I believe the Catholic Church teaches that all non Catholics with no exception need to enter the Catholic Church through Catholic faith and the baptism of water, for salvation, to avoid the fires of Hell and to go to Heaven. This is what I believe.
Here is the dogma on extra ecclesiam nulla salus defined three times by three different Church Councils.
Pope Innocent III and Lateran Council IV (A.D. 1215): “One indeed is the universal Church of the faithful outside which no one at all is saved…”
Pope Boniface VIII in his Papal Bull Unam Sanctam (A.D. 1302): “We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.”
Cantate Domino,Council of Florence,Pope Eugene IV (A.D. 1438 – 1445): “The most Holy Roman Church] firmly believes, professes, and proclaims that those not living within the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics cannot become participants in eternal life, but will depart `into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels’ (Matt. 25:41), unless before the end of life the same have been added to the flock; and that the unity of the ecclesiastical body is so strong that only to those remaining in it are the sacraments of the Church of benefit for salvation, and do fastings, almsgiving, and other functions of piety and exercises of Christian service produce eternal reward, and that no one, whatever almsgiving he has practiced, even if he has shed blood for the name of Christ, can be saved, unless he has remained in the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church.” -from the website Catholicism.org
VATICAN COUNCIL II AFFIRMS THE DOGMA
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.)
CATECHISM AFFIRMS DOGMA
"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).
CCC 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
DOMINUS IESUS AND THE DOGMA
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 (Note: Salvation is open for all however to receive this salvation they need to enter the Church).
Ordinary Magisterium
Pope Pelagius II (A.D. 578 – 590): “Consider the fact that whoever has not been in the peace and unity of the Church cannot have the Lord. …Although given over to flames and fires, they burn, or, thrown to wild beasts, they lay down their lives, there will not be (for them) that crown of faith but the punishment of faithlessness. …Such a one can be slain, he cannot be crowned. …[If] slain outside the Church, he cannot attain the rewards of the Church.” (Denzinger 246-247)
Pope Saint Gregory the Great (A.D. 590 – 604): “Now the holy Church universal proclaims that God cannot be truly worshipped saving within herself, asserting that all they that are without her shall never be saved.” (Moralia )
Pope Innocent III (A.D. 1198 – 1216): “With our hearts we believe and with our lips we confess but one Church, not that of the heretics, but the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church, outside which we believe that no one is saved.” (Denzinger 423)
Pope Leo XII (A.D. 1823 – 1829): “We profess that there is no salvation outside the Church. …For the Church is the pillar and ground of the truth. With reference to those words Augustine says: `If any man be outside the Church he will be excluded from the number of sons, and will not have God for Father since he has not the Church for mother.’” (Encyclical, Ubi Primum )
Pope Gregory XVI (A.D. 1831 – 1846): “It is not possible to worship God truly except in Her; all who are outside Her will not be saved.” (Encyclical, Summo Jugiter )
Pope Pius IX (A.D. 1846 – 1878): “It must be held by faith that outside the Apostolic Roman Church, no one can be saved; that this is the only ark of salvation; that he who shall not have entered therein will perish in the flood.” (Denzinger 1647)
Pope Leo XIII (A.D. 1878 – 1903): “This is our last lesson to you; receive it, engrave it in your minds, all of you: by God’s commandment salvation is to be found nowhere but in the Church.” (Encyclical, Annum Ingressi Sumus )
“He scatters and gathers not who gathers not with the Church and with Jesus Christ, and all who fight not jointly with Him and with the Church are in very truth contending against God.” (Encyclical, Sapientiae Christianae )
Pope Saint Pius X (A.D. 1903 – 1914): “It is our duty to recall to everyone great and small, as the Holy Pontiff Gregory did in ages past, the absolute necessity which is ours, to have recourse to this Church to effect our eternal salvation.” (Encyclical, Jucunda Sane )
Pope Benedict XV (A.D. 1914 – 1922): “Such is the nature of the Catholic faith that it does not admit of more or less, but must be held as a whole, or as a whole rejected: This is the Catholic faith, which unless a man believe faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved.” (Encyclical, Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum )
Pope Pius XI (A.D. 1922 – 1939): “The Catholic Church alone is keeping the true worship. This is the font of truth, this is the house of faith, this is the temple of God; if any man enter not here, or if any man go forth from it, he is a stranger to the hope of life and salvation….Furthermore, in this one Church of Christ, no man can be or remain who does not accept, recognize and obey the authority and supremacy of Peter and his legitimate successors.” (Encyclical, Mortalium Animos )
Pope Pius XII (A.D. 1939 – 1958): “By divine mandate the interpreter and guardian of the Scriptures, and the depository of Sacred Tradition living within her, the Church alone is the entrance to salvation: She alone, by herself, and under the protection and guidance of the Holy Spirit, is the source of truth.” (Allocution to the Gregorian, October 17, 1953)
OBJECTIONS
We know that those saved implicitly are known only to God so this is not in conflict with the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus which says every one needs to be a formal, explicit member of the Catholic Church for salvation. So Lumen Gentium 16 (invincible ignorance) does not contradict the dogma. There is nothing in Vatican Council II or the Catechism of the Catholic Church which contradicts the dogma. We can never know who is saved through Jesus and the Church (CCC 846) is in partial communion with the Church or saved by the Word of God.
Secondly everyone with no exception needs to enter the Church. Those who know about Jesus and the Church and yet do not enter or those in invincible ignorance will be judge personally by God. We cannot judge who these cases are.De facto everyone with no exception needs to enter the Church for salvation.
Thirdly Venerable Pope Pius XII in the Letter of the Holy Office 1949 affirmed the ‘rigorist interpretion’ of the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus which indicated that all non Catholics with no exception need to formally enter the Church for salvation. In the Letter of the Holy Office 1949 Venerable Pope Pius XII referred to ‘ the dogma’, the ‘infallible teaching’. The text of the dogma Cantate Domino, Council of Florence ex cathedra on extra ecclesiam nulla salus indicates that all non Catholics in Boston need to convert into the Catholic Church to avoid the fires of Hell. This was exactly what Fr.Leonard Feeney taught. So Pope Pius XII supported Fr.Leonard Feeney in the Letter of the Holy Office 1949.
The Letter also mentions that in ‘certain circumstances’ a non Catholic can be saved with the baptism of desire. It was known for centuries, common sense says, implicit salvation does not conflict with the dogmatic teaching that every one on earth need to be an explicit, formal member of the Catholic Church for salvation.
Thirdly Venerable Pope Pius XII in the Letter of the Holy Office 1949 affirmed the ‘rigorist interpretion’ of the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus which indicated that all non Catholics with no exception need to formally enter the Church for salvation. In the Letter of the Holy Office 1949 Venerable Pope Pius XII referred to ‘ the dogma’, the ‘infallible teaching’. The text of the dogma Cantate Domino, Council of Florence ex cathedra on extra ecclesiam nulla salus indicates that all non Catholics in Boston need to convert into the Catholic Church to avoid the fires of Hell. This was exactly what Fr.Leonard Feeney taught. So Pope Pius XII supported Fr.Leonard Feeney in the Letter of the Holy Office 1949.
The Letter also mentions that in ‘certain circumstances’ a non Catholic can be saved with the baptism of desire. It was known for centuries, common sense says, implicit salvation does not conflict with the dogmatic teaching that every one on earth need to be an explicit, formal member of the Catholic Church for salvation.
I have provided references from Magisterial texts which show that the Catholic Church affirms the centuries old interpretation of the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus as it was known to the Councils, popes and saints.
I believe that the Catholic Church teaches that everyone with no exception needs to enter the Church through Catholic Faith and the baptism of water, for salvation.
I believe that the Catholic Church teaches that everyone with no exception needs to enter the Church through Catholic Faith and the baptism of water, for salvation.
Lionel Andrades
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