A "dialogue" with the Vatican's English news bureau - "we are all saved already"

The other day, News.va English left a post on its Facebook page following the Pope's meeting with the Bishops of Benin on the on the matter of "interreligious dialogue." THe Pope urged the Bishops of Benin to increase this dialogue with the Islamists in Benin. Since the Pope has recently spoken about the importance of "dialogue" I decided to take him up on this idea ande begin a dialogue with News.va English.

Let us take a look at the discussion, shall we?

News.va English

Yesterday at 8:18am · 

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has encouraged Bishops from Benin to support families, to pursue the formation of young people and to promote inter religious dialogue.The Pope was receiving a group of Bishops from the West African Nation who are in the …

Pope tells Benin Bishops promote interreligious dialogue

An interesting lecture from them has ensued:

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  Vox Cantoris Are all religions equal?

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  News.va English Dear David, please find an excerpt from the Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions “Nostra Aetate” proclaimed by Pope Paul VI on October 28, 1965: "Other religions found everywhere try to counter the restlessness of the human heart, each in its own manner, by proposing "ways," comprising teachings, rules of life, and sacred rites. The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men. Indeed, she proclaims, and ever must proclaim Christ "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6), in whom men may find the fullness of religious life, in whom God has reconciled all things to Himself.(4)
  
  The Church, therefore, exhorts her sons, that through dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions, carried out with prudence and love and in witness to the Christian faith and life, they recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values found among these men. [...] As the Church has always held and holds now, Christ underwent His passion and death freely, because of the sins of men and out of infinite love, in order that all may reach salvation. It is, therefore, the burden of the Church's preaching to proclaim the cross of Christ as the sign of God's all-embracing love and as the fountain from which every grace flows."
  
  Also, we would like to share an excerpt from the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church "Lumen Gentium":
  
  "those who without any fault do not know anything about Christ or his Church, yet who search for God with a sincere heart and under the influence of grace, try to put into effect the will of God as known to them through the dictate of conscience... can obtain eternal salvation". [...] "Nor does divine Providence deny the helps that are necessary for salvation to those who, through no fault of their own, have not yet attained to the express recognition of God, yet who strive, not without divine grace, to lead an upright life. For whatever goodness and truth is found in them is considered by the Church as a preparation for the Gospel and bestowed by him who enlightens everyone that they may in the end have life".

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  Vox Cantoris Dearest News.va English please find this Encyclical QUANTO CONFICIAMUR MOERORE of Pope IX on false doctrines http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius09/p9quanto.htm
  

  
  

  
  

  

  
  

  QUANTO CONFICIAMUR MOERORE

  How much cause we have to grieve over the...

  PAPALENCYCLICALS.NET

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  Vox Cantoris The Church did not begin at Vatican II. How soon you have forgotten Pope Benedict XVI and the "hermeneutic of continuity."

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  Vox Cantoris You see News.va English, you are misleading and confusing by putting that statement Nostra Aetate which is the lowest of the Vatican II documents. It is not doctrinal and it is not a Constitution. We are not talking of those "with sincere hearts." Further, God is not bound by His sacraments. If the "dialogue" does not PROPOSE JESUS CHRIST and salvation through the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, then what are we doing?

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  Vox Cantoris Frankly News.va English, you are imbued with modernism and syncretism. All religions are not equal. There is only One, True Faith and it is the Catholic faith outside of which there is no salvation. Get it?

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  Vox Cantoris Should they not promote conversion to Christ?

  Like · Reply · 1 · Yesterday at 8:20am
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  News.va English The very concept of "promoting conversion" is not in line with Christ's message of love of God and of our neighbour. One cannot oblige one person to believe, nor is it the result of rational thinking, rather of humble openness of one's heart to God's grace which gives the gift of faith. What we can do is to share with people our joy for the revelation of the message of salvation and the fact that God is our Father and is a God who loves us and that we have no reason to fear death because death and anything evil have been already condemned and defeated on the Cross by Jesus' sacrifice. We know there will be a new life because Jesus has come back from the dead. We are all saved already and we need to live by Jesus' teaching of sacrificing our evil instinct and acting for unconditional love.

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  Vox Cantoris What of "no salvation outside of the Church?"

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  Vox Cantoris, News.va English, This is outright scandalous: "The very concept of "promoting conversion" is not in line with Christ's message of love of God and of our neighbour. One cannot oblige one person to believe, nor is it the result of rational thinking," All have free will. You are preaching heresy when you say that "promoting conversion" is not Christ's message or will. "That all be one..." Who is writing this stuff?

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  News.va English Dear David the Church brings the message of salvation with love, not with judgement.

  
  

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Rolheiser and Coren - It is time for Toronto's Catholic Register to prove itself or lose its credibility entirely

How joyful we should be that we have such a fine Catholic media in Toronto lead by the Catholic Register.

Ron Rolheiser is a Catholic priest from Saskatchewan of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Ron writes in Toronto's Catholic Register. On his blog, Rolheiser has an "open letter" to the Bishops of Canada. He calls himself a "loyal son of the Church," Good for him, I'm glad he sees himself in that way. At the end of his ecumenical diatribe he suggests that the Holy Canon of the Mass, in the nervous disordered rite at least, include the following;

For example, could the prayer for the Church and its leadership in our various Eucharistic Canons have these additions: Remember, Lord, your entire Church, spread throughout the world, and bring her to the fullness of charity, together with N. our Pope and N. our Bishop, together with all who help lead other Christian Churches, and all the clergy.” Might our Eucharistic Prayers have this kind of inclusivity? 

No Ron, we cannot have this kind of heretical inclusivity because it is a lie! Where did you develop such a false ecclesiology? 

Pope Benedict XVI referred to protestant denominations as "ecclesial communities." They are not the Church; but what can we expect these days with the "Francis Effect" making all things new. 

In the article below from the Catholic Register, Rolheiser writes:

All faiths and all religions are journeying towards the fullness of truth. No one religion or denomination may consider its truth complete, something to permanently rest within; rather it must see it as a starting point from which to journey. Moreover, as various religions we need to feel secure enough within our own “home” so as to acknowledge the truth and beauty that is expressed in other “homes.” We need to accept (and, I suggest, be pleased) that there are other lives within which the faith is written in a different language.

This is heretical statement. The Catholic faith is Divinely revealed through Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition. All revelation ended with the death of the last apostle, St. John the Evangelist. The Truth as revealed in the Catholic Church is complete and to say otherwise is heretical.  

"Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved." Book of Acts. 4:12

Concerning this doctrine the Pope of Vatican I, Pius IX, spoke on two different occasions. In an allocution (address to an audience) on December 9th, 1854 he said: 

We must hold as of the faith, that out of the Apostolic Roman Church there is no salvation; that she is the only ark of safety, and whosoever is not in her perishes in the deluge; we must also, on the other hand, recognize with certainty that those who are invincible in ignorance of the true religion are not guilty for this in the eyes of the Lord. And who would presume to mark out the limits of this ignorance according to the character and diversity of peoples, countries, minds and the rest? 

Again, in his encyclical Quanto conficiamur moerore of 10 August, 1863 addressed to the Italian bishops, he said: 

It is known to us and to you that those who are in invincible ignorance of our most holy religion, but who observe carefully the natural law, and the precepts graven by God upon the hearts of all men, and who being disposed to obey God lead an honest and upright life, may, aided by the light of divine grace, attain to eternal life; for God who sees clearly, searches and knows the heart, the disposition, the thoughts and intentions of each, in His supreme mercy and goodness by no means permits that anyone suffer eternal punishment, who has not of his own free will fallen into sin.

There is only One Church. All others are schismatic or heretical. All other religions are false. Judaism is missing its Messiah and Islam is a lie and a distortion. The rest are pagan and idolatrous. The Council documents can nuance in the name of some global masonic ecumenical goal but the Truth prevails. There is only One Truth and His name is Jesus, the Christ the Son of God. While our Holy God, in Trinity and Unity can act outside of His Sacraments "there is no salvation outside of the Catholic Church." Can people outside of the Church gain salvation? God can act outside of His Sacraments but the ordinary means of salvation for the world is only through the Catholic Church. 

The blasphemy below puts the cross between the Star of David and the Islamist Crescent. We have Christians dying by the thousands at the hands of a political system which masquerades as a religion founded by a warlord and pervert; Rollheiser has the temerity to put this death-cult on the same level as the One, True, Faith founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The logo below heads the article in the Register. It is syncretic and pantheist, it is heretical suggesting that Christianity and specifically, Catholicism, is just one of many. This is a heretical notion and goes against Holy Scripture and Tradition and revealed Truth. Other than Judaism, the other symbols are pagan and idolatrous. Notice the "one-child" of the alien family in the centre - no doubt intended to be the revealed truth of environmentalism.

We have the writings of the Fathers of the Church and great saints on the matter of "Extra eccelsiam nuam salus" from Iraneus to Bellarmine. Is Ron Rolheiser putting himself before these men? Is he putting himself before these Popes, or is everything that came before 1963 discarded? When Pope Benedict XVI spoke of a "rupture" and taught that the Second Vatican Council must be read with a "hermeneutic of continuity" this is what he was speaking and writing about. 

The work of Rolheiser in the Catholic Register and on his blog can best be described as Sentimental Theology written by Brother Francis, M.I.C.M., and is even more relevant today then when it was written seventy plus years ago:

Sentimentality is not only a sentiment out of place, it is a sentiment without object. It is like falling in love with love, hoping for hope, or making a sincere effort at being sincere. It is good sentiment to guard the gifts of those you love; it is sentimentality to crowd the house with all kinds of things you throw away. Sentimentality is not even an act; it is just a state of the mind. It is an atmosphere which softens the character, suffocates the mind, and inflicts the will with paralysis. A sentimental mother would let her child die rather than allow a surgical operation to wound his body. In the same way, a sentimental Christian would let his friend miss the opportunity of salvation and go to hell rather than hurt his feelings. Sentimentality is inimical both to charity and to truth. Am I intelligent as a Christian if I allow those who are dear and close to me to incur the slightest danger of losing the friendship of God for all eternity by giving them in return my friendship in this short life? And would I not be endangering my own soul were I to drive this bargain?

Yesterday, we had the news that Michael Coren has become an Anglican. Now we have this heretical philosophy put forth by Rolheiser. It is time for the Catholic Register to act. I am calling on the Archbishop of Toronto, Thomas Cardinal Collins to ensure that the Catholic Register, owned by him under the provision in common-law of Corporation Sole be swept clean of these dissenters.

How much more do faithful Catholic need to take from their own?

The contact page for the Catholic Register can be found here.  One may also write the Archbishop at archbishop@archtoronto.org or communications@archtoronto.org 

Enough!

http://www.catholicregister.org/faith/rolheiser/item/20101-principles-for-interfaith-dialogue-attitudes

Photo/Flickr via Scott Maxwell [http://bit.ly/1JxDWBP]

Principles for interfaith dialogue, attitudes

• April 23, 2015

We live inside a world and inside religions that are too given to disrespect and violence. Virtually every newscast documents the prevalence of disrespect and violence done in the name of religion, disrespect done for the sake of God (strange as that expression may seem). Invariably those acting in this way see their actions, justified by sacred cause.

And, if history is to be believed, it has always been so. No religion has been innocent. Every one of the great religions of the world has been persecuted and persecutor. So this begs the question: What are some fundamental principles we are asked to live out apposite our relationship to other faiths, irrespective of our particular faith?

What’s best in each of our traditions would suggest these 10 principles:

1. All that is good, true and beautiful comes from one and the same author, God. Nothing that is true, irrespective of its particular religious or secular cloak, may be seen as opposed to true faith and religion.

2. God wills the salvation of all people, equally, without discrimination. God has no favourites. All people have access to God and to His Spirit, and the whole of humankind has never lacked for divine providence. Moreover each religion is to reject nothing that is true and holy in other religions.  

3. No one religion or denomination has the full and whole truth. God is both infinite and ineffable. For this reason, God cannot be captured adequately in human concepts and language. Thus, while our knowledge of God may be true, it is always only partial. God can be truly known, but God cannot be adequately thought.

4. All faiths and all religions are journeying towards the fullness of truth. No one religion or denomination may consider its truth complete, something to permanently rest within; rather it must see it as a starting point from which to journey. Moreover, as various religions we need to feel secure enough within our own “home” so as to acknowledge the truth and beauty that is expressed in other “homes.” We need to accept (and, I suggest, be pleased) that there are other lives within which the faith is written in a different language.

5. Diversity within religions is a richness, willed by God. God does not just wish our unity; God also blesses our diversity which helps reveal the stunning over-abundance within God. Religious diversity is the cause of much tension, but that diversity and the struggle to overcome it will contribute strongly to the richness of our eventual unity.

6. God is “scattered” in world religions. Anything that is positive within a religion expresses something of God and contributes to divine revelation. Hence, the various religions of the world all help to make God known.

7. Each person must account for his or her faith on the basis of his or her own conscience. Each of us must take responsibility for our own faith and salvation.

8. Intentionally, all the great world religions interpenetrate each other (and, for a Christian, that means that they interpenetrate the mystery of Christ). A genuine faith knows that God is solicitous for everyone and His spirit blows freely and strives to relate itself to the intentionality of other religions.

9. A simple external, historical connection to any religion is less important than achieving a personal relationship, ideally of intimacy, with God. What God wants most deeply from us, irrespective of our religion, is not a religious practice but a personal relationship that transforms our lives so as to radiate God’s goodness, truth and beauty more clearly.

10. Within our lives and within our relationship to other religions, respect, graciousness and charity must trump all other considerations. This does not mean that all religions are equal and that faith can be reduced to its lowest common denominator, but it does mean that what lies deepest inside of every sincere faith are these fundamentals: respect, graciousness and charity.

Throughout history, great thinkers have grappled with the problem of the one and the many. And, consciously or unconsciously, all of us also struggle with that tension between the one and the many, the relationship between unity and diversity; but perhaps this is not so much a problem as it is a richness that reflects the over-abundance of God and our human struggle to grasp that over-abundance. Perhaps the issue of religious diversity might be described in this way:

Different peoples, one Earth.
Different beliefs, one God.
Different languages, one heart.
Different failings, one law of gravity.
Different energies, one Spirit.
Different Scriptures, one Word.
Different forms of worship, one desire.
Different histories, one destiny.
Different disciplines, one aim.
Different approaches, one road.
Different faiths — one Mother, one Father, one Earth, one sky, one beginning, one end.

(Fr. Rolheiser can be reached at ronrolheiser.com.)