Implicitism is a heresy which makes a mockery of Infallibility

 

Leo XIII on the Prime Credibles

“We say nothing of those more heavenly virtues, which no one can exercise or even acquire without a special gift and grace of God; of which necessarily no trace can be found in those who reject as unknown the redemption of mankind, the grace of God, the sacraments, and the happiness to be obtained in heaven.” 

– Leo XIII, Humanum Genus (1884)

 

Prayer Request

Please pray for the conversion of someone very dear to me who is not at all well. Thank you!

“Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death”

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thine intercession was left unaided.

Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petition, but in thy mercy hear and answer me.

Amen.

 

Ecce Rex vester

Oremus, dilectissimi nobis, pro Ecclesia sancta Dei: ut eam Deus et Dominus noster pacificare, adunare, et custodire dignetur toto orbe terrarum: subiiciens ei principatus, et potestates: detque nobis quietam et tranquilam vitam degentibus, glorificare Deum Patrem omnipotentem.

 

Jesus Christ on Limbo

According to St Birgitta (Bridget) of Sweden:

By reason of my tender love, I show mercy even to the children of pagans.  If any of them die before reaching the age of discretion, given that they cannot come to know me face to face, they go instead to a place that it is not permitted for you to know, but where they will live without suffering (‘Liber Caelestis’, Book II, chapter 1).

 

Augustine on implicit faith

But since you said that all religions by diverse roads and pathways aspire to that one dwelling-place, I fear lest, perchance, while supposing that the way in which you are now found tends there, you should be somewhat reluctant to embrace the way which alone leads men to heaven. Observing, however, more carefully the word which you used, I think that it is not presumptuous for me to expound its meaning somewhat differently; for you did not say that all religions by diverse roads and pathways reach heaven, or reveal, or find, or enter, or secure that blessed land, but by saying in a phrase deliberately weighed and chosen that all religions aspire to it, you have indicated, not the fruition, but the desire of heaven as common to all religions. You have in these words neither shut out the one religion which is true, nor admitted other religions which are false; for certainly the way which brings us to the goal aspires thitherward, but not every way which aspires thitherward brings us to the place wherein all who are brought there are unquestionably blessed. Now we all wish, that is, we aspire, to be blessed; but we cannot all achieve what we wish, that is, we do not all obtain what we aspire to. That man, therefore, obtains heaven who walks in the way which not only aspires thitherward, but actually brings him there, separating himself from others who keep to the ways which aspire heavenward without finally reaching heaven. For there would be no wandering if men were content to aspire to nothing, or if the truth which men aspire to were obtained. If, however, in using the expression diverse ways, you meant me not to understand contrary ways, but different ways, in the sense in which we speak of diverse precepts, which all tend to build up a holy life — one enjoining chastity, another patience or faith or mercy, and the like — in roads and pathways which are only in this sense diverse, that country is not only aspired unto but actually found. For in Holy Scripture we read both of ways and of a way — of ways, e.g. in the words, I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted unto You; of a way, e.g. in the prayer, Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth. Those ways and this way are not different; but in one way are comprehended all those of which in another place the Holy Scripture says, All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth. The careful study of these ways furnishes theme for a long discourse, and for most delightful meditation; but this I shall defer to another time if it be required  In the meantime, however — and this, I think, may suffice in the present reply to your Excellency — seeing that Christ has said, I am the way, John 14:6 it is in Him that mercy and truth are to be sought: if we seek these in any other way, we must go astray, following a path which aspires to the true goal, but does not lead men there.

– Letter 104

 

 

Possible States of the Unevangelized

Principles

1. God owes no one a supernatural end or the beatific vision.
2. As it happens God created man with a supernatural end and so for the beatific vision.
3. All other things being equal therefore He will bring any given man to that end.
4. All other things are not equal for the human race has dishonoured God by original sin and offended him by individual actual sins.
5. God, on account of His justice, will bring a man who dies guiltless of any actual sin but participating in original sin (so an infant below the age of reason) to the proportionate natural end.
6. God, on account of His justice, will allow to die in his sins and suffer perpetual torment a man who dies guilty of actual sin and participating in original sin.
7. God antecedently wills the salvation of all men and has made satisfaction for their sins.

Possible States of the Unevangelized

(a) A man who dies unevangelized before the age of reason will be brought by God to his proportionate natural end but excluded from beatitutde on account of the dishonour done to God in original sin.

(b) A man who attains the age of reason unevangelized and at that moment orders himself to the due end seeking to worship God in the manner He has appointed will receive the infusion of the articles of faith in that moment, be cleansed of original sin and ordered to the supernatural end by sanctifying grace.

(c) A man who attains the age of reason unevangelized and at that moment fails to order himself  to the due end and fails to seek to worship God in the manner He has appointed sins mortally against the first commandment. God will allow him to die in his sins and suffer perpetual torment unless he falls into category (d).

(d) A man who attains the age of reason unevangelized and at that moment fails to order himself  to the due end and fails to seek to worship God in the manner He has appointed sins mortally against the first commandment but later in life acknowledges the existence of the one God as known through reason, repents of his violations of natural law and seeks to order himself to the due end and to worship God in the manner He has appointed. God will either:

i. not preserve such a man in this state until death such that he again sins mortally and is lost or

ii. ensure that he is evangelised by natural, preternatural or supernatural means before death.

[There seems a good case from Holy Writ (Romans 3) that (b) is an empty set.]

 

 

 

Non Nisi Te, Domine!

The Icon of the Crucifixion in the Basilica of San Domenico Maggiore which spoke to St Thomas when he laid his writings on the altar and prayed to be shown any errors into which he might have fallen. “Thou hast written well of Me, Thomas,” said the voice. “What reward wilt thou have?” To which St Thomas answered  “None other than Thyself, Lord!”

 

Explicitism

“Now they (adults) are disposed unto the said justice, when, excited and assisted by divine grace, conceiving faith by hearing, they are freely moved towards God, believing those things to be true which God has revealed and promised, – and this especially, that God justifies the impious by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”

–  Council of Trent, Decree on Justification

“If anyone says that divine faith is not to be distinguished from natural knowledge about God and moral matters, and consequently that for divine faith it is not required that revealed truth should be believed because of the authority of God who reveals it: let him be anathema.”

–  First Vatican Council, Dei Filius

A system of morality based exclusively on human reason robs man of his highest dignity and lowers him from the supernatural to the merely natural life. Not but that man is able by the right use of reason to know and to obey certain principles of the natural law. But though he should know them all and keep them inviolate through life-and even this is impossible without the aid of the grace of our Redeemer-still it is vain for anyone without faith to promise himself eternal salvation. ‘If anyone abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire, and he burneth’ (John XV., 6). ‘He that believeth not shall be condemned’ (Mark XVI., 16).

–  Leo XIII, Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus

“We declare that the greater number of those who are condemned to eternal punishment suffer that everlasting calamity because of ignorance of those mysteries of faith which must be known and believed in order to be numbered among the elect.”

–  Pius X, Acerbo Nimis

 

 

St Thomas on the Fulgentian Principle

Summa Theologiae IIaIIae, 2, 5

Whether man is bound to believe anything explicitly?

Objection 1. It would seem that man is not bound to believe anything explicitly. For no man is bound to do what is not in his power. Now it is not in man’s power to believe a thing explicitly, for it is written (Romans 10:14-15): “How shall they believe Him, of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they be sent?” Therefore man is not bound to believe anything explicitly.

Reply to Objection 1. If we understand those things alone to be in a man’s power, which we can do without the help of grace, then we are bound to do many things which we cannot do without the aid of healing grace, such as to love God and our neighbor, and likewise to believe the articles of faith. But with the help of grace we can do this, for this help “to whomsoever it is given from above it is mercifully given; and from whom it is withheld it is justly withheld, as a punishment of a previous, or at least of original, sin,” as Augustine states (De Corr. et Grat. v, vi [Cf. Ep. cxc; De Praed. Sanct. viii.]).