Heaven: minimum requirements

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TemplarKnight1 said:
What is the bare minimum to get to heaven?
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Ordinarily, to be baptised (formally or otherwise such as by desire) and die in a state of grace.

But even the Church leaves open the possibility for God to draw to Him those who do not meet these criteria.
 
1023 Those who die in God’s grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live for ever with Christ. They are like God for ever, for they “see him as he is,” face to face:

By virtue of our apostolic authority, we define the following: According to the general disposition of God, the souls of all the saints . . . and other faithful who died after receiving Christ’s holy Baptism (provided they were not in need of purification when they died, . . . or, if they then did need or will need some purification, when they have been purified after death, . . .) already before they take up their bodies again and before the general judgment - and this since the Ascension of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into heaven - have been, are and will be in heaven, in the heavenly Kingdom and celestial paradise with Christ, joined to the company of the holy angels. Since the Passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, these souls have seen and do see the divine essence with an intuitive vision, and even face to face, without the mediation of any creature.
  • CCC
 
I’ll put it like this, if you focus on the bare minimum, you probably won’t make it. If you set your sights for perfection, chances are higher.

We all stumble and fall into sin again, but if we rationalize it by saying to ourselves, “Well, at least I’m meeting the bare minimum,” then we are attempting to justify our sins, which makes those sins unforgivable because we aren’t being repentant. Do not seek the bare minimum, or even ask. Do all that you can to seek perfection in Christ.
 
**The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) **
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“The Catholic Church has ever taught that nothing else is needed to obtain justification than an act of perfect charity and of contrition. Whoever, under the impulse of actual grace, elicits these acts receives immediately the gift of sanctifying grace, and is numbered among the children of God. Should he die in these dispositions, he will assuredly attain heaven.”
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followingtheway said:
Do unbaptized and Non-Catholic people go to hell?
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No 🙂 That is a heresy known as Feeneyism. Even traditionalists such as the SSPX rightly reject such a callous judgement of human beings made in the Image of God. Their founder Lefebvre taught, in perfect faithfulness to sacred tradition:
"…There are three ways of receiving baptism: the baptism of water; the baptism of blood (that of the martyrs who confessed the faith while still catechumens) and baptism of desire.
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Baptism of desire can be explicit…The doctrine of the Church also recognizes implicit baptism of desire. This consists in doing the will of God. God knows all men and He knows that amongst Protestants, Muslims, Buddhists and in the whole of humanity there are men of good will. They receive the grace of baptism without knowing it, but in an effective way. In this way they become part of the Church…"
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- Archbishop Lefebvre, (Open Letter to Confused Catholics), Founder of SSPX
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The opposite extreme would be the heresy of religious indifferentism. Neither is correct.
 
thistle said:
Be baptised, Catholic and die in a state of grace.
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Many early Christians saints were unbaptized catechumens. SAINT EMERENTIANA, ST. RESPICIUS, the brother martyrs SAINTS DONATIEN AND ROGATIEN, ST VICTOR OF BRAGA - all of whom are valid saints - were never baptised with water but died catechumens; receiving the sanctifying grace of this sacrament through desire alone without actually being baptised.

Such desire need not be explicit (as in their case). It can be implicit. The church explains what this consists in:
Holy Office, Aug 9, 1949, condemning doctrine of L. Feeney (DS 3870):
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“It is not always required that one be actually incorporated as a
member of the Church, but this at least is required: that one adhere
to it in wish and desire. It is not always necessary that this be
explicit… but when a man labors under invincible ignorance, God
accepts even an implicit will, called by that name because it is
contained in the good disposition of soul in which a man wills to
conform his will to the will of God.”
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As St. Pope Pius X said:
"…27 Q: Can one be saved outside the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church?
A: No, no one can be saved outside the Catholic, Apostolic Roman Church, just as no one could be saved from the flood outside the Ark of Noah, which was a figure of the Church.
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28 Q: How, then, were the Patriarchs of old, the Prophets, and the other just men of the Old Testament, saved?
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A: The just of the Old Testament were saved in virtue of the faith they had in Christ to come, by means of which they spiritually belonged to the Church.
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29 Q: But if a man through no fault of his own is outside the Church, can he be saved?
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A: If he is outside the Church through no fault of his, that is, if he is in good faith, and if he has received Baptism, or at least has the implicit desire of Baptism; and if, moreover, he sincerely seeks the truth and does God’s will as best he can, such a man is indeed separated from the body of the Church, but is united to the soul of the Church and consequently is on the way of salvation
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…
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16 Q: Is Baptism necessary to salvation?
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A: Baptism is absolutely necessary to salvation, for our Lord has expressly said: “Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.”
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17 Q: Can the absence of Baptism be supplied in any other way?
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A: The absence of Baptism can be supplied by martyrdom, which is called Baptism of Blood, or by an act of perfect love of God, or of contrition, along with the desire, at least implicit, of Baptism, and this is called Baptism of Desire…"
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***- Pope St Pius X, Catechism (1910) ***
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Isn’t this a little like asking “How little can we love God without alienating him from us?” or “How much can we get away with and not go to hell?”
 
Minimum IMHO would be:

**An act of perfect love of God, or of contrition, before the death of the person with an implicit desire for the grace supplied by baptism if he/she is not baptised. **
 
Catholic Encyclopedia article published in 1910:
“…But does the proposition that outside the Church there is no salvation involve the doctrine so often attributed to Catholicism, that the Catholic Church, in virtue of the principle, “condemns and must condemn all non-Catholics”? This is by no means the case. The foolish unchristian maxim that those who are outside the Church must for that very reason be eternally lost is no legitimate conclusion from Catholic dogma. The infliction of eternal damnation pertains not to the Church, but to God, Who alone can scrutinize the conscience. The task of the Church is confined exclusively to the formulating of the principle, which expresses a condition of salvation imposed by God Himself, and does not extend to the examination of the persons, who may or may not satisfy this condition. Care for one’s own salvation is the personal concern of the individual. And in this matter the Church shows the greatest possible consideration for the good faith and the innocence of the erring person…She places the efficient cause of the eternal salvation of all men objectively in the merits of the Redeemer, and subjectively in justification through baptism or through good faith enlivened by the perfect love of God, both of which may be found outside the Catholic Church…The gentle breathing of grace is not confined within the walls of the Catholic Church, but reaches the hearts of many who stand afar, working in them the marvel of justification and thus ensuring the eternal salvation of numberless men who either, like upright Jews and pagans, do not know the true Church, or, like so many Protestants educated in gross prejudice, cannot appreciate her true nature. To all such, the Church does not close the gate of Heaven, although she insists that there are essential means of grace which are not within the reach of non-Catholics. In his allocution “Singulari quadam” of 9 December, 1854, which emphasized the dogma of the Church as necessary for salvation, Pius IX uttered the consoling principle: “Sed tamen pro certo…” (But it is likewise certain that those who are ignorant of the true religion, if their ignorance is invincible, are not, in this matter, guilty of any fault in the sight of God). (Denzinger n. 1647)
. . . As early as 1713 Clement XI condemned in his dogmatic Bull “Unigenitus” the proposition of the Jensenist Quesnel: . . . no grace is given outside the Church. . . just as Alexander VIII has already condemned in 1690 the Jansenistic proposition of Arnauld: . . . (Pagans, Jews, heretics, and other people of the sort, receive no influx [of grace] whatsoever from Jesus Christ). . . Catholics who are conversant with the teachings of their Church know how to draw the proper conclusions. . .”
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- The Catholic Encyclopedia (1910)
Vol. 14, TOLERATION, J. Pohle
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OxygenMan said:
Thanks for the quote, that’s a helpful explanation. 👍
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Glad you liked it my friend 🙂 On the author of that Catholic encycloepedia article:
**Joseph Pohle was born in 1852 in Germany and educated in Trier, Rome, and Würzburg. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1878.
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He taught in Switzerland from 1881-1883, then in Leeds until 1886, then in Fulda until 1889. He then moved to Washington as one of the first teachers at the Catholic University, returning to Germany in 1886 to teach in Munich, then in 1897 to Breslau, where he lived until his death in 1922.**
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