Can a Buddhist go to Heaven by Lord Christ’s Redemptive work?

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I am a Japanese Catholic Christian in Japan, Baptized 10 years ago. One thing that has been confusing me for the last three years is this idea that “Catholicism’s important idea is that anyone can be saved as long as their conscience is clean and has no doubt in their belief, even if their religion is not Catholics.” This Japanese Catholic person is teaching this on Japan Catholic site. I was confused by this because I thought it was up to G-d who could be saved who was outside of Catholic Church even if a person was perfectly in peace with their conscience. Thus, salvation in this case is not anything promised. But nonetheless, his argument sounded very good.

When I had a chance to talk to my atheist parents who had rejected my introduction of Christianity before, I told them if they liked Buddhism go ahead and practice it. I believed that my parents could go to Heaven in their belief system because I agreed with that Internet person’s idea this was the fundamental idea of Christ’s Redemptive work.

Later, I went back to Catholic site and told that Catholic person about it. He said I did a correct thing as a Catholic to tell my parents so. But I still felt weird so when I had a chance to talk to an elder Catholic Christian in the local church, I asked her about this idea. She said don’t listen to him. She said Christianity is about Lord Jesus Christ so don’t believe Salvation is possible without Him; Don’t believe that clean-conscience-salvation thing. I am still confused. I still think Catholicism is very difficult to understand and introduce. Who has better idea in this case? The Catholic person on Internet, or the elder woman in the church? Am I right to tell my parents to go ahead and practice Buddhism if that’s what they can believe?
 
Katsuobushi said:
Am I right to tell my parents to go ahead and practice Buddhism if that’s what they can believe?
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No… If you have to say anything to them you should merely tell them what you believe

That said, there’s nothing in Church Teachings which says that Buddhists can not wind up in Heaven

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From ancient times down to the present, there is found among various peoples a certain perception of that hidden power which hovers over the course of things and over the events of human history; at times some indeed have come to the recognition of a Supreme Being, or even of a Father. This perception and recognition penetrates their lives with a profound religious sense.

Religions, however, that are bound up with an advanced culture have struggled to answer the same questions by means of more refined concepts and a more developed language. Thus in Hinduism, men contemplate the divine mystery and express it through an inexhaustible abundance of myths and through searching philosophical inquiry. They seek freedom from the anguish of our human condition either through ascetical practices or profound meditation or a flight to God with love and trust.

Again, Buddhism, in its various forms, realizes the radical insufficiency of this changeable world; it teaches a way by which men, in a devout and confident spirit, may be able either to acquire the state of perfect liberation, or attain, by their own efforts or through higher help, supreme illumination. Likewise, other religions found everywhere try to counter the restlessness of the human heart, each in its own manner, by proposing “ways,” comprising teachings, rules of life, and sacred rites.

The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men. Indeed, she proclaims, and ever must proclaim Christ “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), in whom men may find the fullness of religious life, in whom God has reconciled all things to Himself.(4)

The Church, therefore, exhorts her sons, that through dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions, carried out with prudence and love and in witness to the Christian faith and life, they recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values found among these men.
 
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Katsuobushi said:
… Am I right to tell my parents to go ahead and practice Buddhism if that’s what they can believe?
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From the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - Archbishop J. Augustine Di Noi (2019)
How persons who are not now explicit believers in Christ can actually come to share in the salvation that God desires for the human race and that Christ alone makes possible is a topic for another day. But surely it must be evident that if Christians—in the wholly admirable desire to be respectful of non-believers and optimistic about their chances of salvation—no longer confess Christ’s unique mediatorship in making ultimate communion with the Blessed Trinity a real possibility for created persons, then the problem of how non-Christians can share in it is not resolved: it simply evaporates. For Christians to have a truly universal hope and confidence in the salvation of persons who are not Christians, they have to affirm the unique role of Christ in bringing this salvation about, not just for themselves but for others as well. By stressing the distinctiveness of the Christian doctrine of salvation, Placuit Deo helps us to make this point forcefully. “Christ is Savior inasmuch as He assumed the entirety of our humanity and live a fully human life in communion with his Father and others. Salvation, then, consists in our incorporation into his life, receiving his Spirit (cf. I Jn 4:13). He became, 'in a particular way, the origin of all grace according to his humanity.’ He is at the same time Savior and Salvation."[[11]]
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http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/c...rc_con_cfaith_20190115_di-noia_en.html#_ftn11
 
You’re asking a really potent and good question about who can get to Heaven. In short, I can’t give a definite answer one way or the other because it is ultimately up to God to decide that. When we talk about the Catholic interpretation of this matter, or indeed any other matter, we say ‘interpretation’ because that is all that it is. God’s law is God’s law; it isn’t changed to accommodate for what we (Catholics) believe in. We may have the wrong interpretation. We’re still trying to figure out what the correct interpretation of many matters. What I will say with a degree of confidence is that Christ’s death offered salvation for all, and that He paid the price due to us for our sins. I’m sorry that this maybe isn’t what you’re wanting to hear.

Here is Pope Francis’ take on the matter of who can go to Heaven. It should be noted that there was a lot of criticism over this in the view that it was wishful thinking. Another problem with this topic of ‘the fate of the unlearned’ is that it strays into other topics, such as conditional/unconditional election, other philosophies and their contents, etc.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...=bRbUTfSds0U&usg=AOvVaw2tbf8NMja1kb5Rxe_xc7Pk
 
No, unless they have faith in Christ before death. That faith which is absolutely necessary for salvation, “is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed.” (CCC 150).

In particular, this means faith in Christ, since Christ “is the Father’s one, perfect and unsurpassable Word. In him he has said everything; there will be no other word than this one” (CCC 65); “what he spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who is His Son” (CCC 65, quoting St. John of the Cross).

For this reason, faith in Christ is absolutely necessary:

CCC
The Necessity of Faith

161 Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation.42 "Since “without faith it is impossible to please [God]” and to attain to the fellowship of his sons, therefore without faith no one has ever attained justification, nor will anyone obtain eternal life ‘But he who endures to the end.’"43
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Even if in good conscience, people in non-Christian religions cannot have faith–they simply do not believe what God has revealed. Their belief is merely “religious experience still in search of the absolute truth and still lacking assent to God who reveals himself” and therefore “the distinction between theological faith and belief in the other religions, must be firmly held.” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dominus Iesus 7).

There can be no invincible ignorance in this regard. As the First Vatican Council taught, the Holy Spirit “gives to all facility in accepting and believing the truth.” (Dei Filius, ch. 3, par. 6).

However, we do acknowledge that, for those in good conscience seeking to follow the truth, “in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him.” (CCC 848). This may even happen only at the “eleventh hour” (cf. Matt. 20:6).

[EDIT: just to add, invincible ignorance excuses from explicit belief in the specific articles of faith, since their acceptance is implied in faith in Christ, the one Word. However, for the same reason, culpable heresy destroys all faith].
 
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Your elder at the local church is correct that Jesus is the way to heaven, but she is assuming incorrectly that Jesus saves only those who call upon him by name. If your parents know Jesus by his love but not by his name, and if they are following in his way, even though they do not know whose way it is, then I think they are close to the kingdom of heaven.
 
Are you and/or the CCC implicitly saying here that, despite Buddhists’ firm and prayerful belief in their own religion and in their conception of G-d due to their culture and family upbringing, plus their doing good deeds toward others during their lifetime, G-d (Jesus) will still punish them for not specifically believing that He is the only way to salvation, because they refuse to relinquish their religious beliefs? (What then would be the Church’s definition of invincible ignorance?) To me, this does not sound like the action of a benevolent G-d, and so I wonder whether this is the specific teaching of the Church? It sounds more reminiscent of certain Protestant teachings.
 
Beryllos said:
Your elder at the local church is correct that Jesus is the way to heaven, but she is assuming incorrectly that Jesus saves only those who call upon him by name. If your parents know Jesus by his love but not by his name, and if they are following in his way, even though they do not know whose way it is, then I think they are close to the kingdom of heaven.
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Yep… No one is auto-barred from Heaven.

Including those who’ve never had the opportunity to directly witness,
and then hear about Jesus -
in any of the usual manners.

God’s laws are inscribed in the hearts and consciences of all.

_
 
Scripture tells of Jesus separating the sheep from the goats.
Blessed are you for when I was hungry you fed me, when I was naked you clothed me, when I was in prison you visited me.
When did we feed you, clothe you and visit you Lord?
When you did it to the least of these, you did it to me.
 
meltzerboy2 said:
Are you and/or the CCC implicitly saying here that, despite Buddhists’ firm and prayerful belief in their own religion and in their conception of G-d due to their culture and family upbringing, plus their doing good deeds toward others during their lifetime, G-d (Jesus) will still punish them for not specifically believing that He is the only way to salvation, because they refuse to relinquish their religious beliefs? (What then would be the Church’s definition of invincible ignorance?) To me, this does not sound like the action of a benevolent G-d, and so I wonder whether this is the specific teaching of the Church? It sounds more reminiscent of certain Protestant teachings.
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God offers all the necessary means of salvation, one of which is the grace of faith. That does not mean He offers it at the same time to everyone, as the parable of the laborers in the vineyard demonstrates.

When some Protestants argued that the existence of pagans meant Christ did not offer this means of salvation to all, St. Robert Bellarmine countered as follows:

De Gratis et Libero Arbitrio, lib. 2, cap. 8
This argument only proves that not all people receive the help they need to believe and be converted immediately. It does not, however, prove that some people are deprived, absolutely speaking, of sufficient help for salvation. For the pagans to whom the Gospel has not yet been preached, can know from His creatures that God exists; then they can be stimulated by God, through His preventing grace, to believe in God, that He exists and that He is the rewarder of those who seek Him: and from such faith, they can be inspired, under the guidance and help of God, to pray and give alms and in this way obtain from God a still greater light of faith, which God will communicate to them, either by Himself or through angels or through men.
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Pope Francis taught the same thing in his own way in his first encyclical:

Lumen Fidei
Because faith is a way, it also has to do with the lives of those men and women who, though not believers, nonetheless desire to believe and continue to seek. To the extent that they are sincerely open to love and set out with whatever light they can find, they are already, even without knowing it, on the path leading to faith…Any-one who sets off on the path of doing good to others is already drawing near to God, is already sustained by his help, for it is characteristic of the divine light to brighten our eyes whenever we walk towards the fullness of love.
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God leads all to faith and those of good will and in good conscience will indeed find that faith as Jesus promises (seek and ye shall find, etc.). As I mentioned in my earlier post, this may even only happen or be completed at the eleventh hour as the same aforementioned parable demonstrates (this is why no one can judge another’s fate, as none of us knows what may happen in the moments before death).

But just because God offers this grace to all men, does not mean all are of good will and choose to receive it. As Jesus says, “many are called, but few are chosen” and “he that believeth not shall be condemned.”
 
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I understand what you are saying, but it still seems to me to be more suggestive of hardline Protestant belief than Catholic teaching. Is there no scriptural evidence that qualifies this?
 
PennyinCanada said:
Scripture tells of Jesus separating the sheep from the goats.
Blessed are you for when I was hungry you fed me, when I was naked you clothed me, when I was in prison you visited me.
When did we feed you, clothe you and visit you Lord?
When you did it to the least of these, you did it to me.
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YES>. AT JUDGEMENT

There shall be those who’re very convinced of Salvation and shall be surprised.

There shall be some who never Called out Jesus’ Name - who’ll be allowed into God’s Kingdom
 
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meltzerboy2 said:
Is there no scriptural evidence that qualifies this?
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Not that I know of–if anything, they can often read even more strict when read apart from tradition… I think the Catholic doctrine is pretty balanced on this point, both emphasizing the means necessary for salvation that we are charged with spreading to every person, while also acknowledging that God provides every single person with those means (in one way or another) or the helps they need to partake of those means.

Religious indifferentism or a kind of works-only concept of salvation are certainly common, even among Catholics today–but it has no real basis in Scripture, Tradition or even modern acts of the Church’s teaching authority as I hope my posts demonstrated.
 
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Thanks for the reply. My parishioner’s priest also told me not to condemn Buddhism and instead cherish their good will. I regret telling my parents to practice Buddhism if that’s what they can believe. After that, they seemed to start downplaying Christianity as only one of many religions. My mother told me why would a Christian tell us to practice Buddhism. Now I am back to telling them Christianity is the only way, but I think it did cause some fundamental misunderstanding. So now I think that Internet Catholic person is perhaps a false prophet kind. I also regret being too ignorant.
 
I believe interpretation within Catholic Church varies a lot. But I also think many of Japan’s Catholics have understood the dogma wrongly or very ignorant. Japan has like 0.4% Catholic population and it is not rooted in Japan’s history and culture. They don’t practice or study the way Western people do. After reading replies here, I am glad to know that the Internet person’s idea is wrong to believe. I wonder how he believed that completely good conscience of any religion could receive Lord’s Christ Redemptive work because that was the divine promise.
 
Genesis315 said:
Any-one who sets off on the path of doing good to others is already drawing near to God, is already sustained by his help, for it is characteristic of the divine light to brighten our eyes whenever we walk towards the fullness of love.
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I see my nice non-religious friends who help me and pray for them. I took them to my parishioner’s church and introduced my religion last year. They were indifferent but I will continue praying for them because may be they could convert even before their death.
 
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