I am a "Feeneyite" and a Third Order member of the Saint Benedict Center in New Hampshire. I posted on this before but the above website is, basically, "pounding on open doors":
1)
Baptism of Desire confers sanctifying grace. We all agree on that and Father Feeney taught it. Baptism of Desire (or, "desire of Baptism") is a grace given by the One and Triune God, and everyone agrees that it will place an individual in a state of justification before God via the merits of His One and Only Son, Jesus Christ.
2)
The character of Baptism confers grace. Saint Thomas Aquinas, the Church's principle Doctor and theologian, taught this explicitly, but it seldom gets mentioned:
As stated above (a. 1, ad 2; q. 68, a. 2) man receives the forgiveness of sins before Baptism in so far as he has Baptism of desire, explicitly or implicitly; and yet when he actually receives Baptism, he receives a fuller remission, as to the remission of the entire punishment. So also before Baptism Cornelius and others like him receive grace and virtues through their faith in Christ and their desire for Baptism, implicit or explicit: but aferwards when baptized, they receive a yet greater fulness of grace and virtues. Hence in Ps. 22:2, “He hath brought me up on the water of refreshment,” a gloss says: “He has brought us up by an increase of virtue and good deeds in Baptism.” (Summa Theologica, IIIa q.69, a.4, ad 2)
Saint Thomas is teaching that a catechumen who dies with only "Baptism of Desire" in the absence of martyrdom and without sacramental Baptism would still have to suffer the temporal punishments in Purgatory for his/her sins.
So, in Catholic theology, "justification" is not an either/or thing. There are degrees of reward in Heaven just as there are degrees of punishment in Hell, so in that sense, one can become "more and more" justified before the Triune God over time.
3)
Catholic martyrs go straight to Heaven. This is a pitiful "straw man" that some like to "use" against we "Feeneyites." The
only question is, "Has the Sovereign God allowed such martyrs to enter into Paradise lacking the indelible seal of Baptism?" No one at either of the two Saint Benedict Centers believes that a true martyr for Christ would go to Hell for want of sacramental Baptism, unless one wishes to apply the label "Feeneyite" to those individuals who espouse views which Father Feeney himself would have anathematized. This brings me to my next point...
4)
Proving negatives. While there is universal agreement among traditional Catholics on Points #1, #2 and #3, here is where folks start to diverge. In particular, "How could you, I, or anyone else ever 'prove,' 'know,' etc., that someone, anyone, was
never sacramentally baptized, if only in that person's infancy?" In other words, to embrace Baptism of Desire as some "standalone"
de fide dogma of the Catholic Faith is to try and "prove negatives," cosmic ones, in fact. Our God is a big God, omnipotent, which means that He can bring the character of sacramental Baptism (and, hence, its graces) to
anyone whom He wishes.
5)
Angels can baptize. Saint Thomas taught this possibility explicitly but it rarely gets mentioned:
"But it must be observed that as God did not bind His power to the sacraments, so as to be unable to bestow the sacramental effect without conferring the sacrament; so neither did He bind His power to the ministers of the Church so as to be unable to give angels power to administer the sacraments. And since good angels are messengers of truth;
if any sacramental rite were performed by good angels, it should be considered valid, because it ought to be evident that this is being done by the will of God: for instance, certain churches are said to have been consecrated by the ministry of the angels. But if demons, who are 'lying spirits,' were to perform a sacramental rite, it should be pronounced as invalid." (
Summa Theologica, IIIa, q.64, a.7)
"Since the order of Divine Providence disposes that lower things be subject to the actions of higher, as explained above (q. 109, a. 2); as the inferior angels are enlightened by the superior, so men, who are inferior to the angels, are enlightened by them." (
Summa Theologica, Ia, q.111, a.1)[/quote]
6)
Angels are outside of "time and space". Per the Angelic Doctor, they can do amazing things:
"As was observed above in the preceding article, the local motion of an angel can be continuous, and non-continuous. If it be continuous, the angel cannot pass from one extreme to another without passing through the mid-space; because, as is said by the Philosopher (Phys. v, text 22; vi, text 77), 'The middle is that into which a thing which is continually moved comes, before arriving at the last into which it is moved'; because the order of first and last in continuous movement, is according to the order of the first and last in magnitude, as he says (Phys. iv, text 99). But if an angel's movement be not continuous, it is possible for him to pass from one extreme to another without going through the middle..." (Summa Theologica, Ia, q.53, a.2)
"This objection is based on continuous time. But the same time of an angel's movement can be non-continuous. So an angel can be in one place in one instant, and in another place in the next instant, without any time intervening. If the time of the angel's movement be continuous, he is changed through infinite places throughout the whole time which precedes the last 'now'; as was already shown (a. 2). Nevertheless he is partly in one of the continuous places, and partly in another, not because his substance is susceptible of parts, but because his power is applied to a part of the first place and to a part of the second, as was said above (a. 2)." (Summa Theologica, Ia, q.53, a.3, ad 3)
The above concepts were ridiculed in physics, until Albert Einstein came along. Point is, though, that if angels can baptized, how could you, I, or anyone else ever hope to "prove" or "know" that such did not occur with respect to any particular individual? Seems kind of silly.
7) The Catholic Church has never defined that there are individuals in Paradise who lack the character of sacramental Baptism. We all agree that Baptism of Desire (or "desire for Baptism") confers sanctifying grace, and we all agree that the Sacrament of Baptism also confers additional graces, and we all agree that true martyrs for Christ go straight to Paradise. If the Catholic Church wanted to define that there are individuals in Paradise who lack the character of sacramental Baptism, then the Magisterium could have stated something like this:
"If anyone says that there are no individuals in Paradise who lack the character of sacramental Baptism, let him be anathema."
So, the question if there are persons in Heaven who have ended this life without sacramental Baptism is still "fair game," an open theological question, which is why there are "Feeneyites" who, to this very day, are in full communion with Rome.
Topic: Baptismofdesire.com (Read 54030 times)