Dominus Iesus (the Lord Jesus).

Catholic Church necessary for salvation

The document, Dominus Iesus: On the Uniqueness and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church, was issued September 5, 2000, by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with approval by Pope John Paul II.

The 36-page declaration focuses on two areas of Catholic teaching. It reaffirms that:

* Jesus Christ alone is the "Word of God made man for the salvation of all."

* The one Church of Christ, through which he continues his presence and work of salvation, "subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him."

In a letter to the world's bishops, Cardinal Ratzinger said Pope John Paul II had approved the document and wanted its contents to be accepted by the entire Church.

Primary purpose

Dominus Iesus if first of all "a solemn recognition of Jesus Christ as Lord;" it comes at the culmination of the Holy Year which closes the second millennium.

It reiterates the Second Vatican Council's teaching that the Catholic Church is necessary for salvation and lays down "in what the Church does (or does not) consist." Therefore, "The Lord Jesus" contains no new doctrine, no new teaching.

Occasion for publication

Cardinal Ratzinger said the document was drafted in response to "the growing presence of confused or erroneous ideas or opinions" in the church generally, and in certain theological circles that cast doubt upon Christianity's universal mission, caused by relativism, or the belief that all views are only relatively true.

Relativism

The text says there is a tendency among modern Christians to be silent about Christ; to consider him as just one historical manifestation of God; to elevate other religions as pathways to salvation; to downplay Scripture; and to undervalue the Church as an institution. It warns that these ideas are ''contrary to Catholic faith'' and it lists a series of truths it said must be "firmly held" by all Catholics.

"The Church's constant missionary proclamation is endangered today by relativistic theories which seek to justify religious pluralism," meaning thereby that 'one religion is as good as another,' a notion which has made inroads even among Catholics.

One world religion

Another aim is to counter the call to one-world-religion, another product of relativism. This is being promoted within the Catholic Church by priests and theologians - and by Christians and non-Christians outside the Church - who are calling for the merging of all religions into one. Especially in India and some other Asian nations some Catholic theologians have developed theories why this is to be done. They believe it is possible to take the best of each religion and merge them into a super-religion.

One such theory in "radical contradiction" to the Christian faith holds that Christ's revelation is incomplete or imperfect-a reflection of the popular idea that God cannot be fully grasped by any single historical religion.

The new document therefore, draws a distinction between the "faith" of Christianity and the "belief' of other religions. Christian faith, it says, is the acceptance of revealed truth, while other religious belief is still in search of the truth. But this distinction is becoming blurred in the minds of many, and the differences between Christianity and other religions are being artificially reduced "to the point of disappearance," the document states.

The sacred writings of other religions may have a value, but the Old and New Testaments are the only such writings inspired by the Holy Spirit, it says.

Salvation outside the Church

On the complicated issue of how non-Christians can be saved, the document makes several points:

* While salvation is possible for those outside the Church, this always takes place through a special grace from Christ and in an "indispensable" though mysterious relationship with the Church.

* Theologians are still discussing how God's saving grace comes to non-Christians, but "it would be contrary to the faith to consider the Church as one way of salvation alongside those constituted by other religions."

* While Catholics should respect other religions, they must not subscribe to the idea that "one religion is as good as another." Equality in interreligious dialogue refers to equal personal dignity of the participants, not to doctrinal content.

"It if is true that the followers of other religions can receive divine grace, it is also certain that objectively speaking they are in a gravely deficient situation in comparison with those who, in the Church, have the fullness of the means of salvation," the document states.

The document further says that it is wrong to consider Jesus as "complementary" to other revelatory and salvific figures in history or to view the Holy Spirit as an "alternative" to Christ working beyond the boundaries of the Church.

God's saving plan for all humanity, it says, is "realized in the mystery of the incarnation, death and resurrection of the Son of God" and "no one, therefore, can enter into communion with God except through Christ, by the working of the Holy Spirit."

Any claims of salvific action of God beyond the unique mediation of Christ would be contrary to Christian and Catholic faith.

Language referring to Christ as the unique and universal saviour may seem a slight to other religions, but in fact "such language is simply being faithful to revelation."

The Catholic faithful are required to profess a historical continuity--rooted in apostolic succession--between the Church founded by Christ and the Catholic Church.

It notes that the Second Vatican Council also recognized that outside the Church's structure "many elements can be found of sanctification and truth." But it would be wrong to conclude from this that "the one Church of Christ could subsist also in non-Catholic Churches."

The document describes various levels in which separated Christian Churches share in communion with this "single Church of Christ." But the Christian faithful are "not permitted to imagine that the Church of Christ is nothing more than a collection-- divided, yet in some way one--of Churches and ecclesial communities," or that "today the Church of Christ nowhere really exists and must be considered only as a goal."

In laying out its list of positions that must be firmly accepted by Catholics, the document implicitly criticizes those who promote a less absolute vision of the Church. These are people who de-emphasize Christ in order to find "common ground," who place great stress on the mystery of creation but keep silent about the mystery of Christ's redemption, and who leave very little room for the institutional Church, viewing it as a mere "sign" and an ambiguous one at that.

Ecumenism 

In discussing what it described as the essential role of the Church in salvation, the document also touches on the ecumenical issue when it states that "there exists a single Church of Christ, which subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him."

Reactions in North America 

Reactions from Protestant or non-Christian spokesmen were sometimes severe, claiming that new barriers are being thrown up by the Church or, worse, that the Church is withdrawing ecumenism. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In Canada, Anglican Canon Alyson Barnett-Cowan, for example, stated that the decree appears to be "a retrenchment. It's repeating old news on traditional Catholic teaching on interfaith and inter-church relationships, (but) without a kind of openness of spirit that accompanied the same words of Vatican II" (Toronto Star, Sept. 16).

But what can be wrong with teaching old truths? As Dominican Father Augustine Di Noia, executive director of the U.S. bishops' Secretariat for Doctrine and Pastoral Practices pointed out, the "(hostile) reaction obviously means that nobody has been teaching [these old truths.]"

The president of the American bishops' conference, Galveston-Houston's Bishop Joseph Fiorenza, said some theologians have glossed over the Church's unique role in salvation.

"I believe there are some theologians who have tried to fudge the magisterial teaching," Bishop Fiorenza told the Register. "The Church certainly had not kept it under wraps. I guess it hadn't received the attention it warranted." (NC Register, Sept 17).

Additional highlights:

* Interreligious dialogue forms a "part" of the Church's evangelizing mission, but is not meant to replace it.

* "The sacred books of other religions ... receive from the mystery of Christ the elements of goodness and grace which they contain."

* As the Word of God, Jesus Christ "has a significance and a value for the human race and its history, which are unique and singular, proper to him alone, exclusive, universal and absolute."

* The Catholic Church is necessary for salvation.

* For those who are not formally and visibly members of the Church, salvation in Christ is accessible by virtue of a grace which, while having a mysterious relationship to the Church, does not make them formally part of the Church, but enlightens them in a way accommodated to their spiritual and material situation.

* Catholics who fail to respond in thought, word and deed to the grace of Christ, not only shall not be saved, but shall be more severely judged.