Is Feeneyism Catholic? - Society of St. Pius X

T HE TEACHING OF THE CHURCH 67
when the act is prevented with no fault from the person! One sees
here the very principle of baptism of desire.
It is clear then, that St. Gregory speaks here of a mere wish
and not a true will: and indeed, someone may feel an inclination
to revenge and murder, but, fighting against it and not consenting
to it, he has not a true will to murder, so he will not be condemned
by God; similarly, someone who feels an inclination for
baptism, but does not resolve firmly to be baptized and does not
already conform his life to that of the faithful by a living faith,
putting off one’s baptism, such a one will not be rewarded by
God.
The Authority of Doctors
ST. BERNARD
He has a whole letter (No. 77) on Baptism to Hugh of St.
Victor, a famous theologian of his time, in which he treats ex professo
this question in §6-8. Hugh had asked St. Bernard for his
views on several novelties of an unnamed person, one of these being
the denial of baptism of desire. We give this passage in full, so
that the reader may have a taste of the way the holy Doctors argue
in defense of the traditional doctrine.
§6. If an adult...wish and seek to be baptized, but is unable
to obtain it because death intervenes, then where there is no lack
of right faith, devout hope, sincere charity, may God be gracious
to me, because I cannot completely despair of salvation for such
a one solely on account of water, if it be lacking, and cannot believe
that faith will be rendered empty, hope confounded and
charity lost, provided only that he is not contemptuous of the
water, but as I said merely kept from it by lack of opportunity...
§7. But I am very much astonished if this new inventor of
new assertions and assertor of inventions has been able to find in
this matter arguments which escaped the notice of the holy fathers
Ambrose and Augustine or an authority greater than their
authority. [He then quotes both passages given above...]
§8. Believe me, it will be difficult to separate me from these
two columns, by which I refer to Augustine and Ambrose...believing
with them that people can be saved by faith alone and the
desire to receive the sacrament, however only in the case that un-