Is My Neighbour Saved?

We would do well to make no mistake about this: the Catholic Church continues to insist that “the Church is the ordinary means of salvation… and… she alone possesses the fullness of the means of salvation” (Redemptoris Missio, 1990, point 55). It has been in accordance with God’s eternal desire that the Church, instituted by Christ, in the fullness of time, should be the sign and instrument of His divine plan of salvation (refer to Lumen Gentium, point 1). The centre of the Church is, of course, the mystery of Christ. She is the "universal sacrament of salvation" (Lumen Gentium, point 48), and is "necessary for salvation" (Lumen Gentium, point 14). The Lord Jesus Himself inaugurated her mission "by preaching the good news, that is, the coming of God's Kingdom" (Lumen Gentium, point 5).

However, the Church also acknowledges the reality that not all people are privileged to hear the Gospel in its fullness. Some receive it only partially, perhaps because of the inadequacies of its transmitters, whilst others almost never receive it at all throughout their lifetimes. As a result, their religious conscience does not incline them to realise a need for Christ and His Church. Of these, the Church says,

Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience. Nor does Divine Providence deny the helps necessary for salvation to those who, without blame on their part, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God and with His grace strive to live a good life. Whatever good or truth is found amongst them is looked upon by the Church as a preparation for the Gospel.

(Lumen Gentium, point 16)

In summary, the Holy Catholic Church acknowledges the goodness found in all religions, and the possibility of salvation for those who seek God to the best of their abilities. However, in the same breath, it affirms the abiding efficacy of Christ’s work to save the world. In other words, we believe that if people are saved, regardless of their religious adherence, it is Christ who saves them. Other religions are a preparation for the Gospel of Christ; they are not the Gospel itself. Hence, the all too common practice of substituting our reading of Sacred Scripture with the scriptures of other religions is nothing less than a scandal to the integrity of Christ’s redemptive work.

We should not be ashamed to make unique truth claims about our faith, because making exclusive truth claims is innate to the nature of religion. After all, which religion does not claim itself to be uniquely true? To defy this nature of religious beliefs by turning truth claims upon themselves, and insisting that no one religion is unique, would constitute starting a whole new religion; and ironically, this new claim itself would be exclusive too!

For the Church to acknowledge the possibility of salvation for peoples of other faiths is entirely different from saying that all religions are the same, for such a notion defies the very nucleus of our faith - that it is Jesus who saves! The words of the first Pope of the Church, the Apostle Peter, continue to resound today: “Only in Him [i.e. Jesus Christ] is there salvation; for of all the names in the world given to men, this is the only one by which we can be saved (Acts of the Apostles 4.12)”.