Promising Salvation to Non-Catholics: A Sin against Charity

Catholicism.org ^ | November 2, 2010 | Bro. Andre Marie

[Texas Eagle]

Really? Do all non-Catholics go to Hell?

[cripplecreek]

Cheer up, at least we won’t have to listen to an eternal lecture. LOL

[Texas Eagle]

...unless before death they are joined with Her;

You spell "her" with a capital, "H", eh? Interesting.

[Texas Eagle]

LOL. In Latin, no less.

[LearnsFromMistakes]

That the Church has defined there is no salvation outside her

Glad I didn't go to 'the Church' for my salvation.

[DannyTN]

Jhn 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

[nmh]

LOL!

As a Bible based Chrisitan, I know some Catholics will go to heaven ... but it won’t be because of charity. It will be because they have a personal relationship with Christ and rejected praying TO Mary, and other dead sinners.

[BenKenobi]

Interesting, it is, is it not? We sure don’t.

As for salvation, Christ says, “many who are inside are outside, and outside inside.”

Just being a member doesn’t guarantee you salvation, and nor does being outside bar the door.

What the Catholic church teaches is that those who have not heard of Christ, can still be saved at the last judgement, by the works of their heart, (those who, in their ignorance, still follow the commands of their conscience become a law unto themselves), as it says in Romans.

[nmh]

No building or GROUP or some old guy with a hige ego, like the Pope or even Mary can NOT save you!

Only CHRIST can save and belief in Him is required as well as obedience to the best of your ability.

[BenKenobi]

We don’t pray to mary.

She prays for us.

[mrmeyer]

I would hope not. I’m Catholic, and my Wife and 2 year old Daughter are Protestant.

[nmh]

You can NOT get to heaven by GOOD WORKS!

[BenKenobi]

Great, except she’s not dead. God is a God of the living, not of the dead.

[surroundedbyblue]

Again, we don’t worship Mary & the Saints. We ask for their intercession as we go to the Lord.

If the “Catholics” you a referring to reject the Church’s belief in the Communion of Saints, they are not Catholics.

[verdugo]

We all hate it when someone makes a promise and doesn’t keep it. “But you promised!” we will say, and, depending on the level of blame and sensitivity of conscience on the part of the offending party, the reaction can be one of great shame. If this is true of promises one is simply unable to keep because circumstances forbade it, it is more so in the case of false promises: that is, those made with no intention of keeping them, or those one had absolutely no authority to make. To promise salvation to a non-Catholic, either directly or indirectly, falls in the latter category as being particularly shameful. It is shameful because it is sinful. It is sinful because it offends not only against faith, but against the greatest Christian virtue: charity.

“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.)

What makes us inside the Church? Three things: Divine and Catholic Faith (explicit in the principal mysteries — the Trinity and the Incarnation — and at least implicit in all other articles), sacramental baptism, and subjection to the Holy Father. These defining elements of Church membership expounded by St. Robert Bellarmine were authoritatively postulated by Pope Pius XII in Mystici Corporis:

Actually only those are to be included as members of the Church who have been baptized and profess the true faith, and who have not been so unfortunate as to separate themselves from the unity of the Body, or been excluded by legitimate authority for grave faults committed.

[MEGoody]

To promise salvation to a non-Catholic, either directly or indirectly, falls in the latter category as being particularly shameful.

It's also shameful to promise salvation to Catholics.

Human beings can't save anyone. We can't do something for someone to save them, and they can't do anything for themselves to save themselves.

Jesus did what was necessary to provide salvation. He gave us the promises. The best we humans can do is to point others to Jesus and let the Lord do the rest.

[BenKenobi]

You need to read Romans.

Paul says, (In the KJV):

Romans 2:14-5

“For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:

Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)”