No Salvation Outside the Church?

A recent Facebook post linked to a story, "Popes declare salvation is only found in the Catholic Church", and the article does indeed link to a number of papal documents that, read out of context, would lead one to the conclusion that, if not Catholic, one goes to hell.

So, is this true?


In a word, no.


First, let me be clear that I am not advocating anyone leaving the Catholic Church. May it never be.


But, we must understand that the Catholic Church teaches that it is THE Church founded by Christ. All other churches and ecclesial bodies (I'll explain the difference in a minute) broke away from the Church, at one time or another.  You may disagree with this perspective, but, in order to understand what the popes are saying, you first of all must understand it.


The simple response to the accusation that only Catholics can be saved is found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, #838 and 846-848



838 "The Church knows that she is joined in many ways to the baptized who are honored by the name of Christian, but do not profess the Catholic faith in its entirety or have not preserved unity or communion under the successor of Peter." Those "who believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in a certain, although imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church."With the Orthodox Churches, this communion is so profound "that it lacks little to attain the fullness that would permit a common celebration of the Lord's Eucharist."

846 How are we to understand this affirmation (No salvation Outside the Church), often repeated by the Church Fathers? Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body:


Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.

847 This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:


Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.


848 "Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men."
So, does this mean that all who leave the Catholic Church are OK in doing so?  What about those who say it is a great sin?

I'm certainly not one to stand in judgment over another, but let me suggest this.


If someone knows that the Catholic Church is the Church Christ founded — not if they've heard it it and not really believed it; and not even if they used to believe it but have since come to disagree; but if they KNOW it — if such a person leave the Catholic Church, is there any way that we can say that they're not rejecting Christ?  I don't think so.

But, on the other hand, someone who was raised Catholic, who was poorly catechized, and only learned a Catholicism that was ritual and maybe some moral rules, but never experienced the Church as a living faith — what do we say of such a person who leaves the physical Church and joins a fundamentalist church where they find a living faith?  Can such a person be said to have abandoned Christ, or merely gone to a place where He is actually known and experienced, albeit imperfectly?  I would suggest the latter.

Ultimately, we can say that the Catholic Church (not just the Roman Catholic, but all the Eastern Catholic Churches) are where the Church is.  We cannot, however, say how far beyond its visible boundaries it may extend.  We can, however, trust God's mercy that it does indeed extend to all those who confess the Incarnation of our Lord and to the Most Holy Trinity. Wherever those truths are affirmed, we can expect find brothers and sisters who work out their salvation with fear and trembling, and look forward to the day that the Holy Spirit brings them home into a perfect communion with Christ's Church.



On the terms church and ecclesial community
With the advent of the Reformation, many Christian groups rejected the ministerial priesthood that had been accepted since the apostolic age, and that priesthood was lost in those groups.  As such, they have also lost the Eucharist and most of the other sacraments as well (i.e., those that require a priest), and thus cannot be called churches. 

However, the Church, recognizing that they are still Christian, and that clergy of those groups still function as ministers, use the term Ecclesial Community to refer to them.

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