[Petronski]

I am a lifelong Catholic and spent 9 years in Catholic school, and I was never taught that you must be Catholic to be saved. Never.

I don't remember any such teaching either.

[sarasota]

Better get ahold of Mel and set him straight.

[ReaganRevolution]

I am a lifelong Catholic and spent 9 years in Catholic school, and I was never taught that you must be Catholic to be saved. Never.

I spent 11 years in Catholic school, and was never taught that other Christians or Jews weren't going to heaven. Now those who don't believe are another story.

I attended a class in which we studied other religious denominations and what they believed, again was never taught they were going to hell.

Now on the other hand I've been told plenty of times I'm going to hell merely for being catholic.

[Hootowl]

Not highly publicized for obvious reasons, but it was one of the foundational principles that came out of Vatican II, paired with the doctrine of invincible ignorance. In short, pagans and animists and Buddhists and so forth can get into heaven because they're invincibly ignorant and don't know no better; Protestants, on the other hand, have been exposed to the "truth" (i.e., Catholicism and the supremacy of the Pope), have rejected it, and therefore have no place in heaven.

[Future Snake Eater]

I don't remember any such teaching either.

Yes, but were you taught in the same style of Catholicism as Gibson? Apparently he practices a very fundamentalist style of Catholicism (i.e. the above statement, Mass still held in Latin, etc.).

[tiki]

It is a teaching of the Church but as in many things Catholic it isn't as simple as it seems and it has been argued to death. All Christians are connected to the Church through their faith in Jesus Christ they just lack the fullness of the faith.

[biblewonk]

I don't remember any such teaching either.

Interview a hundred different catholics from different churches and you will be amazed at the things you hear. I know I know, it's all one big happy church and there is only one cathism(sp). In practice it's a very different story.