How can both of these statements be true?

[lacoloratura]

My non-Catholic husband recently told me that if I could, to his satisfaction, reconcile the following two facts, it would help him make a lot more sense of the Catholic Church. Can you help me?

1. There is such a thing as absolute truth.
2. Being Christian but not Catholic does not necessarily mean you cannot go to Heaven.

Thank you for any light you can shed on this for me.

 

[Jim_Blackburn]

Both statements can be true because of the grace of God. In his Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, Pope Paul VI explained it this way:

Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience.