Hi Scott,

Thanks for writing. That is a very good question.

I have to be brief tonight — perhaps some of my colleagues would like to follow up — but I was eager to respond.

First of all, your director of RCIA is full of it. Jesus is the only way to salvation, and not everyone who "sincerely follows a religion" is saved. That being said, it is "possible" for a non-Christian to be saved, but it is difficult. They have to be ignorant of the truth through no fault of their own, and they have to obey the dictates of their conscience and the law written by God in their hearts:

Note the Catechism says *may*, not *will*. Some have abused this, and made it much, much broader than it has been stated in Church documents, even to the point, as you heard, of saying that all religious people will be saved. We still believe that the Gospel needs to be proclaimed and embraced, as it is the way to salvation. While it is possible, in God's great Mercy, that He extend His salvation to those ignorant of the Gospel, we must not presume on that Mercy and spurn the grace of God. This applies also to Protestants in that there is more grace available in the Catholic Church: the means God established for salvation; and so God wishes all to be part of the Catholic Church.

Note that the Catechism makes clear that not even all Catholics will be saved:

With respect to praying with non-Christians, I haven't followed what happened at Assisi, but I would first of all verify we are actually talking about praying *with* non-Christians, as opposed to merely gathering with them, or even praying independently from them, if simultaneously. Just because two people are in the same room praying doesn't mean they are praying "with" one another.

In any case, if we suppose that this were sinful, we simply have an example of Pope John Paul II, like Peter, failing to live out the Gospel faithfully, and providing a bad example; not teaching error.

I hope this helps. If I have any additional thoughts I will share them.

Yours in Christ,

Eric Ewanco

Hi Scott,

Thanks for your question. My colleague Eric did an excellent job in answering your basic question.

It is sad that some of our RCIA programs have leaders who have not been catechized correctly.
It appears your instructor is one of them.

For (him or her) to tell you "that Muslims are saved" or "anyone who sincerely follows any religion is saved" is scandalous.

• Ask (him or her) what (he or she) thinks the mission of the Catholic Church is?
• To serve and save Catholics only? <Certainly not!>
  Our Church is not a country club.

The mission of the Church is to save all souls through the one Church Christ established with the provisos, my colleague, Eric stated. Christians can only find the fullness of happiness and participate fully with Christ, Our Lord, in His Catholic Church.

Even to this day, the Church officially teaches that:

"Outside the Church there is no Salvation"
This is Catholic dogma. {Something all faithful Catholics have to believe.}

The biggest problem we have in the Church is a correct and proper interpretation and understanding of this specific teaching. This includes understanding what we believe and what we don't believe when sharing this important teaching with others.

For this reason, I've dedicated a whole section of our knowledge base for visitors to read. After reading a page or two of these questions and answers, the reader should have an appropriate understanding of what we mean (and don't mean) when we say, "Outside the Church there is no Salvation".

My colleague Eric has done a very good job in bringing up the main points to remember. I highly suggest re-reading his reply (above). My two cents:

1. All mankind is bound by their consciences to develop their faith regularly, and to seek out the fullness of Faith in Christ that can only be found in His one Church. We are encouraged when we see areas of the faith that we can agree with our Protestant brethren on, and we strive to acknowledge these areas in our faith-sharing discussions. As Catholic evangelists and apologists, we can start here as an area of agreement that we have, but the fact is, we are still not one in faith, especially eucharistically. (John 6:51-69)
   
2. Those who know that the Catholic faith is the True faith, and understand the rationale of the teachings of the Church that Christ established yet refuse to enter into it, gravely risk their salvation.
   
3. Those who don't rationally understand Her (the Church's) teachings are called to study and prayer in those areas they do not comprehend yet.
   
   You are to be applauded, as this is what you appear to be doing.

RE: Faith-sharing and Interfaith dialogue

In this area, the best line I have heard was from our previous Cardinal of Boston, Cardinal Law. He was on an EWTN show and a priest was urging him on to, what appeared to be, a false sense of Christian unity. In his reply, he was quoted as saying:

"The most ecumenical thing a Catholic can do, is to be unmistakably Catholic."

This is the attitude all Catholics should have. We can achieve this by studying and learning what the Church officially teaches, on issues of faith and morals, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. If you need a copy, you can get a pretty cheap one here.

Having some background knowledge on what the Early Church Fathers taught and believed would also be very helpful. I have a website dedicated to this as well as some recommended reading.

True friends can:

• agree to agree, and
• agree to disagree

while still being friends. (e.g. Like my Baptist friend and I.)  We are friends, despite our faith differences. We don't respect the error of what each other believes, but we respect each other as persons and friends, made in the image and likeness of God, and we respect the free will each of us has to listen and faith-share together.

I'm concerned about whether or not you are getting a proper RCIA education.

• Ask your RCIA instructor if she believes that, on issues of faith and morals, you have to believe what the Holy Father officially teaches?
• Ask her if you can dissent from official Church teachings?

If she says, Yes, to either of these questions or If she says that there are errors in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, I would run as fast as I could from that instructor, and pray that the Lord assist you in finding a better Catholic parish where you can receive instruction and be brought into the faith!

I hope my two cents helps.

Mike Humphrey

Hi Scott,

I had an additional comment. I don't know if you've ever heard the saying,

"The Church is not a museum for saints, but a hospital for sinners."

As much as I would want the Catholic Church to be a museum for saints, it is much more a hospital for sinners than Protestant churches. My experience of Protestant churches is that they tend to be self-selecting; those who are truly committed to Christ tend to gather together into the same churches, and those who never truly experience conversion tend to drop out or be left behind. A Protestant who doesn't believe, or ceases to believe, has no reason to continue to go to church, so they typically stop going. Consequently, there tends to be an expectation among the true believers that everyone in the church should be a true believer. We know though, from the parable of the wheat and the tares, (Matthew 13:24-30) that this is not so. Even their definition of "Church of Christ" reinforces this: the invisible collection of all true believers.

The Catholic understanding, on the other hand, is very different. For better or for worse, there are strong forces that keep the unconverted in the churches.

• one is the teaching that if you deliberately stop coming to church, you lose your salvation.
• one is the strong cultural ties.
• one is the emphasis on membership starting from infant Baptism.
• one can certainly argue that the unconverted will at least hear the Gospel if they come to church, and for this reason, it is better to let them stay.

On the other side of the coin, Catholic parishes have always been very strongly geographically based (in fact, at one time you were obliged to go to your geographical parish.), so the true believers tend not to self-select themselves into the same parish.

The consequence of all of this is a big culture shock when Evangelicals or Fundamentalists look into becoming Catholic. To them, it is a big scandal that there are so many unconverted in Catholic parishes.

Yeah, they are probably the majority, depending on how strict your definition of "converted" or "true believer" is, so this makes the Church look, to them, apostate in practice (compared to the ultra-fervent islands they live on). You have to decide for yourself whether this is truly a mark of reprobation or not.

I would like to point out, however, that in the Old Testament, where Israel was the type of the Church, more often than not, virtually all of Israel was disobedient and wayward, if not outright apostate. (Note: A type is a person or thing in the Old Testament, which foreshadows something in the New Testament.) You will never find instances of mass idolatry in the history of the Catholic Church as there were in the history of Israel, yet Israel was still Israel, God's chosen people, and God never took his promise away, regardless of how unfaithful Israel was. When we compare the Catholic Church to ancient Israel, She is, after all, the new Israel. (cf. James 1:1, Galatians 4:26), I think we'll come out looking better. I'd also point out that Jesus was criticized by the Pharisees for letting a lot of impure people into His company.

So, approaching the Catholic Church, I guarantee you will be scandalized. She is not going to look pretty to you, and She will take some getting used to; I won't deny that.

The question I think you should ask, though, is not whether She looks good, but:

• whether She teaches the Truth
• whether She is the Church founded by Christ, and
• whether She has the fullness of the means of salvation.

Yours in Christ,

Eric

Hello, Scott —

Both my friends have given you the pieces of the puzzle. Being a former Baptist myself, let me try to put it together for you in terms that an Evangelical could be able to see the picture as a whole.

We seem to have a dichotomy here: on the one hand we read,

"Outside the Church there is no Salvation"

on the other hand, we read that it is possible that some who do not know about Christ, or fully understand the Gospel, can be saved.

Let's start with the words of St. Paul:

Notice that St. Paul said it was grace and not (correct or perfect theology) that saves us.

The Bible teaches us that people are held accountable for the knowledge and understanding which they are given.

The Church ultimately acknowledges what the book of Revelation records in Chapter 7 verse 10, which reads:

Thus, it is God who decides who is saved and who is not. This is not to discount free will — but it is to say that we don't walk around saying "so and so" is damned and "so and so" is saved.
That is God's job, and we rely on His great Mercy to triumph over what we all really deserve.

Turning to the words of Jesus in Matthew 25:

If you read the verses in the preceding chapter you will read about the angels gathering the elect, and how they will be judged, but notice in the above chapter it says,

"All the nations will be gathered before Him", not, "All the

• churches,
• elect, or
• Kingdom.

As we read further, Jesus talks to these people and says,

Notice how they answered;

• When did we do this?
• As if to say, Who are you?

Note that no Christian would ask the Lord this question. Christians know that when they do good or evil to their fellow man, they do it unto the Lord. Thus, I believe this text is talking about those who do not know Him in this life. So we see them being judged on the basis of how they respond to God's grace in their lives, according to the measure with which they received it.

Returning to our dichotomy. When the Church says "Outside the Church, there is no salvation", the Church is not saying that there is no salvation for all those outside the walls of the Catholic Church. Rather, it is saying that the Church is the visible mystical Body of Christ on Earth from which the Grace of Salvation flows to the world. Thus, if it were not for the Church, just as, if it were not for Jesus Christ, there would be no salvation.

If a Muslim is ultimately saved, it is because Christ died for him, not because he followed Islam; that goes for anyone else.

Now as to interfaith dialogue, such dialogue should be the foundation of relationships which lead to evangelization.

St. Paul was the first big advocate of such dialogue. When he argued with the Greeks, he did not quote Scripture as he did with the Jews. Rather, he quoted their poets and made analogies which related to their pagan faith. He did that in order to foster understanding. (Read Acts 17.)

Unfortunately, we have our share of idiots in the Catholic Church who have turned interfaith dialogue into a treaty negotiation, whereby we all compromise in the name of fostering a unity which does not exist.

However, there are also those who have accomplished much in the spirit of true dialogue:

Scott, as you continue your journey into the Church, you will find that, unlike your local Bible fellowship, the Church has a billion members. Amongst those are "our share of morons and heretics". Unfortunately, some have "theology degrees" and influence the catechesis of the laity. That is not to say that they influence the "official teaching" of the Church.

Nevertheless, we trust in Christ's promise to preserve the Church as we await His Return.

God Bless,

John DiMascio