do catholics believe that if your not catholic then you don't go to heaven?

Answer 1

No.

This is common theme among people who like to attack the Catholic Church. They use statements from the Pope that are taken out of context to reinforce their assaults. In a speech earlier this year the Pope said "that the full understanding of Jesus Christ and the road to salvation is to be found within Catholicism. Anyone who is baptized is still a Christian and non-Christians are also loved by God." Neither of these groups are, contrary to what some pundits yelled, condemned to hell.

But the Church, the Pope continued, offers the Eucharist, the body and blood of Jesus. This and Papal supremacy and the Sacraments make it unique.

Not particularly surprising. What did people expect the Pope to say? He's a Catholic. He's the Catholic! Nobody is obliged to be Catholic, but if they say they are they should live as though they are. Which means they have to observe Catholic teaching. Requiring that they know what Catholic teaching is in the first place.

Answer 2

This was the teaching in the catholic schools years ago, however I don't know if this is still the system.
It's all to do with baptism cleansing the person/child of original sin, which the catholic is meant to have when they are born.
Lets face it, most religions believe that theirs is the one true faith, and that nobody else will pass through heavens gate unless they are anointed into their particular religion.
Jehovah's Witnesses have a belief that only a certain number of their members will enter the new world.
Sounds like a big con to me, to keep the elders at the top of the tree in a comfortable lifestyle.

Answer 3

Not necessarily.

The Catholic Church does teach that outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation, but one must look at what this really means. Paragraph 3 of the Second Vatican Council's Decree on Ecumenism (Unitatis Redintegratio, 21 November 1964) says that our separated brethren "who believe in the faith of Christ and have been properly baptized are put in some, though imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church." It also says that "all who have been justified by faith in baptism are incorporated into Christ, they therefore have a right to be called Christians, and with good reason are accepted as brothers by the children of the Catholic Church." Everyone is saved through the Catholic Church, either as faithful members of that Church, or as members of churches which contain some significant elements of truth and sanctification found in the Catholic Church, or as persons 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. For this reason, a Bishop is responsible for every soul within his diocese, not just the Catholic ones.

Answer 4

Jesus M, judgemental people are not true Christians. Both Catholics and Protestants, and all people, even non-Christians, are guilty of this.

The Catholic religion a true Christian religion. Fundies are nuts.

I'm sure there are a few Catholics who believe this, but most of them do not. Ask Protestants the same question about their kind of Christianity and salvation, and you'll get a larger percentage of them who believe that if one isn't a believer exactly like them, then that person goes to hell.

Answer 5

No.

The Catholic Church teaches:

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.

For more information, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, section 819: http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt3art9p3.htm#819

With love in Christ.

Answer 6

This is what Catholics believe about the matter:

"Outside the Church there is no salvation"

846 How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers?335 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.336

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.337

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."338

Answer 7

Catholics believe that anyone who lives an objectively good and moral life can go to heaven.

If they do not know God through no fault of their own, God in His mercy will not punish them.

Those who - with full knowledge of what the Church teaches- still reject what the Church teaches...well....we still leave them to the mercy of God BUT I can't imagine He would treat them as well.

Answer 8

No I don't, anyone that believes in God and follows the Commandments will go to Heaven

Answer 9

Not anymore since the changes brought by Vatican II, but lets be honest most if not all the Christian denominations think that they are the only ones saved and if you are not sailing on a particular boat then you are drowning.

Answer 10

Just like all other Christians some go one way some go the other.