Leonard Feeney - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Father Leonard Feeney was a U.S. Jesuit priest who defended the strict interpretation of the Roman Catholic doctrine, extra Ecclesiam nulla salus
Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus
The Latin phrase Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus means: "Outside the Church there is no salvation". The most recent Catholic Catechism interpreted this to mean that "all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body."...

("outside the Church there is no salvation

Salvation

Within religion salvation is the phenomenon of being saved from the undesirable condition of bondage or suffering experienced by the psyche or soul that has arisen as a result of unskillful or immoral actions generically referred to as sins. Salvation may also be called "deliverance" or...

"), arguing that baptism of blood and baptism of desire are unavailing and that therefore no non-Catholics will be saved. He fought against what he perceived to be the liberalization of Catholic doctrine.

History

Feeney had a storied life, first as a well-known Roman Catholic writer; he later fell from favour with the Roman Catholic Church after he insisted that only Roman Catholics can go to heaven and that everyone else will be damned.

On 8 August 1949, the Holy Office

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , previously known as the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition , and after 1904 called the Supreme...

sent an official declaration of the meaning of the dogma extra Ecclesiam nulla salus (outside the church there is no salvation), which Feeney refused to accept. After repeatedly refusing summons to Rome, Feeney was excommunicated on 13 February 1953 by the Holy See

Holy See

The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...

for persistent disobedience to legitimate Church authority, and the decree of excommunication was later published in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis
Acta Apostolicae Sedis
Acta Apostolicae Sedis , often cited as AAS, is the official gazette of the Holy See, appearing about twelve times a year. It was established by Pope Pius X with the decree Promulgandi Pontificias Constitutiones , and publication began in January 1909...

. His followers said that his excommunication was invalid because Feeney was not given a reason for his summons. Following his excommunication, Feeney set up a community called the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He was reconciled to the Roman Catholic Church in 1972, but was not required to retract or recant

Recantation

The verb recant , and its derivative noun recantation, can mean:* To formally abandon a belief or a particular statement of belief, generally under order from an ecclesiastical authority to...

his interpretation of "Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus", which is inscribed on his tombstone . Speaking two decades after the controversy Cardinal Avery Dulles judged Feeney's doctrine on a series of lectures not having to do with "extra Ecclesiam..." to be quite sound.(Dulles' reflections on Feeney's life did not endorse Feeney's views on extra Ecclesiam nulla salus.)

The Point

Feeney was editor of "The Point," which ran a mixture of theological and political articles, many of them branded anti-semitic by Feeney's critics. The newsletter frequently contained sentiments such as:

"Those two powers, the chief two in the world today, are Communism and Zionism. That
both movements are avowedly anti-Christian, and that both are in origin and direction
Jewish, is a matter of record." (September 1958)

"As surely and securely as the Jews have been behind Freemasonry, or Secularism, or Communism, they are behind the “anti-hate” drive. The Jews are advocating tolerance only for its destructive value — destructive, that is, of the Catholic Church. On their part, they still keep alive their racial rancors and antipathies." (January 1959)

A single year, 1957, saw the following article titles:

January: "Jewish Invasion of Our Country--Our Culture Under Siege"

February: "When Everyone Was Catholic--The Courage of the Faith in the Thirteenth Century"

March: "Dublin's Briscoe Comes to Boston"

April: "The Fight for the Holy City--Efforts of the Jews to Control Jerusalem"

May: "Our Lady of Fatima Warned Us"

June: "The Rejected People of Holy Scripture: Why the Jews Fear the Bible"

July: "The Judaising of Christians by Jews--Tactics of the Church's Leading Enemies"

August: "A Sure Defense Against the Jews--What Our Catholic Bishops Can Do for Us"

September: "An Unholy People in the Holy Land--The Actions of the Jews"

October: "The Jewish Lie About Brotherhood--the Catholic Answer--Israeli Brotherhood"

November: "Six Pointers on the Jews"

Feeney has been described as Boston's homegrown version of Father Charles Coughlin

Charles Coughlin

Father Charles Edward Coughlin was a controversial Roman Catholic priest at Royal Oak, Michigan's National Shrine of the Little Flower church. He was one of the first political leaders to use radio to reach a mass audience, as more than thirty million tuned to his weekly broadcasts during the...

, a priest also accused of antisemitism.

The young Robert Kennedy attended a meeting of students during his Harvard days at which he stood up and challenged Feeney, later storming out, following the priest's assertion that there was no salvation outside the Catholic faith.

External links

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History

The Point

See also

External links