September 21, 2007
by Richard P. McBrien

Some have wondered why the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued its "Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church" at this particular time.

Was the document intended as a kind of shot across the church's bow, sending an unmistakably clear signal, in tandem with a previous papal document permitting wider usage of the Latin Mass, that the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is finally asserting himself in his new role as Pope Benedict XVI?

Or had there been some major ecumenical provocation requiring the Vatican to draw yet another theological line in the sand, differentiating the Catholic church from all other churches and ecclesial communities within the body of Christ while placing itself well above the rest?

The answer to both questions is "No."

What is required first of all is a clear statement of what the latest document is not.

The document does not contain a wholly new set of teachings, coming out of the Vatican blue, so to speak. If that were the case, there would be ample justification for the anxiety expressed by many Catholics and the troubled and even hostile reaction from various ecumenical quarters.

The document does not represent a reversion to the position once espoused by the late Jesuit Fr. Leonard Feeney that only Catholics can be saved.

The document is not a repudiation of the ecumenical advances made by Pope John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council, and subsequently carried forward by Popes Paul VI and John Paul II.

This column addresses each of the three points. First, the document is not a new doctrinal initiative. It is essentially a re-statement of the much-criticized document, Dominus Iesus, issued by the same congregation for doctrine in September 2000, when the present pope was in charge of the congregation.

To make this connection, however, is not to immunize the recent document against criticism. On the contrary, it merits the same criticism that greeted Dominus Iesus seven years ago, not only by so-called liberal theologians but by cardinals and bishops as well, including some high-ranking Vatican officials. They objected to its tone as well as its failure to acknowledge and incorporate the extraordinary ecumenical advances of the previous three-and-a-half decades, following Vatican II.

As in the present case, some of the initial reactions to Dominus Iesus were based on a misunderstanding of its central teaching. For example, one otherwise insightful Catholic writer, in an op-ed column in a major newspaper on the East Coast, charged that the document "bars [all non-Catholics] from the gates of heaven, despite their most sincere intentions and good lives."

Dominus Iesus did not say, nor even imply, that and neither does this latest document.

Second, the Catholic church explicitly repudiated the position adopted by Fr. Feeney in the ‘40s, namely, that the medieval axiom, "Outside the church, no salvation," means literally what it says.

In response to an urgent appeal from the then-archbishop of Boston, Richard Cushing, who was being pressured at the time by Fr. Feeney's followers, the Holy Office (the forerunner of the congregation on doctrine) insisted that the medieval axiom has to be understood as the church understands it.

In formulating its reply to Archbishop Cushing in 1949, the Holy Office made a crucial distinction between belonging to the church "in reality" and belonging to the church "by desire." Catholics belong to the church by faith, baptism and full communion with the pope. Non-Catholics of goodwill belong to the church "by desire," which may be explicit, as in the case of catechumens preparing for formal membership in the church, or implicit, as in the case of the great majority of humankind.

Since 1949, however, Vatican II has introduced an even stronger theological concept, namely, "degrees of communion." As in a family (whether nuclear or extended), individuals relate to one another in various ways and in varying degrees. Cousins are not so close to the core family as daughters and sons, but they belong to the family nonetheless.

Third, and finally, this latest document from the congregation is not a repudiation of the ecumenical teachings of Vatican II. On the contrary, it upholds the council's clear teaching that non-Catholic Christians are also in the body of Christ and in communion with the Catholic church, although in "varying degrees," and as such "have a right to be called Christians, and with good reason are accepted [by the Catholic church] as sisters and brothers in the Lord" ("Decree on Ecumenism").

That teaching remains in force today.

National Catholic Reporter
Fr. Richard McBrien is the Crowley-O'Brien professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame.