Posted on 07/11/2026 8:49:49 PM PDT by ebb tide
Cardinal Kurt Koch has erroneously claimed that the doctrine “no salvation outside the Church” only applies to Catholics who already believe the Catholic Church “points the way” to salvation.
In an interview with Koch the day following the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) episcopal consecrations, German theologian Jan-Heiner Tück asked the cardinal why extra ecclesiam nulla salus (“no salvation outside the Church”) has become “difficult” under modern conditions.
“I think it is difficult even under theological conditions, because this formula, extra ecclesiam nulla salus, naturally applies to Catholics who are convinced that the Catholic Church points the way to eternal salvation,” Koch replied.
“But we already have the fundamental conviction in Holy Scripture, and then also in Tradition, that God wills the salvation of all people [cf. 1 Tim 2:4] and that He then also finds other ways for people to attain salvation who have never come into alignment with the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” he added.
Koch’s assertion renders the dogma practically meaningless and contradicts the clear teaching of the Church, as articulated in the 1949 Holy Office letter Suprema Haec Sacra.
READ: Bishop who warns against going to SSPX Masses took part in interfaith Hanukkah ceremony
“Not only did our Saviour order all peoples to enter the Church, but He also decreed that it is the means of salvation without which no one can enter the eternal kingdom of glory,” wrote Cardinal Francesco Marchetti-Selvaggiani, repudiating Koch’s idea that there are “other ways” of salvation.
The Catholic Church notes that it is possible for those remaining outside the Church “through no grave fault of their own” and who are somehow unaware that the Church is the true Church to still be saved “by making use of the graces which God gives them.” However, salvation in these cases of “invincible ignorance” is not found through other churches, but is through the Catholic Church as the channel of grace, as taught by St. Thomas Aquinas.
The 1949 Holy Office letter acknowledges this, explaining that “for a person to obtain his salvation, it is not always required that he be de facto incorporated into the Church as a member, but he must at least be united to the Church through desire or hope.”
“However, it is not always necessary that this hope be explicit as in the case of catechumens. When one is in a state of invincible ignorance, God accepts an implicit desire, thus called because it is implicit in the soul’s good disposition, whereby it desires to conform its will to the will of God,” wrote Cardinal Marchetti-Selvaggiani.
The SSPX conforms to this understanding of extra ecclesiam nulla salus, thus nullifying the claim of Koch that the SSPX “essentially sends everyone to hell who is not in the Catholic Church.”
Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, has been known to oppose fundamental doctrines of the Church and endorse a new “Synodal Church.” His dicastery has produced documents that contain heresy, both with regard to the nature of the Church and outreach to the Jews. Koch holds the heretical position that there is no need for a mission to the Jewish people as they can be saved under the Old Covenant. He defends his rejection of the teaching of the Catholic Church by an appeal to the Second Vatican Council.
After all, the man who founded his "different" synodal "church" had stated:
“All religions are paths to God,” Francis told a group of young people. “There is only one God, and religions are like languages, paths to reach God. Some Sikh, some Muslim, some Hindu, some Christian.”
Jesus saves, not the “Church” nor any church
Exactly!
I do not believe a “church” infested with gay people as its leadership has any authority to speak on anything biblical.
John 3:16, Cardinal’s Version: “For God so loved the world that He gave his only Church, that whoever belongs to it will not perish but have eternal life”
Yep!!!!
………
You have heard that it was said,
“There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church”.
But I say unto you,
“Neither do they offer salvation within the Catholic Church.”
The Synodal Ape of the Church masks the desire to control as theology. It doesn’t want others to say “The Catholic Church has to be 100% like the Church of the 1st Council of Nicaea to Florence to Trent,” doesnt want to hear a message of “No blessing homo,” as the Vatican won’t clamp down on blessings of even “married” men both coming forward, which is occurring, as Leo obviously wants those blessings to go forth, given he won’t clamp down on it.
He wants the Germans for their $$$, and actually hates real, deep, systemic Tradition, yet pretends to by wearinf traditionalist vestments from time to time, a little Latin here and there.
For those who haven’t seen this yet:
(Catholic Caucus, Vanity): The utterly illogical, ahistorical, inconsistent, and hypocritical stance of Leo XIV (aka Prevost) towards the SSPX versus Eastern Orthodox, Protestants, Modernist Germwn bishops, concerning the sacraments and on other issues
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/4387617/posts
The pro-Leo, pro-Synodal, anti-SSPX crowd are like the anti-MAGA people who have consistently called MAGA conspiracy theorists only to see conspiracy theory proven to be conspiracy fact.
What do you expect from a “church” who believes that God, Jesus and the Pope are the ones who can grant forgiveness(or lack thereof?) and also worship humans.
Jesus, in my layman’s terms, said the “church” is everywhere, organized religion has done as much harm as it has good.
Show me in the Bible where confession to a priest is required?😎
Amen
My view: A split of opinion on whether a council (in this case Vatican II) is infallible or erroneous is the very definition of schism. Regardless of which side SSPX is on, I don’t understand why they deny the schism.
Having said that, Koch’s statement if odious and anti-Catholic. I had to go back and see the German because I couldn’t believe he actually said it.
Koch said that the SSPX “essentially sends everyone to hell who is not in the Catholic Church.”
“Wenn hier die Piusbruderschaft dann quasi alle in die Hölle schickt, die nicht in der katholischen Kirche sind”
Ok he scored a cheap point against SSPX, but wouldn’t that mean that whatever smaller circle of people the Church teaches are going to Hell (let’s say Catholic abortionists for example), the Church “sends” them there?
THAT is not just schismatic, it is full on heresy.
Amen.
How do I get right with God?
https://www.gotquestions.org/get-right-with-God.html
“If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
Hate to say it, but the only way the Catholic Church can be a path to God is to actually preach the Good News of the Gospel and do away with all the glitz and egotism.
Jesus is the only path to God and His Church is made up of ALL believers...I think the Cardinal pointed out the hubris of the Catholic Church as if it actually made decisions on whether or not someone was going to get into Heaven.
Isaac Asimov, once said that , when read properly, the Bible is a solid reason for atheism - but not because he was an atheist - although he was.
The ultimate irony of Asimov’s stance is that he didn’t want people to stop reading the Bible; he wanted them to read it more thoroughly. He believed that the secular, historical study of the Bible was incredibly valuable for understanding Western civilization—he just knew that the deeper a person looked at the messy, human reality of how the book came together, the harder it would be for them to remain a literal believer.
And I can understand his thinking with some 45,000 sects of Christianity that all interpret different parts of the Bible differentnly.
Being God, he can save through extraordinary means. All people saved through those extraordinary means are still incorporated, in some mystical way we may not be able to see, into His Church. Contrary to the old joke, there is not a "Baptist heaven," or a "Lutheran heaven," or a "Presbyterian heaven". There is only one heaven, and it's universal. (You know what the Greek word for "universal" is, right?)
The Church does not claim to make those decisions.
And I can understand his thinking with some 45,000 sects of Christianity that all interpret different parts of the Bible differentnly.
And what did Jesus pray for in John 17 in that very Bible?
And what does his Apostle, James, write in that very Bible about the "fervent prayer of a righteous man"?
The “church” in this phrase means the “universal” church. (“Universal” being the meaning of “Catholic”.)
My main objection with this schismatic group (other than the wholly unnecessary schism itself — although I generally agree with their objections to Church leadership) is they either profess or dance on the edge of the Boston Heresy ( aka Feenyism), which is a heretical belief you must be a card-carrying Roman Catholic to get into heaven.
Its original practitioners were excommunicated - although they purportedly later repented of their heresy.
TLDR: this is heresy and not Catholic belief.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feeneyism
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