+++
33. Turning to the Saints & Doctors +++
With that said, let us turn our attention to that
which is also not infallible, for which a pope has not used his
gift of infallibility to guarantee that it is absolutely certain. Let us turn to
the words of the saints & doctors. Specifically, to those saints &
doctors that BOD (or BOS, as it was called prior to the last few hundred years)
proponents like to think ‘prove’ their case.
How so?
By the turn of the second millennium, several
major theologians of the Church had adopted the position of BOS. And by the
time of the ascendency of the scholastic doctors --- during the 13th
century --- the position of BOD for catechumens had been cemented amongst
pretty much all theologians. Indeed, as far as I can tell thus far in my
studies, by the middle of the second millennium pretty much no saint,
doctor, theologian or leader of Christ’s Singular Roman Catholic Body
doubted this opinion. And it is this later universal spread of the BOD
teaching --- during the second millennium, but not the first!
--- which permits the BOD camp to wax so utterly confident about their special
enthusiasm for a waterless spiritual regeneration.
“See!” say BOD adherents.
“Saints, doctors, popes and other leaders of the Church uphold
‘baptism of desire’. And one of the greatest of saints after the
Council of Trent --- who was a doctor of the Church, too! --- teaches that
This is what they say. Is it really true?
The claim depends on several unrecognized and,
for the most part, unwarranted assumptions… as well as,
ironically, a great deal of ignorance on the part of BOD enthusiasts.
But since these enthusiasts tend to champion four particular saints &
doctors more than any others as ‘proof’ of their baptismal notion,
then we will focus on them one after another in chronological order, dispelling
the ignorance and dispensing with the assumptions accordingly.
+++
34. BOD Doctoral Exhibit No. 1: +++
St.
Ambrose of
First on our list is St. Ambrose, bishop of the
city of
What did he have to say about ‘baptism of
desire’ or ‘baptism of spirit’?
Absolutely nothing explicit. The
record of his words is entirely circumstantial. That is to say,
Ambrose never once mentioned ‘baptism of desire’ by
actual name in the writings we still have from his hand; nor did he use
the phrase ‘baptism of spirit’, which is the terminology officially
adopted by the scholastic theologians near the beginning of the second
millennium.
So what did Ambrose say?
A young man, Valentinian, had been raised under
the influence of Arian heresy in the imperial family. However, once free of
Arian influence, he converted to Catholic orthodoxy and was in training as a
catechumen, asking St. Ambrose to baptize him. This Ambrose fully intended to
accomplish as soon as he could find time to join Valentinian in
Unfortunately, Valentinian had many enemies and
was Emperor of the West more in title than in reality. One of those enemies
assassinated him on May 15, AD 392. (Modern historians treat this as an
uncertainty, saying that Valentinian may have committed suicide. But good
Catholic scholars have always derided this notion, pointing out that this is what
his foe, Arbogaster, wanted it to look like so that he himself would not appear
guilty of murder.)
Valentinian therefore died without Ambrose having
baptized him, and --- there being no clear public testimony or ultimate proof
that Valentinian had received baptismal water from someone else prior to his
dying breath --- the general assumption was that he had passed from this earth
bereft of the sacrament of regeneration.
This left Ambrose in the most awkward of
positions. Asked to deliver a eulogy at his funeral in
First, he felt crushed that he had not gone to
Valentinian sooner in order to baptize him into the Church. How could he
express his sorrow without taking on more responsibility than he could
reasonably bear or sound like he was falling into despair for the soul of his
spiritual son?
Second, Valentinian’s foe, Arbogaster, had
not only been a threat to Valentinian, but was a menace to anyone who dared to
uphold Valentinian’s claim to the throne of the
Third, the general Catholic populace mourned for
Valentinian’s soul and not just his body, very logically presuming him to
have lost the hope of Heaven due to his apparent lack of baptism. How could
Ambrose openly dispute this conclusion without appearing to deny the dogma of
baptism, and yet how could he comfort the mourners without solid public
testimony that somebody --- no matter who --- had baptized Valentinian before
he left this earth?
And, fourth, were this not enough, amongst the
general Catholic populace Ambrose also faced Valentinian’s devastated
sisters at the funeral in
+++
35. What Ambrose Actually Said… +++
and
What His Words Actually Mean
All this to say, then, that it is not
an automatic given that Ambrose meant what other people --- long after he wrote
--- claim he meant when he stated these words at Valentinian’s
funeral:
“But I hear that you grieve because he did
not receive the sacrament of baptism. Tell me: what else is in your power other
than the desire, the request? But he even had this desire for a
long time, that, when he should come into Italy, he would be initiated
[baptized], and recently he signified a desire to be baptized by me, and
for this reason above all others he thought that I ought to be summoned. Has
he not, then, the grace which he desired; has he not the grace which he
requested? And because he asked, he received, and therefore is it said:
‘By whatsover death the just man shall be overtaken, his soul shall be at
rest.’ [Wisdom 4:7]” (St. Ambrose’s Funeral Oratory
for Valentinian II, Paragraph 51. All emphasis & annotation added.)
People in later times --- in the last thousand
years or so --- always assume that, by these words, St. Ambrose meant
Valentinian received the Holy Ghost and entered Heaven without the water
of baptism. And maybe Ambrose did mean this by these words; I certainly
can’t pretend omniscience to know the man’s private mind from my
own position over 1600 years later.
Yet therein lays the point:
Because we can’t know for sure what
Ambrose intended to say without him still alive to explain his words further
or without other writings of his that shed more light on his thinking.
BOD enthusiasts think Ambrose’s meaning is
open and shut because their prejudices already lie on the side of
‘baptism of spirit’ (BOS) or ‘baptism of desire’ (BOD).
Consequently, they can’t imagine that Ambrose intended anything other
than to uphold BOS or BOD. And again, maybe they’re right. Lots of
learned men of the Church have thought so.
But, then again, maybe not!
Look at the paragraph quoted above closely.
Ambrose nowhere uses the phrases ‘baptism of desire’
or ‘baptism of spirit’. He nowhere explicitly and
openly says that Valentinian got into Heaven without the water of baptism or
received the Holy Ghost.
He merely assures his listeners that Valentinian
received the “grace” that he longed for… not
that he got it without baptismal water.
Now a man can reasonably interpret that kind of
statement in two ways. One, he can take “grace” to mean that
Valentinian received the water of baptism --- and consequently the baptismal
grace that goes along with it --- and even if we don’t know who
performed the baptism for him, or when it happened. Or, two, he can take
“grace” to mean that Valentinian didn’t get water baptism ---
but got the saving grace that goes along with it regardless.
Either interpretation is reasonable. Either one
rationally works.
+++
36. So Why Did Ambrose Say What +++
He
Said, the Way That He Said It?
Yet if Ambrose supposed that Valentinian did indeed
get baptized, then why wouldn’t he just say so straight out? Why the roundabout
way of speaking?
Imperial politics. Valentinian’s mysterious
and unexpected death had both political causes and political ramifications.
Ambrose, being an important public figure and entangled, to some extent, with
the actions of other important public figures, was not himself at liberty to
announce publicly everything that he knew or suspected about
Valentinian’s death in unambiguous terms. This, in fact, is the considered
opinion about Ambrose’s funeral speech from a 19th century
expert in ancient Christian writings, Fr. J. P. Migne. (Patrologia Graeca et
Latina, XVI, 412, n.19. Published in Paris in 1883.) Ambrose in his oration
may have thus spoken circumspectly, using a very indirect way to assure his
listeners of Valentinian’s eternal security despite the apparent lack of
the Sacrament of Baptism.
Realize, too, that the question works the other
way, against BOD. Because if Ambrose thought Valentinian to have been saved
by BOS or BOD, then why wouldn’t he just say so bluntly? Why not say,
straight out in no uncertain terms, that water baptism is not absolutely
necessary for salvation, that God often makes exceptions? Why the rather obscure
way of talking about it?
The point is, St. Ambrose’s words are not
cut and dried. For example, if we look a bit further in this funeral oration,
Ambrose states the following:
“Or if the fact disturbs you that the
mysteries [the ceremonies of baptism] have not been solemnly celebrated, then
you should realize that not even martyrs are crowned if they are
catechumens, for they are not crowned if they are not initiated [not baptized].
But if they are washed in their own blood, his piety and his desire have washed
him, also.” (St. Ambrose’s Funeral Oratory for Valentinian II,
Paragraph 53. All emphasis & annotations added.)
At first glance, Ambrose would seem to be saying
that martyrs who are catechumens cannot be saved if they are not
baptized by water. Hence, how could Valentinian have attained salvation without
the water of baptism? Yet, in the last sentence, Ambrose can appear to allow
for the option of ‘baptism of blood’ and, therefore, for the
possibility of ‘baptism of desire’ as well.
It just isn’t that clear; Ambrose’s
intent is rather murky.
Nevertheless, are we impatient to reach a
conclusion about Ambrose’s meaning without all the facts in hand? Then
slow down and look still further in his funeral oration to find these words:
“Thus in the gates of his house he has fruits
prepared, and not far to seek. He offers the new and the old which he has kept
for his brother, that is, the mysteries of the Old Testament and of the Gospel,
and says: ‘Who shall give thee [you] to me, O brother, for a brother,
sucking the breasts of my mother?’ [Canticle of Canticles 7:13-8:5] That
is, no ordinary person but Christ Himself enlightened you [i.e.,
Valentinian] with spiritual grace. He [Christ] baptized you
[Valentinian], because the ministry of men was lacking you [no one else was
around to baptize Valentinian]. Greater things have you gained, who
believed that you had lost lesser. What are the breasts of the Church except
the sacrament of baptism? And well does he say ‘sucking’, as if the
baptized were seeking Him as a draught [like a drink] of snowy milk.”
(St. Ambrose’s Funeral Oratory for Valentinian II, Paragraph 75.
All emphases & annotations added.)
Here Ambrose sounds like he’s saying that Jesus
Christ Himself is the One Who literally baptized Valentinian before he
died!
Elsewhere in Ambrose’s writings we find him
talking like this about baptism:
“Therefore the three witnesses in Baptism
are one: the water, the blood, and the Spirit; for if you take away one
of these, the Sacrament of Baptism does not exist. For what is water
without the cross of Christ? A common element without any sacramental effect. Nor
does the mystery of regeneration [water baptism] exist at all without
water: ‘For except a man be born again of water and the Spirit,
he cannot enter into the Kingdom.” [John 3:5] Now, even the catechumen
believes in the cross of the Lord Jesus, wherewith he also signs himself; but
unless he be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost, [then] he cannot receive remission of his sins nor the
gift of spiritual grace.” (St. Ambrose’s On the Sacraments,
Ch. 4, No. 4. All emphases & annotation added.)
And also this:
“…for no one ascends into the
So Ambrose would seem, in these last two quotes,
to rule out any exception at all to the necessity for water baptism. In other
words, he would seem to teach that baptism by water is an absolute
necessity of means and not just an important but sometimes unachievable
necessity of precept!
How do we reconcile this apparent stance of absolute
necessity with the BOD supporter’s contention that St. Ambrose
instead taught water baptism as a necessity of precept and thus not
absolutely necessary?
+++
37. The Bottom Line --- Whether or Not Ambrose +++
Taught
BOD, BOD Was Not Believed from the Start!
Something does not quite jive in the
standard presentations of Ambrose on baptism. Which then requires us, in order
to remain logical and true to the facts, to seek a different understanding
of his words than how BODers and WOers typically interpret them.
And what would that understanding be?
In my opinion he first believed in an almost
absolute necessity of water baptism --- ‘baptism of blood’ being
the only possible exception. However, when confronted with the tragic loss of
the life of the young emperor, Valentinian, who had leaned upon him spiritually,
Ambrose had a quandary… how to square the obvious sincerity of
Valentinian’s resolve to enter the One & Only Church of Salvation ---
and God’s unwillingness that any should perish --- with his untimely
death (but not a martyrdom for the Faith!), apparently void of the Sacrament of
Baptism?
The solution was simple. Ambrose reconsidered his
position and decided that water baptism had to be a necessity of precept
and not a necessity of means as he had previously thought.
However, this is only my opinion. I am neither
omniscient nor infallible. I cannot know Ambrose’s private mind with
perfect certainty. I therefore could be mistaken.
Meanwhile, we have seen what BOD supporters
don’t ever suspect, that Ambrose’s words at Valentinian’s
funeral are not a slam-dunk shot for ‘baptism of desire’.
Indeed, that it is entirely possible that Ambrose was simply being diplomatic
and hinting strongly that Valentinian got water baptism somehow, even if he
wasn’t at liberty to reveal how or didn’t know who did it.
Yet whether or not Ambrose taught BOS or BOD,
this we can know with great assurance:
That neither ‘baptism of spirit’ nor
‘baptism of desire’ was commonly believed by Catholics prior to the
life of Ambrose since the time of Christ & His Apostles.
We repeat:
Never was BOS or BOD a dogma
explicitly held in common by all Catholics since the time of Christ & His
Apostles, prior to the life of St. Ambrose!
How can we know this?
Easy. Ambrose’s own words testify to it.
For he said, “But I hear that you
grieve because he did not receive the sacrament of
baptism…” As well as, “Or if the fact disturbs you
that the mysteries [the ceremonies of baptism] have not been solemnly
celebrated…” (St. Ambrose’s Funeral Oratory for
Valentinian II, Paragraphs 51 & 53. Emphases & annotation added.)
Ambrose spoke these words at Valentinian’s
funeral to those who were members of his own diocese. And it is a
bishop’s duty to instruct members of his diocese. Ambrose being a saint,
as well as one of four great early doctors (‘teachers’) of the
Church in the West, can it be doubted that Ambrose did his duty well,
catechizing his flock fully in the basic truths of the Catholic Faith during
the nearly twenty years he had already been overseeing the Diocese of Milan?
Consequently, if St. Ambrose’s flock was
‘grieved’ and ‘disturbed’ at Valentinian’s death
--- a death that was thought by the public to be without the Sacrament
of Baptism --- then how can we not realize that they were taught by Ambrose
himself, as well as his predecessors, to think of water baptism as an absolute
necessity for entrance into Heaven?
This is simple logic, and Ambrose’s words
from elsewhere in his writings confirm it.
For he asserted, “For what is water
without the cross of Christ? A common element without any sacramental effect. Nor
does the mystery of regeneration [water baptism] exist at all without
water…” In addition, “…for no one
ascends into the Kingdom of Heaven except through the Sacrament of Baptism.
No one is excused from Baptism: not infants nor
anyone hindered by any necessity.” (St. Ambrose’s On
the Sacraments, Ch. 4, No. 4, and On Abraham, Bk. 2, Ch. 11, No. 79.
Emphases & annotation added.)
There is no hint of BOS or BOD in either of these
quotes above. Furthermore, the quotes are couched in the language of absolutes,
leaving no room for ‘loopholes’ or ‘exceptions’. Hence,
as Ambrose says, baptism cannot exist “at all without
water” and nobody “is excused” from the need for water
baptism, “not infants nor anyone hindered by any necessity.”
In my experience, St. Ambrose is almost always
the earliest evidence, thought to be explicit, cited by the BOD camp on behalf
of their belief in ‘baptism of desire’.
(There is a claim that St. Cyprian of Carthage
taught BOD in the middle of the 3rd century in his 73rd
letter, which was to Jubaianus. Nevertheless --- like St. Ambrose --- he made no
explicit reference to BOD and --- unlike Ambrose or any other important
figure in the Church thought to have upheld BOD --- wrote only about rare
exceptions prior to his century. Not to mention that Cyprian thought, mistakenly,
while defying Pope Stephen’s authoritative teaching in the matter, that
these rare examples were of persons baptized invalidly --- as opposed
to not having any apparent, outward & visible water baptism at all.
What’s more, these examples were of persons honestly thinking they
were really baptized in water… not persons missing baptism of
water altogether because accidental death seems to prevent it. At any rate,
while Cyprian is very logically & arguably support for some kind of version
of the idea of BOD, although not in the same way that it is held lately
--- and whereas BOD supporters might cite Cyprian as a well-documented believer
in ‘baptism of blood’ --- they almost never
try to invoke Cyprian as an explicit defender of ‘baptism of desire’.)
But even if they’re right --- even if
Ambrose taught a baptism and its effects without the water that goes along with
it --- they are utterly wrong & unjustified in pretending
that this single point means BOD was believed in by every member of the
Catholic Church before Ambrose all the way back to the time of Christ & His
Apostles!
Period.
+++
38. BOD Doctoral Exhibit No. 2: +++
We now turn to
What did he have to say about BOD in the year
400?
“That the place of baptism is sometimes
supplied by [made up for by] martyrdom is supported by an argument by no means
trivial, which the blessed Cyprian [St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage in north
Africa during the 3rd century] adduces from the thief [the repentant
thief who died on a cross next to Christ on His Cross], to whom, though he was
not baptized, it was yet said, ‘Today shall you be with me in
Paradise.’ [Luke 23:43] On considering which, again and again, I find
that not only martyrdom for the sake of Christ may supply what was wanting of
baptism [may make up for the lack of baptism], but also faith and conversion of
heart, if recourse may not be had to the celebration of the mystery of baptism
for want of time [if you can’t receive water baptism before you die due
to lack of opportunity to do so]. For neither was that thief crucified for
the name of Christ, but as the reward of his own deeds; nor did he suffer
because he believed, but he believed while suffering. It was shown, therefore,
in the case of that thief, how great is the power, even without the visible
sacrament of baptism, of what the apostle says, ‘With the heart man
believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation.” [Romans 10:10] But the want is supplied invisibly only
when the administration of baptism is prevented, not by contempt for religion,
but by the necessity of the moment [the lack of water baptism is made up
for in an invisible way only when a person cannot, due to the most urgent of
reasons, receive baptism in water under normal circumstances].”
(
This, then, is the second big reason that BOD
aficionados believe in a baptism without any water, by way of citing an ancient
authority --- because
“We adduce only the opinions and words of
the Fathers and not our own; for we are not wiser than our fathers…
Believe me, it will be difficult to separate me from these two pillars, by
which I refer to Augustine and Ambrose. I confess that with them I am
either right or wrong in believing that people can be saved by faith alone
[Bernard here means the common dogmas of the Roman Catholic Faith alone and not
what many Protestant heretics mean by the phrase] and the desire to receive the
sacrament, even if untimely death or some insuperable force keep them from
fulfilling their pious desire.” (St. Bernard’s Letters,
Letter 77, Paragraphs 1 & 8. All emphasis & annotation added.)
Now, Bernard of Clairvaux --- in addition to
Augustine and Ambrose --- is a doctor of the Church and not to be scoffed at.
Nonetheless, does anyone apart from a pope have an ability,
derived from the Holy Ghost, to teach infallibly, in and of
himself, without any mistakes?
Of course not.
Neither saints nor doctors nor bishops nor priests
nor laity nor anyone apart from a legitimate Roman Bishop has this divine gift.
Thus, if we have most excellent reasons to do so, as well as a most pious
attitude while doing it --- not abandoning the unity of all of the simple,
common dogmas of Catholicism --- then we are justified in holding an opinion
that differs from these learned teachers. It should not be done lightly.
I would never counsel making such contrary opinions into a reckless
habit. But be done it must when the criteria above are met.
Why?
Because such men, however eminent in learning and
sanctity (and aside from the common dogmas of the Catholic Faith, which any
man of sound mind must hold in order to be Catholic in the first place), are never
guaranteed absolute correctness in their theological opinions or ideas.
End of sentence.
+++
39. Augustine’s BOD Stance +++
Was
an Opinion, Not a Dogma
The first thing to realize, though, is that
Augustine can give us no more solid certainty in this matter of ‘baptism
of desire’. Aside from him, only Ambrose & Cyprian are ever claimed
to have taught BOD (as opposed to BOB) in the ancient Church. And
yet what is one of the very sensible theological rules of thumb in Roman
Catholicism about teachings not yet explicitly defined or condemned by the
infallible power of a pope?
That they must be taught both explicitly
and unanimously by all of the Church Fathers in the first eight
centuries after Jesus in order for us to be sure that they are part of the
‘ordinary’ teaching of the Catholic Church from the beginning. This
is distinct from the ‘extraordinary’ teaching of the Pope, who is
the Church’s Visible Head, wherein a Roman Bishop confirms or condemns a
particular teaching by his own singularly unique authority in representing
Christ on earth.
Now, do Ambrose and Cyprian and Augustine --- for
all their impressive sanctity and learning --- amount to the entirety of the
Church Fathers all by themselves?
Obviously not. There are dozens of Church
Fathers, not three. And these three, no matter how eminent they are, cannot,
then, by themselves, ‘induct’ a teaching into the ordinary
magisterium of the Church. Not to mention that another of the Church fathers
appears to have explicitly opposed BOD! (But more on this in Chapters 62 to
71.)
Notwithstanding, they are eminent,
especially Augustine. This is why the idea of BOD entered into the thinking of
future thinkers and leaders of the Church in the first few centuries following
the time of Ambrose & Augustine (Cyprian never being touted as a supporter
of BOD until recently, it would seem), and why St. Bernard of Clairvaux
referenced them in the letter we looked at from Bernard to Hugh of St. Victor
in the previous chapter.
Notice, though, how Bernard phrases his reference
to them:
“I confess that with them I am either
right or wrong in believing that people can be saved by faith alone [the
common dogmas of the Roman Catholic Faith alone and not what many Protestant
heretics mean by the phrase] and the desire to receive the
sacrament…” (St. Bernard’s Letters, Letter 77,
Paragraph 8. All emphasis & annotation added.)
In other words, Bernard does not pretend that
either Ambrose or Augustine are infallibly right about BOD, or that BOD is an
explicit part of the original Deposit of Faith and thus a part of the ordinary
magisterium! It was merely the opinion of (supposedly) St. Ambrose and
(certainly at one time)
That’s it.
What’s more, Augustine himself reveals that
his BOD stance was only an opinion. For what does he say just prior to
stating his ‘baptism of desire’ stance?
“On considering which, again and again,
I find that not only martyrdom for the sake of Christ may supply what was
wanting of baptism [may make up for the lack of baptism], but also faith and
conversion of heart...” (
That is to say,
“On considering… I
find…”
Not “Christ commands us…” or
“Holy Church teaches us…” or “The Apostles tell
us…” or etc.
But rather, “On considering… I
find…” I.e., from
A personal reflection that may have been
influenced by St. Ambrose, incidentally. After all, Augustine was
Ambrose’s disciple, and Ambrose baptized Augustine into the Catholic
Church.
My bet is that Augustine had probably heard or
perused all of Ambrose’s speeches and writings, including the one Ambrose
had made for the funeral of Valentinian. Hence, although Augustine
doesn’t say so straight out, I think he probably took the paragraph about
Valentinian’s ‘desire’ for baptism and ran with it, deducing
his own reasons for upholding what he took to be Ambrose’s position on
BOD just eight years prior to what Augustine composed about the Sacrament of
Baptism in AD 400 against the Donatist schismatics.
Whatever the case, we can know this:
Whereas Ambrose’s belief in ‘baptism
of desire’ is doubtful due to the use of vague language,
Augustine’s is very plain. He truly did believe in the idea of BOD or
BOS.
+++
40. It Would Seem Augustine Abandoned +++
the
Opinion of BOD Later in His Life
Nevertheless, Augustine only believed in this BOD
teaching for a while. How so?
It is, however --- and as
far as I have been able to tell --- his sole explicit mention of
BOD in any of his many writings. That is to say, after his one-time mention of
it in AD 400 in the book, On Baptism, he apparently never wrote of
‘baptism of desire’ or ‘baptism of spirit’ again…
and even though he had other logical opportunities to do so, where in his later
writings he touched upon the Sacrament of Baptism several times.
For instance, in AD 413
Augustine finished his seminal work, The City of God. In Book 13,
Chapter 7, of this lengthy writing, he very clearly teaches BOB and
never once mentions BOD. Then, eleven years later in AD 424, he wrote On
the Soul and Its Origin. In this work he also teaches BOB but not BOD.
Finally, nearing the end of a long life, in AD 426 he composed Against
Julian and taught only water baptism without mentioning either BOB
or BOD. The same is true of The Predestination of the Saints, published
in AD 428 or 429, where again he upholds water baptism without even once
speaking up for ‘baptism of blood’ or ‘baptism of
desire’.
The implication?
It would seem
Of course, BOD partisans
will like none of this. They will argue that Augustine’s teaching of BOB
is tantamount to teaching BOD. Which is nonsense, as we found out earlier
(please return to Chapter 28 of this book of ours, Baptismal Confusion,
and re-read it if you don’t comprehend or have doubts). BOB and BOD are
superficially similar due to a lack of water in both cases. However, the two
things operate in very distinct ways: BOB through an outward sacrifice of
bodily life, BOD through an inward act of perfect contrition. Hence two
separate names for the two separate things (‘baptism of blood’
versus ‘baptism of desire’), and hence Augustine’s later
support of BOB is in no way proof of his continued support of BOD.
At any rate, why then does
Augustine not even speak of BOB --- not to mention BOD --- in the two writings
we referenced above from the very end of his life? There he teaches baptism of
water and nothing else. A very curious situation, no?
For the thinking man it is.
Not that BOD enthusiasts are stupid. Many of them are smart. But when wedded
wrongly to an idea, passions often come first and rationality only later. Or,
to put it differently, when blindly alleged to a proposition, prejudice rules
and logic is merely a tool employed afterward to make your prejudice look
reasonable.
+++
41. To Catch a Thief: +++
The Flaw in Augustine’s Earlier BOD Thinking
Yet do we doubt
“That the place of
baptism is sometimes supplied by [made up for by] martyrdom is supported by an
argument by no means trivial, which the blessed Cyprian [St. Cyprian, bishop of
Carthage in north Africa during the 3rd century] adduces from the thief
[the repentant thief who died on a cross next to Christ on His Cross], to whom,
though he was not baptized, it was yet said, ‘Today shall
you be with me in Paradise.’ [Luke 23:43] On considering which, again and again, I find that not only
martyrdom for the sake of Christ may supply what was wanting of baptism [may
make up for the lack of baptism], but also faith and conversion of heart, if
recourse may not be had to the celebration of the mystery of baptism for want
of time [if you can’t receive water baptism before you die due to lack of
opportunity to do so]. For neither was that thief crucified for the name
of Christ, but as the reward of his own deeds; nor did he suffer because
he believed, but he believed while suffering. It was shown, therefore,
in the case of that thief, how great is the power, even without the visible
sacrament of baptism, of what the apostle says, ‘With the heart man
believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation.” [Romans 10:10] But the want is supplied invisibly
only when the administration of baptism is prevented, not by contempt for
religion, but by the necessity of the moment [the lack of water baptism is made
up for in an invisible way only when a person cannot, due to the most urgent of
reasons, receive baptism in water under normal circumstances].” (
In other words, Augustine
thought the Good Thief was excellent proof of BOD because he presumed both that
the necessity of water baptism had already been enacted and that the Good Thief
had not been baptized by water before that point in time on his cross. Ergo ---
thought Augustine --- the Good Thief is ‘proof’ that mere
‘desire’ for the Sacrament of Baptism is sufficient for salvation.
Because, after all, Christ did say to the Good Thief on the cross just hours
before they died, “Today shall you be with me in
The problem with this
argument?
Toward the end of his life
Augustine realized that there was no reason to assume, out of thin air, that
the Good Thief had not been baptized. In fact, in AD 424 --- twenty-four years after
he wrote On Baptism in AD 400, supporting BOD by way of the example of
the Good Thief --- Augustine wrote On the Soul and Its Origin and said
this about the Good Thief instead:
“As for the thief
[the Good Thief], although in God’s judgment he might be reckoned among
those who are purified by the confession of martyrdom [had his sins forgiven
via ‘baptism of blood’], yet you cannot tell whether he was
not baptized. For… what if he had been baptized in prison, as
in after times some under persecution were enabled privately to obtain? Or what
if he had been baptized previous to his imprisonment? If, indeed, he had
been, the remission of his sins which he would have received in that case from
God would not have protected him from the sentence of public law, so far as
appertained to the death of the body. What if, being already baptized,
he had committed the crime and incurred the punishment of robbery and
lawlessness, but yet received, by virtue of repentance added to his baptism,
forgiveness of the sins which, though baptized, he had committed? …If,
indeed, we were to conclude that all those who have quitted [left] life without
a record of their baptism died unbaptized, we should calumniate [spread lies
about] the very apostles themselves; for we are ignorant when they were, any of
them, baptized, except the Apostle Paul. If, however, we could regard as an
evidence that they were really baptized the circumstance of the Lord’s
saying to St. Peter, ‘He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet
[does not need to wash except for the feet],’ [John 13:10] what are we to
think of the others, of whom we do not read even so much as
this—Barnabas, Timothy, Titus, Silas, Philemon, the very evangelists Mark
and Luke, and innumerable others, about whose baptism we should never
entertain any doubt, although we read no record of it?”
(
Obviously,
To wit, Augustine no
longer believed it was correct to assume that the Good Thief was not
baptized as he hung on his cross next to Jesus. Yet this then destroyed the
basis upon which he had relied to show that the Good Thief had surely gone
to Heaven by way of ‘baptism of desire’. As a result, Augustine
could no longer believe it was correct to conclude that BOD was
real… not based on his one & only original argument, at least.
Because it wasn’t
necessarily real. It was just a clever idea --- a theological opinion --- that
Augustine had come up with to supposedly ‘explain away’ those rare
cases where a seemingly good-willed catechumen dies unexpectedly without
getting the Sacrament of Baptism. How can this be reconciled with the certainty
that God is not willing to let anyone perish in hell forever if they are
sincerely trying to become Roman Catholic?
That’s the real
crux of the problem. That’s why Augustine dallied with the notion of
BOD. Nevertheless, before he ended his life, he had jettisoned that notion.
A notion that later leaders and thinkers of the Church embraced, apparently not
realizing that Augustine himself --- despite first raising the possibility in
AD 400 --- then rejected it since his original argument for it was flawed. And
so, irony of ironies, Augustine is the first inarguable & explicit support
of the typical full-fledged version of BOD in the Church’s history while
being, at the same time, practically the first --- if not the very first person
--- in the Catholic Church to reject it.
C’est la vie.
+++
42. BOD Doctoral Exhibit No. 3: +++
St. Thomas Aquinas
Next comes St. Thomas
Aquinas. Born in AD 1225 (some say 1227) in the
What did Thomas, the most
extraordinary of all Church doctors during the past millennium --- perhaps ever
--- have to say about ‘baptism of desire’ (BOD) or ‘baptism
of spirit’ (BOS)?
Quite a bit, it turns out!
“…[T]he sacrament
of baptism may be wanting [lacking] to anyone in reality but not in desire;
for instance, when a man wishes to be baptized, but by some ill-chance he is
forestalled by death before receiving baptism. And such a man can
obtain salvation without being actually baptized, on account of his
desire for baptism, which desire is the outcome of faith that worketh
[works] by charity, whereby God, Whose power is not tied to visible sacraments,
sanctifies man inwardly. Hence Ambrose says of Valentinian, who died
while yet [still] a catechumen: ‘I lost him whom I was to regenerate, but
he did not lose the grace he prayed for.’[Apparently, this quote is
partly from Paragraph 30 of St. Ambrose’s Funeral Oratory for
Valentinian II. In actuality, though, Ambrose nowhere said anything just
like this in his Funeral Oratory, at least in the text that we now have
available. However,
Answering the question
‘Should baptism be delayed?’, Thomas says as well:
“…in this matter
we must make a distinction and see whether those who are to be baptized are
children or adults. For if they be children, baptism should not be deferred
[delayed]. First, because in them we do not look for better instruction or
fuller conversion [i.e., little children aren’t able to learn all of the
common dogmas of the Catholic Faith before getting baptized]. Secondly, because
of the danger of death, for no other remedy is available for them besides
the sacrament of baptism [little children can’t get into Heaven
without water baptism]. On the other hand, adults have a remedy in the
mere desire for Baptism, as stated above. [Question 68, Article
2]” (St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica, Book 3, Question
68, Article 3. All emphasis & annotations added.)
And in explaining whether or
not the Eucharist is necessary for salvation, Thomas says, too:
“And it has been said above
[Question 68, Article 2], that before receiving a sacrament, the
reality of the sacrament can be had through the very desire of receiving the
sacrament. Accordingly, before the actual reception of this
sacrament, a man can obtain salvation through the desire of receiving
it, just as he can obtain it before baptism through the desire of
baptism, as stated above.” (St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa
Theologica, Book 3, Question 73, Article 3. All emphasis & annotations
added.)
+++
43. BOD, a Story Grown in the Telling +++
My dear reader, it should be
plain to the intelligent and honest man that St. Thomas Aquinas upheld BOD. The
scholar who translated Thomas’ words into English took the same liberty
with his original Latin text that scholars in our modern times take with the
Latin of the Tridentine Council, mangling the Latin term ‘votum’
into being the English word ‘desire’ (go back and see Chapter 6 in
this book if you don’t remember what I’m talking about) when --- in
reality --- it is better understood as ‘vow’, ‘prayer’,
‘intent’ or ‘resolution’. But Thomas’ meaning is
obvious. Clearly he was teaching that a catechumen can find salvation through
BOS.
Period.
Notice, though, the
progression from Ambrose through Augustine to Thomas Aquinas. The words of Ambrose
are vague, there being no totally compelling reason (unless you’re
already determined to believe in BOD) to think that he must be talking
about ‘baptism of desire’. Augustine’s words are clearer, it
being undeniable that he’s talking about BOD, but he merely
mentions the matter once and he is brief as well as tentative, not
pretending that he has tradition or apostolic teaching on his side.
Meanwhile, Thomas tackles the subject multiple times (in both his Summa
Theologica as well as elsewhere) and --- while the quotes above are
relatively small for the sake of readability --- the entire passages are quite lengthy
and go into much detail.
Where did he come up with
all of that knowledge on the topic of BOD?
Either it comes from his own
personal thinking or else he derives it from those theologians who lived not
long before him in preceding centuries.
Certainly neither Ambrose
nor Augustine had that much to say regarding ‘baptism of desire’!
The point is, this is a
topic which has grown in the telling. In the first millennium,
hardly anything was said about ‘baptism of desire’. Whereas by the
1200s and the second millennium, Thomas Aquinas was going on at huge length on
the subject. From uncertainty and vagueness --- to tenuous certainty and
briefness --- to great certainty and lengthy detail.
That is the story of BOD.
+++ 44. Thomas’ Aristotelian-Based Theology +++
Was at First Controversial
Indeed, Thomas put the notion
of BOD into substantially its present form. Later theologians merely fleshed
things out and added a few professional terms to the explanation of the
subject. Meanwhile, the stellar theological reputation of Thomas Aquinas is
what gave the subject its final seal of approval in the eyes of the learned.
Pretty much most theologians, if not all, by the turn of the second millennium
believed in the idea… but
It simply hadn’t been
officially defined yet.
A reputation, ironically,
that wasn’t perfectly great to start with. That is to say,
“Something of his [St.
Albert’s] old vigour and spirit returned in 1277 when it was announced
that Stephen Tempier and others wished to condemn the writings of St.
Thomas, on the plea [accusation] that they were too favourable to the
unbelieving philosophers, and he journeyed to Paris to defend the
memory of his disciple.” (Catholic Encyclopedia, entry for St. Albertus
Magnus, section on Albert’s life, 1st paragraph. Published by
the Robert Appleton Co. of New York City in 1912. Retrieved 13 August 2012 at
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14663b.htm. All annotations & emphases
added.)
In its article about
Thomism, the Catholic Encyclopedia tells us even more about the fight early on
amongst the Church’s theologians & leaders over Thomas’
teaching:
“Although
The controversy really only
ended with Thomas’ elevation to the altar nearly half a century after
his death, when he was declared a saint by the authority of a fourteenth
century pope:
“The canonization
of
+++ 45. Why Thomas’ Fabulous Reputation in the Church +++
Cannot, All by Itself, ‘Prove’ BOD Is Correct for Sure
Now, all of this history
about Thomistic theology is not to say that just because Thomas based
his doctrine on the philosophy of the pagan Greek thinker, Aristotle, then his
teaching about BOD must be wrong. One does not follow from the other. And
Thomas did not use the philosophy of Aristotle because he was
pagan, but because there was useful truth in his philosophy regardless
of his paganism.
In other words, St.
Thomas’ purpose was to metaphorically ‘baptize’
Aristotle’s philosophy, weeding out the religious falsehoods, and use whatever
was left, that was true & helpful, for the sake of better teaching and
upholding the infallible Catholic Faith.
Notwithstanding --- and as
we’ve said several times in reference to the saints or doctors of Jesus
Christ’s Singularly Saving Roman Catholic Church --- Thomas’
wonderful reputation is not enough, all by itself, to
‘prove’ that his scholarly opinions were always correct.
We repeat:
Why?
Because Thomas Aquinas was not
a pope, and only legitimate --- i.e., real --- Bishops of Rome are
guaranteed by the Holy Ghost, when officially teaching the Catholic Church as a
whole about faith & morals, to be always right and never in error.
End of sentence.
And this is why it’s
worth knowing that Thomas’ teaching was at first, in the fifty years
following his death, controversial. That is to say, not everyone at the
time he was alive or in the first half century after he died thought it was
‘obvious’ that Thomas was the greatest doctor of the Church or
couldn’t ever be wrong about the Catholic Faith in matters not already
infallibly defined. To the contrary… many of his theological opinions
were tussled over and disputed hotly, even by his own fellow Dominican monks!
Again, why?
Because Thomas Aquinas was
an innovator by bringing in the philosophy of the pagan thinker,
Aristotle, as a framework for Catholic theology. And innovation --- something
different and new --- is never received by good & thoughtful
Catholics without at least some skepticism and some caution. This is why it
took half a century for the controversy to play itself out before a pope ruled
and made Thomas’ scholastic theology appear fully safe by canonizing him
as a saint.
Of course, BOD was not an
innovation at that moment in time when Thomas lived. He didn’t even
necessarily come up with all of the explanations for BOD that have become
standard since his time. Nonetheless, the fact that his opinions in theology
could be challenged by some of the most learned theologians or leaders of his
time before his canonization is evidence that his opinions are not
intrinsically beyond question either before or after his canonization.
Nor are his theological
opinions beyond question just because he was canonized.
Remember… canonization
is not the same as saying that everything a saint teaches is correct!
Rather, canonization only means that we as Catholics can be morally certain
that nothing a saint teaches contradicts a dogma or moral of the Church up until
the instant of canonization. The saint could still, however, hold a
mistaken opinion as long as the mistaken opinion doesn’t contradict
anything the Church has propounded as an infallible dogma or moral up till
then.
+++ 46.
the Immaculate Conception
For instance, when St. Thomas
Aquinas lived in the thirteenth century, the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception
had not yet been defined. Nor was it an infallible part of the ordinary
magisterium (Church teaching that is explicit & universal from the
beginning with Christ & His Apostles, but not yet affirmed by the solemn
& authoritative teaching of a pope). It was instead disputed by the
theologians of the time. And, for various reasons, Thomas decided to oppose
this belief as erroneous. His prestige was so great as to cause his religious
order, the Dominicans, to defend his opinion and become, ironically --- despite
their huge reputation for Marian veneration and stolid purveyors of Her Most
Holy Rosary--- the most staunch opponents of the teaching of the Immaculate
Conception which there were in the Roman Catholic Church until Pope Alexander
VII later forbade public debate on the matter prior to it being solemnly
defined in 1854 by Pope Pius IX.
Yet where does
“If the soul of the
Blessed Virgin had never incurred the stain of original sin, this
would be derogatory [disrespectful] to the dignity of Christ, by reason of
His being the universal Saviour of all. Consequently after Christ, who, as the
universal Saviour of all, needed not to be saved [did not need to be rescued
from sin], the purity of the Blessed Virgin holds the highest place. For Christ
did not contract [get] original sin in any way whatever, but was holy in His
very Conception… But the Blessed Virgin did indeed contract [get]
original sin, but was cleansed therefrom before her birth [that
is, not at the point of Her Conception] from the womb…
Although the Church of Rome does not celebrate the Conception of the Blessed
Virgin, yet it tolerates the custom of certain churches that do keep that
feast, wherefore [therefore] this is not to be entirely reprobated
[disapproved]. Nevertheless the celebration of this feast does not give us
to understand [does not mean] that she was holy in her conception. But
since it is not known when she was sanctified, the feast of her
Sanctification, rather than the feast of her Conception, is kept on the day of
her conception [in the 1200s, some local Catholic churches in various places in
the world celebrated Mary’s Sanctification rather than Her
Conception]… Sanctification is twofold. One is that of the whole
nature… The other is personal sanctification. This is not
transmitted to the children begotten of the flesh: because it does not regard
[concern] the flesh but the mind. Consequently, though the parents of the
Blessed Virgin were cleansed from original sin, nevertheless she [the
Blessed Virgin Mary] contracted [got] original sin, since she was
conceived by way of fleshly concupiscence [desire of the body] and the
intercourse of man and woman: for Augustine says: ‘All flesh born
of carnal intercourse is sinful.’ [De Nup. et Concup. 1]”
(St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica, Book 3, Question 27,
Article 2. All emphasis & annotations added.)
So we see that, although
Thomas thought the Blessed Virgin Mary sanctified --- i.e., cleansed and
made immaculate --- sometime before Her Birth, he did not think
Her Immaculate from the moment of Her Conception. Yet if we’ve any
doubts, the scholarly expertise of the Catholic Encyclopedia assures us about
Thomas’ opinion against the Immaculate Conception:
“St. Thomas at first
pronounced in favour of the doctrine [of the Immaculate Conception] in his
treatise on the ‘Sentences’ [Sentences, Book 1, Chapter 44,
Question 1, Article 3], yet in his ‘Summa Theologica’ he
concluded [argued] against it… His great difficulty appears to
have arisen from the doubt as to how she could have been redeemed if she had
not sinned. This difficulty he raised in no fewer than ten passages in
his writings…” (Catholic Encyclopedia, entry for the Immaculate
Conception, section on the controversy surrounding this teaching in the early
second millennium, paragraph four. Published by the Robert Appleton Co. of New
York City in 1912. Retrieved 19 August 2012 at
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14663b.htm. All annotations & emphases added.)
+++ 47. To Say One of Thomas’ Theological Opinions +++
Was Mistaken Is Meant as No Disrespect to This Great Saint!
And thus it is stark that saints,
even doctors of the Church --- even the greatest doctor of the Church
ever, as many consider Thomas Aquinas --- can be wrong in
their theological opinions.
We do not say this to
disdain
Mind you… no one
should dare to disagree with saints or doctors heedlessly and recklessly!
And, of course, every true
Catholic should agree perfectly with every other true Catholic (saints and
doctors included) on matters of common teachings of the Church, which, of
course, are teachings that have always been simple, infallible & explicit.
But on theological opinions
that are not infallible dogmas, whether ordinarily or solemnly, whether
common or deeper… ah, these are things that can be disagreed upon,
provided that the evidence and the logic and the orthodoxy are all there to
support it.
Plainly, no one should do
this only to increase his own wicked prestige while stripping noble saints or
wise doctors of their holy & rightful due. I therefore do not delight in
noting that
I also do not doubt, though,
that, had Thomas lived to see the
He was, after all, a saint
and a doctor.
+++ 48.
on Its Behalf --- But It Can’t Make It Absolutely
Certain
The aim of all this is to
say that if St. Thomas Aquinas was wrong about the Immaculate
Conception, then, obviously, he could be wrong about BOD, too. And since
the Catholic Church has never yet deigned to rule fully, explicitly &
infallibly in the matter of BOD, then we cannot,
as in the case of the Immaculate Conception, turn to a later solemn ruling by the Church in order to know for
absolute certain which side of the argument is correct --- whether BOD
(‘baptism of desire’) or WO (‘water only’). The only
thing we can say about the subject infallibly is that popes and their
councils have left the door wide open to the possibility that BOD for
catechumens is true.
That’s it.
So is Thomas Aquinas’
sainthood and doctorship a powerful argument on behalf of ‘baptism of
desire’, not to mention that many, even most, Catholics since the
fourteenth century have considered him to be the greatest teacher the Church
has ever seen?
Yes, it is.
That’s why many
theologians by the middle of the second millennium came to think of BOD for
catechumens as ‘proximate’ to dogma. That is to say, not quite
dogma and thus infallibly certain, but the next thing to it. It’s also
why the fathers of the Council of Trent laid a copy of Thomas’ Summa
Theologica at the head of their meetings as both a symbol and tool for
guidance in all their teachings. As Pope Leo XIII noted about every general
council since Thomas’ time:
“The ecumenical
councils, where blossoms the flower of all earthly wisdom, have always
been careful to hold Thomas Aquinas in singular honour…” (Leo XIII’s Aeterni patris. Emphasis added.)
And in Chapter 12 of this
very book, Baptismal Confusion, we have already observed:
“…the chief and
special glory of Thomas, one which he has shared with none [not one other] of
the Catholic doctors, is that the Fathers of Trent made it part of the order
of the conclave [part of the daily process of the council] to lay
upon the altar, together with the code of Sacred Scripture and the decrees of
the Supreme Pontiffs, the Summa [Theologica] of Thomas Aquinas, whence
to [from where they could] seek counsel, reason, and inspiration. Greater
influence than this no man could have.” (Catholic Encyclopedia, entry
for St. Thomas Aquinas, section on his doctrinal influence, 4th
paragraph. Published by the Robert Appleton Co. of New York City in 1912.
Retrieved 7 February 2012 at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14663b.htm. All
annotations & emphases added.)
So, yes, plainly, St. Thomas
Aquinas’ upholding of ‘baptism of desire’ is a powerful
argument on its behalf!
But an absolutely certain
argument?
No, because saints and
doctors are not guaranteed infallibility.
Either, one, something must
be taught universally by all (or nearly all, at the very least!) of
the Fathers of the Church for us to know, with absolute certainty, that it
comes explicitly from Christ & His Apostles and is hence infallible
(this is the ordinary
magisterium of the Church); or else, two, a pope --- or a pope
with a general council --- must solemnly & clearly pronounce on a matter to
the whole Church for us to know, with absolute certainty, that it is at least implicit
in the ancient Deposit of Faith and hence infallible (this is the solemn magisterium of the
Church).
Case closed.
Consequently, a Catholic man
who has most excellent reason and pious purpose on his side --- and who does
not pertinaciously defy what has been given to us by Holy Mother Church as Her
Infallible Dogmas, especially those which are common from the beginning and
without which no man can even begin to be truly Catholic in the first place ---
may logically and respectfully disagree with the theological opinion of that
saint or doctor.
Which is why --- need it be
said? --- BOD enthusiasts cannot lob the opinion of Thomas
Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor, at WO supporters and then expect the most rational
& learned of them to roll over and play dead in the dispute over
‘baptism of desire’. Truly rational & learned WO supporters cannot
wilt at the opinion of
Because they honestly,
intelligently & respectfully believe him to have been mistaken.
+++
49. BOD Doctoral Exhibit No. 4: +++
St. Alphonsus Liguori
And now we turn to St.
Alphonsus Liguori. Like Thomas Aquinas, he was born near
He therefore retired from
the world and its mires, becoming a priest a few years later in 1726. From
thence onward his great passion was for the salvation of souls. Made bishop of
St. Agatha of the Goths, he labored in this task, still aflame with the love of
missions, for fourteen years. Eight times during his life he came so near to
death that he received Extreme Unction, one of those occasions leaving him
paralyzed and thus excused from his episcopal duties to live a quiet monastic
life in preparation for eternity --- something which still did not occur for
another twelve years. The great hallmark of his life, however, apart from
missions and the writing of some excellent books (especially his master work, Moral
Theology), was bitter tribulation.
It is difficult to think of
another saint who faced more reversals of fortune and betrayals by friends than
this man. Even in his holiest of undertakings, God permitted him to be
thwarted, maligned, threatened and opposed. To top everything off, near the end
of his life he had a ‘dark night of the soul’ that made him fear
for his everlasting security, God at the mortal conclusion granting him such
peace that he passed from this life in the odor of great sanctity.
What did he have to say
about ‘baptism of desire’? A humdinger, as it turns out!
“Baptism of desire
is perfect conversion to God which, through contrition or love of God above all
things along with the explicit or implicit desire of true Baptism of water;
it supplies its power, according to Trent, with regard to the remission of the
fault [of sin], but not the impression of the character [of water baptism,
baptism being a special mark upon the body & soul and identifying us as
joined to the Body of Christ and thus real & visible members of His One
& Only Catholic Church], nor with regard to the complete taking away of the
punishment due [to] sin --- thus teach [Alphonsus here mentions by name several
Church theologians who teach BOD] Viva, the Salmanticenses, along with Suarez,
Vasquez, Valentia; Croix and others [Alphonsus then gives the citations for
these references]… It is de fide [a Latin phrase meaning
that it is an infallible teaching of the Roman Catholic Faith] that men can
be saved through baptism of desire: according to
‘Apostolicam’ [Apostolicam sedem, a private letter of
uncertain date, apparently from a pope to the bishop of Cremona in Italy],
concerning a priest not baptized; and according to Trent [Session 6, On
Justification, Chapter 4], where it is said that no man can be saved
‘without the laver of regeneration or its desire.’”(St.
Alphonsus Liguori’s Moral Theology, Book 6, Treatise 2, Chapter 1,
Number 96. All emphases & annotations added.)
+++
50. That Alphonsus Upheld BOD Based on
Hard Evidence Against WOers That Trent Never Rejected
BOD!
This, then, is the fourth
big reason clever BOD enthusiasts think ‘baptism of desire’ is a
sure thing --- because St. Alphonsus not only upheld it in his classic work, Moral
Theology, but also taught that it was defined infallibly at the
Council of Trent. It is thus, too, rock hard evidence (extremely rock
hard evidence!) that
We repeat:
The fact that Alphonsus plainly
upheld BOD in his book and that he is a canonized saint who lived
150 years after the Council of Trent --- as well as being an official
doctor of the Catholic Church, to boot --- is ironclad evidence that the
Tridentine fathers never explicitly & infallibly ruled out the idea of
BOD with their Canons 2 & 5 about the Sacrament of Baptism.
Because if Trent had
explicitly ruled out BOD with Canons 2 & 5, then why did Alphonsus
bother to teach BOD and act like Trent is infallible proof for it, and why
did the popes and the Vatican not only canonize Alphonsus but announce
him to be a doctor of the Church when such a teaching is --- according
to many WOers --- ‘infallibly opposed’ by the Council of Trent?
Eh?
The implication is clear.
And unless WO enthusiasts are prepared to denounce all of these post-
Tridentine popes, saints and doctors as BOD-believing ‘heretics’
and thus excommunicated from the Church, then they must acknowledge that
the fathers of Trent not only never intended to uphold the
‘water only’ position but also might have intended to refer
tangentially to BOD during their session on justification.
This, at any rate, was the
firm conviction of Alphonsus Liguori, saint and doctor of the Church. Indeed,
per him,
End of story.
Or is it?
+++
51. Driving Home the Difference Between a Fallible +++
Theological Opinion and an Infallible Solemn Ruling
This may be confusing for a
thoughtful reader, especially a committed BODer. He may say at this point,
“How could officials at the
Very simple, my dear soul.
Because they all thought that he was right.
Remember… canonization
is not an act of a pope’s charism of infallibility. But
even if an emphatic BODer nevertheless insists on believing that canonizations
are infallible, this still doesn’t mean that everything a saint
writes or speaks is never mistaken.
Remember, too… both
St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bernard of Clairvaux during their lives taught, mistakenly,
that the Blessed Virgin Mary was not immaculately conceived. And yet we
know today, by virtue of Pope Pius IX’s infallible definition of
1854, that Mary was indeed immaculately conceived. Ergo, Ss.
Thomas & Bernard were just plain wrong about this, and
thus their canonizations couldn’t have had anything to do with
their opinions being always right!
That is to say, both these
men --- officially canonized saints and officially declared doctors of the
Roman Catholic Church though they are --- were fallible and held to a
position that was then, not having been solemnly defined yet, a merely mistaken
theological opinion.
As a result, since only a
pope in his solemn capacity as the Successor to St. Peter, teaching the whole
Church, can be guaranteed infallibility, then it is entirely possible for mere
officials at the
Is it any wonder, then, that
they would vet his book as approved?
In fact, a pope himself
could hold to this theological opinion about BOD at
So it really isn’t
shocking that Alphonsus, the Vatican officials who vetted his book prior to
canonization, and the pope who ruled him to be a saint, would each of them
think that
So why in the world
wouldn’t each of them think, when
Do you see?
The conclusion is natural.
Not necessarily correct… but, given their circumstances, natural and
understandable that they would think this.
+++
52. A Little More About Infallibility +++
(Infallibility Redux)
Let’s do a little
thought experiment, my dear reader. Let’s suppose for the moment that
‘water only’ (WO) really is the correct position when it comes to
the Sacrament of Baptism. I know this is practically unthinkable and most
distasteful to a committed ‘baptism of desire’ (BOD) devotee, but
indulge me for a few minutes.
Now let’s suppose that
the fathers of the Council of Florence, when they hinted about “another
remedy” apart from water baptism, and the fathers of the Council of
Trent, when they mentioned water baptism “or its desire,” were all
of them referring indirectly to BOD and intending, in each of their minds at
the time, to speak about BOD as if it is true.
Let’s say, too, that
everyone who was a learned theologian or well-instructed priest naturally
assumed this to be true, knowing that Thomas Aquinas plainly taught BOD and
that the general councils of the Catholic Church since his time had used his Summa
Theologica as a guide in their teachings. Hence, they, also, despite not
omnisciently knowing the individual minds of each of the conciliar fathers,
naturally presumed all of them to have referred to BOD as true when they
happened to say those things in their papally-approved, and thus infallible,
declarations.
What then?
My dear soul, let’s
take a step further. Now let’s say a future pope --- or a future pope and
a general council under his approval --- explicitly condemns the
BOD teaching as untrue, instead explicitly declaring that the
position of WO is infallibly certain.
How can this be reconciled
with the above, when everyone thought BOD was true?
Very simple.
The Holy Ghost does not,
in the exercise of infallibility, use the pope or his council like puppets,
speaking through them as if they are robots. Nor does the Third
Person of the Trinity necessarily inspire these men with the words that are
best to say, or every word that they ought to say were they as wise as we could
wish them to be.
That is not how
infallibility works.
Rather, the Holy Ghost keeps
these men from uttering things that are inescapably wrong.
Which, as I’ve said
before --- and when you get right down to it and when the words of an
infallible declaration or condemnation are not perfectly explicit &
clear --- means there will always be at least one orthodox way to
rationally interpret these words that is never explicitly &
indisputably tainted with error or opposed to what we infallibly know is
orthodox & true.
End of sentence.
This is how --- as shocking
as it may be to a committed BOD believer --- the fathers of the Florentine and
Tridentine Councils could say what they said, very possibly intending to refer
to BOD as true in a tangential way, and yet not, in the
end, be guilty of teaching error or heresy if a future pope were to make it
clear & explicit that BOD is false.
Because their words, while
infallible, were not adequately explicit or sufficiently concise in
their meaning when it comes to the subject of BOD. Therefore, only if
a future pope were to approve an infallible statement that explicitly &
clearly condemns WO with all precision of terminology or that explicitly
& clearly upholds BOD with exact description by name could we then,
after the fact and with infallible certainty --- as opposed to a merely
human conviction, regardless of how great our learning --- conclude that the
Holy Ghost through these earlier popes and councils was allowing them to refer
to the teaching of BOD as infallibly true.
Hence, too, then, their lack
of adequately explicit or sufficiently concise words in infallible
statements when it comes to the subject of BOD --- where previously assumed
to refer to BOD and thus seeming in some people’s sight to uphold
a waterless position --- instead permits us to reasonably interpret
them in a way that does not oppose WO.
Case closed.
+++
53. A Small Digression Re a Private Papal Letter +++
By the way, you may wonder
at some other things St. Alphonsus said in the quote we began with.
Specifically, where he asserted:
“It is de fide [a
Latin phrase meaning that it is a solemn & infallible teaching of
Catholicism] that men can be saved through baptism of desire: according
to ‘Apostolicam’ [Apostolicam sedem, a private
letter of uncertain date, apparently from a pope to the bishop of
This Apostolicam sedem
was a letter that Pope Innocent II purportedly sent to the bishop of
That is to say, the words of
a man are only protected by the Holy Ghost as infallible
and without error if that man is certainly a pope; if
he speaks officially as the Successor to St. Peter ruling from his universal
throne to clarify a teaching with greater detail and absolute surety; if
his words are about faith or morals; and if he teaches the
Church as a whole, rather than merely speaking to one
person or to a few people or to part of the Church without
authoritatively requiring his words to them to be broadcast later to all
of the Church’s members.
(Re-read Chapter 22 in this
book, Baptismal Confusion, for a brief refresher on infallibility if
you’re still shaky on the subject, my dear soul.)
Scholars are unsure who
wrote Apostolicam sedem; hence, there is at least a little bit of
unsureness that the author is even a pope. Nevertheless, regardless of a pope
writing it --- and despite not knowing which pope for sure --- the letter was
apparently never required by him to be broadcast later to all of the
Church’s members everywhere. And, if that were not enough, the reputed
papal author never spoke solemnly, making it plain that he was acting to
clarify this teaching beyond what any pope had ever done before…
to wit, with absolute certainty.
This letter thus has no
infallibility.
In any case, the bishop of
What to do?
The response was
essentially, “Don’t worry. He thought he was baptized and surely
wanted to be. He had ‘baptism of desire’ and everything is okay. Go
ahead and hold religious services for him, bury him in a consecrated cemetery
for Catholics, and pray for his soul.”
In reality, though,
everything was not necessarily okay. BOD may be fine when
believing it to apply to catechumens who die ‘accidentally’ before
they receive water baptism… but for a man who has been going around
for years acting like he’s a priest?
Way different!
+++ 54. Serious Problems With Innocent’s Letter +++
To begin with, a priest cannot
be a priest, period, unless he’s baptized in water. This is not just a
matter of “Are your mortal sins remitted through perfect
contrition?” and hence “Can you be saved without actual water
baptism?” But, rather, “Are you joined visibly to the Body of
Christ?” and therefore “Can you be a legitimate & valid
candidate for the priesthood?”
Without water baptism ---
and despite the man himself and everybody else around him honestly thinking
that he was a priest --- there was no actual priesthood. Ergo, no
real sacraments (apart from baptizing others) were ever confected by this
man. And, as a result, a very real and very serious conundrum was in
hand…
What to do?
What about all those people
who had confessed their mortal sins to him and hadn’t really had them
absolved? What about all those times he had served at mass and it was just
bread and wine that he had handed out, all the while simple & devout souls
were worshipping it as if it were the Very Flesh & Blood of Almighty God? What
about the souls he had assisted at death, they thinking he was pardoning them
their mortal sins and giving them the Holy Eucharist?
The implications are
sobering.
Now, maybe the pope did
address these things and we just don’t know about it. The part usually
quoted from his letter about BOD and available for most of us to read is an
extremely selective quote, and might not accurately reflect all that he
wrote on the subject in that letter.
All the same, it’s
troubling that those things are not addressed wisely, at least not in the quote
that we usually see. Which is why it’s hard to believe such a holy and
knowledgeable man like Innocent II or Innocent III wrote this. It doesn’t
smell right. It almost seems more like something an enemy might cook up and
then plant in the Vatican records somewhere just so that it might appear to be
the writing of a holy and knowledgeable pope, thereby giving it the
‘odor’ of irreproachable Catholicism.
Yet apart from these conspiratorial
(and mostly unfounded) speculations, the facts are clear:
Alphonsus Liguori certainly
thought that it was a real letter from Pope Innocent II or III. And he
therefore took it as ‘proof’ that BOD is true. It would seem, too,
that he thought that this letter had the charism of infallibility. As a result,
he cited it as a ‘proof’ that BOD is unassailable.
And again we respond:
The same thing can be said
about Innocent’s letter that has been said about Alphonsus and the
Council of Trent. Simply because he thought that Trent infallibly
defined BOD does not make it so. It was his theological opinion
and hence not guaranteed to be an infallible truth.
(Again, please review
Chapters 5 to 15 in this book, Baptismal Confusion, if you are still
unsure or skeptical about why it is both logically & empirically incorrect
to claim that Trent explicitly & infallibly upheld the ‘baptism of
desire’ position.)
Likewise the letter from
Innocent II or Innocent III to the bishop of Cremona. Simply because Alphonsus
thought it was infallible does not make it so. It was his
theological opinion and hence not guaranteed to be an infallible
truth.
We may thus with a good
conscience respectfully disagree with him about this letter.
Don’t get me wrong.
Alphonsus was a great saint and a wise doctor. I am not advising
that anyone go around constantly contradicting or second-guessing the teachings
and counsels of this wonderful Catholic. I am merely pointing out that even
saints & doctors can hold mistaken theological opinions, and that this is a
prime example of that possibility made real.
That’s all.
+++ 55. Another Larger Digression Re the Terms +++
‘Explicit’ and ‘Implicit’ as Applied to BOD
The reader might also wonder
about these words from St. Alphonsus in the earlier quote:
“Baptism of desire
is perfect conversion to God which, through contrition or love of God above all
things along with the explicit or implicit desire of true Baptism
of water; it supplies its power… with regard to the remission of the
fault [of sin], but not the impression of the character [of water baptism,
baptism being a special mark upon the body & soul and identifying us as
joined to the Body of Christ and thus real & visible members of His One
& Only Catholic Church], nor with regard to the complete taking away of the
punishment due [to] sin…” (St. Alphonsus Liguori’s Moral
Theology, Book 6, Treatise 2, Chapter 1, Number 96. Emphases &
annotation added.)
“Ah!” cry out
some WOers, who are usually strong supporters of the ‘no Salvation
outside the Church’ dogma held in common by all true Catholics in its
most ancient, narrow & correct sense. “Alphonsus looks like a
salvation heretic. This is distressing.”
WO advocates are upset by
these words because clever & educated modernists in the last one or two
hundred years have used the phrase ‘implicit desire for
baptism’ to mean either:
One, someone who doesn’t
know about Catholicism and thus blithely believes in a false religion or
philosophy (such as Hinduism, Scientology, Islam, Atheism, Agnosticism or
etc… in short, anything other than the Catholic Faith whole &
entire). Sincerely thinking his beliefs true and trying his best --- say
modernists --- this man can save his soul even though he’s visibly
outside the Catholic Church and practices a false religion. Such a
man, say they, would be Catholic and would get water baptism if
only he could know… he has implicit desire for
baptism.
Or, two, someone who knows
about Catholicism and yet doesn’t think it’s true, having
been taught by others that it’s false. He thus blithely believes in a
false religion or philosophy (such as Buddhism, Christian Science, Shintoism,
Monism, Protestantism or etc… in short, anything other than the Catholic
Faith whole & entire). Sincerely thinking his beliefs true and trying his
best --- say modernists --- this man can save his soul even though he’s visibly
outside the Catholic Church and practices a false religion. Such a
man, say they, would be Catholic and would get water baptism if
only he could know better… he, too, has implicit
desire for baptism.
Both these kinds of persons,
say clever & educated modernists, can be saved without professing the
Catholic Faith because they are ‘invincibly ignorant’. They are
joined to the Catholic Church ‘invisibly’, say they, and hence
‘implicitly desire’ water baptism (as opposed to knowing
about the Church and Her requirement that men enter Her visible membership through
baptism, which, by intending to obey, they therefore have an explicit
& conscious desire for baptism in water).
The alert reader will
remember that we touched on this in Chapter 1. It is the ‘salvation
through ignorance’ heresy and not directly related to the
fight between BODers and WOers over baptism in water. It is, though, indirectly
related --- but more on that later, near the end of this book.
However, we needn’t
worry about Alphonsus Liguori being infected with this deadly teaching, who was
only following Thomas Aquinas’ lead when talking about a so-called
‘implicit’ desire for baptism. For a very simple reason, too.
Because he quite explicitly taught the absolute necessity of embracing
Christ’s Catholic Faith in order for a man to save his soul!
+++ 56. Indisputable Neither Alphonsus Nor Aquinas +++
Intended ‘Implicit’ BOD to Mean What Modernists Teach
How so?
We read what St. Alphonsus
had to say about persons raised without knowing --- or who were taught against
--- the Catholic Religion:
“Still we answer the
Semi-Pelagians [a type of heretic during the 1st millennium], and
say that infidels [people without the Catholic Faith] who arrive at
the use of reason [are no longer small children and old enough to start
thinking for themselves], and are not converted to the [Catholic] Faith,
cannot be excused, because though they do not receive
sufficient proximate grace [grace that is all around you and obvious, such as
what people raised in good Catholic countries would have by virtue of the
Catholic testimony all around them], still they are not deprived of
remote grace, as a means of becoming converted. But what is this remote grace? St.
Thomas [Aquinas] explains it, when he says that if anyone was brought up
in the wilds, or even among brute beasts, and if he followed the law of natural
reason, to desire what is good, and to avoid what is wicked, we should
certainly believe either that God, by an internal inspiration [an
inspiration of the heart or mind], would reveal to him what he should believe, or
would send someone to preach the [Catholic] Faith to him, as [just like] he
sent Peter [the first pope] to Cornelius [a Roman commander first converted to
the Old Testament Religion before becoming a Catholic --- see Acts 10 in the
Bible]. Thus, then, according to the Angelic Doctor [St. Thomas
Aquinas, see the second quote below], God, at least remotely, gives to
infidels [those who aren’t Catholic], who have the use of reason, sufficient
grace to obtain salvation [to become Catholic and die in the state of grace], and
this grace consists in a certain instruction of the mind, and in a movement of
the will, to observe the natural law [the basic law of religion & morality
that God places in every person’s heart who has the use of reason and
whether or not he’s Catholic to start with]; and if the
infidel cooperates with this movement, observing the precepts of the law of
nature, and abstaining from grievous sins, he will certainly receive,
through the merits of Jesus Christ, the grace proximately sufficient to embrace
the [Catholic] Faith, and [thus] save his soul.” (St.
Alphonsus Liguori’s The History of Heresies, Refutation 6, No. 11.
All emphasis & annotations added.)
So Alphonsus Liguori did not
believe in ‘salvation through ignorance’. Nor need we worry about
St. Thomas Aquinas where he says about implicit BOD:
“As stated above
[Question 68, Article 2] man receives the forgiveness of sins before
Baptism in so far as he has Baptism of desire, explicitly or
implicitly; and yet when he actually receives Baptism, he receives
a fuller remission, as to the remission of the entire punishment. So also before
Baptism[,] Cornelius [the Roman commander who had embraced the Old Testament
Faith and was converted to Catholicism by St. Peter, see Acts 10] and others
like him receive grace and virtues through their faith in Christ and their
desire for Baptism, implicit or explicit: but afterwards when
baptized, they receive a yet greater fullness of grace and virtues. Hence in
Psalm 22:2, ‘He hath brought me up on the water of refreshment,’ a
gloss [commentary] says: ‘He has brought us up by an increase of virtue
and good deeds in Baptism. Yet catechumens who die without baptism can be saved
but only as through fire. That is, they are absolved of eternal punishment, not
temporal punishment.’” (St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa
Theologica, Book 3, Question 69, Article 4. Emphases & annotations
added.)
Because Thomas Aquinas
elsewhere clearly upholds ‘no Salvation outside the Church’ in its
most ancient, narrow & correct sense, when --- stating first a typical
objection that people have against needing to know the Catholic Faith in order
to save your soul --- he replies:
“Objection:
It is possible that someone may be brought up in the forest, or among wolves;
such a man cannot explicitly know anything about the [Catholic]
faith… Reply [the objection
rebutted and answered correctly]: It is the characteristic of Divine
Providence to provide every man with what is necessary for salvation…
provided on his part there is no hindrance. In the case of a man who seeks good
and shuns evil, by the leading of natural reason, God would either reveal
to him through internal inspiration what had to be believed, or would
send some preacher of the [Catholic] faith to him…”
(St. Thomas Aquinas’ Quaestiones Disputatae de Veritate, Question 14, Article 11. Emphases & annotations added.)
Consequently, my dear
reader, you see that neither Alphonsus nor Aquinas
can be faulted for holding the heresy of ‘salvation-through-ignorance-and-sincerity’!
+++ 57. A Correct Understanding of ‘Ambiguity’ +++
Some WOers, however, will
still accuse one or both of these saints of the crime of willful
‘ambiguity’. That is to say, they claim that such men defend the
salvation dogma in one place while upholding salvation heresy in another place
--- and all for the purpose of deceiving & misleading others into salvation
heresy while they themselves can appear to be orthodox.
In my experience, these
accusations of ‘ambiguity’ always come from people who are
not only WOers but who are also ‘Catholic fundamentalists’ (CFs).
CFs love to misinterpret the infallible words of the Church’s
Magisterium just like Protestant fundamentalists love to twist the words
of inerrant Sacred Scripture. They act like this out of ignorance (as well as
out of impatience, stubbornness, cruelty and wicked pride, too!)… but
twist & misinterpret words they do.
CFs twist other
people’s words, too, and the accusation of ‘ambiguity’ is a
favorite tactic of theirs. Lacking wisdom, they fail to see that anybody’s
words can be made to look contradictory if only there are enough
words to choose from and you misinterpret these words to mean
what the person saying them never intended them to mean. Then,
lacking patience, they will not listen if somebody dares to defend the
accused’s words intelligently. Yet, finally, being cruel & proud, the
CF does not care that he mistakenly attacks an innocent person’s
reputation and is not willing to admit that he, the accuser, could be wrong and
thus slanderously lies about another man.
You can read much more about
Catholic fundamentalism
here, but the bottom line is this:
‘Ambiguity’ is a
fair charge if --- and only if! --- the words that are said to
contradict orthodoxy have solely heretical (and nothing but
heretical!) interpretations that are rationally possible.
We repeat:
The charge of
‘ambiguity’ is a fair & just accusation if --- and only
if! --- the statement said to contradict orthodoxy has solely &
exclusively heretical (and nothing but heretical!)
interpretations that are both rationally & logically possible.
End of sentence.
Without this just and
logical requirement for charges of ambiguity, then anyone can accuse anyone
else in the Catholic Church of being a heretic, whether or not the charge of
ambiguity is reasonable. And all because the accuser refuses to interpret
the purportedly ‘heretical’ statement in an orthodox fashion,
and even though such a statement may be easily interpretable to mean
something completely orthodox, provided the one doing the interpreting
is a fair, patient, intelligent & compassionate man without an axe to grind
against the accused.
Which then leads to a very
sensible question:
So what did Ss.
Alphonsus & Aquinas mean by talking about an ‘implicit’ desire
for baptism, in a way that can square with orthodoxy without denying ‘no
Salvation outside the Church’ in its most ancient, narrow & correct
sense?
+++ 58. The Right Understanding of ‘Implicit’
BOD +++
in Its Entirely Orthodox & Catholic Sense
Very simple, my dear soul.
The orthodox and acceptable
idea of BOD is that it is for catechumens. That is, for those who are
old enough to understand all of the common dogmas of the Roman Catholic
Church and are trying to do so, being students of the Catholic Faith
until they are ready for water baptism.
Yet what if one of them dies
‘accidentally’ before he can receive water baptism?
That’s the dilemma
that gave rise to the ‘baptism of desire’ notion in the first
place.
Yet what if the new convert
is in a place far from any Catholic testimony, and only just understands the
barest rudiments of the One True Faith? Or what if the new convert is a product
of false religion and was immersed in anti-Catholicity… but finally
begins to see the light and realizes that the Catholic Church really is the
Sole Pillar & Foundation of Jesus’ Truth, outside of which no man can
hope to be saved?
And what if neither of these
examples has had enough time to learn about the need for water baptism? What if
all they know is that there is the Trinity --- Three Persons in One God --- and
that the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, became man to redeem us
from sin, His Body being the Roman Catholic Church and Source of All of His
Singularly Saving Truth?
And what if they are each of
them willing to do whatever the Church of Rome teaches and commands, knowing
that She, the One True Roman Church, is the Sole Entrance into Heaven?
What then?
And then death strikes him
down before he can learn anything more. He wanted to know & obey what the
Church would teach him to do in order to save his soul. Had he been able to
find out about Her commandment to be baptized in water, he would have certainly
resolved to do so, being of good will. His failure to know, and failure to
obey, was inculpable.
Will such a man wind up in
hell?
According to Ss. Alphonsus
Liguori & Thomas Aquinas, no. He wanted to do whatever the
Church commands. He knew that Catholicism is God’s Singular
Religion. He grasped the Trinity and the Incarnation, as well as Jesus’
Truth being found only in the Catholic Church. He didn’t yet know water
baptism is the beginning of visible union with this Church --- but would
have happily received the Sacrament of Baptism had he only known and had
time to be baptized.
Per Alphonsus & Thomas,
this man had an implicit desire for baptism. He couldn’t yet
consciously know about the need for water baptism, but would have known
and would have obeyed if only he had had the time before dying to do so.
His intent to be baptized in water could not yet become explicit --- but
was surely there implicitly since he intended to do whatever
Jesus’ Singular Catholic Body would teach him to do and thereby save his
immortal soul.
Such is the orthodox
understanding of an ‘implicit’ desire for baptism.
+++ 59. Proof That Alphonsus’ Opinion Re BOD Being +++
Infallibly Defined Is Not Shared by All
Theologians
A last observation about St.
Alphonsus before we move on to the next thing in our careful consideration of
‘baptism of desire’ (BOD) versus ‘water only’ (WO),
especially at this point in our look at the saints and the doctors of the Holy
Catholic Church.
To wit, lest a skeptical
reader think it is merely my own personal opinion that Alphonsus is wrong when
it comes to BOD being, supposedly, infallibly defined at the Council of Trent
without any doubts in the matter, then mull upon this. A very eminent German
theologian of the middle of the 20th century, Dr. Ludwig Ott,
teaches the BOD notion in a section on baptism in the textbook he wrote for
divinity and seminary students. He even cites
“In case of
emergency[,] Baptism by water can be replaced by Baptism of desire…
Baptism of desire is the explicit or implicit desire for sacramental
baptism (votum baptismi) associated with perfect contrition (contrition
based on charity). The Council of Trent teaches that justification from
original sin is not possible ‘without the washing unto regeneration or
the desire for the same’ (sine lavacro regenerationis aut eius
voto)…” (Ludwig Ott’s Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma,
Pages 356-7. Published by TAN Books and Publishers, Inc., in 1974 at Rockford,
IL. First published in English by The Mercier Press at Cork, Ireland, in 1955,
with a fourth edition in 1960. Originally published in German in 1952 under the
title, Grundriss der Katholischen Dogmatik, by Verlag Herder at
Freibury, Germany. All emphasis & annotations added.)
Nevertheless, this same Dr.
Ott --- eminent and systematic theologian that he is --- carefully notes at
each juncture what the standing of a particular teaching is within the Catholic
Church. That is to say, is it infallibly true? Almost but not quite infallibly
true? Only morally certain? A belief common amongst most Catholics at the
present time? And etc., etc.
So what does he note as the
‘theological grade of certainty’ when it comes to BOD?
“(Sent. fidei
prox.)” (Ibid., Page 356. Italics
in the English text of the TAN edition.)
And what does “Sent.
fidei prox.” mean?
It is abbreviated Latin for
‘sententia fidei proxima’, which, as Dr. Ott explains, means:
“A Teaching proximate
to Faith… is a doctrine, which is regarded by theologians [but not
declared infallibly so by the pope or by a pope in conjunction with a
council!] generally as a truth of Revelation, but which has not yet been
finally promulgated as such [infallibly defined & hence most certainly
a revealed truth] by the Church.” (Ibid., Page 9. Emphases &
annotations added.)
This lesser & fallible
degree of theological certainty is in contrast to the greatest degree of
certainty, as Dr. Ott also helpfully explains:
“The highest degree of
certainty appertains [is connected] to the immediately revealed truths…
and if the Church, through its teaching, vouches for the fact that a
truth is contained in Revelation [what God has revealed as necessary to know is
true], one’s certainty is then also based on the authority of the Infallible
Teaching Authority of the Church… If truths are defined by a
solemn judgment of faith (definition) of the Pope or of a General Council, they
are ‘de fide definita’.” (Ibid., Page 9. Emphases &
annotations added.)
An example of this highest
& infallible degree of theological certainty for a teaching
is found in Dr. Ott’s textbook right before he teaches about BOD, where
he says:
“Baptism by
water… is, since the promulgation of the Gospel [since the infallible
teaching of the Roman Catholic Religion], necessary for all men without
exception, for salvation. (De fide.)” (Ibid., Page 356. Annotation
added.)
And what does ‘de
fide’ mean?
It is a shorter Latin phrase
for the fuller phrase quoted above from Page 9 of Dr. Ott’s textbook
regarding the highest & infallible degree of certainty. In particular,
where that highest degree of certainty has been vouched for solemnly by an
infallible definition of a pope, or by a pope in conjunction with a general
council. Accordingly, “de fide definita” (Ibid., Page 9), which
is oftentimes shortened to ‘de fide’ in official or scholarly
writings.
In other words, eminent
theologian Dr. Ludwig Ott says that the necessity of baptism in water is an infallible
definition of the Roman Catholic Faith. Whereas the possibility of
‘baptism of desire’ is only a teaching that is related to
the infallible teachings of the Catholic Church (and which is generally
assumed by theologians of the last millennium to be a truth revealed by God
through His Church), but which has never yet been explicitly &
finally defined by the infallible authority of the Roman Catholic
Church’s Magisterium as an absolutely certain dogma.
Period.
+++ 60. St. Alphonsus’ BOD Opinion Explained Simply +++
So why would St. Alphonsus
think that BOD is ‘de fide’, as if it had been very clearly
& explicitly defined at the Council of Trent?
Because, while he was a
learned saint & doctor of the Church, his specialty was moral
theology… not dogmatic theology. He therefore had simply never
thought the subject out far enough, not knowing all of the facts --- after
all, just because a man is a Church doctor doesn’t logically mean
that he is either all-knowing or never-wrong! --- and hence made a very
natural & innocent mistake.
A mistake that it would seem
several other learned Catholics have committed about BOD and the Tridentine
Council, too.
I’m sure it’s
not just Alphonsus.
But it’s not
a heresy; it’s just an error.
If the Church later
explicitly & infallibly rules that BOD is true, then it’s still just an
error on his part to have thought that
Oh, and a final note about
Dr. Ludwig Ott:
He is a salvation heretic.
I
must hence warn readers about studying Ludwig Ott’s textbook. Yet despite
this, he is excellent on other things. He was much respected for his learning,
his textbook carrying an imprimatur from the pertinent bishop. Which
doesn’t, unfortunately, make his writings utterly safe since most bishops
were lax or apostate by the end of the 19th century. All the same,
it shows us he wasn’t condemned or faulted for contradicting
Alphonsus about BOD being ‘infallibly defined’ at Trent, and
that many other theologians must have agreed with Dr. Ott… and despite
them citing Trent as support for believing in BOD as being a truth that
is ‘proximate’ to the Faith!
+
+ +
Part One of Baptismal Confusion (Chapters 1-32)
Part Three of Baptismal Confusion (Chapters 61-82)
Part Four of Baptismal Confusion (Chapters 83-105)
Part Five of Baptismal Confusion (Chapters 106-132)
Part Six of Baptismal Confusion (Chapters 133-169)
Part Seven of Baptismal Confusion (Chapters 170-197)
+
+ +
NOTE: If the reader has enjoyed, or
benefited from, this book, you may wish to examine
Baptismal Confusion: Sheepishly Shy or Gaunt as a Goat? and
Baptismal Confusion: Dilemmas of ‘Desire’; or, It Is Foolish
to Presume Either ‘BOD’ or ‘WO’, as of Yet in Our Era, to Be the
‘Inarguable’ Stance, Not Even Bothering to Honestly Study Each Sides’s
Evidence!
, in the Letters & Admonishments and Great Apostasy sections, respectively. The three
deal with similar dilemmas resulting from confusion, during the Great Apostasy, over the
Sacrament of Holy Baptism after the Vatican II Pseudo-Council, resulting in acrimony,
stupidity, cruelty, rashness, impatience, heresy & schism in the fight of
BOD vs. WO.
+
+ +
Pilate’s
query met:
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