Some comments on Msgr. Fenton’s book, The Catholic Church and Salvation

As noted in some of our recent e-exchanges, some of our readers were interested in comments on Msgr. Fenton’s 1958 book The Catholic Church and Salvation.  One baptism of desire defender who wrote to us called it a “masterful” treatment of the dogma.  Well, we just got our hands on a copy of this book.  I’ve only had a chance to read a few pages so far, but here is what Fenton (in truth, a pernicious heretic who corrupted and denied the dogma) says in the introduction to his book:

Msgr. Joseph Clifford Fenton, The Catholic Church and Salvation, 1958, p. x (intro): “Any person who is at all familiar with what the great mass of religious and theological writings of our times have had to say about this dogma is quite well aware of the fact that, in an overwhelming majority of cases, these writings have been mainly, almost exclusively, concerned with proving and explaining how this dogma does not mean that only members of the Catholic Church can be saved.  This, of course, is perfectly true.  The ecclesiastical magisterium, in teaching and guarding this dogma, insists that there is no salvation outside of the Catholic Church and at the same time likewise insists that people who die without ever becoming members of the Catholic Church can obtain the Beatific vision.”

“Masterful”?  Yes, masterfully illogical, heretical and diabolical.  Fr. Joseph Clifford Fenton “insists that there is no salvation outside of the Catholic Church and at the same time likewise insists that people who die without ever becoming members of the Catholic Church can obtain the Beatific vision.”  Could anything be more contradictory?  This is simply a lie of the devil.  Fr. Fenton rejected the dogma, and reduced it to a meaningless formula. 

Pope Pius XII, Humani Generis (#27), 1950: “Some say they are not bound by the doctrine, explained in Our Encyclical Letter of a few years ago, and based on the sources of revelation, which teaches that the Mystical Body of Christ and the Roman Catholic Church are one and the same.  Some reduce to a meaningless formula the necessity of belonging to the true Church in order to gain eternal salvation.”

If, as the illogical heretic Fr. Fenton asserts, the dogma that there is no salvation outside the Church doesn’t mean that only members of the Catholic Church can be saved, then it has no meaning at all.  And getting most “Catholics” to believe exactly what Fenton does – that the dogma Outside the Church There is No Salvation means nothing at all – is exactly how the Great Apostasy occurred, and that is exactly what most so-called “Catholics” (who are actually heretics) believe today, including many “traditionalists.”  It was precisely heretics such as Fr. Fenton, who became common and almost universal just before Vatican II – asserting that there is no salvation outside the Church while insisting that “people who die without ever becoming members of the Catholic Church can obtain the Beatific vision” – who were the root cause of the Great Apostasy.

An update on Msgr. Fenton’s book, The Catholic Church and Salvation

MHFM: After our post about Msgr. Fenton’s book, The Catholic Church and Salvation, some people wrote to us coming to the defense of this “stalwart” priest.  (I had not realized that Fr. Joseph Clifford Fenton was such a “sacred cow” to the false traditionalists and sedevacantists who deny the dogma Outside the Church There is No Salvation.)  I have now read Fenton’s entire book.  Fr. Fenton’s book is a heretical mass of contradictions, which reduces the dogma Outside the Church There is No Salvation to a meaningless formula.  I hope to write a full review of The Catholic Church and Salvation at some point soon.

You can read it here: https://vaticancatholic.com/msgr-fenton-joseph-clifford-book/