THE NECESSITY OF THE CHURCH AND THE
EFFICACY OF PRAYER
In the present status of sacred theology we are badly in need
of a work of integration in the study of the dogma that the
Catholic Church is, by Gods own institution, definitely necessary
for the attainment of eternal salvation. It would seem that the
Holy Office letter, the Suprema haec sacra, addressed on Aug.
8, 1949, to His Excellency the Most Reverend Archbishop of
Boston,1 offers us the way to a most fruitful work of theological
integration. There is every reason to take advantage of that
opportunity.

The work of theological integration is the procedure which the
Vatican Council described as characteristic of the sacred science.
According to the Council, “When reason, enlightened by faith,
carefully, religiously, and soberly seeks, by God’s help, some
understanding of the mysteries, it achieves a most fruitful under­
standing both by way of analog}' with what is known in a natural
way, and from the connection of the mysteries among themselves
and with man’s last end.’’2 Thus, when we compare a mystery
of the faith with other divinely revealed truths, especially with
those most intimately connected with the dogma we are studying,
we may, if we institute and carry on that process of comparison
rightly and prayerfully, arrive at an exceedingly valuable intellec­
tual insight into that mystery.
Most intimately connected with the dogma of the necessity of
the Church for the attainment of eternal salvation are the dogmas
on the nature of the Church, on the meaning of salvation, on
the redemptive work through which salvation is achieved, and
on the status of sin which is the terminus a quo in the process ot
salvation. Likewise connected with this dogma, and most closely
associated with it, are the divinely revealed teachings about the
other realities which, like the Church itself, are presented to us
in the divine message as factors apart from which salvation is
1 The complete Latin text and the authorized English translation of the
Suprema haec sacra are in AER, CXXVII, 4 (Oct,, 1952), 307-15.
-Demi., 1796.
336

NECESSITY OF CHURCH AND EFFICACY OF PRAYER 337

not to be attained. .Among these we mat' mention faith, charity,
baptism, the Eucharist, and prayer.
The Suprema- hacc sacra lets us look at the dogma of the
Church’s necessity for salvation in the perspective of the necessity
of faith, charity, and prayer. It is especially on this last point,
the explanation of the dogma of the Church’s necessity for salva­
tion in the light of the Catholic teaching on the necessity and the
efficacy of prayer, that the Holy Office letter has opened the way
for a more effective explanation of this portion of ecclesiology.
The tact that a man can be saved if he is sincerely desirous of
entering the true Church, even when this desire is only implicit,
has long been a part of Catholic teaching about the true Kingdom
of God on earth. Up until the time of the issuance of the Suprema
haec sacra, however, this Catholic teaching had been set forth
explicitly only in manuals of sacred theology and in books of
Christian doctrine. The Suprema haec sacra was the first author­
itative document of the ecclesiastical -magisterium to bring out this
teaching in an explicit form.3 This is what has made the letter a
document of primary importance.
The Suprema haec sacra contains these statements :

That one may obtain eternal salvation, it is not always required
that he be incorporated into the Church actually as a member, but it
is necessary that at least he be united to her by desire and longing.
However, this desire need not always be explicit, as it is in
catechumens ; but when a person is involved in invincible ignorance,
God accepts also an implicit desire (implicitum vatum), so called
because it is included in that good disposition of soul whereby a
person wishes his will to be conformed to the will of God.4

With reference to this va turn or desiderium the Holy Office
letter adds this essentially important teaching.
But it must not be thought that any kind of desire or entering the
Church suffices that one may be saved. It is necessary that the desire
by which one is related to the Church be animated by pertect charity.
Xor can an implicit desire produce its effect unless a person has
supernatural faith. . . ,®

3 Cl. Fenton, “The Holy Office Letter on the Necessity of the Catholic
Church,” AER, CXXVIl/ô (Dec., 1952), 450AÎ.
MEÆ, CXXVII, 4 (Oct., 1952), 313.
5 ibid., 314.

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Furthermore, the Suprema haec sacra calls our attention tn
the fact that there are other realities of the supernatural or-f.r
which can be called truly necessary for salvation with the necesûty
of means and which, like the Church, can, under certain circum­
stances, produce their effect when a man who cannot actually
use them desires sincerely to employ them. These realities are
necessary means for salvation because God has so instituted them,
and not because they are requisite for salvation with intrinsic
necessity. Here is the teaching of the Holy Office letter on this
subject.

In His infinite merer God has willed that the effects, necessary for
one W be saved, of those helps to salvation which are directed toward
man's final end, not by intrinsic necessity, but only by divine institu­
tion. can also be obtained in certain circumstances when those helps
are used only In desire and longing. This we see clearly stated in the
Sacred Council of Trent, both in reference to the Sacrament of Regen­
eration and in reference to the Sacrament of Penance.6
The “certain circumstances” of which the Suprema haec sacra
speaks are present when an individual is really unable to be bap­
tized or to go to confession before his death. A man placed in
such a position can attain to the Beatific Vision through the
sincere desire or will to receive these sacraments. This is possible
even when that desire or will is implicit rather than explicit,
that is, when the individual does not possess a clear understanding
of the revealed doctrine about the Sacraments of Baptism and of
Penance, and only desires them in an obscure or confused manner
as things which God wills that he should receive. When a man
who has tree supernatural faith and genuine charity desires, in
his love of friendship for God, to do all God demands of him for
his eternal salvation, he implicitly desires baptism, entrance into
'.lie Church, or the Sacrament of Penance, even though he should
have no exact knowledge of the Church or of the sacraments.
If he should die before he can actually be baptized, actually be
received into the Church, or actually go to confession, his desire
!< rewired by God’s mercy, and he will be saved, through the
C hurch and through the sacraments.
«Τκί., 313.

NECESSITY OF CHURCH AXD EFFICACY OF PRAYER 339

Likewise, and even more obviously, a catechumen who desires
to be baptized, a non-Catholic who desires to be received into
the Catholic Church, or one of the faithful who has been guilt}'
of mortal sin committed after Baptism and unforgiven by sacra­
mental absolution can be saved if, with genuine faith and charity,
they die before they have the opportunity to avail themselves of
these divine gifts. In all of these cases the motion or the desiderium
of the individual is accomplished by God’s own mercy. All of
these individuals can be saved, not independently of the Church
and of the sacraments, but precisely in and through the Church
and the sacraments, possessed in a sincere will or desire.
Now it is precisely at this point that the Suprema haec sacra
has opened the way' to an important advance in the field of
scholastic theology. In stressing the fact that there are certain
gifts which God has instituted as necessary for salvation with the
necessity' of means, gifts which, under certain circumstances, can
he effective for a man who sincerely desires them but is unable
actually to obtain them, the Holy Office letter has invited theo­
logians to bring their thesis on the necessity of the Church for
salvation into contact with that portion of sacred doctrine that
deals with the efficacy of prayer.
The theology' of prayer tells us of the way in which a pétition
made to God, an expression of man’s sincere desire, can, m the
merciful designs of God’s providence, actually be the cause ot
the benefit man begs from God. And, in all the extent of sacred
rheology, there is no mention of any agency other than prayer
which can make a man’s desire or intention unfailingly efficacious
in obtaining from God a benefit w hich He alone can grant.
The Suprema haec sacra reiterates the Catholic dogma tint there
is no salvation whatsoever outside of the true Church of Jesus

Christ.7 According to this teaching, then, a man who dies "outside
'S’ the Catholic Church simply will not obtain the Beatific λ ision.
At the same time, however, this letter assures us that salvation
is possible, under certain circumstances, for a man who has a
:viawt or a desiderium of entering the Church and remaining within
it. It insists furthermore that this can be true even when the
Mum or desiderium is merely implicit.

■Irdd, 312.

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Hence it follows that an act of the human will which is a
desire to be within the Catholic Church can, when certain condi­
tions have been fulfilled, be infallibly efficacious. Λ non-Catholic
who wishes to be within the Church is granted his wish even
though he dies before he has the opportunity to be baptized or
to be received publicly into the Church. If he is saved, he is
actually one who has passed from this life “within” the true
Church of God. To use the terminology7 of the Council of Florence,
he is one of those who have been ‘‘incorporated (aggregati)"
into the true Church before their death? His own desire or inten­
tion must be considered as in a certain way a true efficient cause
of this incorporation or aggregation into the Catholic Church.
We must not lose sight of the tact that the object of the votwn
or desiderium of which the Holy Office letter speaks is “to be
within the Church in such a way as to obtain eternal salvation.”
This is precisely the benefit obtained by the person who desires
or wills it, even though he passes from this life before he has
had the opportunity to receive the Sacrament of Baptism or
canonical reconciliation with the Church. It is obviously a benefit
quite beyond the limits of mans natural competence. As a reality
of the intrinsically supernatural order, it is a favor which only
God can grant.
The Church is the assembly of those called, of the vocati.
According to St. Robert Bellarmine: “The people of God is
designated as the assembly of the called (coetus vocatorum)
because no one joins this people by his own efforts (per se) or of
his own accord, but all who come do so by reason of a previous
invitation from God.”B To be “within” the Church is thus a
gift from God, something which a man obtains only with the
help of divine grace. The votum or the desiderium of entering the
Church and of remaining within it is an act of the will moved by
God’s grace. And, if that votum or desiderium is in any way
efficacious of itself, it is only because it is expressed to God in
an act of prayer, the petitio decentium a Deo.10
a Dene., 714.
0 De ecclesia militante, cap. 1.
10 The classical theological definition of prayer is that formulated by St.
John Damascene in his work On the Orthodox Faith, Book III, cap. 24:
“Prayer is the raising of the mind to God, or the petition of fitting things
from God.” Cf. Fenton, The Theology of Prayer (Milwaukee: The Bruce
Publishing Company, 1939), pp. 1-15.

NECESSITY OF CHURCH AND EFFICACY OF PRAYER 341

This aspect of the teaching on the necessity of the Church
for salvation is brought out quite clearly in what has always been
regarded as the classical patristic text on the subject. The tra­
ditional Catholic explanation of the truth that a man who sincerely
desires to be baptized and to enter the true Church can be saved
even though he dies before he has the opportunity of receiving
the Sacrament of Baptism has employed the terms used by St
Ambrose in his sermon De obitu Valentiniani. Here we find the
notions of votum and desiderium used along with the idea of
petitio. The following is a translation of the pertinent paragraph
in St. Ambrose’s sermon.

But I hear that you are sorrowing· because he [the Emperor
Valentinian II] did not receive the rites of Baptism. Tell me, what
else is there in us but will, but petition? Now quite recently it was
his intention to be baptized before he came into Italy. He let it
be known that he wanted me to baptize him very soon, and it was
tor that reason above all others that he decided to have me summoned.
Does be not, then, have the grace he desired? Does he not have
what he prayed for ? Surely, because he prayed for it, he has received
it Hence it is that “the soul of the just man will be at rest, whatever
kind of death may' overtake him.'’11
What St. Ambrose taught in this passage was and is the tradi­
tional doctrine of the Catholic Church. Hence it is most interesting
and enlightening to learn that here he equates the desire of
baptism, the desire to be within the true Church, and prayer
for this favor. The key to all of his teaching on this point is his
assertion that “Surely, because he prayed for it, he has received
it.” The emperor’s intention to receive baptism and to dwell
within the true Church was effective precisely because that intention
or desire had been expressed to God in the form of prayer.
There is absolutely no reason to suppose that the teaching
contained in the Suprema haec sacra is to be interpreted otherwise.
Now, as in the time of St. Ambrose, a man's will or desire to
enter the Church can be effective, even when he dies before he is
able to be received into this society sacramentally or canonically,
when this will or desire is presented to God in the petition of
true Christian prayer. This remains true when the desire and
11 St. Ambrose, De obitu Valentiniani, 51.

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the prayer to enter the true Church is implicit within the intention
and the petition for the glory of God and for the attainment of
our own eternal salvation.
The Suprema haec sacra has reminded us that the desire or
will to enter the Church can suffice for the attainment of salvation
only when it is enlightened by supernatural faith and motivated
by perfect charity. This teaching also implies that such an effective
will or desire must be something presented to God in prayer, the
petition of fitting things from God. It seems quite obvious that
a man who is guided by the light of divine faith and animated by
the love of charity for God will realize that his own natural powers
will not suffice to bring him into the supernatural kingdom of
Christ in such a way as to obtain eternal salvation. Such an indi­
vidual would be quite aware of the fact that eternal salvation and
all of the supernatural aids requisite for its attainment are favors
which he can obtain only from God, and, ultimately, only as favors
which he must beg or petition from God. He will, as a matter
of fact, ask God for such favors in the act of prayer.

Thus, by the very nature of the case, the will or desire to enter
the true Church, spoken of in the Sit prema haec sacra, tends to
be and actually becomes a petition made to God, an act of Christian
prayer. Any man who, as a result of his will or desire to enter
the Church, is brought “within” this society in such a way as to
attain salvation in it receives this favor, as St. Ambrose has said,
“because he prayed for it.”
There are two highly important lessons to be drawn from this
connection between the votum or the desiderium of entering the
true Church and the petition of Christian prayer. The first is
the fact that the will or desire achieves its effectiveness precisely
from the unfailing efficacy and the real necessity of prayer itself.
The second is the truth that the characteristics by which prayer
itself becomes unfailingly efficacious must belong to the will or
desire of entering the Church which can, under certain circum­
stances, suffice for the attainment of eternal salvation. First we
should consider the Catholic doctrine on the efficacy and the
necessity of prayer.

The efficacy of prayer is something which Our Lord Himself
has guaranteed. This teaching is summed up in Our Lord’s
declaration : “Therefore I say unto you, all things whatsoever you

NECESSITY OF CHURCH AND EFFICACY OF FRAYER 3-Î3

ask when ye pray, believe that you shall receive: and they shall
come unto you.”12 There is also this teaching from Our Divine
Master :
Ask. and it shall be given you : seek, and you shall find : knock, and
it shall be opened to you.
For every one that asketh, receiveth: and he that seeketh, findeth:
and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.13

Finally, there is this unqualified assertion made by Our Blessed
Lord. “And all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer believ­
ing, you shall receive.”14 The things which can be obtained with
infallible efficacy through the act of prayer are objects which it
is fitting to ask of Cod. They are realities of which we are
aware and which we recognize as desirable in the light of true
Christian faith. It is quite clear that inclusion within the true
Church of God, being within His supernatural kingdom in the
way that leads to eternal salvation, is one of these objects.
Another aspect of the teaching on the necessity of the Catholic
Church for the attainment of eternal salvation is brought out by
considering this doctrine in the light of the Catholic teaching about
the necessity of prayer itself Our Lord Himself told us that “We
ought always to pray, and not to faint.”13 St. Paul insisted that
we should “pray without ceasing.”1® The Second Council of
Orange brought out this scriptural teaching very clearly in its
statement that “Even people who are baptized and in the state
of grace must always implore God’s help so that they may come
to a good end or so that they may persevere in good conduct”17
Obviously, according to the teaching of the Council and according
to Catholic doctrine itself, prayer is no less necessary for people
who are not baptized and for those who have not as yet entered
into the true Church. In other words, it is Catholic doctrine that
no adult can obtain the Beatific Vision apart from prayer, the
petitio decentium a Deo. For one who has reached the use of
reason, prayer is necessary for the attainment of eternal salvation.
It is important to note that this prayer, apart from which the
attainment of man’s eternal salvation is impossible, is precisely
an act in which a creature, moved by God’s grace, begs Him for
11:24.
1S Luhc, 18:1.

'3 Maith., 7:7-8.
15I Thea., 5:17.

™ Maith., 21:22.

17 Dfflx, 183.

■y
Π

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the gift of salvation and for those things which are or which
he believes to be necessary for or conducive to the possession of
man's ultimate end. The model or the chart of all true prayer to
God is to be found in the Pater noster, the formula Our Lord
taught to His disciples after they had asked Him how they were
to pray,ES When this petition is made properly—in other words,
when the petition is truly an act of prayer—it is unfailingly effec­
tive for the attainment of salvation itself and the factors which
are, either by intrinsic necessity or by divine institution, requisite
for the possession of the Beatific Vision. Entrance into the true
Church before the moment of death, the condition in which a
man is "within” rather than "outside of” the true Church at the
instant he passes from this life, is something which is by divine
institution requisite for the attainment of eternal salvation. Hence
it is something with reference to which the true act of prayer is
unfailingly effective.
Furthermore, it must be distinctly understood that an act would
not be a prayer in the true and proper sense of the term if it
should exclude a petition that the one praying might dwell within
the supernatural kingdom of God. If such an intention or desire
were not included at least implicitly in a petition made to God,
that act would not be a petition of fitting things from God, and
it would certainly not be in accord with the model Our Lord
gave to us in the Pater noster. Thus, if a man who is not a
member of the Catholic Church actually prays to God, he thereby
begs God for the grace to enter the true Church of Jesus Christ
in such a way as thereby to achieve eternal salvation. The prayer
of a member of the Church necessarily includes, at least implicitly,
the petition that God may give us the grace of keeping us within
the company of Our Lord’s disciples.

So it is that, in the light of the theological truths which are
seen most clearly when we bring together and compare the dogma
of the necessity of the Catholic Church for salvation and the
Catholic doctrine about the act of prayer, it becomes apparent
that a man who achieves eternal salvation by a votum or a
desiderium of entering the true Church is actually one who has
prayed for this inclusion in the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ.
«Cf. Luke, 11:1-2; Matth.. 6:9.

NECESSITY OF CHURCH AND EFFICACY OF PRAYER 345

He must pray if he is to be saved. This petition is necessarily
a part of his prayer. _i:id his prayer, his petition of fitting things
from God, is, by God's own guarantee, infallibly efficacious.
It would likewise appear that this comparison between the
dogma of the necessity of the Church for the attainment of eternal
salvation and the Catholic doctrine on prayer can be the source
of a genuine and important contribution to sacred theology by
reason of the light that it throws on the nature of the co turn or
desiderium spoken of in the Suprema haec sacra. The theology
of prayer instructs us on the subject of the conditions which must
be verified in a petition made to God in order that this petition
may be unfailingly effective for the attainment of its objective—
m other words, in order that this petition may be most truly
and properly a prayer in the Christian sense of the term. Prayer
is infallibly efficacious (1} when it is offered for oneself; (2)
when it is offered for the gift of salvation or for something requisite
ior the attainment of salvation ; (3) when it is offered properly
or piously ; and (4) when it is persevering.19 If the intention or
desire of entering the Church and of remaining within it in such
a way as to obtain salvation is to be effective, this intention must
be contained in a petition to God and must be endowed with the
above properties.
Obviously when we are dealing with the votum ecclesiam
ingrediendi the first two of these conditions are automatically ful­
filled. The man who desires and prays to be within the Church
is manifestly’ praying for himself and the Church is certainly
necessary for the attainment of salvation. In order that this
intention or desire be infallibly effective, however, the prayer
into which it is incorporated must also conform to the other two
conditions.
The prayer and the desire expressed in the prayer must be
formulated piously or properly. This means that the intention
be enlightened by divine faith, that it be the expression of Christian
hope, that it be motivated by the love of God, and that it be
humble.20 The Suprema haec sacra has explicitly called our
attention to the fact that a desire to enter the Church can bring
men to salvation only when it is animated by perfect charity and
I» Ci, The Theology of Prayer, pp. 209-15.

20 Cf. ibid., pp. 212 £

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when it is based on supernatural faith. As St. Thomas’ Compen­
dium theologiae shows us so clearly, prayer itself is the expression
of Christian hope.21 The will to enter the Church in such a way
as to obtain eternal salvation is a difficult good which can only
be procured through the aid and grace of God. It is thus some­
thing within the object of hope, and something for which men
should and must pray. The humility which is requisite for suc­
cessful prayer is that of which St. Peter wrote: “And do you
all insinuate humility one to another : for God resisteth the proud,
but to the humble he giveth grace. Be you humbled, therefore,
under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in the time
of visitation.’’22 Where that humility is absent, a man’s conduct
cannot be pleasing to God.
The perseverance which must be present if prayer is to be
infallibly effective in attaining its object is the characteristic
that distinugishes a genuine intention from a mere velleity. The
Holy Office letter to the Most Reverend Archbishop of Boston
says that, under certain circumstances, a votu-m or desiderium
of entering the true Church will suffice for salvation when it is
impossible actually to become a member of the society of Our
Lord’s disciples. The important point is that this act must be
a genuine desire or intention rather than what is called a velleity.23
Now velleity' is an act of the will which we would express in
words by the statement that we would like to do something or
other. On the other hand, an intention is an act of the will which
we manifest when we state that we really mean to do it and are
setting out to do it. An intention is automatically and by its very
nature effective, not immediately of the object with which it is
concerned, but of a complex of attitudes and tendencies with
reference to that object. A genuine intention automatically cancels
out any project for another act which is seen as incompatible
with the object of the intention. The velleity very definitely does
not.
Thus, if I really intend to say Mass in a certain church
tomorrow morning, I automatically renounce any other project
which I recognize as inconsistent or incompatible with the saying
of Mass at that time and in that place. Thus, if I have this
Ά Ci St Thonas, Compendium theologiae, II, cap. 2.
— I Pet., 5 ; 5-6, 23 C£ The Theology oj Prayer, pp. 23 £

NECESSITY OF CHURCH AND EFFICACY OF PRAYER 347

intention, I necessarily put away any project of taking a trip
which would make it impossible for me to say this Mass. And,
on the other hand, if I go about making preparations for a trip
of this kind, and if I actually set out on the trip, it is an indication
that I had a velleity rather than an intention of saying the Mass
in the church I had originally planned.

Now it is obvious that the votum or the desiderium of entering
and remaining within the true Church must be something in the
line of an intention if it is to be effective in the way of eternal
salvation. The very use of the terms "votum” and “desiderium"
would have sufficed to make this clear. But further light is cast
on this truth by the fact that the votum or desiderium is something
meant to be expressed in an act of prayer, the petition of fitting
things from God.
The perseverance and the sincerity of an intention that goes
into a petitio decentium a Deo is unquestionable. Prayer is an
act of the virtue of religion, that virtue which disposes us to
give to God the tribute of acknowledgment and praise which is
His due. The humility of prayer is one way of paying that debt.
When we ask God for the favors we need from Him we are
thereby acknowledging His supreme dominion and excellence.

If, however, a man were to presume to beg God for something
which he did not really desire or will to have, the act would
objectively constitute an act of mockery of God, rather than an
act in which the tribute of reverence is paid to Him. Such an act
obviously would not be a prayer at all in the proper sense of
the term. It would certainly not be effective of its object in any
way. On the contrary, a votum or desiderium which is effective
of its object in the context of Christian prayer is definitely in the
class of an intention.

Finally, there is, in this comparison between the doctrines on
prayer and on the necessity of the Catholic Church for salvation,
a tremendously important insight into the way in which the
individual who desires and prays with the true prayer of Chris­
tian charity to be within the Church is actually contained in this
society. The first description we have of the Catholic Church,
gathered together after Our Lord’s ascension into heaven, is
contained in this passage from the Acts of the Apostles.

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Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount that is called
Olivet, which is nigh Jerusalem, within a sabbath day’s journey.

1

And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room,
where abode Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas,
Bartholomew and Matthew, James of Alpheus and Simon Zelotes
and Jude the brother of James.

All these were persevering with one mind in prayer, with the
women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.24

Thus from the very outset the Church appears as a society
united in prayer. The Eucharistic Sacrifice, which is properly the
act of the Mystical Body, the central work to which the Church
is devoted, is integrated into the process of prayer. Essentially
that petition is and always must be modelled upon the great
exemplar, the formula Our Lord taught His disciples when they
asked Him to teach them how to pray, the Pater noster.
Whatever new members were joined to the original company
of the disciples entered, by that veiy fact, into this basic work
of prayer. This is made abundantly clear by the report in the
Acts oj the Apostles on the converts who came into the Church
on the first Christian Pentecost.
And with many other words did he testify and exhort them, saying:
Save yourselves from this perverse generation.
They therefore that received his word were baptized: and there
were added in that day about three thousands souls.
And they were persevering in the doctrine of the apostles and in
the communication of the breaking of bread and in prayers.25

The man who, enlightened by divine faith and motivated by
perfect charity, prays to obtain from God the grace of entering
the Church in such a way as to attain eternal salvation is actually
taking part in this basic activity of the Church itself. All true
prayer is modelled on the exemplar of the Pater noster. It seeks
the glory of God in our own eternal salvation, and begs also for
those benefits which are necessary for or at least conducive to
the attainment of this ultimate purpose. When, moved by God’s
grace, a man who is not a member of the Church truly prays
that God’s will be done, he thereby takes part in a work of
«Air, 1:13-14.

2:4O4Z

NECESSITY OF CHURCH AND EFFICACY OF PRAYER 349

religion which is the function of the society of Our Lord’s disciples.
To that extent he is brought “within" the Church.
It is only through the possession of the sacramental character
of Baptism that a man is rendered capable of taking part in the
Eucharistic Sacrifice, and of receiving the Blessed Sacrament.
The desire or will to enter the Church, even when informed by
perfect charity, does not give that capacity, and does not confer
actual membership in the Church. But the union by and in the
act of Christian prayer can transfer a person from the condition
of being “outside the Church,’’ to a dwelling “within" it in such
a way as to obtain, in it, the gift of eternal life.
What has been said here about the place of prayer in the teaching
on the necessity of the Church for the attainment of eternal salva­
tion is, after all, one of the lessons brought out by Pope Pius IX
in one of his explanations of this dogma. In his allocution Singu­
lari quadam, delivered to the members of the hierarchy gathered
in Rome for the pronouncement of the dogma of Our Lady’s Im­
maculate Conception, the great Sovereign Pontiff ended his state­
ments about the possibility of salvation for those who are not mem­
bers of the true Church with the reminder that “the hand of the
Lord is not shortened and the gifts of heavenly grace will never be
lacking to those who sincerely wish and pray to be comforted in
this light.”2®
In issuing this reminder, Pope Pius IX took cognizance of the
fact that the will, desire, or intention of entering the true Church
so as to attain salvation within it is, in the order of God’s own
providence, meant to be effective by having this act of the will
expressed in the process of Christian prayer.
Joseph Cuffobd Fenton

The Catholic University oj America
Washington, D. C.

1648.