Greetings All,
The official teaching of the Catholic Church is that a measure of truth can indeed be found in other religions, but the Catholic Church contains the fullness of revealed truth. In Nostra Aetate (The Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions), for example, the Catholic Church says the following about Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, etc:
“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.” (#2)
One must keep in mind that consciously being a member the Catholic Church is the normative means of salvation. There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church, but the Church teaches that a person may belong to it unknowingly. If a person is leading a life of goodness and morality, that is God’s grace at work within him, and he must therefore be “connected” on some level. That connection is understood to be unconscious membership in the Church, if you will.
Peace,
Joel S. Peters