Muslims and other Non-Christians in Heaven?

[Raider_Red]

I am posting another email I received in an ongoing dialogue with someone who is out to “prove” the Catholic Church and it’s teachings go against the Bible. I will post his email below and would love to hear what you all would say to help me form a well spoken and loving reply. My humanness enjoys the spiteful one liner responses but out of love for this man, I need to genuinely answer these out of love to help his see his misunderstandings. Here is the email portion I’m needing help with:

Steve,

Please let me know if you will defend these quotes as I look for John Paul’s quote I provide these…

1. In his general audience on November 30, Pope Benedict XVI said that whoever “seeks peace and the good of the community with a pure conscience and keeps alive the desire for the transcendent,” will be saved even if he lacks biblical faith (“Nonbelievers Too Can Be Saved, Says Pope,” Zenit, Nov. 30).
2. Para 841 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church addresses salvation for Muslims. Paragraph 16 of Lumen Gentium from Vatican II says that Muslims who worship in the religion of Abraham may share in salvation. Basically this document states that the plan of salvation includes not only practicing Catholics, but also those who acknowledge the Creator and who strive wholeheartedly to live up to His decrees like Jews and Muslims.
3. Muslims and Jews who deny Jesus is God share in salvation but born-again Christians are condemned with anathema over 100 times by your Church.

Sincerely,

kasldkfaj

Please help me the clarify the Catholic Churches positions posed and also where and how he is misinterpreting them to say something they are not. Thanks in advance.

 

[diggerdomer]

Ccc 846-848

 

[bbentrup]

Saved? How well does each of us answer the call of the Holy Spirit towards holiness as reflected by our gifts, experiences, background (cultural/religious), understanding, and practice of charity and justice? The commandments are imprinted upon the heart of every person when their souls are created. Do their lives measure up to this innate moral code? Nobody knows, not even the people themselves. It is more just for God (who is infinitely just) not to judge a person on the merits of his possibly limited earthly experiences with the 2nd person of the Holy Trinity, Jesus, than with his omniscient judgment, to discern how welcome this person is to receiving Jesus, the personal incarnation of Love, at the moment of death (the same idea would apply to unborn, and thus obviously unbaptized, babies, as another example). I hope I have phrased that without error. God is an all-loving God who does not reject any person of any faith who calls out for Him with the incomprhensible yearning of their hearts. Still, sadly, some reject an all-loving God in that clarity of vision, as did the angel Satan with his perfect intelligence. God permits such people to isolate themselves from his Holy Person, a decision at death which takes on the nature of being irrevocable and unchangeable, Maybe a higher percentage of baptized Christians answer God’s call for repentance than other faith groups, maybe not. Frankly, it’s immaterial - the Catholic Church correctly proclaims that salvation is not exclusive of people who call themselves Catholic Christians. All are reconciled to Jesus through the Catholic Church and its ministry founded on the chair of Peter, but that’s not the same as saying that all people who will be saved believed in the Church during their lifetime. I hope that helps. God bless.