Ipso facto: Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus is a Dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, like it or not it does not change the fact!!
Extra Ecclesiam Nullus Omnino Salvatur. Absolutely No Salvation Outside The Catholic Church!! – St. Cyprian of Carthage
Cyprian knew well that “outside the Church there is no salvation”, and said so in strong words and he knew that “no one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as mother” Cyprian said, this unity is founded on Peter and finds its perfect fulfillment in the Eucharist!
Will tragedy derail Pope Francis on Christian unity?
(The Boston Globe) – History sometimes turns on tragedies, leaving people to ponder what might have been. A new Catholic focus for that question is a random motorcycle accident last Sunday in England, and whether it may change the arc of Pope Francis’ papacy on ecumenism, meaning the push for unity among Christians.
Christians, of course, are fond of preaching peace and brotherhood, but anyone looking at the notoriously splintered Christian landscape can see they often don’t practice that gospel. Thoughtful leaders on all sides have long tried to mend differences, with little effect, and there has been mounting hope that Pope Francis will be the one to finally move the ball, in part because of his long history of friendship with other Christians.
Francis is set to travel on Monday to the southern Italian city of Caserta to see a few of his old Protestant friends, and to pray with them. The get-together unfolds under the shadow of the loss of someone who was supposed to be there, Bishop Tony Palmer of the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches, who got to know the future pope while ministering in Argentina.
Born in England and raised in South Africa, Palmer was riding his motorcycle July 20 on a highway near Bath in the United Kingdom when he crashed head-on into a car driving in the wrong lane. A 10-hour emergency surgery failed to revive him. In his early 50s at the time, Palmer leaves behind his wife and two teenage children.
Palmer had emerged as a new ecumenical star in January when he visited Pope Francis in Rome and recorded a video message from the pope on his iPhone for a conference of Pentecostals in Texas hosted by American televangelist Kenneth Copeland. It was an impromptu appeal for unity and friendship, with Francis passing along a “spiritual hug.”
Francis, of course, knows plenty of people all over the world, and one shouldn’t oversell how close his connection with Palmer actually was. Although Palmer described the pontiff as one of his three “spiritual fathers,” a Vatican spokesman last week balked at characterizing them as “friends,” preferring the formula “close acquaintances.”
Yet Palmer clearly had entrée. He told Copeland’s assembly that he believed God intended to use their connection to accomplish something big, saying he and Francis had made a covenant to work together for the “visible unity of Christians.”
Palmer will be tough to replace as a papal contact, because he occupied a rather unique spot on the ecumenical landscape.
In terms of his spirituality, Palmer was the kind of Christian devoted to signs and wonders known as the gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as speaking in tongues. As a denomination in their own right such folks are known as Pentecostals, but when they make their home within an established church they’re called Charismatics.
Palmer saw his mission as bringing Christians together, using the Charismatic movement as a bridge. His passion was reflected in his deliberately provocative accusation that many Christians suffer from “spiritual racism,” meaning the conviction that their church is superior to others’.
Palmer believed sectarian divisions are anything but inevitable, that if you stop acting as if denominational boundaries have to keep Christians apart, then they won’t..
“You can be Catholic, and Charismatic, and Evangelical, and Pentecostal, all at the same time,” Palmer said as he presented the pope’s message in January, insisting that “Jesus was all of those things.”
“How much of Jesus do you want?” Palmer joked. “Do you only want one denomination of Jesus? Jump in, get it all!”
One certainly can’t accuse Palmer of not walking his own talk. He was an Anglican priest and bishop who once worked for Copeland’s Pentecostal ministry, and who raised his kids as charismatic Catholics to reflect his wife’s Italian heritage.
As a theological matter, Palmer believed that an 1999 agreement between the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation, marked the end of the Reformation and so Christians are now living in a “post-Protestant era.”
In other words, he wasn’t waiting around for unity. He lived as if it were already here.
Palmer was well positioned to help advance the pope’s ecumenical interests, not merely because he moved across denominational lines but also because he represented a bridge to the English-speaking world. Francis is uncomfortable in English and doesn’t know the cultural lay of the land well, especially outside Catholic circles, which made Palmer an ideal conduit.
Without Palmer, for instance, it’s hard to imagine Bergoglio hooking up with Copeland, whose thick Texas twang and Bible-thumping style otherwise hardly seem a natural fit.
It’s reasonable to suspect Palmer would have tried to encourage Francis to deliver even more substantive ecumenical gestures, and given how much this pope takes his cues from his friends, it’s also reasonable to believe Francis would have been receptive.
It remains to be seen what will happen now that Palmer is out of the picture. Sometimes tragedy shuts down possibilities, while other times it opens people’s eyes to what must finally be done.
Will tragedy derail Pope Francis on Christian unity? Also: Religious cleansing in Iraq, pope in America, and a curious silence in Australia
Catholic4Life 