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To: Theresa
Hello Theresa,

I liked your article, and generally I agree with it.

However, by printing that article there is a danger that the readers will get the wrong understanding. They will take it to far. They may conclude that the Church basically says that ALL who follow their conscious are saved, they dont really need to follow the Church or anything. This is obviously wrong. Given todays grave misunderstandings on what it means to say "follow your conscious" you can pretty much gurantee there will be more confusion than enlightenment on this issue.

Also, although one theoretically can be saved by not being a full fledged member of the Catholic Church, this doesnt in anyway say they will be saved. The Church offers soo many graces(through sacraments) and forms the conscious so well that one may say that one is very unlikely to be saved outside the Church. THe risks are too great. Even Augustine believed in the "Massa Damnata" which basically means the great majority of people will be damned.

Another problem with publishing this paper, is it fails to notice that following your concscious would lead you to joining the Catholic Church. Hence anybody who doesnt act upon the intuition to investigate the Church, or does not join when they may feel it is true, is directly violating their conscious. So they would not be saved.

In conclusion, the "salvation outside the Church" doctrine is very complicated and not as simple as this article portrays. GIven our culture we are in, and our current presuppositions, publishing that article would lead people to more misunderstandings of Catholic theology than understandings.

184 posted on 01/04/2002 9:51:16 AM PST by electron1
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To: electron1
You know.... you are probably right.
205 posted on 01/04/2002 2:51:18 PM PST by Theresa
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