=ajpirc;7790116]The Catholic Church teaches that there is NO salvation outside the herself. I’ve also heard that Protestants (not members of the Catholic Church) CAN have salvation. Can someone please explain this confusing dogma and explain why it even matters to be Catholic?
While your initial understanding is correctly worded; the verbage used does not fully explain the position of the CC.
Before sharing some Catholic catechism teachings with you; allow me to briefy explain our position.
Because intended to; and factualy did, found only 1 Faith, 1 Church; 1 set of beliefs; and that the NT has over 100 references to ONLY One Church; logically because salvation comes from and through Christ; the CC being HIS CHURCH; all salvation must literally flow through Her. These vrs. give evidence of Only One Church: Begaining with Mt. 16:19 where Christ gives to Peter "The [all of] the Key’s to the kingdom of heaven, Mt. 28: 19-20 where issues the MANDATE to Peter and Apostles to teach ALL to ALL of the Earth
and here where Christ formally institutes His 1 Church.
**Jn.20: 19-22 ** "On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. **As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” **And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
Hilighted are the key words: Christ herein bestows the same powers unto His Apostles and Church as the Father shared with His Son Jesus… So the Church has the 'Power of God" The as further evidence look at Jn.14:16-17 [Holy Spirit FOREVER] and Jn.17; 15-19 [Christ offers HIMSELF as warranty of her inability to Teach in error on Faith Beleifs and Morals].
**Eph. 4: 1-7 “**I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
There is one body [WHICH MEANS 1 CHURCH] and 1 Spirit, just as you were called to the 1 hope that belongs to your call, 1 Lord, 1 faith, [Meaning only 1 set of beliefs] 1 baptism, 1 God and Father of us all,.
**Eph. 2: 18-22 **“ for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. “
Salvation through the CC
868 The Church is catholic: she proclaims the fullness of the faith. She bears in herself and administers the totality of the means of salvation. She is sent out to all peoples. She speaks to all men. She encompasses all times. She is “missionary of her very nature” (AG 2).
**819 “**Furthermore, many elements of sanctification and of truth” are found outside the visible confines of the Catholic Church: “the written Word of God; the life of grace; faith, hope, and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, as well as visible elements.”
Christ’s Spirit uses these Churches and ecclesial communities as means of salvation, whose power derives from the fullness of grace and truth that Christ has entrusted to the Catholic Church. All these blessings come from Christ and lead to him, and are in themselves calls to "Catholic unity."
816 “The sole Church of Christ [is that] which our Savior, after his Resurrection, entrusted to Peter’s pastoral care, commissioning him and the other apostles to extend and rule it. . . . This Church, constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in (subsistit in) the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him.”
The Second Vatican Council’s Decree on Ecumenism explains: “For it is through Christ’s Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained. It was to the apostolic college alone, of which Peter is the head, that we believe that our Lord entrusted all the blessings of the New Covenant, in order to establish on earth the one Body of Christ into which all those should be fully incorporated who belong in any way to the People of God.”
**846 **How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers? Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body:
Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.
My friend I hope this very broef explaination surfices, if not PM me…
God Bless,
Pat
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