My basic assertion is that these authors are clearly aligning themselves with one of the planks of the Reformation, clearly condemned at Trent. This affirmation in and of itself should be a RED FLAG to all faithful Catholics. We're dealing with the core of the Gospel here, so the subject matter is rather weighty. It is also to be noted that the affirmations and denunciations at Trent in the canons and decrees are De Fide doctrinal statements. I will sum up the Catholic essentials later in my response.

I am judging their doctrinal alignment on an objective level, according to Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, which we are called to do. I am to reject heretical teachings and adhere to De Fide doctrine, especially on this core issue. The evidence is before me, namely the signed public document. My many points of contention will be enumerated below, after I affirm the Catholic essentials. Trent's decrees comprise magisterial doctrinal assertions to which we must give full submission of will and intellect (see Dei Verbum, Vatican II). As for slander, I am doing nothing other than opposing their teachings, judging them according to public revelation on an objective level. I love truth and I love the souls of the faithful in God's Church, which is why I continue to defend the faith as a lay person against fraudulent doctrines which are paraded as "common ground."

They have organized a joint statement on our common ground as Evangelicals and Catholics. They have included in it multiple statements which are directly or indirectly referring to the Reformed understanding of justification by faith alone.

As such, I reject it. The virtue of faith given me demands I reject error affirmed as truth, or truths which are stripped of their core meanings by ambiguous and confusing definitions.

I look forward to a U-TURN in this document's overly Protestant formulations of justification. As for all faithful Catholics, this doctrine of justification of sola fide is a rejection of the Catholic notion of sanctifying grace and the life of divine sonship it enkindles. See the Council of Trent and the new Catechism on these important matters.

They may not consciously reject Trent, but they may have inadvertantly slipped into a false teaching. Certainty I am not judging their intentions, but their teaching alone.

These matters are seriously important to both Evangelicals and Catholics. I encourage constant dialogue on these matters to further the cause of a true ecumenical effort, not watering down the doctrines of our beloved faith but further developing the dogmas affirmed by the magisterium.

Now I will hold up our Catholic essentials in regards to grace and justification to set the state for a critique of ECTII.

(These are taken from Fr.Most's work "Catholic Beliefs: The Bottom Line.")
1)Internal grace, not just external help, is required for all actions conducive to salvation.

2)Internal grace, called "actual grace" in this instance, is necessary even to get a religious thought leading to salvation.

3)Internal grace (actual grace) is necessary even to make a good act of the will leading to salvation.

4)A person is not completely passive under the influence of actual grace, yet even the human cooperation is a gift of God.

5)Justification involves passing from the state of a merely natural child of Adam to that of an adopted child of God (definition also given in Session 6, ch.4, Trent).

6)The faith,hope,love and repentance that come before justification cannot be obtained unless the grace of the Holy Spirit is given before these virutues.

7)Justification-getting right with God, into a state that will bring final justification- comes by faith, but that faith consists of more than just believing or having confidence that Christ died for our sins.

8)The faith that justifies must be the kind that "works through love" (Gal.5:6); otherwise it is a faith without works that is "dead (James 2:17)."

9)We do not merit our own justification; Christ did that.

10)Once we have been justified without merit of our own, then the possession of that state of justification merits heaven.

11)Justification makes us sharers of the divine nature, so that we have the radical capability of having the vision of God, face-to-face in heaven, of knowing and loving him as directly as he knows and loves himself, though not, of course, in the same infinite degree.

With these points in mind, here are some of the ECT quotes that I find to be problematic from a Catholic point of view (my comments follow each quote, with excerpts taken from paragraps 7-12 in the document):

a)"In justification, God, on the basis of Christ's righteousness alone, declares us to be no longer his rebellious enemies but his forgiven friends, and by virtue of his declaration it is so. .."

Comment#1-

This is troublesome since we are made righteous in justification, made children of God (Catholic essential #5 and #11). We are not merely declared righteous, but changed intrinsically (Romans 5:18-19). Is this a common indication of imputed righteousness by God's declarative act alone, as in the Protestant notion? It sure seems that way. The language is loaded. The immediate question in my mind is "Is this just a legal fiction?" Where is the idea of being infused with divine grace? To omit the central notion of sanctifying grace is to diminish from the central Catholic definition of justification (Catholic essential #5), the distinctive feature of the Catholic gospel.

b)"Faith is not merely intellectual assent but an act of the whole person, involving the mind, the will, and the affections, issuing in a changed life. We understand that what we here affirm is in agreement with what the Reformation traditions have meant by justification by faith alone (sola fide)."

Comment#2-

It is interesting they are not defining faith as Luther did, but they are still continuing to assert that we are justified as Luther meant (by faith alone). We are justified by a faith which is working in love (Galatians 5:6, and Catholic essential #8). For a Catholic to accept the notion of faith alone is to incur the anathema of The Council of Trent, session 6, Canon 9: "If anyone says that the sinner is justified by faith alone, meaning that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to obtain the grace of justification, and that it is not in any way necessary that he be prepared and disposed by the action of his own will, let him be anathema." Notice these writers did not include the concept of meritorious works of love being part of Christian justification. This is the common Protestant omission which, of course, is clearly contradicted by James 2:24- "not by faith alone" and Romans 2:13- "the doers of the law will be justified." This is also seen in Catholic essential #7 above, which basically reminds us that more is needed than simple confidence in Christ's meritorious atonement for the sins of the world.

c) "The grace of Christ and the gift of the Spirit received through faith (Galatians 3:14) are experienced and expressed in diverse ways by different Christians and in different Christian traditions, but God's gift is never dependent upon our human experiences or our ways of expressing that experience.. "

Comment #3-

The real trouble with this statement is the absolutistic assertion "never dependent upon our human experiences or ways of expressing that experience." This is basically the Protestant denial of synergism- the Catholic notion that divine grace and human activity must cooperate. Once again, the idea that faith alone is all that is needed is implied. There is no concept of divine sonship or the meritorious works of the regenerate man included in this doctrinal statement, a problem for all faithful Catholics. We need to cooperate with grace and persevere to the end in the state of sanctifying grace to receive our ultimate justification, another massive omission in the document (seen above in Catholic essential #4). We also get a sense in the document in paragraphs 7-12 that the writers wanted to drive home the idea of assurance of salvation. There is little stress on the need to persevere in grace, asserted clearly at Trent, session 6, chapter 13.

In sum, there is much confusion to be spread by these overly Protestant conceptions of grace and justification, not including the core idea of divine sonship, grace as possessing God's own divine life in the soul, the necessity of faith which works in love, and perseverence as a key element to our ultimate justification.

JohnD'Arcy February 8th,1998