Posted on 05/05/2020 3:00:05 PM PDT by ebb tide
May 4, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – In his homily at Mass on May 4, 2020, starting from the consoling truth that Christ died for all men, appears to have stated a doubly false conclusion: that we are not to convert unbelievers and that His death “justifies” everyone:
Big, small, rich, poor, good and bad. All. This “all” is the vision of the Lord who died for all. “But did he die for that wretch who made my life impossible?” He died for him too. “And for that brigand?”: He died for him. For everyone” The Lord died for all. And also for people who do not believe in Him or are of other religions: he died for everyone. That does not mean that proselytism must be done: no. But He died for everyone, He justified everyone.
There are some rather basic problems with these off-the-cuff statements, which do not appear in the Vatican’s official transcript but may be heard in the video.
First, it seems that the Pope has confused redemption with justification. Redemption is Christ’s paying of humanity’s debt of justice to the Father. This He accomplishes in His bloody sacrifice on the Cross, which is the one and only acceptable sacrifice of atonement. This objective redemption must be applied to the soul of each human being: this is what we call the subjective redemption, that is, the sharing of individuals in Christ’s redemption through faith and the sacraments. In other words, the fact that Christ has given to the Father all that humanity owes Him does not automatically cancel out the debt each individual incurs from Adam and from his own personal sins. The individual must freely enter into the death and resurrection of Christ to be fully redeemed.
Justification, also known as regeneration, describes the application of the fruits of Christ’s Passion to individual men by the power of the Holy Spirit. That is why we can truly say that Christ died for all, but not all will be saved, not all will be justified—only those who are united to Christ in faith, hope, and charity. This, moreover, is precisely why missionary and evangelistic efforts are necessary. As St. Paul teaches:
“Every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? And how can men preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!” But they have not all heeded the gospel; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ. (Rom 10:13–17)
In other words, we must call on the Lord’s name to be saved, we must believe the Gospel. For St. Paul, who was the greatest missionary in the history of the Church and who tirelessly sought the conversion of every Jew and Gentile with whom he came into contact, the only path to salvation is hearing the Gospel and assenting to it—which means not just saying that one assents to it, but endeavoring to live in accordance with the teaching of Christ.
The most authoritative exposition of the Catholic teaching on justification is the one given in the Sixth Session of the Council of Trent, by far the most ample and detailed teaching of the Magisterium on the question, prompted by heretical distortions prevalent in the sixteenth century. Chapter 1 reaffirms that in Adam all have sinned; all are unclean and under God’s wrath; all are in the power of sin, the devil, and death. Chapter 2 states that Christ came precisely to rescue us from this abject slavery. Chapters 3 and 4 then speak directly contrary to the preaching of Pope Francis:
But though “He died for all” (2 Cor 5:15), yet all do not receive the benefit of His death, but those only to whom the merit of His Passion is communicated, because…if they were not born again in Christ, they would never be justified, since in that new birth there is bestowed upon them, through the merit of His Passion, the grace by which they are made just…. This translation [from wrath to adoptive sonship] cannot, since the promulgation of the Gospel, be effected except through the laver of regeneration [baptism] or the desire for it, as it is written: “Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (Jn 3:5).
The Council of Trent goes on to say in Chapter 6 that adults are prepared for justification by hearing the preaching of the Gospel and responding with repentance and a desire for baptism. Chapter 7 furnishes a clear definition:
Justification…is not only a remission of sins but also the sanctification and renewal of the inward man through the voluntary reception of the grace and gifts whereby an unjust man becomes just and from being an enemy becomes a friend, that he may be “an heir according to hope of life everlasting” (Tit 3:7).
This same chapter teaches what the causes of justification are:
In light of the foregoing, the pope’s words “He justified everyone” could, with some squinting, be given an orthodox interpretation if we took them to mean: “He was the meritorious cause of the justification of everyone who is justified.” Nevertheless, the words as they stand—particularly adjacent to the statement about not going out to convert unbelievers, which implicitly calls into question the instrumental cause of baptism—seem to suggest a view more akin to universalism, i.e., that all men will be saved regardless of their faith or lack thereof, because Christ simply justifies everyone, tout court.
Trent reminds us also in Chapter 14 that those who fall into mortal sin lose sanctifying grace—“forfeit the received grace of justification”—and are restored to justification by the sacrament of penance, which Christ instituted precisely to give us a “second plank after the shipwreck of grace lost.” In other words, unlike the Protestant view “once saved, always saved,” the Catholic Church teaches that we must freely remain in the grace of God and persevere in it until death; that we can indeed fall away; and that we can be restored to spiritual life. As Augustine says: “He who created you without you, will not save you without you.” It is not some sort of mechanized automated process.
In his Dictionary of Theology, the eminent Oratorian theologian Louis Bouyer adds valuable precisions:
As for the faith whereby we receive justification, it is the faith of Christ (Rom 3:22; cf. Gal 2:16), i.e., the faith which leads us to be justified in him (Gal 2:17), justified in his blood (Rom 5:9). The fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans sheds light on this latter verse by showing us the Cross of Jesus as the root of our justification, just as the sin of Adam had been the root of our sin. We must further see it in connection with the following chapter, where St. Paul shows us how it is through baptism that the faith takes possession of God’s gift, which brings us justification insofar as we are baptized (i.e., immersed) in his death, “so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (v. 4). The whole context shows how justification by faith in the grace of God in Christ, quite far from excusing us from living in the holiness of Christ, requires and enables us to do so. (255)
Bouyer notes that the Sixth Session of Trent “set forth a particularly detailed and delicately worded doctrine of the different aspects inherent in justification”:
In conformity with the must more unified conception of St. Paul, the Council affirmed that there is only one justification, which comes entirely from the merits of the crucified Christ alone, but which is realized in the positive justification that grace engenders in us, the principle of good works that will be its fruit, and, immediately, the principle of charity that is inseparable from the state of grace. (257)
The dogmatic teaching of Trent summarized above has been expressed innumerable times in other documents of the Church’s Magisterium and expounded by reputable theologians of all periods. Readers may consult, for example, the systematic index of magisterial teachings in Denzinger’s Enchiridion symbolorum, definitionum et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum (43rd ed., Ignatius Press), 1255–59 and the thorough presentation in Ludwig Ott’s Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma (Baronius Press ed.), 269–89.
When listening to or reading transcripts of the homilies of Pope Francis, one often gets the sense of a man who, as soon as he speaks off the cuff, reveals the inadequacy of his own theological training and the sloppiness of his thinking. He seldom sounds like someone deliberately trying to dismantle traditional theology with the cleverness of a Karl Rahner; rather, he comes across as an embarrassing witness to the collapse of sound dogmatic and moral theology in the mid- to late twentieth century.
Popes in general would do well to speak only when their thoughts have been correctly formulated—it was not for any trivial reason that papal speeches and documents of any kind were always carefully reviewed by house theologians—and only on occasions when public speaking is pastorally necessary, rather than doing it day after day like a radio talk show or a tear-off calendar with affirming sentiments. If popes limited themselves in this way, their statements would have a greater resonating force and a greater possibility of fruitful ecclesial reception.
Ping
You really have to wonder how many Cardinals have devolved into agnosticism. Suspect a significant core minority that swayed a papal election.
I have no use at all for this guy, but I’m guessing most people in the pews dig through all manner of paragraphs, subparagraphs, sections, subsections of part A, sentence 5 of misc documents to differentiate between redemption and justification.
Francis is still an embarrassment, though.
Christ may well have “died for all men,” but he died for the possibility of redemption. You still have to take advantage, still have to Believe and change your life.
841 The Church's relationship with the Muslims. "The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on the last day."
This was among some podcasts today on Charisma Magazine website . . .interesting historical background. Part I
https://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/3/8/4/3847eae40bb5e522/RTTL_18_-_ROMAN_CATHOLIC_BELIEFS_TRUE_OR_FALSE.mp3?c_id=71978636&cs_id=71978636&destination_id=1683932&expiration=1588689889&hwt=0728dfd70424279a6147a584be101ce2
Not being Catholic, I don’t go with the real presence thing myself. But that’s easy enough for pretty much anyone to parse and understand, whether they believe it or not.
e it is true that the LORD Jesus Christ died , that same saved until he confesses his sins and is born again...
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” John 3:3
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. John 3:16-18
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. Romans 10:9, 10
He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Mark 16:15, 16
Well Frankie doesn’t believe the gospel of the LORD Jesus Christ so he doesn’t preach it ...he is more in awe of the creation and not the Creator...
841 The Church’s relationship with the Muslims. “The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day.”
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In my view, as a lifetime adherent to the teachings of the Church as set forth in the Catechism of the Council of Trent, this one egregiously heretical doctrine destroys the validity of the entire RC Catechism which was promulgated specifically to teach the faithful the errors that emanated from the Satan Council.
RCs hate it when that one is quoted. But one of many errors in the CCC.
844 In their religious behavior, however, men also display the limits and errors that disfigure the image of God in them:
Very often, deceived by the Evil One, men have become vain in their reasonings, and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and served the creature rather than the Creator. Or else, living and dying in the world without God, they are exposed to ultimate despair.
To reunite all his children, scattered and led astray by sin, the Father willed to call the whole of humanity together into his Son's Church.
It doesn't surprise me anymore, that our lamentable, half-apostate pope skips this part when he does his selective quoting. But why do you?
Jorge Bergoglio, the Argentinian communist heretical Jesuit dictator who is masquerading as the Bishop of Rome.
I believe your hypothesis is correct but what Marxist ever told the truth about anything?
It doesn’t surprise me anymore, that our lamentable, half-apostate pope skips this part when he does his selective quoting. But why do you?
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I’m afraid I do not understand how/why you think these passages bear any relationship to my comments on this thread. Would you elaborate please?
Is this Pope applying for the job of the Anti-Christ?
He sure is a One World Government Globalist.
The official RCC, on the Vatican website does not read that way.
Are you using some unauthorized source?
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