I realize God may save who He will. But what the Pope is discussing is the rare exception.
To paraphrase the Catechism, God is not bound by his sacraments but the Catholic Church knows no other way to salvation but through them. (Which means it would be through Christ.)
“To paraphrase the Catechism, God is not bound by his sacraments but the Catholic Church knows no other way to salvation but through them. (Which means it would be through Christ.)”
God isn’t bound to sacraments because they simply do not exist in the scripture as a means to receive “grace.” Grace is the free gift of God, which He chooses to give with sovereign right to the undeserving sinner before the foundation of the world. It is, by definition, the choice of God, and has nothing whatever to do with the individual works of the sinner.
2Ti_1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
It is God’s plan, not a “sacrament” of the RCC, that declares that there is no salvation outside of Jesus Christ. No other possibility exists in the scripture, period, regardless of what the Catechism declares.