Garrigou-Lagrange on Baptism of Desire

Garrigou-Lagrange on Baptism of Desire

From Garrigou-Lagrange's Our Savior and His Love for Us, p. 6 (snapshot from the ITOPL file).

     

Hermeneutics of Discontinuity? JP2 vs. Florence on the Revocation of the Mosaic Covenant

Hermeneutics of Discontinuity? JP2 vs. Florence on the Revocation of the Mosaic Covenant

Commemorating the 565th Anniversary of the Closing of the Council of Florence

The previous post on Pope John Paul II's claim that the Church did not have a philosophy drew many interesting comments.  I would like to try another topic within the same broad theme of the apparent discontinuity between traditional Catholic doctrine and post-Vatican II doctrine: the supposed non-revocation of the Mosaic covenant.

In an allocution to the Jewish community of West Germany at Mainz (November 17, 1980), Pope John Paul II spoke of "... the people of God of the Old Covenant, which has never been revoked.'" 

[Information Service No. 57, 1985/I, 16-21, 16. Comp. H. H. Henrix in: Hinweise fuer eine richtige Darstellung von Juden und Judentum in der Predigt und in der Katechese der katholischen Kirchen - 24. Juni 1985 (Arbeitshilfen 44), Bonn o. J. (1986), 12-44.]

Compare this with Session 11 of the Council of Florence (4 February 1442, Bull of Union with the Copts):

It [The Holy Roman Church] firmly believes, professes and teaches that the legal prescriptions of the old Testament or the Mosaic law, which are divided into ceremonies, holy sacrifices and sacraments, because they were instituted to signify something in the future, although they were adequate for the divine cult of that age, once our lord Jesus Christ who was signified by them had come, came to an end and the sacraments of the new Testament had their beginning. Whoever, after the passion, places his hope in the legal prescriptions and submits himself to them as necessary for salvation and as if faith in Christ without them could not save, sins mortally. It does not deny that from Christ's passion until the promulgation of the gospel they could have been retained, provided they were in no way believed to be necessary for salvation. But it asserts that after the promulgation of the gospel they cannot be observed without loss of eternal salvation. Therefore it denounces all who after that time observe circumcision, the sabbath and other legal prescriptions as strangers to the faith of Christ and unable to share in eternal salvation, unless they recoil at some time from these errors. Therefore it strictly orders all who glory in the name of Christian, not to practise circumcision either before or after baptism, since whether or not they place their hope in it, it cannot possibly be observed without loss of eternal salvation...."  (Denzinger 712)

Are these reconcilable?  Comments from all positions are welcome, but especially those who argue using the scholastic method (Major, Minor, and Conclusion, etc.).

Forgotten Teachings: No Salvation Outside the Church

Forgotten Teachings: No Salvation Outside the Church

EUGENIUS IV (AD 1431-1447)
COUNCIL OF FLORENCE (AD 1438-1445)
Ecumenical XVII 

(Union with the Greeks, Armenians, Jacobites) 

Decree for the Armenians  

[From the Bull "Exultate Deo," Nov. 22, 1439]

DS 714 [1351]: [The sacrosanct Roman Church, founded by the voice of our Lord and Savior,] firmly believes, professes, and proclaims that those not living within the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics cannot become participants in eternal life, but will depart "into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels" [Matt. 25:41], unless before the end of life the same have been added to the flock; and that the unity of the ecclesiastical body is so strong that only to those remaining in it are the sacraments of the Church of benefit for salvation, and do fastings, almsgiving, and other functions of piety and exercises of Christian service produce eternal reward, and that no one, whatever almsgiving he has practiced, even if he has shed blood for the name of Christ, can be saved, unless he has remained in the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church.

DS 714 [1351]: [Sacrosancta Romana Ecclesia, Domini et Salvatoris nostri voce fundata] firmiter credit, profitetur et praedicat, 'nullos extra catholicam Ecclesiam exsistentes (intra cath. E. non exs.), non solum paganos', sed nec Judaeos aut haereticos atque schismaticos, aeternae vitae fieri posse participes; sed in ignem aeternum ituros, 'qui paratus est diabolo et angelis eius' (Mt 25, 41), nisi ante finem vitae eidem fuerint aggregati: tantumque valere ecclesiastici corporis unitatem, ut solum in ea manentibus ad salutem ecclesiastica sacramenta proficiant, et ieiunia, eleemosynae ac cetera pietatis officia et exercitia militiae christianae praemia aeterna parturiant. 'Neminemque, quantascumque eleemosynas fecerit, etsi pro Christi nomine sanguinem effuderit, posse salvari, nisi in catholicae Ecclesiae gremio et unitate permanserit'.

Forgotten Teachings: No Salvation Outside the Church

Forgotten Teachings: No Salvation Outside the Church

PELAGIUS II (AD 579-590)

The Unity of the Church

[From the first epistle Quod ad dilectionern 

to the schismatic bishops of Istria, about AD 585]

DS 246: (For) you know that the Lord proclaims in the Gospel: Simon, Simon, behold Satan has desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat: but I have asked the Father for thee, that thy faith fail not; and thou being once converted, confirm thy brethren [Luke 22:31 f.].

Consider, most dear ones, that the Truth could not have lied, nor will the faith of Peter be able to be shaken or changed forever. For although the devil desired to sift all the disciples, the Lord testifies that He Himself asked for Peter  alone and wished the others to be confirmed by him; and to him also, in consideration of a greater love which he showed the Lord before the rest, was committed the care of feeding the sheep [cf. John 21:15 ff.]; and to him also He handed over the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and upon him He promised to build his Church, and He testified that the gates of hell would not prevail against it [cf. Matt. 16:16 ff.]. But, because the enemy of the human race even until the end of the world does not abstain from sowing cockle [Matt. 13:25] over the good seed in the Church of the Lord, and therefore, lest perchance anyone with malignant zeal should by the instigation of the devil presume to make some alterations in and to draw conclusions regarding the integrity of the faith--and (lest) by reason of this your minds perhaps may seem to be disturbed, we have judged it necessary through our present epistle to exhort with tears that you should return to the heart of your mother the Church, and to send you satisfaction with regard to the integrity of faith. . . .

[The faith of the Synods of Nicea, Constantinople I, Ephesus I, and especially of Chalcedon, and likewise of the dogmatic epistle of Leo to Flavian having been confirmed, he proceeds thus: ]

If anyone, however, either suggests or believes or presumes to teach contrary to this faith, let him know that he is condemned and also anathematized according to the opinion of the same Fathers. . . . Consider (therefore) the fact that whoever has not been in the peace and unity of the Church, cannot have the Lord [Gal. 3:7]. . . .

"DS 246: Nostis (enim) in evangelio Dominum proclamantem : Simon, Simon, ecce satanas expetivit vos, ut cribraret sicut triticum : ego autem rogavi pro te Patrem, ut non deficiat fides tua ; et tu conversus confirma fratres tuos (Lc 22, 31 sq). Considerate, carissimi, quia Veritas mentiri non potuit nec fides PETRI in aeternum quassari poterit vel mutari. Nam cum omnes discipulos diabolus ad cribrandum poposcerit, pro solo PETRO se Dominus rogasse testatur et ab eo ceteros voluit confirmari; cui etiam pro maiori dilectione, quam prae ceteris Domino exhibebat, pascendarum ovium sollicitudo commissa est (cf. Io 21, 15 sqq); cui et claves regni coelorum tradidit et super quem suam Ecclesiam aedificaturum esse promisit nec portas inferni adversus eam praevalere testatus est (Mt 16,16sqq). Sed quia inimicus humani generis usque in finem saeculi non quiescit in Domini Ecclesiam bono semini superseminare zizania (Mt 13,25), ideoque, ne forte quisquam maligno studio aliqua de fidei nostrae integritate diaboli instigatione fingere praesumpserit et argumentari, et ex hoc vestri fortasse videantur animi perturbari, necessarium iudicavimus per praesentem epistolam nostram, et ad viscera vos matris Ecclesiae ut reverti debeatis, cum lacrimis exhortari, et de nostrae fidei integritate vobis satisfactionem mittere. ... (Confirmata fide Synodorum NICAENAE, CONSTANTINOPOL. I, EPHESINAE I, et praecipue CHALCEDONENSIS, necnon epistolae dogmaticae LEONIS ad Flavianum, sic pergit :) Si quis autem contra hanc fidem aut sapit aut credit aut docere praesumit, secundum eorundem Patrum sententiam damnatum atque anathematizatum se esse cognoscat. ... Considerate (ergo), quia quicunque in pace et unitate Ecclesiae non fuerit, Deum habere non poterit (Gal. 3, 7)...."

Forgotten Teachings: No Salvation Outside the Church

Forgotten Teachings: No Salvation Outside the Church

THE CREED "QUICUMQUE"

[which is called "Athanasian"]

This creed, which is one of the four official creeds of the Church, dates back from the Fourth to the Sixth Centuries.

DS 39 [75]: "Whoever wishes to be saved must, above all, keep the Catholic faith. For unless a person keeps this faith whole and entire, he will undoubtedly be lost forever. This is what the catholic faith teaches:.... He, therefore, who wishes to be saved, must believe thus about the Trinity.... It is also necessary for eternal salvation that he believes steadfastly in the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.... This is the Catholic faith. Everyone must believe it, firmly and steadfastly; otherwise He cannot be saved. Amen."

DS 39 [75]: "Quicumque vult salvus esse, ante omnia opus est, ut teneat catholicam fidem: Quam nisi quisque integram inviolatamque servaverit, absque dubio in aeternam peribit. Fides autem catholica haec est:... Qui vult ergo salvus esse, ita de Trinitate sentiat.... Sed necessarium est ad aeternam salutem, ut incarnationem quoque Domini nostri Iesu Christi fideliter credat.... Haec est fides catholica, quam nisi quisque fideliter firmiterque crediderit, salvus esse non poterit. Amen."