Monday, August 18, 2025

Yes, it is Catholic dogma that God sincerely wills all people to be saved and provides sufficient grace for salvation, while also respecting human freedom to accept or reject this grace, thereby allowing for the possibility of damnation 1 2 3 5 6 10.


God's Universal Salvific Will and Sufficient Grace

The Catholic Church teaches that God "wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim 2:4) 27 10. This is understood as God's "antecedent will" for salvation, meaning His desire for all creatures to achieve beatitude 3 5. To this end, God offers "sufficient grace" to all, which is a genuine movement of the will, a positive influx of natural being and grace, intended to lead a creature to justification, sanctification, and eternal life 1. This grace is truly sufficient because it provides a genuine inclination and movement that the human will can either embrace or resist 1.


Human Freedom and the Possibility of Resistance

While God offers sufficient grace to all, human beings retain their freedom to accept or reject it 1 2 3 5 6 8 10. The Church, in response to Jansenism, explicitly rejected the notion of grace as an "irresistible" force, affirming that the human will can either resist or submit to grace 2 5. This possibility of resistance is inherent in creaturely freedom, which, though continually maintained by God, includes the capacity to deviate from the motions of nature and grace that would lead to glory 3.


The Origin of Moral Evil

The refusal of grace and the commission of moral evil originate solely from the creature's free will, not from God 1 3 4 5 6. God sustains the very action of the creature who sins, but He is not the cause of the moral deformation of this act 4. Sin implies a privation of goodness, stemming uniquely from the sinner's disordered will 4. God permits creatures to resist His grace, allowing them to contradict His "ordered will" for salvation, but this does not violate His omnipotence 4.


Consequent Will and Judgment

God's "consequent will" refers to His judgment of the creature in light of its moral choices 3 6. If a person is not saved, the fault lies with them for freely refusing God's advance 6. The Church has never declared the damnation of any specific person, but it maintains that hell is a genuine possibility for every individual, emphasizing the seriousness of human liberty and the eternal consequences of one's decisions 10.

[1] Von Balthasar and Journet on the Universal Possibility of Salvation and the Twofold Will of God page30

[2] Vatican II and the Church’s “Openness to the World” The Magisterium

[3] Von Balthasar and Journet on the Universal Possibility of Salvation and the Twofold Will of God page13

[4] Von Balthasar and Journet on the Universal Possibility of Salvation and the Twofold Will of God page18

[5] Von Balthasar and Journet on the Universal Possibility of Salvation and the Twofold Will of God page19

[6] Some Current Questions in Eschatology 10.3

[7] Premotion, Holiness, and Pope Benedict XIII (1724–30): Some Historical Retrospects on Veritatis Splendor page18

[8] Teleology, Divine Governance, and the Common Good— Reflections on the ITC’s The Search for Universal Ethics: A New Look at Natural Law page10

[9] Von Balthasar and Journet on the Universal Possibility of Salvation and the Twofold Will of God page20

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