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Catholics: What Is the Church's Position on the Fate of Non-Catholics?

LightofTruth

Well-Known Member
The Catholic Church was founded by Jesus Christ.

By His direct orders, we went out to all the nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That began in the year 1.

Matthew 28:19-20
The false teaching of the RCC is all the evidence anyone needs to know your claim is false.
 

anna.

but mostly it's the same
When I was a Catholic 40 or so years ago, I was taught that only Catholics were admitted into the Kingdom of Heaven and that non-Catholics were condemned to an eternity in Hell.

In speaking to other Catholics, it's my understanding that the Church has moved away from this hard-line belief. What is the Church's current position on this?

For ultra-traditional Catholics, the doctrine hasn't changed. Google "extra ecclesiam nulla salus." The following is from Catholicism. org.

Category: Outside the Church there is no Salvation

“Outside the Church there is no salvation” (extra ecclesiam nulla salus) is a doctrine of the Catholic Faith that was taught By Jesus Christ to His Apostles, preached by the Fathers, defined by popes and councils and piously believed by the faithful in every age of the Church. Here is how the Popes defined it:

“There is but one universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved.” (Pope Innocent III, Fourth Lateran Council, 1215.)

“We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.” (Pope Boniface VIII, the Bull Unam Sanctam, 1302.)

“The most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go into the eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless before death they are joined with Her; and that so important is the unity of this ecclesiastical body that only those remaining within this unity can profit by the sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and they alone can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, their almsgivings, their other works of Christian piety and the duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ, can be saved, unless he remain within the bosom and the unity of the Catholic Church.” (Pope Eugene IV, the Bull Cantate Domino, 1441.)

But man, following the example of his natural father, Adam, often disobeys the authority of God. The fact that the doctrine had to be thrice defined itself proves the Church’s paternal solicitude in correcting her erring children who fall into indifferentism. The first goal of Saint Benedict Center’s doctrinal Crusade is to defend this doctrine. We present here a selection of various articles written for that end.

After Vatican II (Church council, 1962-65), the Church gives the impression of a softer stance, yet in doing so contradicts itself. Even today the Catechism says this:

"Outside the Church there is no salvation"

846 How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers?335 Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body:
Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.336​
847 This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:
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 conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.337​
848 "Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men."338




(I'm not a traditional Catholic, BTW. Catholic born and raised, though, even though not currently the best practicing Catholic.)








 

tayla

My dog's name is Tayla
Catholics: What Is the Church's Position on the Fate of Non-Catholics?
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
Serious dissentions appeared and large communities became separated from full communion with the Catholic Church. . . . One cannot charge with sin of the separation those who at present are born into these communities [that resulted from such separation] and in them are brought up in the faith of Christ, and the Catholic Church accepts them with respect and affection as brothers. . . . All who have been justified by faith in Baptism are incorporated into Christ; they therefore have a right to be called Christians, and with good reason are accepted as brothers in the Lord by the children of the Catholic Church. . . . Christ's Spirit uses these Churches and ecclesial communities [found outside the visible confines of the Catholic Church] as means of salvation. (Catechism, p. 216, sects. 817, 818, 819)
 

tayla

My dog's name is Tayla
When I was a Catholic 40 or so years ago, I was taught that only Catholics were admitted into the Kingdom of Heaven and that non-Catholics were condemned to an eternity in Hell.

In speaking to other Catholics, it's my understanding that the Church has moved away from this hard-line belief. What is the Church's current position on this?
From the Catholic Catechism:

The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on the last day. (841)

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 conscience—those too may achieve eternal salvation. (847)
 
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