THE MAIL

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Brenton Welling Jr's article "St. Benedict's Explains Its Doctrine," in the September 27 issue of the CRIMSON covered the facts of the controversy very well, but in his one sentence summary of the official Catholic position he made an error of omission. Basing his statement on the latest edition of the Baltimore Cathecism, he wrote "The relevant part of the Cathecism says in effect that all that posses God's grace, even if they are not actual members of the Church, are considered as belonging to the soul of the Church and thus can achieve salvation." This paraphrase of paragraph 168 of the Baltimore Cathecism, no. 3, 1949, seems to be accurate enough. But in paragraph 166 (page 129) one reads.

No one can be saved without sanctifying grace and the Catholic Church alone is the divinely established means by which grace is brought to the world and the full fruits of Our Lord's Redemption are applied to men.

The conclusion seems to be that though one may be saved which not a member of the Catholic Church he can do so only through the agency of the Church. Bernard Ballyn '46