By Bob Sullivan
For centuries, the Church has taught that there is no salvation outside the Church. To non-Catholic Christians, this is a tough teaching to hear and many lash out at the Church because of it. To such a Christian, they find it hard to believe that they could end up in Hell, because they know that they love Jesus Christ and try to follow Christ’s teachings to the best of their ability.
I get it. I also found it hard to accept. I know many non-Catholic Christians who are excellent examples of discipleship. Their prayer life is admirable. They faithfully practice many corporal and spiritual works of mercy. They worship God on Sunday with obvious devotion, and their conversations are so peppered with Scripture, that it is undeniable that they spend time with the Bible each day. I have always found it hard to accept that such a person has no chance of salvation because they are not a member of the Catholic Church. Yet as a Catholic, I am bound to accept the teaching.
Therefore, I studied it. And I have found that some may truly be doomed because of their own decisions, but they also have every opportunity to receive eternal salvation, and if they do, they will receive it through the Church. I’ll use a five-point list to illuminate this, even though there are probably many more points which could be on the list.
1. The Church is the Body of Christ. In John 14:6, Christ said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” This shows us what the Church means when it teaches that there is no salvation outside the Church. The Church is the Body of Christ, and there is no way to the Father, except through Christ.
2. Jesus did not desire various styles or traditions, much less numerous religions or Churches. Read John 17 and note Christ’s references to unity and “one.”
3. In John 10:11-18, Jesus told the Apostles, and us, that He is the Good Shepherd: “I lay down my life for my sheep... I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”
4. It makes no sense that Jesus endured the agony, abandonment, humiliation, and anguish of the Passion, so people who reject Him will be saved. To do so would be to disagree with God’s purpose for sending Jesus to us: “... so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16) Yes, many non-Catholics believe in Jesus and the one God, but recall the teaching referenced in #1 above – The Church is the Body of Christ – then recall James 2:19 “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder.” There is more to this than belief.
5. What truth and goodness do the non-Catholic Christian religions profess, which were not first professed and taught by the Catholic Church? (see Fr. Michael Schmitz video, “Aren’t All Churches The Same?” Ascension Press Media 2016)
So do all these points mean that a person must be a baptized, practicing Catholic in order to be saved? In his encyclical on the Mystical Body of Christ, the Venerable Pope Pius XII provides something helpful toward an answer to this question: “... those are to be included as members of the Church who have been baptized and profess the true faith, and who have not been so unfortunate as to separate themselves from the unity of the Body, or been excluded by legitimate authority for grave faults committed.”
So, yes. However, we can still have hope for people:
a) Who are not Christian.
b) Who were baptized Catholic, but have since separated themselves, or have been separated from the Church due to grave sin. And,
c) For non-Catholic Christians who have rejected the Church by misinterpreting Matthew 16:18-19 and other scripture passages, Church documents, and historical events. Even those who have attacked the Church as the Whore of Babylon, and other misguided allegations.
Pope Pius XII explains some of God’s “Plan A” for our salvation (your salvation). “Plan A” includes the greatest gift we can have after Jesus and the Eucharist: The Church. It is in the Church where the faithful have every tool, weapon, resource, and grace, we need in order to receive the gift of eternal salvation. I need every bit of assistance the Church offers. Some may receive eternal salvation without some of these things, but no one will receive eternal salvation without any of these things.
Here the old adage applies: Better safe than sorry. In other words, on the matter of your eternity, it would be foolish to turn down divine assistance from God Himself and rely instead on your human will and intellect.
Now for the hope we can have for those outside the Church: “Plan B.” St. Thomas Aquinas and other theologians have taught that invincible ignorance is a state in which people such as Catholics who have separated themselves from the Church, Protestants, the mentally compromised, non-Christians, and very young children, have never heard Christ’s teachings not because they refuse to believe, but rather because they have not yet (by no fault of their own) had an opportunity to hear and experience it.
That certainly provides us with some hope for loved ones, friends, co-workers, and acquaintances who do not appear to be faithful Catholics. Maybe they, through no fault of their own, have never heard the truth. In Part 2 of this column, we’ll pick up there.
