[UA] Templars Exonerated

[Tim Toner]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Stacy Stroud" <deadstop at gte.net>
To: <ua at lists.uchicago.edu>
Sent: Friday, April 05, 2002 12:46 PM
Subject: RE: Re: [UA] Templars Exonerated


> At 12:41 PM 4/5/02 -0500, you wrote:
>
> >Jess Nevins <jjnevins at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Really? I'd always been taught that only Catholics were
> > > Heaven-bound. There's this, from
> > > the Council of Florence (
> > > http://www.catholicism.org/pages/florence.htm ) :
> >
> >I think the Catholic Church has revised its teaching on this since the
15th
> >Century; certainly, since the Second Vatican Council things are markedly
> >different in this regard.
>
>
> Indeed.  Nowadays, while still claiming that *technically* there is no
> salvation outside the Church, the official line is that followers of other
> belief systems can "participate in" the salvation available from the
> Catholic Church even without visibly being members.

http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Jun1999/wiseman.asp
A: In the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, paragraph 16, the Vatican II
Council Fathers wrote: "Those who have not yet received the gospel are
related to the People of God in various ways. There is, first, that people
to which the covenants and promises were made, and from which Christ was
born according to the flesh (cf. Romans 9:4-5): In view of the divine
choice, they are a people most dear for the sake of the fathers, for the
gifts of God are without repentance (cf. Romans 11:28-29).

"But the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator,
in the first place amongst whom are the Moslems: These profess to hold the
faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God,
mankind's judge on the last day.

"Nor is God remote from those who in shadows and images seek the unknown
God, since he gives to all men life and breath and all things (cf. Acts
17:25-28), and since the Savior wills all men to be saved (cf. 1 Timothy
2:4). Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the gospel of
Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart,
and moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it
through dictates of their conscience-those too, may achieve eternal
salvation.

"Nor shall divine providence deny the assistance necessary for salvation to
those who, without any fault of theirs, have not yet arrived at an explicit
knowledge of God, and who, not without grace, strive to lead a good life."

So the Fathers of the Council do not exclude anyone acting in good faith
from the possibility of salvation. They do go on, however, to speak of the
Church's mission from Christ to bring the gospel to all people, for Christ
is the source of salvation for the whole world.



They did release a 'not so fast' in 2000, which really seems to be trying to
put the smackdown on the whole 'relativism' argument.  According to the RCC,
God speaks in many voices, but you have to be sincerely listening.



http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfai
th_doc_20000806_dominus-iesus_en.html




_______________________________________________
UA mailing list
UA at lists.uchicago.edu
http://lists.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/ua