Does the Catholic Church say that no one can be "saved" unless they are in the Catholic Church?

[Rozellelily]

I have read the above being said,but I have also heard they “technically” can because people can be Catholic in “spirit” without intentionally/knowing being a Catholic (attending Catholic Church etc)?

If this statement is true,then how can it be interpreted in a way that doesn’t come across as arrogance to the average person or as a “battle of the religions” eg:my denomination is more true and right than yours?

Also,to suggest that no one can be saved outside of the Catholic Church…well that’s a lot of people…
Firstly the many many non Catholics Christians, then people from other religions after that etc…

Is the Catholic Church suggesting that many people will have salvation because they are Catholic without knowing it or is it rather suggesting that all the other Christians won’t be saved?

What about Orthodox Church?
Ie:wasn’t there a type when there was no Roman Catholic Church distinct from Orthodox Church and they were all one?

 

[Vico]

I have read the above being said,but I have also heard they “technically” can because people can be Catholic in “spirit” without intentionally/knowing being a Catholic (attending Catholic Church etc)?

If this statement is true,then how can it be interpreted in a way that doesn’t come across as arrogance to the average person or as a “battle of the religions” eg:my denomination is more true and right than yours?

Also,to suggest that no one can be saved outside of the Catholic Church…well that’s a lot of people…
Firstly the many many non Catholics Christians, then people from other religions after that etc…

Is the Catholic Church suggesting that many people will have salvation because they are Catholic without knowing it or is it rather suggesting that all the other Christians won’t be saved?

What about Orthodox Church?
Ie:wasn’t there a type when there was no Roman Catholic Church distinct from Orthodox Church and they were all one?

The Catholic Church does not teach denominationalism and opposes religious indifference in the faithful so it does positively teach that the Catholic faith “is more true and right than yours” especially in the sense that it alone posesses the fullness of faith – it is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.

See: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/c...ith_doc_20070629_responsa-quaestiones_en.html

Catechism

“Outside the Church there is no salvation”

846 How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers?335 Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body:

Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.336

847 This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:

Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.337

848 "Although 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, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men."338

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P29.HTM

 

[Gorgias]

to suggest that no one can be saved outside of the Catholic Church…well that’s a lot of people

The assertion isn’t “no one outside of the Catholic Church can be saved”. The subject of the assertion is salvation, not any person or group of people. It’s an assertion of the means that Christ gave all of humanity for their salvation – the Catholic Church. So, if you’re saved, regardless of who you are, it’s through graces given by God, who gave us the Catholic Church as the fount through which those graces flow.

So, the statement is merely “there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church.” No other church or denomination or weekend softball league offers salvation.

 

[Genesis315]

Salvation is only found in the Church because Christ willed our salvation to not be isolated, but rather to be achieved by incorporation into a communion that is in communion with the Trinity. God is a communion of persons, and therefore that is what we are called to as well (see 1 John 1:3).

Coincidentally, the Church just published a letter with an interesting explanation of this. See part V (ie pars. 12-14).
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/c...c_con_cfaith_doc_20180222_placuit-deo_en.html

As others have mentioned, one does not have to be fully incorporated into the Church to be saved. All who are baptized and have faith in Christ, have begun that initial incorporation and are linked to the Church by an indestructible bond. As long as they are motivated by faith and charity they may be saved (assuming one otherwise remains in the friendship of God), even if they are never fully incorporated in this life.

 

[Rozellelily]

Thanks.
What about Christian Orthodox?
Ie:wasn’t there a time before the Roman Catholic Church even existed when Orthodox and catholic were one church?

 

[Ron_Conte]

Here is a talk by Pope Saint John Paul II on that topic:
http://catechism.cc/articles/All-Salvation-Comes-through-Christ.htm

 

[JimG]

Everyone who is saved is saved by being in some way incorporated into the body of Christ, and the body of Christ is the Catholic Church. So everyone who is saved is saved by being somehow incorporated into the Catholic Church.