Tuesday, June 7, 2011

CATECHESIS FOR CATHOLICS ONLY

Here is what the Catholic Church officially teaches regarding other religions and salvation. This is the pre and post Vatican Council II teaching of the Magisterium according to Church document texts.

1. All Jews and other non Catholics need to convert into the Catholic Church with no exception, to go to Heaven. They include Orthodox Christians and Protestants who need ‘Catholic Faith’ for salvation.

Therefore, all must be converted to Him, made known by the Church's preaching, and all must be incorporated into Him by baptism and into the Church which is His body. For Christ Himself "by stressing in express language the necessity of faith and baptism (cf. Mark 16:16; John 3:5), at the same time confirmed the necessity of the Church, into which men enter by baptism, as by a door.-Ad Gentes 7,Vatican Council II Note: All need the baptism of water for salvation and Catholics only give baptism to adults with Catholic Faith. So Ad Gentes 7 is saying that all people need Catholic Faith and the baptism of water for salvation.
2. All Muslims, including the Prophet, are lost. The Prophet knew about Jesus and the Church, the Quran shows. Those Muslims who give their life for Jesus and the Church as martyrs can be saved. Muslims need to convert for salvation.

Therefore those men cannot be saved, who though aware that God, through Jesus Christ founded the Church as something necessary, still do not wish to enter into it, or to persevere in it."-Ad Gentes 7

Therefore those men cannot be saved, who though aware that God, through Jesus Christ founded the Church as something necessary, still do not wish to enter into it, or to persevere in it."-Lumen Gentium 14, Vatican Council II.
3.Salvation is open for all however to receive this salvation they need to enter the Church.

This doctrine must not be set against the universal salvific will of God (cf. 1 Tim 2:4); “it is necessary to keep these two truths together, namely, the real possibility of salvation in Christ for all mankind and the necessity of the Church for this salvation”.-Dominus Iesus 20


845.To reunite all his children, scattered and led astray by sin, the Father willed to call the whole of humanity together into his Son's Church. The Church is the place where humanity must rediscover its unity and salvation. The Church is "the world reconciled." She is that bark which "in the full sail of the Lord's cross, by the breath of the Holy Spirit, navigates safely in this world." According to another image dear to the Church Fathers, she is prefigured by Noah's ark, which alone saves from the flood.-Catechism of the Catholic Church n.845 Catechism of the Catholic Church

"Outside the Church there is no salvation"

846 How are we to understand this affirmation, 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.-Catechism of the Catholic Church 846 (Note : ‘which men through Baptism as through a door’ was a term used by the Church Fathers for the rigorist interpretation of outside the church there is no salvation).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church n.846 (Outside the Church No Salvation). N.846 says everyone needs to enter the Church‘s through a door.’ CCC 846 is saying everyone needs to enter the Church formally. Extra ecclesiam nulla salus. This is the rigorist interpretation of the dogma.


This is not contradicted by the earlier paragraph of CCC 846 which says all salvation comes through Jesus and the Church. Since those saved implicitly (baptism of desire etc) are known only to God. De facto we do not know any case of implicit salvation.

For more information contact:Lionel Andrades.