This Sacred Council wishes to
turn its attention firstly to
the Catholic faithful. Basing
itself upon Sacred Scripture and
Tradition, it teaches that the
Church, now sojourning on earth
as an exile, is necessary for
salvation. Christ, present to
us in His Body, which is the Church,
is the one Mediator and the unique
way of salvation. In explicit
terms He Himself affirmed the
necessity of faith and baptism
and thereby affirmed also the
necessity of the Church, for through
baptism as through a door men
enter the Church. Whosoever, therefore,
knowing that the Catholic Church
was made necessary by Christ,
would refuse to enter or to remain
in it, could not be saved.
Vatican II, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium (paragraph
14) |
