Is Feeneyism Catholic? - Society of St. Pius X

A NSWER TO OBJECTIONS 113
stance, the headlines for the Worcester Telegram, a widely read
Massachusetts newspaper, declared on September 2, 1949, “Vatican
Rules Against Hub Dissidents: Holds No Salvation Outside
Church Doctrine to Be False.” 165
However, instead of refusing to sign this letter, it seems to me
that one should have rather shown how abusive such an interpretation
is.
Indeed, the letter states unambiguously the necessity of “a supernatural
faith” with “perfect charity.” 166 In the light of this last
paragraph, it becomes clear that “invincible ignorance” does not
mean ignorance of all the truths of Faith, but rather of some particular
ones such as the truth about baptism. If one does not take
a passage of that letter out of its context (as the Liberals do), but
rather reads it as a whole, especially in light of the last paragraph
and of the whole previous pronouncements of the popes, Doctors
and Fathers, it teaches pure Catholic doctrine!
In a similar way, if a Catholic author has an ambiguous statement,
he should be interpreted in light of the whole of Catholic
doctrine. For instance, Fr. Feeney “objected to that in the Baltimore
Catechism which he foresaw as dangerous to the Faith,” 167
where the Catechism says:
Q.632. Where will persons go who–such as infants–have not
committed actual sin and who, through no fault of theirs, die
without baptism?
This applies to all those who have never had the use of their
reason, i.e., infants and insane persons from birth. This does not
apply to those who have had the use of their reason; indeed, St.
Thomas teaches:
When man begins to have the use of reason, he is not entirely
excused from the guilt of venial or mortal sin. Now the first
thing that occurs to a man to think about then, is to deliberate
about himself. And if he then direct himself to the due end, he
will, by means of grace, receive the remission of original sin:
whereas if he does not then direct himself to the due end, as far
165
Letter to the Holy Office, June 28, 1985.
166
The Church Teaches, (Rockford, IL: TAN Books and Publishers, 1973)
No.280.
167
“Reply to Verbum,” Res Fidei, February 1987, p.25.