Do Roman Catholics believe there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church?

Answer 1

I am Catholic and I have no idea what we believe. If you find out please let me know.

Answer 2

Although most religions, including the Roman Catholics have had the idea that they are the only ones that are going to heaven and everybody else is going to hell, the Roman Catholic Church changed a lot while Pope John Paul II was the Pope. He worked very hard and long toward reconciliation with all peoples and all positive faiths, including Protestants, Jews, Muslims and traditional indigenous peoples. There have been a few 'encyclicals' that tried to teach Catholics to love as Christ loves, but many Catholics don't read them and are not up-to-date or understanding of more than what somebody said that they half undestood as kids.

John, one of Christ's disciples said, in his first letter, "God is love, and whoever lives in love lives in God, and whoever says that they love God, whom they can't see, while hating their brother (everyone is a brother), whom they can see, is a liar and there is no truth in him."

So the criteria for salvation is 'to love as Jesus loves'.
The fullness of faith is another question.

Answer 3

I'm part Catholic, I believe in Salvation in and Outside the Catholic Church. The day will come..

Answer 4

One does not have to be Catholic to go to heaven. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

+ About Non-Catholic Christian Churches: "Furthermore, many elements of sanctification and of truth" are found outside the visible confines of the Catholic Church: "the written Word of God; the life of grace; faith, hope, and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, as well as visible elements." Christ's Spirit uses these Churches and ecclesial communities as means of salvation, whose power derives from the fullness of grace and truth that Christ has entrusted to the Catholic Church. All these blessings come from Christ and lead to him."

+ About Judaism: "The Jewish faith, unlike other non-Christian religions, is already a response to God's revelation in the Old Covenant. To the Jews "belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ"; "for the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.

+ About Islam: 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.

+ About other non-Christian religions: 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.

With love in Christ.

Answer 5

I am a catholic. As a child I was taught that catholicism was the only true religion. While not outright said, it implies that there is no salvation outside the church. I haven't practiced in many years and don't subscribe to any organized religion for this reason among others. Hoever, I am not Godless.

Answer 6

As a Roman Catholic I firmly believe that salvation is open to anyone. I think it is easier in the RCC because of the fullness of the sacraments that is offered.

God will decide who has salvation and who doesn't, it really isn't up to me to decide.

Answer 7

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.)

Think of this:
Why would Jesus sacrifice himself and establish his Church, if anyone can be saved without accepting the teachings of the church?

The teaching that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church is a dogma of the Catholic faith.
This dogma has always been taught, and will always be taught, infallibly by the Church's magisterium.

In order that a man may be saved "within" the Church, it is not always necessary that he belong to the Church, actually as a member, but it can sometimes be enough that he belong to it as one who desires or wills to be in it. In other words, it is possible for one who belongs to the Church only in desire to be saved.

Answer 8

I do find it strange and a bit incredulous at how, I think almost all, faiths have staked the same claims. If you are one searching sanctuary for salvation, its like playing lottery, you may or may not hit the jackpot until you die and find out yourself if you have chosen the right religion.

Sorry. I know I am not being nice. But that's the truth.

Answer 9

God is merciful and just, and He judges people based on what they know and what they do with true knowledge and revelation about Him: how they act upon it. For example, in every passage I have found about judgment day or the last days when all will be judged, people were judged based on what they did: not simply because they cited a "correct formula" such as "I'm saved by faith alone" or "TULIP is the gospel" or "I accepted Jesus into my heart as personal savior." From the text itself, all we know is that Jesus judged them on their actions.
. We also know from Romans 2:6-16 (RSV) how God looks at believers who have different degrees of knowledge or ignorance:

Answer 10

Some of them do, but they should not.

ROMANS 14
9For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. 10You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. 11It is written:
" 'As surely as I live,' says the Lord,
'every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will confess to God.' "[a] 12So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.

13Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way. 14As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food[b] is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.

Answer 11

No

I think that they teach that there IS salvation outside of the Church but not outside of Christ.