CathInfo.com

My frustration with so many of the these authors is that they will state that the sacrament of baptism is absolutely necessary for salvation, and then create a thousand excuses as to why the sacrament is not necessary for salvation, thus violating the definition of "absolutely necessary."  Somewhere in my baptism file I have a docuмent written pre-Vatican II, in Latin, and the theologian said that it was absolutely necessary for the Blessed Virgin to be baptized to go to heaven.  I will dig it up and post it.  Certainly the BVM was in a state of justification prior to being baptized, yet, according to this theologian, it was necessary for her to be baptized to go to heaven.  

Good points, I appreciate the input.  

Before Vatican II it was mostly priests and theologians would have read these books so the laity would have not have heard of all the rare exceptions but only that baptism was necessary. 

It is like getting a law degree.  There are always rules and exceptions.  The common person knows the rules but not all the exceptions unless he has studied law.

The real problem is that the modernists focused in on the exceptions and confused everyone and made people think that these rare exceptions were common.


Oh...  And as for Our Lady...  From what I understand she did not need baptism or need to die because she never had original sin in her soul.  However, she chose to do these things to imitate Our Blessed Lord.

Prior to Vatican II there were a number of laymen who studied, investigated theology, and wrote their books.  A few minds who strike me at the outset are Orestes Brownson (who has written more than probably anyone in history), G.K. Chesterton (who wrote about 10,000 words a day), and Hilaire Belloc (an English convert who has written 154 books and pamphlets), to name a few.  These men are certainly exceptions, but one does not need a law degree to know law, nor does he need a theology degree to know theology.  In fact, the aforementioned Brownson never even had a degree.  He taught himself, never having gone to any school.  And yet twice he was offered a professorship at Holy Ghost College in Dublin.  And Chesterton had an art degree.  As for Belloc, I believe that he had the Bachelor's from Oxford, but cannot recall that he achieved anything beyond that. 

And as for Our Lady, why do you conclude that she did not need baptism?  Baptism does two things, it removes the debt of Original Sin and incorporates one into the body of the Church.  Our Lady did need to enter the Church to be saved; she did need incorporation into the Church.  I have not read in the fathers or theologians that she was exempted from the law of baptism, and even if a father were to say it I would reject his opinion without delay.