Well I am off the pope's official email list and since I know you and you will deny any and all facts, so I am only so concerned.
The
Second Vatican Council's
Ecumenism explains: "For it is through
Christ's
Catholic Church alone, which is the
universal help toward
salvation, that the
fullness of the
means of
salvation can be
obtained.
Catechism of the Catholic Church - IntraText
“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:
Outside the Church there is no Salvation Archives - Catholicism.org
Also well-known is the Catholic teaching that no one can be saved [without] 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." Sacrament of Salvation
In an expression of the authentic Magisterium, the college of bishops further explained this doctrine in the context of Christocentric sacramental theology at Vatican II
Without the Church There Is No Salvation
"This dogma must be understood in that sense in which the Church herself understands it. For it was not to private judgment that Our Saviour gave for explanation those things that are contained in the deposits of faith, but to the teaching authority of the Church. "Now, in the first place, the Church teaches that in this matter there is a question of a most strict command of Jesus Christ. For He explicitly enjoined on his apostles to teach all nations to observe all things whatsoever He Himself had commanded. Now, among the commandments of Christ, one that holds not the least place, is that by which we are commanded to be incorporated by Baptism into the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church, and to remain united to Christ and to his Vicar, through whom He Himself in a visible manner governs the Church on earth.
"Therefore, no one will be saved who, knowing the Church to have been divinely established by Christ, nevertheless refuses to submit to the Church or withholds obedience from the Roman pontiff, the Vicar of Christ on earth. Not only did the Saviour command that all nations should enter the Church, but He also decreed the Church to be a means of salvation, without which no one can enter the kingdom of eternal glory."
[Letter of the S.C. of the H. Office, Aug. 8, 1949 to the Archbishop of Boston (CH 1256-7)].
SSPXAsia.com: Must we believe that outside of the Catholic Church there is no salvation?
What is to be held of the opinion that people who live outside of the Catholic Faith and Unity can inherit Eternal Life in Heaven?
"This is absolutely contrary to Catholic teaching. We know (...) that those who are invincibly ignorant of our most holy religion, and who, carefully observing the natural law and its precepts placed by God in the hearts of all men, and, disposed to obey God, lead an honest and upright life, can, with the help of divine light and grace, merit eternal life; for God, who has perfect knowledge, examines and judges the minds, the souls, the thoughts and deeds of all men, and does not permit, in his sovereign goodness and mercy, any man not culpable of willful sin to be punished with eternal torment. But this Catholic dogma is equally well known: that one cannot be saved outside the Catholic Church, and that those who knowingly rebel against the teaching and authority of the Church cannot obtain eternal salvation, nor can those who willfully separate themselves from union with the Church and with the Roman Pontiff, the successor of Peter, to whom the Saviour has entrusted the safe-keeping of his vineyard.
"The words of Jesus Christ are in fact extremely clear: 'If he will not hear the Church, let him be to thee as a heathen and a publican' (13). 'He that heareth you heareth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth me, and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me' (14). 'He that believeth not will be condemned' (15). 'He that believeth not is already judged' (16). 'He that is not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth' (17). So the Apostle Paul says that men are subverted and condemned by their own judgment (18), and the Prince of the Apostles calls 'lying teachers them who shall bring in sects of perdition, and deny the Lord who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction' (19)". [Pope Pius IX Letter Quanto conficiamur maerore, August 10, 1863, to the Italian Episcopate (CH 242-3)].
SSPXAsia.com: Must we believe that outside of the Catholic Church there is no salvation?
The history of the doctrine that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church
Some of the most pertinent Catholic expressions of this doctrine are: the profession of faith of
Pope Innocent III (1208), the profession of faith of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), the bull
Unam sanctam of
Pope Boniface VIII (1302), and the profession of faith of the
Council of Florence (1442). The axiom "No salvation outside the Church" has been frequently repeated over the centuries in different terms by the ordinary magisterium.
The fact of the matter is that it has always been the pipe dream of any denomination that the beliefs in the pews adhere to the official doctrines of each specific denomination. In reality it does not happen. I am not saying that all Catholics believe that there is no salvation outside of the Catholic Church.
But then Historically...official doctrine....I am saying that. And I am also saying that in more recent times the Catholic Church has shown signs of softening of this doctrine.
Then again, like I said, I know you....and if the Pope came to your house and told you personally and handed you a document with his official seal....you would call him a liar. So I am done.
