Placuit Deo is a “beautiful expression of the Gospel,” regarding two “current problems,” says Dr Michael Sirilla, Director of Graduate Theology and Professor of Dogmatic Theology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville….<\/p>\n
Dr Sirilla explains that\u00a0Placuit Deo<\/i>\u00a0provides a response and meaning to two problems that Pope Francis has brought up several times in his pontificate, especially in\u00a0Evangelii Gaudium<\/a><\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Lumen Fidei<\/a><\/i>. He explains that the document correctly clarifies that these two problems, Neo-Pelagianism and Neo-Gnosticism, are not identical to their classical counterparts, but that there are \u201cpoints of contact.\u201d Dr Sirilla says that the document also interprets and communicates well Pope Francis\u2019 teaching in this area.<\/p>\n Dr Sirilla defines neo-pelagianism as the \u201cend result of the modern project. We can save ourselves\u201d perhaps imitating Christ but not through his power at work in us. \u201cWe ourselves attain salvation by our own efforts.\u201d Neo-Gnosticism is the \u201cview that the flesh and the created order are meaningless and purposeless.\u201d Salvation is interior and subjective. \u201cWe need to be liberated from the flesh and the created order and from its absurdity.\u201d<\/p>\n The response to these problems, provided in\u00a0Placuit Deo<\/i>\u00a0is that \u201cwe cannot save ourselves and the created order does have meaning.\u201d The Letter addresses Neo-Pelagianism by affirming what the Declaration\u00a0Dominus Iesus<\/i>\u00a0already declared, that \u201csalvation for all humans is found only in Jesus Christ.\u201d\u00a0How\u00a0<\/i>Jesus saves us is a response to Neo-Gnosticism\u2014he does so \u201cprecisely in His flesh which He sacrificed on the cross.\u201d We receive this salvation sacramentally through the Church that Christ established. We receive divine life \u201cby means of the visible, tangible Jesus Christ in His mystical body, the Church. And the sacraments\u2026communicate grace visibly to us.\u201d<\/p>\n