http://www.dailycatholic.org/issue/13May/may6ftt.htmIn this article
Father Joseph Clifford Fenton answers the charge that "the school theology since the Middle Ages has in some way neglected to consider the Church as the Body of
Jesus Christ". The concept of "body" and "soul" of the Church comes up in this writing. There have been some less than precise analogies of this concept by Catholic theologians that have confused the issue and have given the Feeneyites ammunition to denounce all that is taught in theology manuals if it does not suit their purpose. It is important to have a right understanding of things in so far as this is possible. This is why the safer course is to go with what
Saint Robert Bellarmine, the greatest doctor in the Church on Ecclesiology, says over those who disagree with him, unless a Pope or perhaps another Doctor of the Church were to do so, and this has yet to happen.
Lay-people should also accept whatever the Church teaches even if they are not sure what it is. We get caught up in places where Angels dare not tread. Instead of making ourselves the arbiters of truth on technicalities that only trained experts are qualified to respond to, we should simply accept the fact that non-members of the Church can be saved because that is an infallible doctrine of the Church. The unschooled debating technicalities, that calls into question what the approved great minds of the Church have clearly taught, harm the Church, as does condemning others on issues you are not qualified to speak on as this confuses and embitters Her members and potential faithful. I speak as one unschooled which is why I present the teaching from a reliable source.
Or better put, "I receive Thee, redeeming Prince of my soul. Out of love for Thee have I studied, watched through many nights, and exerted myself: Thee did I preach and teach. I have never said aught against Thee. Nor do I persist stubbornly in my views. If I have ever expressed myself erroneously on this Sacrament, I submit to the judgement of the Holy Roman Church, in obedience of which I now part from this world."
These words were spoken by
Saint Thomas Aquinas. Yet some untrained laypeople and
partially trained laypeople and therefore dangerous laypeople dare to oppose what sainted Doctors have taught, claiming it is
de fide that there is no such thing as baptism of blood and baptism of desire? It is one thing to admit you are confused on the issue or to admit you are not sure about the teaching. But quite another to insist that those who agree with the Sainted Fathers, Doctors and Popes on the issue, but disagree with you are not Catholic and going to Hell.
God left us a treasury of graces which can be applied to non-members of the Church and help bring them to salvation through conversion or through being attached to the Church at the moment of death. It is quite humbling to consider how just one
Ave uttered from our lips, or indulgence applied for a soul who is not a member of the Church, or a soul of God's choice, can be enough to be the difference between its salvation and damnation. You and I can be the difference between whether one is faithfully departed or not. We all should pray for the gift of perseverance and for a happy death.
As we know, some things will be accomplished whether we pray for it or not. Others won't be accomplished no matter how much we pray for it.
The third category is that some things won't be accomplished apart from our prayers. That one
Ave from an individual's lips can be what leads a soul to have the proper disposition at death to die in a state of sanctifying grace. No prayer is wasted but some of our prayers will benefit the mystical body of Christ in a way that is different than what we are asking. One might ask that his leg heal, another that his dog stop biting him, another still that the media will go away, but these prayers if not in conformity to God's will, will be applied by God to where they will be best utilized; such as to the benefit of a soul in Purgatory or to one on their death bed. We will have no idea what a difference our prayers have made until we reach our end.
God saves all through the Roman Catholic Church. Sanctifying grace comes to all who obtain it through the Roman Catholic Church, through the offering of Mass and as a result of your prayers and mine. Non-members of the Roman Catholic Church can be joined to God through the Roman Catholic Church without realizing it. God knows, and there is no need for the unschooled to speculate, and less need for us to "impose" those speculations on others.
For our part if we do what we can to convert people they will be validly baptized if they have not been already. We fearlessly state the fact that there is no salvation outside the Church and that non-members can be saved by that Church at the moment of death due to their attachment to Her, noting that they become actual members at the moment of death.
If approved and properly trained theologians racked their brains over the technicalities of these issues, who are we to proclaim
de fide anything other than what the Church has defined. Namely, that there is no salvation outside the Church and that non-members of that Church can be saved. Anything else is a trap of the Devil to get us to fight each other instead of uniting to convert the world so we do not have to worry if they are members of that Church, inside that Church, joined to that Church, part of the soul of the Church, etc. or not.
Any of my own writing could be erroneous or could explain a truth in a faulty manner, but this is less likely when coming from the greatest theologian of the 20th Century, Fr. Joseph Clifford Fenton, S.T.D.:
Understand that the phrase "The Mystical Body of Christ" is a phrase that distinguishes Catholic Church from the Physical Body of our Lord. Do not get confused by the term "mystical" and think it means something other than or more than the Catholic Church.
The Mystical Body of Christ IS the Catholic Church, plain and simple.
For those who love Truth, it is time crack open
Mystici Corporis again and re-study this masterful work written seventy years ago.