Is Feeneyism Catholic? - Society of St. Pius X

A NSWER TO OBJECTIONS 105
be believed, and the absolute certitude of its divine source. St.
Thomas Aquinas teaches this explicitly, and his teaching has been
followed on this point by the Church:
We must hold very certainly that God would reveal to him
either through an internal inspiration those truths that ought to
be believed, or would send him a preacher of the Faith, as He
sent Peter to Cornelius. 155
Someone knowing the object of Faith through a false religion
could receive such light. But then this light, when faithfully received,
casts away the darkness of the errors of that false religion,
and such a person is no longer formally of that false religion, but
rather like a catechumen of the Catholic Church. But do not misunderstand
me: Protestants claim that each one has such lights;
however, Our Lord has told us: “by their fruits you shall know
them.” We recognize that such an internal inspiration comes from
the Holy Ghost when its object is the Catholic Faith, and we recognize
that it does not come from the Holy Ghost when its object
is not in conformity with the Catholic Faith. Hence Protestants
are wrong to claim such lights against the true Faith. But that does
not exclude that God does give such lights to whom He wills.
WHAT IS THE NECESSITY OF THE
EXTERIOR BELONGING TO THE CHURCH?
Given the nature of man, body and soul, and above all given
the very mystery of the Incarnation, the exterior belonging to the
Church naturally accompanies its interior belonging. To deny the
importance of the exterior belonging to the Mystical Body of
Christ, is akin to the denial of the visibility of the Church, and
akin to the denial of the Incarnation.
A man can live without a foot, yet his body is not complete
without it. A saint can be in heaven without his body, yet his beatitude
is not complete without the resurrection of the body; his
beatitude is perfect, though not complete: it is perfect because the
glorification of his body is not going to give him a more excellent
bliss, but it is not complete because his body is an integral part of
himself.
155 De Veritate, Q.14, A.11, ad 1.