No Salvation Outside The Church

[Ianny01]

Hello everybody,

I was on one of my various Wikipedia rampages when I stumbled on an article (on the Society of Jesus) that the Vatican II document Dignitatis Humanae Personae was in "apparent contradiction" to Pope Eugene IV's Bull, Domini Cantate. So, curious I looked around and stumbled onto a forum where some guy uses various excerpts from Papal bulls to support his idea that the Church was in "gross error."

Here's his post:

[quote]The Catholic Church tells us they have changed, regarding their position to non-Catholics. Does this mean that they were in GROSS ERROR at the time period that their popes presented their "Ecclesian Nulla Salus," meaning "Outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation. How can this be possible, since the Catholic Church believes it can never err, regarding the Scriptures? Lets look at just a few of these Bulls from the Popes.

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"By the heart we believe and by the mouth we confess the one Church, not of heretics but the Holy Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Church outside which we believe that no one is saved."

Source: Pope Innocent III, in Profession of Faith. "Eius exemplo" Dec. 18,1208.
........................................ "There is one universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved."

Source: Fourth Lateran Catholic Council, 1215
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"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."

Sourse: Unam Sanctam, by Pope Boniface VIII 1302
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"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 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 ecclesuastical body that only those remaining within this unity can profit by the sacraments of the Church unto salvation."

Source: Cantate Domino, By Pope Eugene IV, 1441.
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"We do, on the part of Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and also by the authority of the blessed apostles, Peter and Paul, and by our own, excommunicate and curse all Hussites, Wicliffites, Lutherans, Zwinglians, Calvinists, Huguenots, Anabaptists, Trinitarians, and Apostates from the faith of Christ, and all and sundry other heretics.

Source: "Coena Domini" This is one of the most notorious documents ever issued by the Pontiffs.
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"Every one is obliged, under pain of eternal damnation, to become a member of the Catholic Church, to believe her doctrines, to use her means of grace and to submit to her authority."

Source: Deharbe's Catrchism Copyright 1912, 1919, 1924, page 148.
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"Also well known is the Catholic teaching that no one can be saved outside the Catholic Church. Eternal salvation cannot be obtained by those who oppose the authority and statements of the same Church and are stubbornly separated from the unity of the Church and also from the successor of Peter, the Roman Pontiff, to whom the custody of the vineyard has been committed by the Savior."

Source: Quanto Conficiamur Morerore of Pope Pius IX.
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According to all the above, where does that leave all those who are opposed to the Roman Catholic Church? Needless to say, we are ALL headed in one direction, to the "lake of fire." Personally speaking, I would rather burn in hell than believe that Catholicism is God's pathway to glory and heaven. In my opinion, Romanism is the creation of the devil himself, and like the Reformers of old, I'm not fearful nor afraid to say so.[/quote]



I know that I can't just take this at face value. So any thoughts and comments would be helpful. I'm guessing the resolution of this has to do with the level of authority in a Papal bull as compared to other statements from the Vatican, greater understanding of a doctrine as time progresses, and historical context.

Anything would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Sincerely,
Ian

[Mateo el Feo]

Quick links, from the Phatmass Defense Directory:

[url="http://www.phatmass.com/directory/index.php/cat/144"]http://www.phatmass.com/directory/index.php/cat/144[/url]

[Moneybags]

Simply put, there is no salvation outside of the Church.

[url="http://acatholiclife.blogspot.com/2006/08/can-non-catholics-be-saved.html"]http://acatholiclife.blogspot.com/2006/08/...s-be-saved.html[/url]

[kenrockthefirst]

[quote name='St. Benedict' post='1270177' date='May 10 2007, 02:53 PM']Simply put, there is no salvation outside of the Church.

[url="http://acatholiclife.blogspot.com/2006/08/can-non-catholics-be-saved.html"]http://acatholiclife.blogspot.com/2006/08/...s-be-saved.html[/url][/quote]

Just out of curiosity, what is the most recent pronouncement on this topic? Anything from the 20th century?

[Aloysius]

The Catechism reaffirms that outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation; and re-words that negation into a positive assertion to say all salvation comes through the Catholic Church.

The sin of rejecting or remaining outside the Catholic Church is mortal and damnable; but with all mortal sins, one must be culpable by having full knowledge and applying full consent of the will to such a grave matter. Many may not have full consent of the will or full knowledge by nature of their being raised to believe the things they believe and never having the chance to actually see the real Church.

Whether or not they have committed this particular mortal sin doesn't mean they definitively go to heaven or hell... even if they have not committed this particular mortal sin, by being disconnected from the Sacramental Graces, they very likely may fall into other mortal sins that they will be damnable for. But if they do not have this particular mortal sin, then by implicit desire they may be joined to the Church by certain aspects of their common faith in Christ (the only way to salvation). None of this can ever be presumed and the missionary impetus of the Church to evangelize everyone because otherwise they are in danger of eternal hellfire is totally in place.

The most recent statements of this nature are probably Dominus Iesus by The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Ratzinger.

but anyway, St. Ben's blog link deals with it pretty in depth quoting the Catechism and all that; as well as do all the articles in the defense directory.