ but no one gets the ultimate salvation, trip to heaven, unless he submits to your pope before death as Boniface demands...
So everyone is a brother in the foggy persuit of salvation...
You may get a lot of lost suckers looking for a religious experience whom you have convinced to follow your tradition instead of the words of God to teach them but there are still plenty of sinners who are turning to Jesus and His word for the truth in salvation...And thank God for that...
This is the a dogma of your religion.
It is little wonder that so much falsehood is taught about what we believe. So many who disagree with us eschew the precision which reasons requires.
I too was troubled for many years by the apparent intellectual dishonesty of dealing with Boniface this way. Then I saw that it is not necessary for the intention of the one who defines a dogma to be right, it is the dogma, not the Pope, on which we are to rely.
So, I'm guessing Boniface was trying to use his position and clout to push around fractious European monarchs. He set out to make a statement about how they owed him some kind of homage, and ended up making a definitive ecclesiastical statement. He meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.
I am not writing this to persuade you that we are right. Rather I am trying to suggest another way to look at the abomination we feelthy papists represent, so that you can enjoy more variety in despising our Church. ;-)
Can you help me here? Where does it say "before death?"