Father Patrick de la Rocque of the SSPX has written an analysis of the ITC's recent document on limbo. De la Rocque's "Limbo: Victim of the New Theology of Universal Salvation" describes the Catholic doctrine of original sin, its punishment as deprivation of the beatific vision, and the necessity of baptism for salvation. He further presents the traditional teaching on infants who die without baptism. Interestingly, de la Rocque's presentation of the traditional teaching is the same as the ITC's. Both de la Rocque and the ITC identify the teaching of limbo as part of the Church's sententia communis, or common teaching. Indeed, one of the surprising facets of the ITC's attack on limbo is the commission's identification of limbo as part of the common teaching of the Church.

De la Rocque shows that because infants can't perform moral acts, they must be "united to Christ in a purely passive manner, by the reception of sacramental baptism." He further summarizes the prominent view that infants who die without baptism, although they can't enter heaven, enjoy natural happiness and "are not aware of having missed any supernatural end." This point, however, deserves serious consideration. Ignorance is an evil. Therefore, to say, as de la Rocque does, that infants who die unbaptized remain in ignorance and consequently derive happiness from this ignorance is false. It's more likely that infants who die without baptism recognize their exclusion from the beatific vision, suffer from this deprivation, but nevertheless enjoy a certain happiness in the knowledge that their deprivation is just. While de la Rocque believes the infants would derive happiness from not knowing that they are deprived, I think it's more likely the infants would derive happiness from knowing their deprivation and its fairness, according to God's justice and Divine Providence. Ignorance isn't a boon. Ignorance is an evil, and it's always preferable to understand God's justice than to be ignorant of it.

Nonetheless, de la Rocque proceeds to show how the newfangled idea of universal salvation infects the commission's work. De la Rocque uncovers the simplicity and narrow-mindedness of the ITC. He summarizes their argument like this:

The reasoning is elementary: God wants to save everybody, and the only obstacle is personal sin; but infants do not have any personal sins, and so these infants are in heaven. Their logic is simple, yet it is false, because the major premise of the syllogism is false. It ignores original sin.

De la Rocque's analysis of the ITC's document provides a guide to the issue of unbaptized infants, and it also unmasks the imprudence of the ITC's methodology.

The SSPX is an order whose juridical status is currently under some scrutiny, but I don't think the diplomacy between the SSPX and the Vatican flavors de la Rocque's article. He gives a solid criticism of the ITC's document. In some places, he refrains from dismissing the commission on the basis of its structural impotence. For example, while he correctly explains that the ITC isn't a teaching organ of the Church but only an advisory committee, he passes up the obvious fact that some of the commission's members are women who have no magisterial authority as teachers of the faith. I mention this to urge judgment of the theological ideas on their merits, and not on the basis of the respective venues in which they appear.

What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. --Benedict XVI

Today has seen the most significant act of Benedict XVI's pontificate so far, and I encourage choir directors to bring the hymn of H. T. Henry and H. G. Ganss to the balconies of our churches.

In honor of the pope, I present my midi rendition of "Long Live the Pope," the lyrics to which are on EWTN. The "Traditional Catholic Midifiles" page also has a midi version of this hymn. Here's the direct link: "Long Live the Pope."

An organization with few uniquely Christian characteristics, the Pax Christi Movement describes itself as an "international Catholic peace movement with members worldwide." In the United States, Pax Christi publishes a pamphlet called "Prayers For a Peaceful World: Let Peace Fill My Heart." The pamphlet consists of a short exhortation to "imagine, reflect, and pray for peace," followed by seven prayers for each day of the week.

Of the seven prayers, only two claim Catholic authorship. None mentions Christ, and four are explicitly non-Christian prayers: the "Universal Peace Prayer," the "Buddhist Meditation," the "Native American Prayer," and the Vedanta prayer by Swami Sivananda. Only one of the seven prayers addresses God. The four non-Christian prayers don't mention God at all. The last prayer, by Swami Sivananda, at least alludes to the divinity by making the claim that we ourselves can become divine! The divinization of man in Swami Sivananda's prayer is incompatible with the Christian's humility before the godhead. (Note also the way Pax Christi infects even Sivananda's prayer with feminist grammar, eschewing pronoun agreement to avoid the word "him.").

Now, it's true that all people ought to aspire to peace. The aspiration to peace is laudable whenever it's genuine. When the other religions contain prayers of peace, these expressions are expressions of the natural religion. Although these expressions are always mixed with error, some shreds of them are true. Nevertheless, the aspiration to peace, even when it exists in the other religions, has nothing to do with Christian prayer because the other religions have nothing to do with grace. Only the members of the Christian religion can attain saving grace. Only the Christian religion is supernatural and has a divine founder.

As we see in Wisdom 13:1-9, the natural religious feelings of men are not automatically good. Such feelings are held to a high standard. They always must tend to Christian truth, at the arrival of which, but not before, the person will have found grace and the means of salvation. The other religions can't substitute for Christianity as an alternative means to grace. Their errors stand in the way of salvation and are a blindness. For this reason, and in virtue of the first commandment, non-Christian prayers have no place in a Catholic prayer book.

In contrast to the other religions, Christ founded the Christian religion and handed its truths to the apostles. From that moment, the Christian revelation was complete, and Christianity doesn't need to learn anything, and indeed literally can't learn anything concerning religious truth, from the other religions.