A Blog for Dallas Area Catholics

Did von Baltasar always plan a revolution in the Church? May 24, 2013

My good friend and reader Steve B pointed out to me an excerpt from Dr. Ralph Martin’s explosive (in terms of blowing up errors) new book, Will Many Be Saved, which discusses the Church’s traditional beliefs regarding the number of the elect, and takes a very critical view of the modernist pretensions towards “universal salvation.”   This view became very popular in the 2nd half of the 20th century (and sadly still is), and it’s chief proponent was the curiously popular Hans Urs von Baltasar.  Von Baltasar was unquestionably modernist, and was one of the voices pushing for a radical restructuring of the Church from the 50s on.  But it was not until I read this excerpt from Martin’s book that the depth of his desire for a radical reformating of the Church hit home.  The following text is from p. 166 of Martin’s book, and consists of a quote taken from Eberhard Busch’s book Karl Barth: His Life from Letters and Autobiographical Texts, pp. 361-2.

This quote below is a direct statement quoted by Busch in his book on Barth – confusing, I know!

There is some indication, as one might expect would be the case, of Balthasar himself being more open about what he privately held with those he supposed would be sympathetic to his views, and more guarded in his published writings. [Which tends to be the case with revolutionaries. If the public or those in authority knew what they really thought, there is (or was) a strong probability that they would be removed from their position of influence. Thus, better to be circumspect and work behind the scenes as much as possible to advance one’s agenda]  Barth’s biographer, Eberhard Busch, relates several such conversations between Barth and Balthasar, who lived in proximity to each other in Basel.  In a conversation with Barth, Balthasar is reported as saying:  “That’s all right, at last we’re quite alone and one can say what one thinks.”Busch further reports on the basis of Barth’s recollections:  “Balthasar first remarked: ‘The dogmas is that hell exists, not tht people are in it.‘ [Ummm…….I would argue that the Church believes that there are souls in hell. That was certainly the view held by the overwhelming majority of Doctors, Saints, and theologians for 2000 years]  At any rate, on these evenings Barth discovered to his amazemant a Catholic theologian who, he said, ‘envisioned a kind of reformation of the Catholic Church and of a Catholic theology from within.  And now I was to be introduced like a new Trojan horse to bring it about (against Thomas and also against Augustine!)’ “

That Trojan Horse line is sure to set traditional Catholics hair on end, evoking Dietrich von Hildebrand’s classic study of the revolution in the Church, The Trojan Horse in the City of God. Now, the above is a quote of a quote, but is certainly very interesting. It definitely goes along with what actually occurred in the Church, where a Council was held and then, to many minds, hijacked to produce a result far different from the original intent. And there were certain players who helped bring about that result, von Baltasar being one of them. That he later recoiled from what he had helped bring about and adopted a more orthodox viewpoint is immaterial: as the revolution was coalescing and then actually occurring, he was definitely one of its main ideological supporters.

And, as my friend Steve B maintains, there is probably no more root, nor more disastrous, error in the Church today than that of universal salvation.  For if all are saved, then things like Dogma, Liturgy, Authority……..they don’t really matter any more, do they? How many former Catholics fell away from the Faith after becoming infected with this kind of thinking? How many nominal Catholics who remain regularly engage in grave sin due to their being taught that it doesn’t matter, since everyone short of Stalin or Mao goes to Heaven?

And, if you want to produce a “one world” universalist, indifferentist religion, sources of division are going to have to go.  The idea that those outside the Catholic Faith are, at the very best, in a very perilous state with regard to salvation, was one of those very divisive beliefs.  On a human level, if you want to produce a revolution in people’s thinking, in their actions, and in the makeup of the culture itself, getting them to believe that, contrary to 2000 years of doctrine, no one really goes to hell, is a very good place to start.

Unfortunately, von Baltasar’s beliefs, which Dr. Martin shows to be totally counter to the Tradition, are very widely accepted, even by many in the hierarcy. Or especially by many in the hierarchy. If you wonder why error, heresy, and even apostasy are so rarely dealt with in a just manner, well……if you’re a bishop or cardinal, and you believe everyone goes to Heaven, would you stick your neck out to impose an ecclesial penalty on a heretical Catholic politician, when, in the end, it doesn’t make any difference?

Something for you to ponder over this long weekend.