Is Feeneyism Catholic? - Society of St. Pius X

110 IS F EENEYISM C ATHOLIC?
At the root of this fear of a loophole, there is an inability to
grasp the distinctions taught by the Church. The Doctors explained
that there are several kinds of necessity: 1) Metaphysical
necessity, i.e., necessity of nature, which God Himself cannot bypass,
since it would imply contradiction. For instance, Christ cannot
have a human nature without a human will. That is not a
limitation on God, on the contrary, God is too intelligent to contradict
Himself. 2) Necessity of means: thus we have no other
means to get sanctifying grace than baptism of water; yet God is
not limited by the means He has established, and He can pour
His grace without the water. Such bypassing of the laws He has
established in the natural order is a miracle in nature; similarly
baptism of desire is like a miracle in the supernatural order, possible
but not common. 3) Necessity of precept, which always requires
the interior submission of the will, and the exterior fulfillment
as much as one can. Not receiving with humble submission
of the intellect these distinctions taught by the Church, they
think that if one admits one exception to the baptism of water,
then one makes it optional. For them either baptism of water is
absolutely necessary or not necessary; if they hear of any exception,
they feel the necessity of baptism is completely ruined and
the dogma that outside the Church there is no salvation is ruined
also. This is simply not true.
THE FUNDAMENTAL ERROR OF FR. FEENEY
We can see here that the fundamental error of Fr. Feeney is to
follow his own interpretation of the dogma, and to re-interpret
the Scriptures and the documents of the popes according to his
own views. In one word, it is to put his views before the Church’s
teaching.
As fully documented in the section on the teaching of the
Church, and as explained above, the proper understanding of the
dogma of the Church Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus is that, in order
to go to heaven, one must be united with the Roman Catholic
Church re aut voto: the interior bond with the Church, which
consists in sanctifying grace with Catholic faith, hope and charity,
is absolutely necessary; the exterior bond with the Church, which
consists in the profession of the Faith, the communion of worship
and first of all the reception of the sacrament of baptism, and the