No Salvation Outside the Church

Catholic Answers ^ | 12/05 | Fr. Ray Ryland

[bdeaner]

Why does the Catholic Church teach that there is "no salvation outside the Church"? Doesn’t this contradict Scripture? God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4). "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). Peter proclaimed to the Sanhedrin, "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).

Since God intends (plans, wills) that every human being should go to heaven, doesn’t the Church’s teaching greatly restrict the scope of God’s redemption? Does the Church mean—as Protestants and (I suspect) many Catholics believe—that only members of the Catholic Church can be saved?

That is what a priest in Boston, Fr. Leonard Feeney, S.J., began teaching in the 1940s. His bishop and the Vatican tried to convince him that his interpretation of the Church’s teaching was wrong. He so persisted in his error that he was finally excommunicated, but by God’s mercy, he was reconciled to the Church before he died in 1978.

In correcting Fr. Feeney in 1949, the Supreme Congregation of the Holy Office (now the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) issued a document entitled Suprema Haec Sacra, which stated that "extra ecclesiam, nulla salus" (outside the Church, no salvation) is "an infallible statement." But, it added, "this dogma must be understood in that sense in which the Church itself understands it."

Note that word dogma. This teaching has been proclaimed by, among others, Pope Pelagius in 585, the Fourth Lateran Council in 1214, Pope Innocent III in 1214, Pope Boniface VIII in 1302, Pope Pius XII, Pope Paul VI, the Second Vatican Council, Pope John Paul II, and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Dominus Iesus.

Our point is this: When the Church infallibly teaches extra ecclesiam, nulla salus, it does not say that non-Catholics cannot be saved. In fact, it affirms the contrary. The purpose of the teaching is to tell us how Jesus Christ makes salvation available to all human beings.

Work Out Your Salvation

There are two distinct dimensions of Jesus Christ’s redemption. Objective redemption is what Jesus Christ has accomplished once for all in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension: the redemption of the whole universe. Yet the benefits of that redemption have to be applied unceasingly to Christ’s members throughout their lives. This is subjective redemption. If the benefits of Christ’s redemption are not applied to individuals, they have no share in his objective redemption. Redemption in an individual is an ongoing process. "Work out your own salvation in fear and trembling; for God is at work in you" (Phil. 2:12–13).

How does Jesus Christ work out his redemption in individuals? Through his mystical body. When I was a Protestant, I (like Protestants in general) believed that the phrase "mystical body of Christ" was essentially a metaphor. For Catholics, the phrase is literal truth.

Here’s why: To fulfill his Messianic mission, Jesus Christ took on a human body from his Mother. He lived a natural life in that body. He redeemed the world through that body and no other means. Since his Ascension and until the end of history, Jesus lives on earth in his supernatural body, the body of his members, his mystical body. Having used his physical body to redeem the world, Christ now uses his mystical body to dispense "the divine fruits of the Redemption" (Mystici Corporis 31).

The Church: His Body

What is this mystical body? The true Church of Jesus Christ, not some invisible reality composed of true believers, as the Reformers insisted. In the first public proclamation of the gospel by Peter at Pentecost, he did not invite his listeners to simply align themselves spiritually with other true believers. He summoned them into a society, the Church, which Christ had established. Only by answering that call could they be rescued from the "crooked generation" (Acts 2:40) to which they belonged and be saved.

Paul, at the time of his conversion, had never seen Jesus. Yet recall how Jesus identified himself with his Church when he spoke to Paul on the road to Damascus: "Why do you persecute me?" (Acts 9:4, emphasis added) and "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting" (Acts 9:5). Years later, writing to Timothy, Paul ruefully admitted that he had persecuted Jesus by persecuting his Church. He expressed gratitude for Christ appointing him an apostle, "though I formerly b.asphemed and persecuted and insulted him" (1 Tim. 1:13).

The Second Vatican Council says that the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church and the mystical body of Christ "form one complex reality that comes together from a human and a divine element" (Lumen Gentium 8). The Church is "the fullness of him [Christ] who fills all in all" (Eph. 1:23). Now that Jesus has accomplished objective redemption, the "plan of mystery hidden for ages in God" is "that through the Church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places" (Eph. 3:9–10).

According to John Paul II, in order to properly understand the Church’s teaching about its role in Christ’s scheme of salvation, two truths must be held together: "the real possibility of salvation in Christ for all humanity" and "the necessity of the Church for salvation" (Redemptoris Missio 18). John Paul taught us that the Church is "the seed, sign, and instrument" of God’s kingdom and referred several times to Vatican II’s designation of the Catholic Church as the "universal sacrament of salvation":

"The Church is the sacrament of salvation for all humankind, and her activity is not limited only to those who accept her message" (RM 20).

"Christ won the Church for himself at the price of his own blood and made the Church his co-worker in the salvation of the world. . . . He carries out his mission through her" (RM 9).

In an address to the plenary assembly of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (January 28, 2000), John Paul stated, "The Lord Jesus . . . established his Church as a saving reality: as his body, through which he himself accomplishes salvation in history." He then quoted Vatican II’s teaching that the Church is necessary for salvation.

In 2000 the CDF issued Dominus Iesus, a response to widespread attempts to dilute the Church’s teaching about our Lord and about itself. The English subtitle is itself significant: "On the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church." It simply means that Jesus Christ and his Church are indivisible. He is universal Savior who always works through his Church:

The only Savior . . . constituted the Church as a salvific mystery: He himself is in the Church and the Church is in him. . . . Therefore, the fullness of Christ’s salvific mystery belongs also to the Church, inseparably united to her Lord (DI 18).

Indeed, Christ and the Church "constitute a single ‘whole Christ’" (DI 16). In Christ, God has made known his will that "the Church founded by him be the instrument for the salvation of all humanity" (DI 22). The Catholic Church, therefore, "has, in God’s plan, an indispensable relationship with the salvation of every human being" (DI 20).

The key elements of revelation that together undergird extra ecclesiam, nulla salus are these: (1) Jesus Christ is the universal Savior. (2) He has constituted his Church as his mystical body on earth through which he dispenses salvation to the world. (3) He always works through it—though in countless instances outside its visible boundaries. Recall John Paul’s words about the Church quoted above: "Her activity is not limited only to those who accept its message."

Not of this Fold

Extra ecclesiam, nulla salus does not mean that only faithful Roman Catholics can be saved. The Church has never taught that. So where does that leave non-Catholics and non-Christians?

Jesus told his followers, "I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd" (John 10:16). After his Resurrection, Jesus gave the threefold command to Peter: "Feed my lambs. . . . Tend my sheep. . . . Feed my sheep" (John 21:15–17). The word translated as "tend" (poimaine) means "to direct" or "to superintend"—in other words, "to govern." So although there are sheep that are not of Christ’s fold, it is through the Church that they are able to receive his salvation.

People who have never had an opportunity to hear of Christ and his Church—and those Christians whose minds have been closed to the truth of the Church by their conditioning—are not necessarily cut off from God’s mercy. Vatican II phrases the doctrine in these terms: 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 consciences—those too may achieve eternal salvation (LG 16).

Since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partakers, in a way known to God, of the Paschal mystery (Gaudium et Spes 22).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches:

Every man who is ignorant of the gospel of Christ and of his Church but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it can be saved. It may be supposed that such persons would have desired baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity (CCC 1260).

Obviously, it is not their ignorance that enables them to be saved. Ignorance excuses only lack of knowledge. That which opens the salvation of Christ to them is their conscious effort, under grace, to serve God as well as they can on the basis of the best information they have about him.

The Church speaks of "implicit desire" or "longing" that can exist in the hearts of those who seek God but are ignorant of the means of his grace. If a person longs for salvation but does not know the divinely established means of salvation, he is said to have an implicit desire for membership in the Church. Non-Catholic Christians know Christ, but they do not know his Church. In their desire to serve him, they implicitly desire to be members of his Church. Non-Christians can be saved, said John Paul, if they seek God with "a sincere heart." In that seeking they are "related" to Christ and to his body the Church (address to the CDF).

On the other hand, the Church has long made it clear that if a person rejects the Church with full knowledge and consent, he puts his soul in danger:

They cannot be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or remain in it (cf. LG 14).

The Catholic Church is "the single and exclusive channel by which the truth and grace of Christ enter our world of space and time" (Karl Adam, The Spirit of Catholicism, 179). Those who do not know the Church, even those who fight against it, can receive these gifts if they honestly seek God and his truth. But, Adam says, "though it be not the Catholic Church itself that hands them the bread of truth and grace, yet it is Catholic bread that they eat." And when they eat of it, "without knowing it or willing it" they are "incorporated in the supernatural substance of the Church."

Extra ecclesiam, nulla salus.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR



Fr. Ray Ryland, a convert and former Episcopal priest, holds a Ph.D. in theology from Marquette University and is a contributing editor to This Rock. He writes from Steubenville, Ohio, where he lives with his wife, Ruth.

[Quix]

Well put, as usual.

Glad someone else sees the double-speak tendency! LOL.

Isn’t the traditional frothing at the fingers on these threads . . . sooooo . . .

uhhhh . . . . familiar?

Perhaps like an old stinking gym shoe one finds cleaning under the basement stairs.

[Iscool]

So you think you can just make up whatever interpretation of the Bible suits you? Are you a relativist? Do you believe the Bible has multiple possible interpretations, or one correct interpretation? Isn't the Bible inerrant and true?

You nor anyone from your religion is any more qualified to interpret the scriptures any more than anyone on this forum...

And when we see how you ignore the scripture that you claim to have the authority to interpret, we know you are lying...

NO ONE is to interpret the scriptures by private interpretation...That includes you and your popes...

To interpret means to change to something you like or can better understand...There is no need to interpret and Jesus said He would provide the understanding...

And Jesus doesn't provide the understanding thru your religion...What is true is that some denominations do not agree on what the scriptures say...That's not God's fault...But what's funny is that your religion is by far the worst when it comes to interpreting the scriptures...And like the others, you claim your's is the best...

[Petronski]

Confabulating facts into a mangled mess is not overly admirable . . . whether done by a RAD Vatican/RC rep or a Protty.

Agreed. I recommend you stop.

[kday]

This is an incredible video that asks President Obama a very good series of questions.

http://tinyurl.com/GodandCountry

Kudos to the gentleman who asked that question.

[Quix]

Thanks.

Will check it out.

[Quix]

GREAT VIDEO.

THX.

[Iscool]

Because a scholar authenticates a book doesn't make it's contents accurate or true, theologically. Otherwise, we'd have some difficult choices. So why the Bible and not one of these other books?

It is verified in the heart of each individual believer by the Holy Spirit...Odd that you don't know that...

Plus, there are a few hundred prophecies in the OT about the NT times that have come to pass...Without error...No other book or religion can make that claim...Apparently you don't know that either...

But the only way you know the scriptures are the word of God is because your religion told you so...But they don't believe it either...Because their religious tradition over rides the scriptures...

[Iscool]

1Ti 3:15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

God is the pillar and ground of the truth...Not your religion...

[PugetSoundSoldier]

You know, there's another Church that preaches that too:

There is no salvation outside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

When they say it, it's heresy. When the Papal church says it, it's sound doctrine. Go figure, I always thought Christ was the arbiter of who gets salvation based upon John 14:6 where he said:

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

Good to know that some men have set up institutions to usurp this role from Christ.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

When they want to be clear, they are.

CATHOLIC CHURCH ONLY TRUE CHURCH, VATICAN SAYS

The Vatican issued a document Tuesday restating its belief that the Catholic Church is the only true church of Jesus Christ.

The 16-page document was prepared by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a doctrinal watchdog that Pope Benedict used to head...

The document adds that Protestant denominations — called Christian Communities born out of the Reformation — are not true churches, but ecclesial communities...

Same old, same old. The counter Reformation never ended.

Semper Reformanda!

[Dr. Eckleburg]

Amen.

"Be not afraid; only believe." -- Mark 5:36

[Dr. Eckleburg]

Amen.

"We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands." -- Mark 14:58

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"God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands" -- Acts 17:24

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"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." -- 2 Corinthians 5:1

[Dr. Eckleburg]

NO ONE is to interpret the scriptures by private interpretation...That includes you and your popes..

How many hundreds of times have we seen RCs misinterpret this line and fling it at Protestants to support their myopia?

Their church shamefully tells them this verse means men are not to read the Bible for themselves without first going through the organizational bureaucracy of mother Rome, when what the verse is saying is that no man should read into the Scriptures what isn't there and that Scripture alone interprets Scripture, as we are guided by the Holy Spirit and not some pretender to His throne.

[Petronski]

The entire phrase "which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." modifies "the house of God" the language just before it.

The Catholic Church is "the church of the living God," which is "the pillar and ground of the truth."

The Catholic Church is the pillar and ground of the truth, just as 1Ti 3:15 says it is.

[Petronski]

as we are guided by the Holy Spirit and not some pretender to His throne.

The Holy Spirit does not guide various individuals to mutually exclusive positions. That would make the Holy Spirit a liar.

Yet there are various protestants who hold mutually exclusive positions on Scripture, both (all) of whom claim the Holy Spirit as inspiration.

There can only be one truth, and Christ founded the Catholic Church to protect it for us.

[Petronski]

The counter reformation never ended.

As God wills it.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

Christ founded the Catholic Church to protect it for us

Bible verse where Christ does that, please?

[Petronski]

I'm still waiting for the Bible verse that mandates sola Scriptura.

[Petronski]

When they say it, it's heresy. When the Papal church says it, it's sound doctrine.

And when the Catholic Church says it, it is truth.

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. Good to know that some men have set up institutions to usurp this role from Christ.

That's not "good to know" at all, it's just irrelevant. Christ is the head of the Catholic Church, and His role shall not be usurped.

[Iscool]

Catholics ask others -- including the Saints and Mary -- to pray FOR them, we do not pray TO them (not unless we are heretics)

Well you just condemned yourself on a public forum...Here are just a couple of pages of your 'prayers to Mary'...And many of those prayers DO NOT ask for intercession but are actual prayers to Mary for her to provide relief for whatever ails you...

http://www.marypages.com/PrayerstoMary.htm
http://www.cptryon.org/prayer/heal/mary.html