The Crisis of Being

Recently the Catholic world has been rocked by a number of signs that should ask us to pause as to what is the root cause of the crisis that is striking the Church. I would suggest that it is a crisis of ontology, or being. In its everyday manifestation it is shown through a denial of truth as a concrete reality. As such, the immediate crisis is one of truth.

For example, do we really believe that outside the Church there is no salvation? If we believe in truth and being, we will believe with the mind of the Church; that yes, there is no salvation outside the Church. Thus the Holy Spirit, as the Fathers taught, acts beyond the Mystical Body to not santify men through other religions, but to impell them to unity with the Church, which has one body and one soul.

The Second Vatican Council in an ecumenical euphoria did indeed claim that the Holy Spirit does sanctify men through their false religions, but this is not acceptable and is not Patristic. I quote the following from the Council:

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UNITATIS REDINTEGRATIO (Ch. 1, sec 3)

"Moreover, some and even very many of the significant elements and endowments which together go to build up and give life to the Church itself, can exist outside the visible boundaries of the Catholic Church: the written word of God; the life of grace; faith, hope and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, and visible elements too. All of these, which come from Christ and lead back to Christ, belong by right to the one Church of Christ.

The brethren divided from us also use many liturgical actions of the Christian religion. These most certainly can truly engender a life of grace in ways that vary according to the condition of each Church or Community. These liturgical actions must be regarded as capable of giving access to the community of salvation.

It follows that the separated Churches and Communities as such, though we believe them to be deficient in some respects, have been by no means deprived of significance and importance in the mystery of salvation. For the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as means of salvation which derive their efficacy from the very fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Church".

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It should be noted that the life of grace, faith, hope and charity do not exist outside the Church. Indeed the Holy Spirit offers gifts to men outside the Church seeking to draw them into the Church, but such gifts do not "engender a life of grace", not does the Holy Spirit use "them as means of salvation".

Claiming that men are sanctified by false religions by receiving such sanctification via the Church to whom sanctification properly belongs is also not accurate, not true and contrary to the Fathers. St. Augustine is very clear that false religions do not have the Holy Ghost. A false religion cannot therefore offer a man sanctification. Sanctification is offered only through the Church.

To conclude, Venerable PIus XII implored all men to come to the Church, to return to Catholic unity:

MYSTICI CORPORIS:

As you know, Venerable Brethren, from the very beginning of Our Pontificate, We have committed to the protection and guidance of heaven those who do not belong to the visible Body of the Catholic Church, solemnly declaring that after the example of the Good Shepherd We desire nothing more ardently than that they may have life and have it more abundantly. Imploring the prayers of the whole Church We wish to repeat this solemn declaration in this Encyclical Letter in which We have proclaimed the praises of the "great and glorious Body of Christ," and from a heart overflowing with love We
ask each and every one of them to correspond to the interior movements of grace, and to seek to withdraw from that state in which they cannot be sure of their salvation. For even though by an unconscious desire and longing they have a certain relationship with the Mystical Body of the Redeemer, they still remain deprived of those many heavenly gifts and helps which can only be enjoyed in the Catholic Church. Therefore may they enter into Catholic unity and, joined with Us in the one, organic Body of Jesus Christ, may they together with us run on to the one Head in the Society of glorious love. Persevering in prayer to the Spirit of love and truth, We wait for them with open and outstretched arms to come not to a stranger's house, but to their own, their father's home.