Council of Trent’s teaching:
Decree
of Justification Ch. III For as in truth
men, if they were not
born propagated of the seed of Adam, would not be born
unjust,
--seeing that, by that propagation, they contract through
him, when
they are conceived, injustice as their own,--so, if they
were not born
again in Christ, they never would be justified; seeing
that, in that new
birth, there is bestowed upon them, through the merit of
His
passion, the grace whereby they are made just. For this
benefit
the apostle exhorts us, evermore to give thanks to the
Father, who
hath made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the
saints in
light, and hath delivered us from the power of darkness,
and hath
translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love, in
whom we
have redemption, and remission of
sins.
Church’s teaching: both before and
since the Reformation the Church
faithfully taught that original sin wounded human nature, but
through faith and Baptism, total regeneration is
accomplished and
men are divinized--given a share of the Divine Life
Itself.