My dear sister Doxie
This question has been asked many times, I will briefly summarise:
First of all a quote from Saint Edith Stein (Teresia Benedicta of the Cross) which explains the Catholic position nicely:
“…I am not at all worried about my dear Master. It has always been far from me to think that God’s mercy allows itself to be circumscribed by the visible church’s boundaries. God is truth. All who seek truth seek God, whether this is clear to them or not…”
- Saint Edith Stein (1891 - 1942), Jewish Catholic mystic & Holocaust victim, speaking about her atheist mentor Edmund Husserl
The Catholic Church teaches two things:
- There is no salvation outside of or without the Catholic Church, which is the Mystical Body of Christ the Redeemer
- Those who are visibly outside the Church can be spiritually within her through implicit baptism by desire which consists in perfect charity and in following the will of God as known to one’s own conscience
Therefore we do not teach that anyone is “damned”. Only God can know this.
The Church has officially recognised, through canonisations, that certain people are in the state of “heaven” - that is beholding the Beatific Vision and having attained theosis (union with God, divinization) - however Holy Mother Church has not declared anyone to be in the state of “hell”.
“…It is false that we say to anyone that he is damned. To do so would be false to our general doctrine relating to sects outside the bosom of the Church…we are persuaded that all of those who with sincerity remain in their errors, who through inculpable ignorance believe themselves in the way of salvation . . . are children of the Catholic Church. Such is the opinion of all divines from St. Augustine…”
***- Nicolas-Sylvestre Bergier, (1715 – 1790), celebrated French Catholic theologian ***
In this vein Pope Pius XI was so bold as to proclaim to one of his Cardinals who was going on a diplomatic visit to Libya:
"…Do not think you are going to a country of heathens [or “among infidels”]. Muslims attain to salvation. The ways of God are infinite…”
- Pope Pius XI, 1934 (L’Ultima, Florence, Anno VIII)
Anyone who sincerely is seeking the truth, whether they be Buddhist, Muslim, Atheist or Jew is implicitly seeking Jesus Christ who is the Truth even if this is not apparent to them. They can therefore attain to salvation.
One would, of course, have to be genuinely open to truth and dedicated to one’s own religion/path. It is only if someone “knows” that the Catholic Church is necessary for salvation, that is if one has come to an awareness of the truth of Catholicism, that one need to convert to be saved. Otherwise we hope that they are “invincibly ignorant”, a phrase with a definition that cannot be limited or restricted in scope:
“…It is to be held for certain that they who labor in ignorance of the true religion, if this ignorance is invincible, are not bound by any fault in this matter in the eyes of the Lord. Now truly, who would arrogate so much to himself, as to be able to designate the limits of this kind of ignorance, because of the reason and variety of peoples, regions, natural dispositions, and a great many other things?..”
- Blessed Pope Pius IX, Singulari quadam, 1854
Pius resolutely refuses to set definitive limits to the application of “invincible ignorance”. To this end we will not set limits since we can never fully understand the underlying psychological, social, moral or even physical factors which influence people. We thus cannot simplify human nature. We cannot judge a person who has genuinely searched after truth and tried to inform his conscience but, for whatever vast number of reasons, still has an eroneous conscience and is bound to follow that conscience and has been unable to come to the awareness of the truth of Catholicism.
Otherwise, we must hope that they have implicit faith and are therefore incorporated into the Church through baptism of desire, which everyone no matter there religion can attain to provided they live in adherence to their conscience, which is the natural law written on their hearts. Saint Thomas Aquinas and the Catholic tradition teaches that one is bound to follow even an erroneous conscience. Only God can judge the sincerity of someone’s heart and intentions but Catholicism has always maintained 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” (
The Catholic Encyclopedia 1913).
Marcel Lefebvre, the founder of the SSPX, actually correctly summed up (overall) the official teaching of the Catholic Church in terms of salvation of non-Christians:
"…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.
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…"
***- (Archbishop Lefebvre, Open Letter to Confused Catholics) ***
Jews, atheists, Baha’is, Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims etc. can attain to salvation if they are spiritually speaking joined to the Catholic Church as informal members through implicit baptism by desire which consists in following the Will of God as known to one’s conscience, to the best of one’s ability and knowledge responding to the grace granted to oneself by God.
Is this really true? (Yes, I do understand nobody can truly know another person’s salvation, only God) 
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I believe if anyone believes in Jesus or the Bible or not on the orders of someone else, he has opted out of an advocate upstairs. I’m sure the earth controller wont stand for you, he’ll be too busy defending himself!