Quote from: Lover of Truth

What we have hopefully learned so far is that what saves is sanctifying grace and that non-members of the Church can be in the state of sanctifying grace at the moment of death. To claim that a person who dies in a state of sanctifying grace is damned over a purported technicality would be unreasonable, but God and the Church He rules through are not unreasonable. The clear teachings on this issue will be reiterated authoritatively and infallibly in future installments.

Pope Boniface VIII, Bull Unam sanctam (1302): "We are compelled in virtue of our faith to believe and maintain that there is only one holy Catholic Church, and that one is apostolic. This we firmly believe and profess without qualification. Outside this Church there is no salvation and no remission of sins".

What is it that makes you reject this de fide teaching so much that you are obsessed with rewarding salvation to those outside the Church anyway?

Quote from: Neil Obstat

.

I find it interesting that the Eastern Orthodox don't have this problem with squabbling over BoD.  Certainly they have other errors that make them schismatic, but from their point of view, seeing Catholics who would ostensibly defend this theological speculation (saying that it's "dogma" when it clearly is not) to the death, must seem like a serious blight on the Roman Church, a self-contradiction, that renders her claim to being the true Church null and void.  For if EENS is reducible to a meaningless formula even against such a recent encyclical as Humani Generis (Pius XII), and the Roman Church does nothing about it, and then along comes Benedict XVI saying (hermeneutic of continuity) that the effective denial of a dogma is the same thing as defending its truth, then there is no such thing as truth.

.

Which are the Sacraments necessary unto salvation?

All of the rest of the purely doctrinal portion of the encyclical, the sections which deal with the concept of the Church as a "body," as "the body of Christ," and as "the Mystical Body of Christ," as well as the part which describes the union of the faithful with Our Lord, should thus be considered as directed towards a more perfect and detailed understanding of what is basically one of the great classical definitions of the true Church. And all of the pastoral exhortations which make up the remainder of the body of the encyclical are meant to warn the faithful against errors which would militate against their appreciation of the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ and to encourage them to give to the Church the tribute of genuine, strong, and supernatural affection demanded by the bonds that join the Church and its members to Our Lord, the Head of the Mystical Body. All of this obviously revolves around the realization that the expression "Mystical body of Christ" is a real definition of the true Church of God.

Although the Holy Father taught in his encyclical that the expression "Mystical Body of Jesus Christ" is a definition of the true Church, he neither said nor implied that it is the only genuine and accurate definition. Indeed, the literature of scholastic ecclesiology abounds in definitions of the Church, some of which have achieved the status of standard formulae over the course of the centuries. By calling attention to the fact that the expression "Mystical Body of Jesus Christ" is likewise a definition of the Church, and a definition of paramount importance and significance, our Holy Father Pope Pius XII offered to the theologians of the world the opportunity to show how the various types of definitions are mutually complementary and to explain how they combine to bring out the magnificently rich notion of the Church that is conveyed in divine supernatural revelation. Fenton

The notion or concept of the Catholic Church, conveyed in God's supernatural message, is tremendously complex. This society is represented to us basically as the association or group within which alone we may find salvific contact with God in Jesus Christ Our Lord. It is the ecclesia sanctorum, the community or the communion of the Saints. Yet it is so constituted in this world that a man may be a member of it without actually living the divine and supernatural life of grace. It is truly a society instituted directly and immediately by Our Lord during the course of His public life in this world. At the same time, however, it is just as truly the continuation and the ultimate status here on earth of the supernatural kingdom of God which has been in existence, as the militant Church of God in Christ, since the days of our first parents. It lives as the militant company of Our Lord's disciples throughout the entire world. In the various cities and districts of the world its members gather to constitute organized individual families or households of the faith in Christ. Yet, at the same time, it is always in a condition of pilgrimage in this world and in its cities. Its ultimate and eternal home is to be found only in the courts of Heaven. Fenton

There are, incidentally, certain standard definitions of the Church Triumphant, as distinct from the Church Suffering and the Church Militant. As St. Thomas Aquinas teaches "the Church, according to the status viae [the condition of those who are working towards the Beatific Vision, but who have not as yet actually arrived at it] is the congregation of the faithful (congregation fidelium). According to the status patriae, however [the condition of those who have already come to the homeland of heaven] it is the congregation of those who possess the Beatific Vision (congregation comprehendentium)." The Catechism of the Council of Trent, first published in 1566, defined the Church Triumphant as "the most glorious and happy assembly of the blessed spirits and of those who have overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil, and who enjoy eternal beatitude, free and safe from the troubles of this world." Both of these definitions obviously fit within the framework of the broadest type of definition of the Church enunciated by Gregory of Valentia.   Fenton

.

Heeee's baaaaaaaack.....

.

The most general or most inclusive type of definition, as it was formulated by Gregory of Valentia, is a description which correctly and effectively shows up the unity of all the persons who belong to the Church Triumphant, to the Church Suffering, and to the Church Militant. It speaks of all these persons as being really gathered or assembled together, that is, as constituting a genuine definite social unity. Likewise it speaks of these persons as being brought into their social unity "by the grace of God's calling." Thus it insists upon the basic fact that the assembly or congregation itself is definitely a reality of the supernatural order, something concerned, ultimately, with the intimate understanding and possession of God as He is in Himself, with the clear knowledge of the Triune God in the Beatific Vision. Fenton