04/25/2005: "Question of the Week: Do Catholics believe that only Catholics (or Christians) are going to heaven?"

The Catholic Church believes a number of things in regards to this question:

-Salvation is granted by Jesus Christ.
-Christ created the Church to bring His salvation to the world.
-As such His salvation comes through the Church.
-The Catholic Church is the Church that Christ founded.

Now, these things being said, one has to understand ONE important related point:

Church "membership" is not necessarily manditory for it to be the means by which Christ grants salvation.

You see, God is both merciful and omnipotent. God, or more specifically Jesus, gave the Church to the whole world. The Church has an impact that is far more expansive than just those who claim membership in the Church. We need look no further than all of the world wide activity surrounding Pope John Paul II's death and Pope Benedict XVI's election as proof of this. When you look at the interest surrounding these events one can plainly see that the Church brings Christ to far more than the membership of the Church.

To focus on other Christians, almost all other Christians and their churches, even in "protesting", have a relationship with the Catholic Church if nothing else by their use of the Bible. The New Testament as it is used in all Christian churches was compiled and dogmatically defined by the Catholic Church. Despite their "protests" to the contrary, when Protestants study scripture, they are studying the truth's of Christ as revealed to the Catholic Church as scripture.

To go further, with non-Christians, much of what they know about God comes from society's influence and that society's knowlege of God in every corner of the world has been influenced by the Catholic Church in the last 2000 years. They too, in a more subtle way, have had the truth's of the Catholic Church revealed to them.

Because of this, we believe that the Church brings Christ to everyone, even those who do not call themselves Catholic. One must be clear however, that salvation does not come to every person on earth even though the Church has brought Christ to them. Salvation is reserved for those who Christ deems should have it. He has told us that he reserves it for those who believe in Him, either consciously or subconsciously. To be a believer, you must accept what you know about Him to be true.

This, oddly enough, puts a greater requirement on those who are more familiar with the Catholic Church than those who are remote to it. As Catholics, we believe that we have the 'Fullness of Truth' as reveal by Christ to His Church. We believe that other Christians have a great deal of that truth but not all of it. Those who know of the Church's Fullness of Truth and reject it are in effect (either by being a dissenter in the Catholic Church or by being a member of another Christian church), rejecting Christ. However those who, through no fault of their own, have lived as a Christian believer in another Christian church without ever knowing that the Catholic Church's Fullness of Truth are not held to the same standard. They are not rejecting Christ by not being members of the Catholic Church. Similarly, those who are unaware of the teachings of broader Christianity through no fault of their own, but seek Christ are held to an even more merciful standard. They too may be saved.

In the end, the Church teaches that only God knows who reaches Heaven (with some notable exceptions). We only know what we are to strive for and what Church we should be putting our faith in and that through this Chuch, the Catholic Church, we pray that God in His mercy will help everyone to believe in Him and receive His saving grace whether they be Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant or non-Christian.