Question 103 – Is There Salvation Outside Of The Church?

Transcript:

There is no salvation outside the church because it means that there is no salvation outside of Christ. Of course, this is a dogma of faith. What is the Church? The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ. So, outside the Mystical Body of Christ, there is no salvation. Someone will be saved only through the grace of Christ. 

The Church even taught traditionally that a non-baptized person can be saved through the desire for baptism, a baptism of desire. It is a traditional teaching of the Church. Pope Pius IX in the 19th century was teaching that even a non-Christian who does not have an explicit desire for baptism but is living according to the commandments of God – A just life and a life of charity can do this only with the help of the grace of Christ even if he does not know that his life is supported by the grace of Christ because no one can observe the commandments of God and love God without the influence of the graces of Christ, of His sacrifice on the Cross. 

And so, in a mysterious way, which only God knows, let us say, these innocent people who are not Christians but are living and trying to love God and observe His commandments manage to do this, their duties in the strength of the Graces of Christ, of His Blood, even without knowing this, in this case, they can be saved. 

So, they can also be saved but only with the graces of Christ in this case, through the Church not directly but indirectly. The Church says that they will be saved in ways that only God knows. But we do not know who among these non-Christians has these special graces, only God knows. It can be that the majority of them are not living in the graces of Christ and therefore, we have the grievous obligation to proclaim the gospel and Christ in the Catholic faith to all non-Christians and non-Catholics so that they will be consciously joining the Mystical Body of Christ. 

Because I repeat, we don’t know who among them has received this special extraordinary Grace. We also must bring them the happiness of knowing Christ, their savior. This is a very important and great obligation of the Church, and so we continue with our missionary work.