"Bishop" Kelly acknowledges that Fr. Feeney believed that the desire for baptism could justify a man. He then goes on to say that it is a grave error for someone to deny that an unbaptized man who dies in the state of justification cannot be saved. Fr. Feeney, as St. Augustine, did not believe that any such souls in the New Law exist.
Bread of Life Q. What are we to say to those who believe there are such souls?
A. We must say to them that they are making reason prevail over Faith, and the laws of probability over the Providence of God.
St. Augustine taught that all of the predestined will receive Baptism:
Perish the thought that a person predestined to eternal life could be allowed to end this life without the sacrament of the mediator.
Acts of the Apostles 13:48
And the Gentiles hearing it, were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to life everlasting, believed.
Fr. Paul Sullivan in his
The Secret of Confession, relates the following stories about three infamous men who died without the sacraments:
D’Alembert wished to be reconciled with God on his deathbed, but Condorcet, his false friend, saw to it that the priest could not get access to the dying man, and so he died with bitter remorse and appalling fears.
Diderot showed signs of repentance and had even spoken a few times with a priest. His friends, alarmed at his change of views and fearful lest his conversion might bring ridicule upon their philosophy, hurried him away to the country where the priest could not visit him.
Voltaire, in the last days of his life, sought for the consolation of Confession, but once again cruel cynical friends denied him this supreme consolation. And it is said that he died in despair. He had never been sincere in his attacks on religion, and he came to know, when it was too late, that “God is not mocked.” (Gal. 6:7).
Would "Bishop" Kelly say that these souls were saved by confession of desire? There are countless stories about the providence of God arranging for men of good will to receive the sacraments before death, even in situations where it seemed humanly impossible for them to be reached, and this for sacraments which are only necessary by a necessity of precept and not of means. Baptism is necessary by a necessity of means. If a soul dies without Baptism it is because they were observed and found wanting. It is a just judgement of God, but could also be an act of mercy in the sense that God foresaw that if they were to have been baptized, they would not have persevered and their torments in Hell would be all the more terrible due to their having the character on their soul. The punishment in Hell for those like "Bishop" Kelly who have received the sacraments so many times, but who esteem them so lightly and think that men can be saved without them, will be truly frightening. These men will wish that they never received the sacraments.
"Bishop" Kelly quotes St. Thomas as an authority for the “three baptisms,” but he hypocritically rejects what St. Thomas taught on the necessity of Explicit Faith in the Trinity and the Incarnation for salvation.
As the mystery of the Incarnation was believed from the beginning, so, also, was it necessary to believe the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity; for the mystery of the Incarnation cannot be explicitly believed without faith in the Most Holy Trinity, because the mystery of the Incarnation teaches that the Son of God took to himself a human body and soul by the power of the Holy Ghost. Hence, as the mystery of the Incarnation was explicitly believed by the teachers of religion, and implicitly by the rest of the people, so, also, was the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity explicitly believed by the teachers of religion and implicitly by the rest of the people. But in the New Law it must be explicitly believed by all." (De Fide, Q ii., art. vii. et viii.)
He deals with the holy Council of Trent in the same hypocritical manner. He cites the Council's teaching that the desire for baptism can justify a man (which Fr. Feeney believed), but he rejects the Council's teaching that Baptism is necessary for salvation.
Session Seven on the SacramentsCANON II.-If any one saith, that true and natural water is not of necessity for baptism, and, on that account, wrests, to some sort of metaphor, those words of our Lord Jesus Christ; Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost; let him be anathema.
CANON V.-If any one saith, that baptism is free, that is, not necessary unto salvation; let him be anathema.
Topic: Bp Clarence Kelly talk on Fr. Feeney (Read 4607 times)