Dear Carolyn,
842 The Church's bond with non-Christian religions is in the first
place the common origin and end of the human race:
All nations form but one community. This is so because all stem
from the one stock which God created to people the entire earth, and
also because all share a common destiny, namely God. His providence,
evident goodness, and saving designs extend to all against the day
when the elect are gathered together in the holy city...."
843 The Catholic Church recognizes in other religions that search,
among shadows and images, for the God who is unknown yet near since he
gives life and breath and all things and wants all men to be saved.
Thus, the Church considers all goodness and truth found in these
religions as "a preparation for the Gospel and given by him who
enlightens all men that they may at length have life."
844 In their religious behavior, however, men also display the limits
and errors that disfigure the image of God in them:
Very often, deceived by the Evil One, men have become vain in their
reasonings, and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and
served the creature rather than the Creator. Or else, living and
dying in this world without God, they are exposed to ultimate
despair.
845 To reunite all his children, scattered and led astray by sin, the
Father willed to call the whole of humanity together into his Son's
Church. The Church is the place where humanity must rediscover its
unity and salvation. The Church is "the world reconciled." She is that
bark which "in the full sail of the Lord's cross, by the breath of the
Holy Spirit, navigates safely in this world." According to another
image dear to the Church Fathers, she is prefigured by Noah's ark,
which alone saves from the flood.
"Outside the Church there is no salvation"
846 How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the
Church Fathers? 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.
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.
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."
May I encourage you to treat yourself to a copy of the "Catechism of
the Catholic Church" as a late Christmas gift to yourself.
Sincerely in Christ,
Father Mateo
-- Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit --
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