repentance for past sins, will avail them to they do what is right as God enlightens them grace and righteousness” (Marian to know what is right. Outside the Publications, 1972, p.179). We must say with the Church that, “There Church and the of In 1949 the taught, and backed are people who are in ignorance of Christ's its teaching with an excommunication of those Gospel and of his Church through no fault of Desire who obstinately reject it, that the saving desire their own, and who search for God in sincerity can be merely implicit, but that it must be of heart; they attempt to put into practice the Victor R. Claveau, MJ informed by perfect charity and have with it recognition of his will that they have reached supernatural faith, “If anyone shall say that the through the dictate of conscience. They do so There are several documents issued by the of the New Law are not necessary under the influence of ; they can Church’s which deal with the for salvation, but are superfluous, and that, attain everlasting salvation” (Pius XII, revealed doctrine that there is no salvation although all are not necessary for every encyclical Mediator Dei, II, 80, August 12, outside the Church. The latest editions of individual, without them or without the desire 1950). By implication, children who die Denzinger’s Enchiridion Symbolorum carry of them through faith alone men obtain from before the age of reason can also be saved. more than twenty citations directly pertaining God the grace of justification; let him be The Catechism of the to this dogma, taken from different official anathema” (Sources of Catholic Dogma, 847 summarizes this topic as follows: documents issued by the Holy See and by Can. 4.). “For catechumens who die before their Ecumenical Councils. If a person wants to Vatican II teaches that God welcomes all Baptism, their explicit desire to receive it, learn exactly how the Catholic Church who fear him and does what is right (see together with repentance for their sins, and understands and teaches this revealed truth, Lumen Gentium 9). To be saved one must be charity, assures them the salvation that they one can best obtain this information by converted to the Lord , for there is no were not able to receive through the reading and studying these documents. salvation except in him. Nevertheless, “God in ” (§1259). However, it is not necessary to study each ways known to himself can lead those “Since Christ died for all, and since all of these documents individually. There are inculpably ignorant of the gospel to that faith men are in fact called to one and the same eight documents that should suffice for a without which it is impossible to please him” destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the thorough understanding, which, taken (Ad gentes 7). No one can be saved outside the offers to all the possibility of being together, reveal the Catholic teaching on the Church, but obviously some can be saved who made partakers, in a way known to God, of the subject. are ignorant of the gospel and so who would . Every man who is ignorant The eight documents are: not consider themselves Christians or be of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but (1) A profession of the Catholic faith issued counted as such (see Lumen gentium 16). seeks the truth and does the will of God in by the Fourth Lateran Council, Session 12, ‘The universal salvific power of Jesus accordance with his understanding of it, can in 1215. corresponds to the all-embracing salvific will be saved. It may be supposed that such (2) The Bull Unam sanctum, published by of the Father, who “desires all men to be saved persons would have desired Baptism explicitly Pope Boniface VIII, November 18, 1302. and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For if they had known its necessity” (§1260). (3) The decree for the Jacobites, the Bull there is one God, and there is one mediator Cantate Domino, published by Pope between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” The Evangelization Station Eugenius IV, February 4, 1442, and (1 Tim 2.4-5). God wants everyone to know Hudson, Florida, USA included in the Acta of the Council of Jesus, but his redemptive love comes to some E-mail: [email protected] Florence, 1442. even before they enjoy this great blessing, if www.evangelizationstation.com (4) The allocution Singulari Quadam, delivered on December 9, 1854, the day Pamphlet 421 after the solemn definition of Our Lady’s Immaculate Conception, by Pope Pius IX, entire punishment. So also before Baptism Boniface VIII in 1302 and at the Council of to the Cardinals, Archbishops, and bishops Cornelius and others like him receive grace Florence in 1442. gathered in Rome for that definition. and virtues through their faith in Christ and According to God’s universal salvific will, (5) The Encyclical Quanto Conficiamur their desire for Baptism, implicit or explicit: we believe that somehow he gives all persons Moerore, addressed by Pope Pius IX to but afterwards when baptized, they receive a the opportunity of salvation. There is such a the Bishops of Italy on August 10, 1863. yet greater fullness of grace and virtues.” thing as baptism of desire, as defined by the (6) The encyclical letter Mystici Corporis (Question 69, article 4, Reply OBJ 2). ; and it was this Tridentine Christi, published on June 29, 1943 by This distinction between union with the teaching that supported all subsequent Pope Pius XII. Church in act and union in desire dates even recognition that actual membership in the (7) The letter Suprema Haec Sacra, sent by further back into Christian antiquity. St Church is not required to reach one’s eternal the Holy Office, at the command of Pope Ambrose employed it in his treatise on destiny. Pius Xii, to His Excellency the Most Valentinian who died a catechumen (and “In these words a description of the Reverend Archbishop of Boston, on therefore, without the Sacrament of Baptism). justification of a sinner is given as being a August 8, 1949. His whole line of argument tends to show that translation from that state in which man is (8) The encyclical letter Huamani Generis, in his mind Valentinian was really baptized born a child of the first Adam to the state of issued by Pope Pius XII on August 12, because he had the desire for baptism. grace and of the “adoption of the sons” [Rom. 1950. “But I hear that you grieve because he did 8:15] of God through the second Adam, Jesus not receive the sacrament of baptism. Tell me Christ, our Savior; and this translation after As authoritative statements of the Church, now what else have we if not desire and will? the promulgation of the Gospel cannot be each of these documents must be accepted He in very truth had this wish that, before he effected except through the laver of with true internal consent by all Catholics. came to Italy, he should be initiated into the regeneration [can. 5 de bapt.], or a desire for Catholic theologians maintain that Church and immediately baptized by it, as it is written: “Unless a man be born again communion with the Church is necessary for me…Had he not then the grace he demanded? of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter salvation; and likewise claim that it is not Certainly, for he who demands receives. Why into the kingdom of God” [John 3:5] (Council necessary to be united with her in fact, but that did not he who had your spirit, receive your of Trent, Session VI, Decree On Justification, it is sufficient to be in communion with her in grace? But if it is a fact that because the (Jan. 13, 1547). desire, if actual union is impossible. sacraments are not solemnly celebrated they The Catechism of the Council of Trent While St. Thomas Aquinas stated the have no value, then the martyrs if they were recommends that the baptism of adults be constant teaching about the general necessity only catechumens would not receive the delayed to ensure that those who approach the of membership in the Church for salvation, he crown of glory; for no one is crowned who is Sacrament are properly disposed. also conceded that a person may be saved not initiated. But if people are absolved in “On Adults, however the Church has not extra sacramentally by a baptism of desire and their own blood, then this man’s piety and will been accustomed to confer the Sacrament of therefore without actual membership by absolved him” (De obitu Valentinani, Baptism at once, but has ordained that it be reason of his at least implicit desire to belong Consolatio, n.51-53). deferred for a certain time. The delay is not to the Church: Since the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 attended with the same danger as in the case “Man receives the forgiveness of sins defined that “The universal Church of the of infants, which we have already before Baptism in so far as he has Baptism of faithful is one, outside of which no one is mentioned; should any unforeseen accident desire, explicitly or implicitly; and yet when saved,” there have been two solemn make it impossible for adults to be washed he actually receives Baptism, he receives a definitions of the same doctrine, by Pope in the salutary waters, their intention and fuller remission, as to the remission of the determination to receive Baptism and their