Preaching Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus to an Eastern Rite Priest and defending the indissolubility of marriage.

I thought I would share this with the forum members. It might revive things a bit here and also encourage you to spread the Dogma to your local clergy.I had two interesting instances in the last few days where I had to spread/defend the Faith.


The first was at an Eastern Catholic Church. I went to the English language liturgy and a priest gave a sermon about how many Catholics leave the Church and are not informed about their faith. He gave the example of a Catholic who is a now a Prod minister.

After Liturgy, I went to the sacristy. Three of the priests were there and they kind of looked at me. I think they thought I was going to ask for confession, LOL. I just said, "Um, I have a comment about the sermon of Fr. BLEEP" The pastor said "No one has EVER come to us with a comment on a sermon. That is awesome! It means you were listening!" So the priest who gave the sermon talked to me privately.

I told the priest that the reason people are leaving the Church is because of the denial of Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus. I told him that St. Josaphat is a canonized saint but if Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus is not true he should be a condemned lunatic because he threw his life away for something (unity with Rome) that, while it was a nice thing, had nothing to do with salvation. He just said "interesting". I mentioned Patriarch Josef Slipyj (during the supression of the Greek Catholics the communists offered him two options #1 Remain a Catholic and be sent to the gulags #2 Convert to Orthodoxy and they would make him Patriarch of Moscow). I said, "If unity with Rome has nothing to do with salvation, he should have just gone to Moscow, right???"

I told him that I think Orthodox are schismatics and that they need to convert to the Catholic faith. I said "Who cares if people leave the Church if they can be saved outside of it?" Then the priest said, "Well you know there was a priest, Fr. Feeney, in the 1950's who got into trouble for teaching Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus." Then I replied, "Yes, but his excommunication was lifted at the end of his life without him having to recant any of his beliefs on Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus." I then mentioned Unam Sanctam, Cantate Domino, and Fourth Lateran. He seemed open but during the conversation he would keep saying "Yes, but the Catholic Church embraces so many people now." I had no idea what this meant at the time of the conversation and was puzzled as to why he was saying it because I thought he meant that the Catholic Church is now comprised of a lot of nationalities, from Nigerians, to Iraqis, to South Americans. Now I realize that he was trying to hold the line that the Catholic Church now comprises more people than just those baptized who have not been separated by the sins of schism or heresy. Went right over my head, LOL, because my first instinct was to interpret that in an Orthodox manner.

So in the end the conversation ended well, and he said he will think about it and appreciates my commenting on his sermon.

The second instance involved a relative of mine. She told me about how Arnold Schwarzenegger fathered a child with a house servant and he kept it hidden for twenty years. (I haven't been watching the news lately) She said to me, "His wife is Catholic and against divorce. So what is she supposed to do?" I thought she was asking that rhetorically so I didn't answer. Then she asked again, "No, I am asking you, if you are a Catholic who is against divorce what should she do?" I replied, "I don't know......stay with him...." "Stay with him? You have to be CRAZY if you believe that." Then I said, "Well adultery doesn't invalidate the marriage. There might be a provision for them to live separately and not get remarried." At which point I was just told I was crazy. I looked it up later in the Fr. Heribert Jone book and it says that adultery is grounds for perpetual separation but the innocent party has the right to call back the guilty party to married life. I am glad my Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus sixth sense was working today, LOL.

That's pretty cool about the Eastern rite priest; hopefully he will really reconsider Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus. It'd be awesome to have an Eastern rite priest promoting the Dogma!

As to the comment about Arnold, that was good thinking on your feet. Though, it's stupid that everyone should care so much about "Hollywood dirt"-- it was all anyone could talk about at work the day it broke... and as to divorce, it doesn't make problems magically go away; it creates new ones. So it's ridiculous that everyone pretends it's "the logical thing" to do when something bad happens in a marriage. Yes, adultery, etc. are awful terrible sins and living separated might be completely justified; but this default choice to automatic divorce when something goes wrong is a troubling and telling attitude.

Funny that nowadays people don't even know the name of their neighbors, yet these Hollywood stars and the British Royal Family almost become a part of the family.

Ugh, don't even get me started. All those celebrity gossip magazines need to go out of print... I don't even know half the TV shows or stars they mention! All these important issues to worry about, and we're writing pages and pages about what some drug-addicted, half-starved actress wore to some meaningless awards ceremony that was unflattering, or pretending Will & Kate's wedding was "a real fairytale". America really has become a nation of idiots.