Author Topic: THE HOLY OFFICE LETTER SUPREMA HAEC SACRA (Read 2520 times)

Lover of Truth · « **on:** April 11, 2014, 07:51:09 AM »

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Accordingly the Most Eminent and Most Reverend Cardinals of this Supreme Congregation, in a plenary session, held on Wednesday, July 27, 1949, decreed, and the August Pontiff in an audience on the following Thursday, July 28, 1949, deigned to give his approval, that the following explanations pertinent to the doctrine, and also that invitations and exhortations relevant to discipline, be given.

I guess the Holy Office told a bold face lie.

As a friend said:

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Feeneyites are willing to believe ANYTHING WHATSOEVER that does not force them to abandon their position

Lover of Truth · « **Reply #1 on:** April 11, 2014, 07:55:28 AM »

Pius XII disagreed with the Holy Office Letter? Let's see:

We are bound by divine and Catholic faith to believe all those things which are contained in the word of God, whether it be Scripture or Tradition, and are proposed by the Church to be believed as divinely revealed, not only through solemn judgment but also through the ordinary and universal teaching office (magisterium).

   Now, among those things which the Church has always preached and will never cease to preach there is also contained that infallible statement by which we are taught that there is no salvation outside the Church.

   However, this dogma must be understood in the sense in which the Church itself understands it. For Our Saviour gave the things that are contained in the deposit of faith to be explained by the ecclesiastical magisterium and not by private judgments.

   Now, in the first place, the Church teaches us that in this matter we are dealing with a most strict precept of Jesus Christ. For He explicitly ordered His apostles to teach all nations to observe all things whatsoever He Himself had commanded.

   Now, not the least important among the commandments of Christ is that one by which we are commanded to be incorporated by baptism into the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church, and to remain united to Christ and to His Vicar, through whom He Himself governs the Church on earth in a visible manner.

   Therefore, no one will be saved who, knowing the Church to have been divinely established by Christ, nevertheless refuses to submit to the Church or withholds obedience from the Roman Pontiff, the Vicar of Christ on earth.

   The Saviour not only gave the precept that all nations should enter the Church, but He also established the Church as a means of salvation, without which no one may be able to enter the kingdom of eternal glory.

   In His infinite mercy God has willed that the effects, necessary for one to be saved, of those helps to salvation which are directed towards man’s final end, not by intrinsic necessity, but only by divine institution, can also be obtained in certain circuмstances when these helps are used only in intention or desire (ubi voto solummodo vel desiderio adhibeantur). This we see clearly stated in the Sacred Council of Trent, both with reference to the sacrament of regeneration and with reference to the sacrament of penance.

   In its own way, the same thing must be said about the Church, insofar as the Church itself is a general help to salvation. Therefore, in order that one may obtain eternal salvation, it is not always required that he be incorporated into the Church actually as a member, but it is required that at least he be united to it by intention and desire.

   However, this desire need not always be explicit, as it is in catechumens; but, when a person is involved in invincible ignorance, God accepts also an implicit intention (votum) which is so called because it is included in that good disposition of the soul whereby a person wishes his will to be conformed to the will of God.

   These things are clearly taught in that dogmatic letter which was issued by the Sovereign Pontiff, Pope Pius XII, on June 29, 1943, “On the Mystical body of Jesus Christ.” For in this letter the Sovereign Pontiff clearly distinguishes between those who are really (in re) incorporated into the Church as members and those who are joined to it only in intention (in voto).

   Discussing the members of whom the Mystical Body is composed here on earth, the same August Pontiff says: “Only those who have received the laver of regeneration, who profess the true faith, who have not miserably separated themselves from the fabric of the Body or been expelled by legitimate authority by reason of very serious offences, are actually to be counted as members of the Church.”

   Towards the end of the same encyclical letter, when most affectionately inviting to unity those who do not belong to the body of the Catholic Church (qui ad Ecclesiae Catholicae compagem non pertinent), he mentions those who are “ordered to the Redeemer’s Mystical Body by a sort of unconscious desire and intention,” and these he by no means excludes from eternal salvation, but, on the contrary, asserts that they are in a condition in which “they cannot be secure about their own eternal salvation,” since “they still lack so many and such great heavenly helps to salvation that can be enjoyed only in the Catholic Church.”

   With these wise words he reproves both those who exclude from eternal salvation all those united to the Church only by implicit desire and those who falsely assert that men can be saved equally (aequaliter) in every religion.

   Nor must we think that any kind of intention of entering the Church is sufficient in order that one may be saved. It is requisite that the intention by which one is ordered to the Church should be informed by perfect charity; and no explicit intention can produce its effect unless the man have supernatural faith: “For he who comes to God must believe that God exists and is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” The Council of Trent declares: “Faith is the beginning of man’s salvation, the foundation and root of all justification, without which it is impossible to please God and attain to the fellowship of His children.” [The original Latin text and the official English translation of the Suprema haec sacra appeared in AER, CXXVII, 4 (Oct., 1952), 307-15. The part of the translation quoted above is on pp. 312-14.]

The tragic thing about all this is that some Feeneyites are not only errant, but delusional. Of course they can escape the accusation of "delusional" if they are in fact bad willed and or intellectually dishonest.

We can hope and pray that they are ignorant through no fault of their own and can still be saved despite the fact that they themselves do not believe the invincibly ignorant can be saved.

Will they take it so far as to argue with the Just Judge on the day of their judgement when being willing to spare them they claim, "Oh no dear Lord, we cannot be saved by invincible ignorance". Will God then not let them have it their way?

Lover of Truth · « **Reply #2 on:** April 11, 2014, 08:03:17 AM »

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This letter, known as the Suprema haec sacra, from the first three words of the Latin text, is of unique importance for the study of this section of sacred theology. It is an instruction of the Holy Office, sent out with the approval and at the bidding of the Sovereign Pontiff himself. As such, it is an authoritative, though obviously not an infallible, docuмent. That is to say, the teachings contained in the Suprema haec sacra are not to be accepted as infallibly true on the authority of this particular docuмent. Nevertheless, the fact remains that much of its teaching—indeed, what we may call the substance of its teaching—is material which has appeared in previous docuмents emanating from the Sovereign Pontiff himself and from Oecuмenical Councils of the Catholic Church. Fenton

Lover of Truth · « **Reply #3 on:** April 11, 2014, 08:04:43 AM »

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The great importance of the Suprema haec sacra is based on the fact that this letter sets forth in full explicitness some distinctions and explanations that had been clearly implied and forcefully taught in previous authoritative docuмents of the teaching Church, but which had never before been set forth in these authoritative pronouncements as explicitly as in the writings of the traditional Catholic theologians. Among these teachings are: (1) the statement that the Catholic Church is necessary for salvation with the necessity of means and with the necessity of precept; (2) the fact that when we describe an individual who is convinced that the Catholic Church has truly been established by Our Lord, and who still obdurately refuses to enter the Church, as being in a condition in which he cannot attain his eternal salvation, we are speaking of the Church’s necessity of precept rather than of its necessity of means; (3) the explicit distinction between an explicit and an implicit will to enter the Church; (4) the outright assertion that a person who has merely an implicit will to enter the Church can be saved; and (5) the fact that no will or desire of entering the Church can be effective for the attainment of eternal salvation unless it is enlightened by true supernatural faith and animated by perfect charity. Fenton

Lover of Truth · « **Reply #4 on:** April 11, 2014, 08:05:49 AM »

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Other teachings of the Suprema haec sacra, such as its insistence upon the fact that the doctrine of no salvation outside the true Church is a genuine dogma of the Catholic faith, had been stated explicitly many times in previous pronouncements of the ecclesiastical magisterium. Each one of the paragraphs cited above contains invaluable information about what the Church itself really understands and teaches about the dogma of its own necessity for the attainment of eternal salvation. It will be helpful to consider each one of them individually. Fenton

Lover of Truth · « **Reply #5 on:** April 11, 2014, 08:06:52 AM »

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(1) The first paragraph we have cited tells of the authoritative character of the letter itself. The Cardinals of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office decreed that these explanations be given, and the Holy Father approved their decision. We are dealing, then, with an authoritative docuмent. It would be wrong for any teacher of Catholic doctrine to ignore or to contradict the teachings contained in this Holy Office letter. Fenton

Lover of Truth · « **Reply #6 on:** April 11, 2014, 08:11:21 AM »

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(2) The next paragraph repeats almost verbatim the statement of the Vatican Council in the third chapter of its dogmatic constitution Dei Filius, to the effect that “we are bound by divine and Catholic faith to believe all those things which are contained in the word of God, whether it be Scripture or Tradition, and are proposed by the Church to be believed as divinely revealed, not only through solemn judgment but also through the ordinary and universal teaching office.” It is interesting to see, however, that where the Dei Filius uses the expression “either by solemn judgment or by the ordinary and universal magisterium,” the Suprema haec sacra says “not only by solemn judgment but also by the ordinary and universal magisterium.” Its use of the “non tantum . . . sed etiam,” instead of the “sive . . . sive,” manifests its conviction that, in dealing with the explanation of the doctrine that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church, it is dealing with a matter which had hitherto been set forth mostly in the ordinary magisterium of the Church. Fenton

Is not the existence of God and the fact that he rewards good and punishes evil contained in both Scripture and Tradition? Are they not proposed by the Church to be believed as divinely revealed? Does not the Creed say "I believe in on God".

But yet Lasidius claims this cannot be believed with a supernatural faith.

Lover of Truth · « **Reply #7 on:** April 11, 2014, 08:12:24 AM »

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(3) The previous paragraph had characterized the teaching that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church as a doctrine “which the Church has always preached and will never cease to preach” and as an “infallible statement.” This one states clearly that it is a dogma—in other words, one of the teachings which the Church finds in Scripture or in divine apostolic tradition, and which, by either solemn judgment or in its ordinary and universal teaching activity, it presents to the people as something they must believe as a part of divine public revelation. The Suprema haec sacra, then, leaves no room for any opinion that this teaching might be something merely connected with the deposit of divine revelation. This truth is a part of the supernatural message communicated by God through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Fenton

Lover of Truth · « **Reply #8 on:** April 11, 2014, 08:13:45 AM »

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The Holy Office letter then proceeds to state explicitly and emphatically that the dogma means exactly and only what the Church understands and teaches it to mean. In other words the people who write to the effect that the viewpoints of men have widened in the course of recent history, and that thus we must seek out some new interpretation of the axiom that there is no salvation outside the Church are quite mistaken in their fundamental approach to the problem. Changing cultural attitudes have nothing whatsoever to do with the accurate and acceptable statement of what is meant by the teaching that there is no salvation outside the Church. Our Lord has not given this truth to men as something to be interpreted and explained freely and more or less generously by private teachers. It is definitely not something to be interpreted or explained in such a way as to make the Church appear more modern or up-to-date. What the people should be taught about this truth is its real and accurate meaning. And the only agency empowered and commissioned to perform this work of interpretation and teaching is the apostolic college, the Roman Pontiff and the Catholic bishops associated with him to form the doctrinal and jurisdictional hierarchy of the true Church of the New Testament. Fenton

Lover of Truth · « **Reply #9 on:** April 11, 2014, 08:15:21 AM »

In this matter it will be helpful to refer to the section of the allocution Si diligis, delivered by Pope Pius XII to the members of the hierarchy who were gathered in Rome for the ceremony of the canonization of St. Pius X. Fenton

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Christ Our Lord entrusted the truth which He had brought from heaven to the Apostles and, through them, to their successors. He sent His Apostles, as He had been sent by the Father, to teach all nations everything they had heard from Him. The Apostles are, therefore, by divine right the true doctors and teachers of the Church. Besides the lawful successors of the Apostles—namely, the Roman Pontiff for the universal Church and the Bishops for the faithful entrusted to their care—there are no other teachers divinely constituted in the Church of Christ. But both the Bishops and, first of all, the Supreme Teacher and Vicar of Christ on earth, may associate others with themselves in their work of teacher, and use their advice; they delegate to them the faculty to teach, either by special grant, or by conferring an office to which the faculty is attached. Those who are so called teach, not in their own name, nor by reason of their theological knowledge, but by reason of the mandate which they have received from the lawful teaching authority. Their faculty always remains subject to that authority, nor is it ever exercised in its own right or independently. [AER, CXXXI, 2 (Aug., 1954), 133 f.]

Lover of Truth · « **Reply #10 on:** April 11, 2014, 08:16:27 AM »

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Over the course of the last few years, particularly, there have been some clever attempts to interpret the dogma of the Church’s necessity for salvation. The only standard by which these attempts may properly be evaluated is that of the teaching of the ecclesiastical magisterium itself. It is this teaching which the Suprema haec sacra now begins to present. Fenton

Lover of Truth · « **Reply #11 on:** April 11, 2014, 08:17:28 AM »

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An examination of the text of the Suprema haec sacra will show us from the very outset that the Holy Office did not intend to set forth anything like an exhaustive explanation of the dogma in its letter. Thus, for example, the docuмent does not go into the nature of the Church or the nature of salvation itself. All that the Cardinals of the Congregation wished to do was to present a correct resolution of the particular point at issue in the controversy which occasioned the writing of the Suprema haec sacra. Fenton

Lover of Truth · « **Reply #12 on:** April 11, 2014, 08:18:32 AM »

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(4) Thus the letter brings out the fact that the Catholic Church can be said to be necessary for salvation, in one way, because it is something which Our Lord has commanded, or given a precept, that all men should enter. It is His explicit order, given to us through His apostles, that His precepts should all be observed. Thus a man who teaches that non-members of the true Church should be let alone because, in his opinion, they are already in a position that is satisfactory with reference to Our Lord, is violating Our Lord’s precept directly. Fenton

Lover of Truth · « **Reply #13 on:** April 11, 2014, 08:19:38 AM »

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(5) The next paragraph is an authoritative statement to the effect that we have a definite and highly important precept from Our Lord “to be incorporated by baptism into the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church, and to remain united to Christ and to His Vicar, through whom He Himself governs the Church on earth in a visible manner.” It is highly important to understand how this command is contained in the sources of divine public revelation. Fenton

Lover of Truth · « **Reply #14 on:** April 11, 2014, 08:22:20 AM »

St. Matthew’s Gospel shows how Our Lord commanded His apostles to teach His message and to administer His sacrament of baptism. Fenton

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And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth.
   Going therefore, teach ye all nations: Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

   Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world. [Matt., 28: 18-20.]

   The same idea is brought out in the last chapter of the Gospel according to St. Mark.
And he said to them: Go ye into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature.
   He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned. [Mark, 16: 15-16.]

   Baptism is, of course, the sacrament of entrance into the Church. Such is the force of the baptismal character that, unless it be impeded by public heresy or apostasy, schism, or the full measure of excommunication, it renders the person who possesses it a member of the true Church of Jesus Christ on earth. In issuing the command that His followers administer the sacrament of baptism, Our Lord was, of course, clearly imposing upon those who heard their preaching the obligation to receive this sacrament of regeneration.

   The second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles shows that this was the way in which the Apostles themselves understood Our Lord’s orders. When, at the end of the sermon by St. Peter on the first Christian Pentecost, his hearers asked the Prince of the Apostles what they should do, he ordered them to do penance and to be baptized. Fenton

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Now when they had heard these things, they had compunction in their heart and said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles: What shall we do, men and brethren?

But Peter said to them: Do penance: and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. [Acts, 2: 37-38.]

Thus St. Peter demonstrated in the most practical manner possible that he realized that Our Lord’s teaching had contained a command that all men should be baptized and should thus enter the true kingdom of God of the New Testament. Obviously Our Lord’s teaching had also contained prohibitions against heresy and schism. The teaching of the Suprema haec sacra is thus a statement of traditional Catholic doctrine. Fenton