No wonder Bono praised John Paul II as a funky pontiff. In many respects, he gave the defrauded MTV generation exactly what it wanted. There is another aspect of this also. A Pope who truly loved the youth would not leave the Catholic education of youth in shambles. Yet this is precisely the legacy of Pope John Paul II. Heretical teachings and perverse sex-education are rampant in Catholic schools. Most Catholic universities are places in which the young Catholic is sure to lose his Faith. Granted, the quality of Catholic schools took a drastic nose dive under Pope Paul VI, but the situation only worsened under the reign of John Paul II. Catholic schools under Pope John Paul II were so abysmal that thousands of Catholic parents at great personal sacrifice have taken upon themselves the burden of home-schooling rather than entrust their children to these collapsed institutions. Catholic home-schooling was unthinkable under Pope Pius XII as it was not necessary. If Pope John Paul II truly loved the youth in a Catholic manner, we would have no fear in sending our children or young people to his diocesan schools and colleges. The need for widespread Catholic home-schooling in order for parents to protect the faith of their children marks one of the greatest failures of Pope John Paul IIs Pontificate.
From the very same Notes cited by the author as proof of JPII's rejecting the need for conversion of the Jews:
7. "In virtue of her divine mission, the Church" which is to be "the all-embracing means of salvation" in which alone "the fulness of the means of salvation can be obtained" (Unit. Red. 3); "must of her nature proclaim Jesus Christ to the world" (cf. Guidelines and Suggestions, I). Indeed we believe that is is through him that we go to the Father (cf. Jn. 14:6) "and this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent" (Jn 17:33).Jesus affirms (ibid. 10:16) that "there shall be one flock and one shepherd". Church and Judaism cannot then be seen as two parallel ways of salvation and the Church must witness to Christ as the Redeemer for all, "while maintaining the strictest respect for religious liberty in line with the teaching of the Second Vatican Council (Declaration Dignitatis Humanae)" (Guidelines and Suggestions, I).
The Council makes frequent reference to the Church's role in the salvation of mankind. While acknowledging that God loves all people and grants them the possibility of being saved (cf. l Tm 2:4),15 the Church believes that God has established Christ as the one mediator and that she herself has been established as the universal sacrament of salvation. 16 "To this catholic unity of the people of God, therefore,...all are called, and they belong to it or are ordered to it in various ways, whether they be Catholic faithful or others who believe in Christ or finally all people everywhere who by the grace of God are called to salvation."17 It is necessary to keep these two truths together, namely, the real possibility of salvation in Christ for all mankind and the necessity of the Church for salvation.Indeed Christ himself "while expressly insisting on the need for faith and baptism, at the same time confirmed the need for the Church, into which people enter through Baptism as through a door." 101 Dialogue should be conducted and implemented with the conviction that the Church is the ordinary means of salvation and that she alone possesses the fullness of the means of salvation.102 (Redemptoris missio §§ 9, 55)
What I have said above, however, does not justify the relativistic position of those who maintain that a way of salvation can be found in any religion, even independently of faith in Christ the Redeemer, and that interreligious dialogue must be based on this ambiguous idea. That solution to the problem of the salvation of those who do not profess the Christian creed is not in conformity with the Gospel. Rather, we must maintain that the way of salvation always passes through Christ, and therefore the Church and her missionaries have the task of making him known and loved in every time, place and culture. Apart from Christ "there is no salvation". ... For those too who through no fault of their own do not know Christ and are not recognized as Christians, the divine plan has provided a way of salvation. ... Since Christ brings about salvation through his Mystical Body, which is the Church, the way of salvation is connected essentially with the Church. The axiom extra Ecclesiam nulla salus"outside the Church there is no salvation"stated by St. Cyprian (Epist. 73, 21; PL 1123 AB), belongs to the Christian tradition and was included in the Fourth Lateran Council (DS 802), in the Bull Unam sanctam of Boniface VIII (DS 870) and in the Council of Florence (Decretum pro jacobitis, DS 1351). (General Audience, 31 May 1995)
Somehow, relying on non-Catholics for information on papal teaching strikes me as a poor way of gathering knowledge.
In fact, St. Pius X taught the same as JP II, as is clear from this excerpt from the Pius X Catechism:
29 Q: But if a man through no fault of his own is outside the Church, can he be saved?A: If he is outside the Church through no fault of his, that is, if he is in good faith, and if he has received Baptism, or at least has the implicit desire of Baptism; and if, moreover, he sincerely seeks the truth and does God's will as best he can such a man is indeed separated from the body of the Church, but is united to the soul of the Church and consequently is on the way of salvation.
***were likewise laughed to scorn when they in-formed the Protestant he must become Catholic to be saved.***
So, for example, an evangelical Christian pastor in China who's lead tens of thousands of people to faith in Christ and is currently in prison and beaten daily for his refusal to renounce Christ WON'T BE SAVED IF HE DOESN'T BECOME A CATHOLIC?
No wonder your people got laughed at. The ironic truth is that those two young men mentioned in the article won't be saved themselves unless they are authentically born of the Spirit.
You know a tree by it's fruit, not by it's church affiliation.
Ping.
John Vennari bumpus ad summum