Bishop McKenna and the CMRI Reject Catholic Dogma

Heresy of the Week, Week of 10/3/03
By Bro. Michael Dimond and Bro. Peter Dimond
For more see: Heresies of the Week Relating to the Salvation Dogma

Bishop Robert Mckenna, “The Boston Snare,” printed in the CMRI’s Magazine The Reign of Mary, Vol. XXVI, No. 83: “The doctrine, then, of no salvation outside the Church is to be understood in the sense of knowingly outside the Church… But, they may object, if such be the sense of the dogma in question, why is the word ‘knowingly’ not part of the formula, ‘Outside the Church no salvation’?  For the simple reason that the addition is unnecessary.  How could anyone know of the dogma and not be knowingly outside the Church?  The ‘dogma’ is not so much a doctrine intended for the instruction of Catholics, since it is but a logical consequence of the Church’s claim to be the true Church, but rather a solemn and material warning or declaration for the benefit of those outside the one ark of salvation.”

Comment: Frankly, this has to be one of the most stupid statements ever made by a person purporting to be a traditional Catholic Bishop.  Bishop Robert Mckenna’s writing above comes in the context of an article which he wrote to defend his heretical “version” of the Catholic dogma, Outside the Church there is no salvation.  Bishop McKenna, like almost every modern priest, rejects the true meaning of this dogma and holds that non-Catholics can be saved without the Catholic Faith.  So, in order to defend his heretical version of Outside the Church there is no salvation, a version according to which there is salvation outside the Church, McKenna admittedly must change the understanding of the dogmatic formula proclaimed by the Popes.  He tells us that the “true” meaning of the dogma is that only those who are “knowingly” outside the Church cannot be saved.  Oh really?  Where was that qualification ever mentioned in the dogmatic definitions on this topic?  Nowhere.

Recognizing that such an understanding runs contrary to the clear words of the dogmatic definitions on the topic – none of which ever mentioned “knowingly” and all of which eliminated all exceptions – McKenna attempts to explain away the problem.   He states that,

“The ‘dogma’ is not so much a doctrine intended for the instruction of Catholics… but rather a solemn and material warning or declaration for the benefit of those outside the one ark of salvation.” 

Excuse me?  The dogma Outside the Church there is no salvation, according to Mckenna and the heretical CMRI which printed this article in their magazine (Vol. XXIV, No. 83), is not a truth from heaven, but a warning or admonition written for non-Catholics!  This is grotesque theological nonsense and flat out heresy!

Pope Pius X, Lamentabile, The Errors of the Modernists, July 3, 1907, #22: “The dogmas which the Church professes as revealed are not truths fallen from heaven, but they are a kind of interpretation of religious facts, which the human mind by a laborious effort prepared for itself.”- Condemned

As we can see here, dogmas are truths fallen from heaven which cannot possibly contain error.  They are not merely human statements written to warn non-Catholics which are subject to correction and qualification.  Dogmas are infallible definitions of the truth which can never be changed or corrected, and have no need to be changed or corrected since they cannot possibly contain error.  Further, dogmas are defined so that Catholics must know what they must believe as true from divine revelation without any possibility of error, exactly the opposite of what McKenna and the CMRI assert.  But they must deny that dogmas are truths from heaven and belittle them to fallible warnings for non-Catholics that can be corrected, in order to attempt to justify their heretical belief in salvation for those “unknowingly” outside the Catholic Church, which belief, as they unwittingly admit by such argumentation, is directly contrary to the clear words of the dogmatic definitions.

And this is perhaps what is most important about this week’s heresy: namely, that the dogma deniers, that is, those who believe in the heresy that “baptism of desire” and “invincible ignorance” can save those who die as non-Catholics, such as Bishop McKenna and the CMRI and almost every modern priest be he “traditional” or Novus Ordo, are revealing by such ridiculous and theologically perverse argumentation that their “version” of this dogma is incompatible with the words of the dogmatic definitions; for if their version were compatible with the dogmatic definitions they would never be forced into heretical statements such as those above.

Pope Pius IX, First Vatican Council, Sess. 3, Chap. 2 on Revelation, 1870, ex cathedra: “Hence, also, that understanding of its sacred dogmas must be perpetually retained, which Holy Mother Church has once declared; and there must never be a recession from that meaning under the specious name of a deeper understanding.”

Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, “Cantate Domino,” 1441, ex cathedra: “The Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that all those who are outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans but also Jews or heretics and schismatics, cannot share in eternal life and will go into the everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless they are joined to the Church before the end of their lives; that the unity of this ecclesiastical body is of such importance that only those who abide in it do the Church’s sacraments contribute to salvation and do fasts, almsgiving and other works of piety and practices of the Christian militia productive of eternal rewards; and that nobody can be saved, no matter how much he has given away in alms and even if he has shed blood in the name of Christ, unless he has persevered in the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church.”

For more see: Heresies of the Week Relating to the Salvation Dogma