Giacomo Canobbio, Melloni confusion on Leonard Feeney

[Lionel L. Andrades]

Italian writers on the Internet falsely say that Fr. Leonard Feeney was excommunicated for heresy. They indicate that the Catholic Church has now changed its position from that of the American Jesuit. This is another error.

L. Rossi in the article Cristianesimo e Religioni (2.Teologia delle Religioni) writes that the Magisterium of the Catholic Church has constantly rejected the strict interpretation of the formula extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

He says that a similar affirmation was condemned by the Church in Jansenism in 1690 and 1713.He has not cited the exact text.
Rossi says that the Holy Office condemned the rigorist position of the Jesuit Leonard Feeney in a Letter August 8, 1949 to the Archbishop of Boston. He writes that the American Jesuit interpreted in an exclusive way the phrase extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

The Church is a general help for salvation Rossi writes and in the case of invincible ignorance, it is enough to have an implicit desire to belong to the church.

He then quotes Redemptoris Missio 55 suggesting that exceptions to the need for Catholic Faith and the Baptism of water are the general means of salvation i.e. an implicit desire is the ordinary way for non-Catholics to be saved.

He does not quote Redemptoris Missio 55 also saying that though non Catholics can be saved (extraordinarily) the ordinary means of salvation in inter- religious dialogue is the Catholic Church.

He continues this pattern (mixing the extraordinary means for the ordinary means) with other Church documents. The exceptions are made the general rule implying that now the Church does not teach the strict interpretation of Fr. Leonard Feeney.

Similarly Alberto Melloni writing in the Corriere della Sera, July 11, 2007 which was reproduced on PAPA RATZINGER BLOG-1 writes that Father Leonard Feeney had said outside the Roman Catholic Church there was no salvation and for this he was excommunicated in 1953

This is false. Fr. Leonard Feeney according to even Wikipedia was reconciled to the Church in 1972, but was not required to retract nor recant his interpretation of extra ccclesiam nulla salus

Fr. Leonard Feeney was not excommunicated for heresy as it is said by Melloni and Rossi. He was excommunicated for disobedience. He did not go to Rome to defend himself.

He taught that de facto all people, everybody without exception, needs to enter the Catholic Church for salvation.
This is a dogma of the Catholic Church from the Council of Florence. It is a dogma like the Immaculate Conception of Mary and so all Catholics have to believe and teach it. Just like Fr. Feeney.
It was repeated in Ad Gentes 7, Vatican Council II which says all people need to enter the Catholic Church through Catholic Faith and the Baptism of water for salvation. ALL.
Subsist it in refers to the unique and only Church of God (Unitatis Redintigratio 3) which exists in only the Catholic Church. So everyone, with no exception needs to enter the Catholic Church to go to Heaven and avoid Hell.
Lumen Gentium 14 refers to the Catholic Church as the ordinary means of salvation (through the Sacraments)and Lumen Gentium 16 refers to the extraordinary means of salvation, the exceptions to the sacraments. Those who are saved in the exceptional category are saved by Jesus and the Catholic Church and they are known only to God.

So to re-cap: De facto everybody needs to enter the Catholic Church to go Heaven and avoid Hell. De jure (in principle and in theology) non Catholics can be saved without the Sacraments and we cannot judge who they specifically are. Only Jesus will judge.

The Letter of the Holy Office to the Archbishop of Boston (1949) affirmed the ‘dogma’ and the ‘infallible’ teaching.
So Ferita a morte la credibilità dell'ecumenismo by Alberto Melloni is only continuing the confusion.
Don Giacomo Canobbio in FEDE E CHIESA: CREDERE E APPARTENERE indicates that non Catholics can be saved through an unconscious desire in general.

Hence Father Giacomo
1) Contradicts the dogma mentioned in the Letter of the Holy Office 1949.The dogma has always said that everybody needs to enter the Catholic Church and de facto there are no exceptions like unconscious desire.
2) He contradicts Dominus Iesus 21. Salvation is open to all in general but to receive it one has to enter the Catholic Church.This is a de jure and de facto statement in Dominus Iesus.
3) He contradicts Fr. Leonard Feeney and his present day communities who have been given canonical status by the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Worcester, USA.They uphold the same teaching of their founder.
4) The priest contradicts Ad Gentes 7, and Lumen Gentium 14, Vatican Council II.