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Monday, January 14, 2013

Wisdom from Father Lasance..


Out of the Catholic Church none can be saved. This proposition, which highly displeases all ‎sectarians and infidels, is not only clearly established by the authority of Scripture, and by the ‎perpetual and constant belief of the Catholic Church, but it is also evident from reason itself, so ‎that one must needs be blind who does not perceive its truth. This, however, applies only to ‎those persons who culpably and willfully adhere to heresy, or schism, or infidelity, but by no ‎means to those who have been imbued with errors and prejudices from their earliest years, and ‎to whom not even a doubt occurs that they are involved in heresy or schism, or who, if any ‎doubt arises in their minds, earnestly and sincerely seek after the truth; such persons we leave ‎to the judgment of God, to whom it belongs to penetrate and search  the thoughts and ‎dispositions of hearts. For it is incompatible with the divine goodness and clemency that any ‎one should suffer eternal torments who is not guilty of a willful transgression. To assert the ‎contrary would be against the express doctrine of the Church. ‎

‎"Let us hear St. Augustine: We must not, says he, class among heretics those persons who, ‎without willful obstinacy, maintain a false and perverse doctrine, especially if it is not the off-‎spring of their bold presumption, but a legacy from their deceived  and mistaken parents, and ‎who search after the truth with earnest care, being disposed to renounce their error as soon as ‎they are apprised of it. 



Reading this from Father Lasance's famous prayer book is a huge comfort whenever I worry about my Baptist relatives.