Can a non baptized Protestant enter heaven according to the Catholic Church

[Kandi2003]

Can a Protestant who goes to church ever day never before been baptize dies Out of the blue and never had any interest in getting baptized go to heaven , just curious . Thank you for your time . Sorry for the bad English

 

[Kei]

It’s not impossible, if that’s what you mean.
It would be extraordinary (as in outside the ordinary means of salvation) action outside of the Sacraments.

 

[Augustinian]

If this person knew that Jesus commanded us to be baptized and still showed no interest in being baptized, that’s a big red flag. However, if through no fault of his own he didn’t know about baptism, which would be unlikely if he goes to church every week,

Many protestants don’t believe that baptism is required for salvation at all, and some don’t even have the sacrament.

 

[Brendan_64]

Only God judge who will, or who will not enter Heaven. We would hope that such a person may indeed receive the mercy of God (as we hope for ourselves) and be allowed to enter Heaven. None of us deserve Heaven and if we do get there we might be surprised at who we meet there.

 

[simonjosiah1]

If I have my facts correct, I’m not sure how true this is, but this lady asked padre pio if her Jewish father Julius was saved, he said something like Julius is fine but we must pray.

I could be wrong, who knows, but hey, I believe padre pio was a mystic.

 

[midori]

We’re bound by God’s rules. So if we’re aware of his rules, we need to comply with them to the best of our ability-- because that’s how we’ll be judged.

God isn’t bound by God’s rules. He can do whatever he wants, and is only bound by his own nature.

So the question isn’t so much “can an unbaptized Protestant who goes to church every day go to heaven, even though he’s not baptized”— because the answer is certainly yes, that’s a possible scenario-- but the answer hinges more on “Why did he never have any interest in getting baptized?”

There’s a little passage right off the bat in Therese of Lisieux’s Story of a Soul, where she’s contemplating the idea of salvation for people who have never heard of God. And then she realized that souls were like flowers. Your great saints are like roses and lilies, but there are multitudes of lesser saints, too, who are content to be like daisies and wildflowers.

… Perfection consists simply in doing his will, and being just what he wants us to be.

This, too, was made clear to me-- that our Lord’s love makes itself seen quite as much in the simplest of souls as in the most highly gifted, as long as there is no resistance offered to his grace. After all, the whole point of love is making yourself small; and if we were all like the great Doctors who have shed lustre on the Church by their brilliant teaching, there wouldn’t be much condescension on God’s part, would there, about coming into hearts like these? But no, he has created little children, who have no idea what’s going on and can only express themselves by helpless crying: he has made the poor savages, with nothing better than the natural law to live by; and he is content to forget his dignity and come into their hearts too-- these are the wild flowers that delight him by their simplicity. It is by such condescension that God shews his infinite greatness. The sun’s light, that plays on the cedar-trees, plays on each tiny flower as if it were the only one in existence; and in the same way our Lord takes a special interest in each soul, as if there were no other like it. Everything conspires for the good of each soul, just as the march of the seasons is designed to make the most insignificant daisy unfold its petals on the day appointed for it.

So it hinges on-- is baptism rejected because the individual is poorly informed about its significance? Or is baptism rejected out of pride, in that-- “It may be necessary for salvation for those people, but I’m too good to need it.” There’s a big difference.

 

[poche]

There is the Baptism of Desire.

 

[crenfro]

Yes, but if there is no interest in being baptized or anything further, why post to a Catholic discussion group?

 

[Genesis315]

Supernatural faith and charity can suffice and provide the grace of baptism when someone is not baptized through no fault of their own. Of course, Baptism is just the beginning. To be saved, the person would have to persevere in faith and charity until the end.

 

[CelticWarlord]

and some don’t even have the sacrament.

Quite true. Our youngest son married a gal in the Salvation Army. Not only do they not practice baptism, they don’t do communion or most of the other sacraments. In fact, marriage may be the only one.