JF: I lead our Parish’s RCIA class. I am reading your “The Biblical Basis for the Catholic Faith” book. I use what I learn from your book in our class.
On Page 217 under the subtitle “No salvation outside the Catholic Church” you write “The Church teaches that no one will be saved who, knowing the Church to have been divinely established by Jesus Christ, refuses to enter it or remain in it……….”. I ask that you furnish me with support for this statement. I certainly am not questioning such statement, but I always give our class “citations” to teachings such as this one.
Thanks!
John F
J. Salza: John, this infallible doctrine has been reiterated by popes and fathers throughout history. I have written a chapter on Nulla salus in my book
The Biblical Basis for the Papacy. Here are some examples:
Ordinary Magisterium
Pope Pelagius II (A.D. 578 – 590): “Consider the fact that whoever has not been in the peace and unity of the Church cannot have the Lord. …Although given over to flames and fires, they burn, or, thrown to wild beasts, they lay down their lives, there will not be (for them) that crown of faith but the punishment of faithlessness. …Such a one can be slain, he cannot be crowned. …[If] slain outside the Church, he cannot attain the rewards of the Church.” (Denzinger 246-247)
Pope Saint Gregory the Great (A.D. 590 – 604): “Now the holy Church universal proclaims that God cannot be truly worshipped saving within herself, asserting that all they that are without her shall never be saved.” (Moralia)
Pope Innocent III (A.D. 1198 – 1216): “With our hearts we believe and with our lips we confess but one Church, not that of the heretics, but the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church, outside which we believe that no one is saved.” (Denzinger 423)
Pope Leo XII (A.D. 1823 – 1829): “We profess that there is no salvation outside the Church. …For the Church is the pillar and ground of the truth. With reference to those words Augustine says: `If any man be outside the Church he will be excluded from the number of sons, and will not have God for Father since he has not the Church for mother.'” (Encyclical, Ubi Primum)
Pope Gregory XVI (A.D. 1831 – 1846): “It is not possible to worship God truly except in Her; all who are outside Her will not be saved.” (Encyclical, Summo Jugiter)
Pope Pius IX (A.D. 1846 – 1878): “It must be held by faith that outside the Apostolic Roman Church, no one can be saved; that this is the only ark of salvation; that he who shall not have entered therein will perish in the flood.” (Denzinger 1647)
Pope Leo XIII (A.D. 1878 – 1903): “This is our last lesson to you; receive it, engrave it in your minds, all of you: by God’s commandment salvation is to be found nowhere but in the Church.” (Encyclical, Annum Ingressi Sumus)
“He scatters and gathers not who gathers not with the Church and with Jesus Christ, and all who fight not jointly with Him and with the Church are in very truth contending against God.” (Encyclical, Sapientiae Christianae)
Pope Saint Pius X (A.D. 1903 – 1914): “It is our duty to recall to everyone great and small, as the Holy Pontiff Gregory did in ages past, the absolute necessity which is ours, to have recourse to this Church to effect our eternal salvation.” (Encyclical, Jucunda Sane)
Pope Benedict XV (A.D. 1914 – 1922): “Such is the nature of the Catholic faith that it does not admit of more or less, but must be held as a whole, or as a whole rejected: This is the Catholic faith, which unless a man believe faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved.” (Encyclical, Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum)
Pope Pius XI (A.D. 1922 – 1939): “The Catholic Church alone is keeping the true worship. This is the font of truth, this is the house of faith, this is the temple of God; if any man enter not here, or if any man go forth from it, he is a stranger to the hope of life and salvation….Furthermore, in this one Church of Christ, no man can be or remain who does not accept, recognize and obey the authority and supremacy of Peter and his legitimate successors.” (Encyclical, Mortalium Animos)
Pope Pius XII (A.D. 1939 – 1958): “By divine mandate the interpreter and guardian of the Scriptures, and the depository of Sacred Tradition living within her, the Church alone is the entrance to salvation: She alone, by herself, and under the protection and guidance of the Holy Spirit, is the source of truth.” (Allocution to the Gregorian, October 17, 1953)
Extraordinary Magisterium
Pope Innocent III and Lateran Council IV (A.D. 1215): “One indeed is the universal Church of the faithful outside which no one at all is saved…”
Pope Boniface VIII in his Papal Bull Unam Sanctam (A.D. 1302): “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 Eugene IV and the Council of Florence (A.D. 1438 – 1445): “[The most Holy Roman Church] firmly believes, professes, and proclaims that those not living within the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics cannot become participants in eternal life, but will depart `into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels’ (Matt. 25:41), unless before the end of life the same have been added to the flock; and that the unity of the ecclesiastical body is so strong that only to those remaining in it are the sacraments of the Church of benefit for salvation, and do fastings, almsgiving, and other functions of piety and exercises of Christian service produce eternal reward, and that no one, whatever almsgiving he has practiced, even if he has shed blood for the name of Christ, can be saved, unless he has remained in the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church.”
In the current age of ecumenism and interreligious dialogue, the Church’s infallible dogma nulla salus has been all but ignored. We now often hear that the Catholic Church has only the “fullness” of truth as opposed to being the one and only ark of salvation. We even hear Catholics claim that the Protestant sects are eminently serviceable religions in their own right, instead of calling them what they really are: man-made institutions that are rife with heresy and immorality and which were created in opposition to the one true Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, the Roman Catholic Church, the kingdom of God.
Pius IX condemned the notion that those outside the Catholic Church have a good hope of eternal life. Entertaining such an idea undermines the Church’s infallible teaching that outside of her there is no salvation. Such a false view results in a wellspring of indifferentism which has already infected the Church and the world today. Pius XI clarified that those who are invincibly ignorant of the Church may still be saved, but this is a narrow exception to the divine rule. How many are truly ignorant of the claims of Jesus Christ and His Catholic Church? Only God knows, and God alone is the Judge. Pius IX has told us that it is unlawful to proceed to further inquiry about the salvation of those outside the Church. Instead, we continue to labor in the harvest by planting the seed, and leave the growing to God.
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In light of recent events (the Joint Declaration of Pope Francis and the Imam) I thank you for having these writings available. I am trying to inform Catholics.
I contacted a catholic apologetics guy recently who could do absolutely nothing with two arguments I gave him concerning catholicism. I want to at least see how well you can handle it, because he refuses to speak to me anymore, letting me know very well it is worth trying again.
First and foremost the apostle Peter came across a man named Simon who bribed Peter with money to receive the miraculous gift of the Holy Spirit to continue his magic show and gain more in every way he could. Peter cut him down for such an abomination of a sin, warned him to repent and pray to God all by himself for this sin of greed which is idolatry (Col 3:5). Now how did Peter fail to get his confession and decide whether to forgive or retain this sinners sin, which according to catholic doctrine is a mortal sin and therefore requires a priest or bishop to be forgiven?
Now, this is directly tied to John 20:23. The catholic misinterpretation of this passage is the very foundation of catholicism, its man made priesthood who wrongly acts upon this misinterpretation by believing they can act as the mediator between the saints and God. New Testament makes clear all saints/Christians are their own priest and have Christ as the only mediator to God for all forgiveness.
If catholic doctrine was actually true, well poor Peter didn't know it, he failed utterly at either forgiving or retaining this wicked man's mortal sin. Peter failed in doctrine and is therefore NOT INFALLIBLE! This passage (Acts:18-24) makes perfectly clear that John 20:23 is a figure of speech relevant to the other 3 Gospel accounts regarding the great commission Christ gave to His apostles. They were to preach the Gospel which included men and women (never children) submitting to the plan of salvation that explicitly states faith, repentance, and baptism (total immersion in water, not sprinkling) in order to receive initial forgiveness by God. So we have many men and women submitting to having their sins forgiven by their faith, repentance, and baptism, and obviously there will be men and women who reject the Gospel message and they will not be forgiven for rejection of God's plan under the law of Christ. That is how Christ ment for John 20:23 to be interpreted, in perfect harmony with the other 3 Gospel accounts of the great commission. Its so simple if you care. That is how the 12 apostles "forgave or retained sins".
After the initial forgiveness, apostle Peter clearly gives us all a perfect example of what the Saint does after he sins following being added to the one true church, they are to repent and pray directly to God through Christ, not a single command in all of scripture to indicate explicitly or implicitly what catholic heretics teach. If Peter didn't act like God or Christ for that mortal sin, then that destroys the catholic interpretation of John 20;23. All the proof anyone needs.
Secondly, the catholic denomination has held for a while the alleged miraculous ability to cast out demons. Yet when I read the Vatican guidelines for exorcisms, the joking starts. Besides having a statement that claims it may take "days, weeks, or several months to succeed at casting out demons, it isn't to be done in the wide open view for everyone to watch, to see and believe!!! I wonder why.....now if Catholics actually told the truth about following in the apostles tradition, then Catholics would actually cast out demons just like the apostles did in public! The very reason that occurred back then was for the people watching it happen, they could be certain those apostles were truly from God!
So why hide behind the curtains and claim something? If I claimed I could miraculously heal the blind, would you not be inclined to request to see it for yourself? Sure you would, something that no living person has ever seen, of course. So why don't Catholics get on live TV and prove to all the world just how much apostolic succession there really is? Let the whole world see demons being drawn out of a person to convert people just like the apostles did. How many millions of lost souls would be saved by witnessing such a miraculous power that supposedly only the catholic church possesses? Would you deny salvation to millions of lost souls willing to convert to catholicism when all they need is to see it for themselves?
Come on now. Read the Holy Scripture on the accounts of Christ and His apostles casting out demons, it happened IMMEDIATELY! Not days, not weeks, not months like Catholics claim. What happened here? I see it clearly for what it is. The catholic denomination wants to keep up appearances since they claim apostolic succession so they say "we got to do it behind closed doors for everybody's safety." But what really is going on is, Catholic government knows for certain that if they attempted exorcisms in public by following the real apostles tradition, they would be a laughing stock! Because they can't do it! If Catholics could, then they would. Catholics say "don't interpret the Bible, because you will faulter," But in reality it's actually, "don't read and interpret your Bible because you will all realize we are all phony, fake, liars."
Now, I am NOT a protestant, I am a Christian, a member of the one and only church that Christ founded and bought with His own blood. Christ is the first stone layed for its foundation (Acts 4:11-12, Eph 2:20, 1 Pet 2:4-8, etc. ) and all contradictory doctrines are not acceptable such as all protestants and catholic denominations. I know this is a lot to read but I thank you for your time and hope you reply soon.
I love all people and truly wish for all to be saved from hell, if I didn't love you all, then I wouldn't waste my precious time writing this hoping to help a lost soul to see the error of man made doctrine and attempt to persuade all to join the one true church Jesus Christ established Himself, where all the saints are. By the way, the Bible clearly states all Christians are all saints (Romans 1:7, 8:27, etc)