Fr. Matthias Gaudron

49) What should we think of the "anonymous Christians" theory?

For Karl Rahner, the non-Christian religions are an anonymous Christianity. They are ways of salvation "by which men approach God and His Christ."¹ Of course, they do not profess belief in Christ as the Christians do, but they seek Him. This opinion is totally false. Rather, the non-Christian religions prevent men from believing in Christ and being baptized. When Islam proclaims that it is a blasphemy to say that God has a Son, it keeps its adepts from embracing the true faith.

But did not the Fathers of the Church acknowledge that the pagan religions contained "seeds of the Word"?

John Paul II claimed as much, in line with Vatican II.² But the Fathers of the Church saw no such thing. The passages of St. Justin and Clement of Alexandria cited in this context are in fact not speaking about the pagan religions, but of the philosophers and poets. And St. Justin even specifies that this "seed" spread throughout the human race is that of (natural) reason, which he carefully distinguishes from supernatural grace.

So, then, are there no "anonymous Christians"?

If it were absolutely necessary, one might call "anonymous Christians" those who, despite the false doctrines of their religion, are interiorly disposed by a special grace of God to receive all that God has revealed. But it would be better to employ the traditional expression describing this case, "baptism of implicit desire."

50) Are all men automatically
saved by Christ?

Christ died for all men in the sense that all have the possibility of gaining salvation. No one is excluded. But to be saved in fact, a man must accept the grace Christ merited for him and offers him. If he refuses, he remains in the state of perdition and will be damned eternally (unless he converts before his death).

Where is the error of universal salvation to be found?

The error of universal salvation, that is, the thesis according to which all men have received from Christ not just the possibility of being saved but salvation in fact, seems to have been taught by Cardinal Wojtyla in the 1976 Lenten retreat he preached to Pope Paul VI and his household. Here is what he says: "Thus the birth of the Church, at the time of the messianic and redemptive death of Christ, coincided with the birth of "the new man"–whether or not man was aware of such a rebirth and whether or not he accepted it. At that moment man's existence acquired a new dimension, very simply expressed by St. Paul as "in Christ."³ He adds: "All men, from the beginning of the world until its end, have been redeemed by Christ and his cross."⁴

What do these words of Cardinal Wojtyla imply?

If every man, "whether or not man was aware of it and whether or not he accepted it," possesses being in Christ and is justified, then it follows that, according to the Cardinal, all are saved and none are damned.

Did John Paul II continue to favor this error after his election to the papacy?

Once pope, John Paul II wrote in his first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis:

We are dealing with "each" man, for each one is included in the mystery of the Redemption, and with each one Christ has united himself for ever through this mystery...man in all the fullness of the mystery in which he has become a sharer in Jesus Christ, the mystery in which each one of the four thousand million human beings living on our planet has become a sharer from the moment he is conceived beneath the heart of his mother.⁵

If every man is united with Christ from the first instant of his conception, what need can there still be of baptism and membership in the Church?

Are we really to understand that John Paul II intended to preach universal salvation?

We need only consider the fact that this pope wanted to make Hans Urs von Balthasar a cardinal, a theologian who held the opinion that hell is empty.

How do we know that hell is not empty?

Sacred Scripture speaks of hell in very many passages. In the parable of the last judgment, Christ made it clear that men will go into hell: "Then he shall say to them also that shall be on his left hand: "Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels" (Mt. 25:41).

Will very many men go to hell?

It seems that indeed very many will go to hell: "Wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat" (Mt. 7:13).

The Church has always been convinced that many men are lost. This conviction was a stimulus to her missionary activity, and many Catholics accepted untold hardships to go and preach the Gospel and thus save the greatest possible number of souls.

Yet did not John Paul II often speak of evangelization? Of what use are the Church and evangelization if all men are saved?

If all men are already saved, the mission consists of telling men: I bring you good tidings; unbeknownst to you, you have already been saved by the Christ!

Are there any signs that John Paul II understood evangelization in this way?

In fact, it is in this way that Cardinal Wojtyla explained the text of Gaudium et Spes 22, which affirms: "Christ, the final Adam, ...fully reveals man to man himself." This would mean that Christ manifests to man what has already happened to him, namely, that he possesses "being in Christ": "This revelation...consists in a fact–the fact that by his incarnation the Son of God united himself with every man."⁶

What can be said about this interpretation?

The Church has never understood her mission in this way. Being a missionary has always meant bringing salvation to men through the preaching of the gospel and the administering of the sacraments. It has never meant announcing to them that they have possessed salvation all along. "He who believes and is baptized will be saved; he who refuses belief will be condemned."

Translated exclusively for Angelus Press from Katholischer Katechismus zur kirchlichen Kriese by Fr. Matthias Gaudron, professor at the Herz Jesu Seminary of the Society of St. Pius X in Zaitzkofen, Germany. The original was published in 1997 by Rex Regum Press, with a preface by the District Superior of Germany, Fr. Franz Schmidberger. This translation is based on the second edition published in 1999 by Rex Regum Verlag, Schloss Jaidhof, Austria. Subdivisions and slight revisions made by the Dominican Fathers of Avrillé have been incorporated into the translation.

1 Karl Rahner, Schriften zur Theologie (Einsiedeln, 1978), III, 350.

2 John Paul II wrote in his first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis (March 4, 1979): "The Fathers of the Church rightly saw in the various religions as it were so many reflections of the one truth, "seeds of the Word" (§11). In a footnote he cites St. Justin and St. Clement of Alexandria, but especially to the documents of Vatican II that launched this idea: Ad Gentes 11 and Lumen Gentium 17.

3 Karol Wojtyla, Sign of Contradiction (New York: The Seabury Press, 1979), p. 91.

4 Ibid., p. 87.

5 Redemptor Hominis, III, 13 [English version: from the Vatican website].

6 Wojtyla, Sign of Contradiction, p.102.