Is There Salvation Outside the Church? Are People of Other Religions Saved?

Readers ask:

Can those who do not belong to the Church be saved?

Regarding salvation, which implies being in communion with God, what happens with our brothers of other religions, sects and others; such as being Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Protestants, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc. If they do not recognize Jesus Christ as God, can they be in communion with Him and share eternal life? Who will be condemned? – Esteban
Is there salvation outside the Church?
Elena
Those who do not know God or to whom the Gospel was never preached: are they condemned? Is there no salvation for them?
Julián.

Answer:

Dear readers:

The teaching of the Church is that “outside the Church there is no salvation”. But we must understand this statement very well so as not to give it a misleading meaning.

We can summarize the teaching of the Church by saying the following: “Just as Christ is the only mediator between God and men, so the Church is the universal and only means of salvation. No man can therefore be saved without belonging to it, either in actual fact, or at least at least by his deep disposition.”

The doctrine of the Church must unify several truths at the same time, which are:

a) that God really wants the salvation of all men;

b) that the Church is the sole sacrament of salvation, and that it is necessary to belong to it in order to be saved;

c) that there are not, however, two Churches, one universal but invisible, and the other visible but limited, but that on earth there exists only one and the same Church, both visible and invisible. mystical and institutional.

Let’s try to explain this mystery:

1) The Church, the sole sacrament of salvation

“Just as Christ is the only mediator between God and men, so the Church is the universal and only means of salvation. No man can therefore be saved without belonging to it, either in actual fact, or at least at least by his deep disposition (“reapse vel voto”).

This thesis is of faith, according to the ordinary and universal magisterium of the Church confirmed by several solemn declarations, in particular that of the IV Lateran Council (1215): “There is only one Church, the universal Church of the faithful, outside of which absolutely no one (nullus omnino) is saved” (Dz 430). And that of the Council of Florence (Dz 714). See also the texts of Innocent III (Dz 423), of Boniface VIII in the bull Unam Sanctam (Dz 468), of Clement VI (Dz 570 b), of Benedict XIV (Dz 1473), of Pius IX (Dz 1647, 1677), of Leo XIII (Dz 1955), of Pius XII in his encyclical Mystici corporis (Dz 2286-2288), from the Holy Office in its letter of August 8, 1949 to the Archbishop of Boston regarding the Feeney affair (Dz 3866-3872). Summarizing and collecting all this traditional doctrine, the Second Vatican Council reaffirms, in turn, «that this pilgrim Church is necessary for salvation. In fact, only Christ is mediator and way of salvation. and He makes himself present to all of us in his body, which is the Church.” (Lumen gentium, 14).

The faith of the Church regarding the necessity of the role it plays comes to it from Scripture through tradition.

a) The foundation of Holy Scripture

A double series of statements punctuates the entire New Testament:

a. Christ is the only source of salvation, the only meeting place between God and men. Thus, in various forms: Acts 4, 11-12; Rom 10, 1-14; Lk 12, 8-10; Jn 14, 1-6, etc.

b. In the communication of salvation to men, Christ and the Church form one thing: refusal to follow the Church is equivalent to refusal to follow Christ, in the same way that rejecting Christ is equivalent to rejecting the Father (Lk 10, 16: «Whoever listens to you, listens to me; and whoever despises you, despises me; But whoever despises me despises him who sent me.”; or also: Jn 3, 5; 13, 20: Mt 18, 17; Mk 16, 16; Gal 1. 8; Tit 3, 10; 2 Jn 10, 11, etc.).

Either all these texts mean nothing, or they clearly mean that, outside of Christ and his Church, there is no possible salvation for man. Thus, even though it does not appear in them under their explicit formulation, the axiom “outside the Church, there is no salvation” goes back in its substance to the Gospel itself. The Second Vatican Council warns this exactly: “By explicitly teaching us the need for faith and baptism (Mk 16:16; Jn 3:5), he (Christ) confirmed at the same time the need for the Church itself” (Lumen gentium, 14).

b) The axiom “outside the Church there is no salvation”

The formula “outside the Church, there is no salvation” It appears for the first time in St. Cyprian and in Origen around the year 250. We find it continuously in the Fathers, as is, or with slight variations, or also translated in images such as that of Noah’s Ark or other equivalents. We also find it in theologians and in the official documents of the magisterium, the most important of which have already been indicated before.

No matter how little you reflect, you will clearly see that it is essential for the Church to be unique. Otherwise, she would no longer be the wife of the only Mediator and her body, the sacrament of universal communion between God and men. When the Church affirms this unity as a requirement of her faith, she does not jealously claim rights and privileges, giving in to a temptation of spiritual imperialism, but rather she bears witness to the mission that she has received with respect to humanity. His exclusivism is simply another name for his fidelity and his universal charity. To admit a plurality of Churches would be equivalent to not admitting any, to rejecting the very notion of Church.

2. The meaning and scope of the axiom “outside the Church there is no salvation”

How, then, to correctly interpret this axiom? To answer the question thus raised, we will briefly examine what the New Testament and the tradition of the Church tell us in this regard.

a) The New Testament

to. What the New Testament condemns is, essentially, the denial of the truth, and not pure and simple ignorance. See, in particular: Jn 3, 19; Mt 22, 8-9; cf. 1 Jn 4, 7.

b. He never claims that it is enough to invoke Christ or join his Church to be saved. He even explicitly says the opposite: Mt 13, 41-42; 22, 12-14; 25, 41; 1 Cor 13, 2; Gal 5, 6; Jas 2, 14; Lk 13, 9.

c. It does not exclude in any part a belonging to Christ and the Church that is simply latent, but already salvific. Several indications, without being absolutely peremptory, even guide in this direction. Thus, for example, the words of Christ regarding Abraham, who “has seen its day” (Jn 8:56). Or those transcribed by Mk 9,38-40: “Whoever is not against us, is with us”, words that balance that somehow the “Whoever is not with me is against me”. See also: Jn 1, 9; Mt 2, 1; 8, 10; 15, 28; 25, 34s; 1 Jn 4. 7.

b) The Tradition of the Church

Some Fathers had a very strict position; as Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe (6th century): “There is no doubt that not only all pagans, but also all Jews, all heretics and schismatics who die outside the Catholic Church, will go to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”.

But others, however, qualify things more and admit the idea of ​​possible good faith; thus St. Augustine, who, even in a dispersed way, distinguishes between what one day will be called the heretic of good faith or simply material heretic, and the formal heretic. «He, he writes, who defends his opinion, even if it is erroneous and perverse, without persistent animosity, especially when said opinion is not the result of his audacious presumption, but rather the inheritance of parents seduced and carried away by error; If he scrupulously seeks the truth, ready to embrace it as soon as he knows it, he should not be classified among the heretics. (Epistle 43,1). St. Ambrose had expressed himself even more explicitly regarding the Emperor Valentinian II, murdered before having received the baptism he so desired: Ambrose cannot imagine that he had not received grace. Writes: «Has he not then received the grace that he desired, that he had asked for? Obviously, if you asked for it, you received it.” (De obitu Valentiniani, 51; PL 16, 1374; Rouët de Journel, 1328).

Starting with St. Thomas, the distinction between the different kinds of ignorance will become classic: voluntary and involuntary, conquerable and invincible.

The issue of the Church’s need for salvation was raised again with the great discoveries. The discussions between theologians were very bitter.

At the end of the 18th century, “liberalism” and religious indifferentism provoked lively opposition to our axiom. Rousseau’s brutal words are well known: «Anyone who dares to say that “outside the Church, there is no salvation”, must be expelled from the State» (Social contract, IV, 8). Kant’s pietistic moralism and “the religion of conscience” influenced in the same sense.

The reaction of the Church has been clear and very significant. It is double:

-On the one hand, it categorically rejects any indifferentism whose principle entails the denial of the mystery of salvation of which it is the servant. See, in this sense: the encyclical Mirari vos of Gregory XVI (Dz 1613ss), the address of Pius IX of December 9, 1854 (Dz 1646ss), the encyclical Quanto conficiamur moerore (August 10, 1863; Dz 1677) of this same pope, the Syllabus (Prop. 16 and 17; Dz 1716-1717), etc. The traditional principle is therefore firmly maintained: «Outside the Church there is no salvation»

-On the other hand, the condemnation implied in this axiom never points to the people themselves. Even when the principle is formulated in an absolute way in the texts relating to other religious societies, it nevertheless abounds in precision and increasing nuances when it comes to texts referring to the effective salvation of people who are not in visible and institutional contact with the Church. Pius IX is the first to explicitly introduce the consideration of good faith in his exposition of a traditional doctrine. “Outside the Church there is no salvation” (Singulari quadam, December 9, 1854, Dz 1646-1647, see also Quanto conficiamur, August 10, 1863, Dz 1677). We find the same spirit in Leo XIII (Satis cognitum) 17 and in Pius X (E Supremi Apostolatus).

The Second Vatican Council, in the Constitution Lumen Gentium, qualifies the application of this principle to the different human categories on the basis of a much clearer distinction of the various possible cases: non-Catholic Christians, Jews, Muslims and worshipers of the one God, and those, in short, who “They still search in shadows and images for the God they do not know” (Lumen gentium, 16).

The encyclical Mystici corporis had already prepared this progress by explicitly mentioning ‘those who by a certain desire or unconscious desire are ordered to the mystical body’ (Dz 3821 and CEDP, t. I. p. 1057), an idea taken up and specified by the letter of the Holy Office (August 8, 1949) regarding the Feeney affair (Dz 3866-3873 [32 ed.]).

c) Conclusion

In light of these latest documents, the tradition of the Church can be summarized as follows:

1º It is a matter of faith that ‘the pilgrim Church is necessary for salvation’ (Lumen gentium. 14).

2º ‘Those men could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was instituted by God through Jesus Christ as necessary, nevertheless refused to enter or persevere in it’ (Lumen gentium, 14).

3º Because of the bond that unites Christ with the Church, no one can be saved, that is, live with Christ, without being in one way or another in communion with the Church.

4º In the application of this principle to different people, the circumstances and effective possibilities of each one must be taken into account. ‘For this reason, for a person to achieve eternal salvation, it is not always necessary that he or she be actually incorporated into the Church as a member, but even a desire or aspiration must be united to it’ (letter from the Holy Office to the Archbishop of Boston, August 8, 1949. DS 3870).5º ‘It is not always necessary for this aspiration to be explicit. In case of invincible ignorance, a simple implicit’ (ibid.) or unconscious desire may be sufficient, if it translates ‘the disposition of a will that wants to conform to that of God’ (ibid.). Or, to put it another way, that aspiration must really express the disposition of one’s life, since it cannot be a kind of second-class salvation. This desire must also be animated by perfect charity, thus implying an act of supernatural faith.How to psychologically conceive this implicit desire? The Second Vatican Council speaks of ‘those who, blamelessly ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and his Church, nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart and strive, under the influence of grace, to fulfill in works his will known through the judgment of conscience, can attain eternal salvation.’ And even more boldly: ‘Even to those who, through no fault of their own, have not yet come to an express knowledge of God, and strive, not without divine grace, to lead a righteous life, neither does divine Providence deny them the help necessary for salvation’ (Lumen gentium, 16; cf. Gaudium et spes, 22, 5).

In all these texts there is an insistence on the following two points:

-Reference is made to the global orientation of a life: ‘you must strive to fulfill your will with works’; ‘we must strive to lead a righteous life’.-All this cannot be carried out and have a ‘salvific’ effect except under the influence of grace. And we know precisely that, even though some men may give the impression that they are far – or perhaps in fact they are – from God, he is not far from anyone. ‘since he gives to all life, inspiration and all things (Acts 17, 25-28), and wants, as Savior, that all men be saved (1 Tim 2, 5)’ (Lumen gentium, 16).

3. Consequence: the universal mediation of the Church and the degrees of belonging to the Church

a) The universal mediation of the Church

Because the Church in the world is the universal sacrament of salvation, all grace comes through it and all grace tends toward it.

to. All grace comes through the Church: Not only is the normal path foreseen by Christ to communicate his life the channel of the sacraments, but also, since the Church is ‘Jesus Christ spread and communicated’, in the words of Bossuet, all participation in the life of Christ will be ecclesial, even in the event that its beneficiaries are not aware of it, since there are not two species of the same Christian life, supposedly different due to belonging or not belonging to the Church. Specifically, said mediation is exercised in two ways:

-By virtue of the sacraments, and the Eucharist in particular. In the economy of salvation, the mass and the cross are two inseparable mysteries: ‘Without the cross, the mass would be an empty ceremony. But, without the mass, the cross would be a sealed fountain’ (Montcheuil).-By virtue of the remaining prayers and sacrifices offered by the Church. The encyclical Mystici corporis insists several times on the maternal role that the Church plays with respect to humanity as a whole.

b. All grace tends towards the Church: Even more true is that all grace necessarily ordains the one who receives it towards the Church, so that he may belong to it more and better. Christ, wrote Isaac de Stella, ‘is a humble and faithful husband’, everything he does, he does for his wife. This fidelity is part of its mystery. ‘Wherever he goes now, to the right hand of the Father or to the depths of souls, he always remains the Christ of his Church and of Peter, and the first moments of his entry into no matter what heart, the first attacks of his grace, which never rests anywhere, will likewise be the first steps of his coming to the Church’ (Mersch).

b) The degrees of belonging to the Church

The question of belonging to the Church is nothing more than an application of everything that has just been said. Two main principles must be taken into account here:

a. ‘Those, possessing the Spirit of Christ, wholly accept its constitution and all the means of salvation established in it, are fully incorporated into the society of the Church. and in their visible body they are united with Christ, who governs it through the sovereign pontiff and the bishops, by the bonds of the profession of faith, the sacraments, the government and ecclesiastical communion’ (Lumen gentium, 14). The same document adds below:

-this ‘incorporation’ into the Church does not assure salvation to those who, not persevering in charity, remain within the Church only in body, and not in heart;

-this supernatural situation of the children of the Church ‘must be attributed not to their merits, but to a singular grace of Christ’.

He also adds: ‘the catechumens who, moved by the Holy Spirit, request with express will to be incorporated into the Church, by this same desire are already linked to it and the mother Church embraces them with love and concern as her own’ (Lumen gentium, 14).b. Even without being fully incorporated into the Church, it is nevertheless possible to be united to it and, in this sense, to belong to it in some way. The Second Vatican Council speaks explicitly of a bond by which all those who, although not fully incorporated into it, nevertheless belong to it in some way are united to the Church (Lumen gentium, 15-16; Decree on Ecumenism, 3 and 4). There is, therefore, belonging in a broad sense (in the latter, it is necessary to establish a distinction between those who accept the Gospel and ‘are honored with the beautiful name of Christians’, some of whom are united to the Church by very strong sacramental bonds -cf. Lumen gentium 15-, and those others who, not having yet received the Gospel, are simply ‘ordained to the people of God’ -ibid., 16-). This is the reason that, to better define and characterize these different cases, some theologians proceed to enumerate the following three categories:-full incorporation (or belonging in the strong sense), incorporation that supposes the three classic conditions collected by the Council (profession of Christian faith, sacramental life, communion with the hierarchy of the Church);

-a membership in a broad or incomplete sense, if one or two of the aforementioned elements are missing;

-a certain link with the Church, which cannot even be classified as belonging, when none of the three conditions are met.

 

Author: Fr. Miguel Angel Fuentes
Fountain: The theologian answers

Literature:

-P. Faynel, The Church, Herder, Barcelona 1974, pp. 51-68