My Dearest Friends:
I have been reading your awesome articles for a while now and they are incredibly wonderful. It occurs to me that they need to be translated into other languages in order for them to be enjoyed by many more Catholics that speak no English.
I was thinking about translating some into Spanish for the Hispanic public. Could there be any way in which I could help in your work if the idea finds acceptance in your mind?
I must tell that I am not a professional translator but I think I have the knowledge to do an average work and perfect it over time. Maybe I just speak out of love for the wonderful truths of the Catholic Church and the great work you all are doing in propagating our doctrine and faith. I congratulate you for it and offer you my help in case you all may want to use it.
Truly yours,
J. Guadalupe Aguilera
Dear Lucia,
Both you and your relative have pieces of the Church's teaching, but not the whole thing. First things first, Fr. Hardon, saintly though he was, is not the Magisterium and his Catechism, good as it is, is not the compendium of All Truth. Failure to meet your relative's insistence on exact agreement with Fr. Hardon does not necessarily constitute heresy.
That said, it is necessary to sort and sift your and your relative's argument. On the one hand, your relative is right to say that that it is only through Jesus Christ that a human being can be saved. This is basic apostolic doctrine (“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12).
In a related way, the Church has always taught and still teaches that “Outside the Church there is no salvation.” That is because the Church is the Body of Christ. To belong to Christ is to belong to the Church.
However (and this is the BIG “however”), to say that there is salvation in no other name than Jesus is not necessarily to say that only those who know that name or understand to whom it refers can be saved by Jesus. Similarly, to say there is no salvation outside the Church is not to say we know where “outside” is.
Thus, the other side of the coin that must be taken into account is the fact that it is possible for Jesus to be at work in the souls of people who might not necessarily be aware that they are obeying him. The parable of the sheep and goats (Matthew 25) suggests this. The saved, as well as the damned, are people who had no idea that in loving (or rejecting) the least of his brethren, they were loving (or rejecting) the King. Nonetheless, they were.
So the Church always insists on two points: 1) outside the Church there is no salvation and 2) we don't know where “outside” is. We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not.
This paradoxical tension can be seen in the teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (to which Fr. Hardon must necessarily take second place). Note how paragraph 1257 emphasizes your relative's point while paragraph 1260 emphasizes your point:
1257 The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation.[59] He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them.[60] Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament.[61] The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are “reborn of water and the Spirit.” God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments.
1258 The Church has always held the firm conviction that those who suffer death for the sake of the faith without having received Baptism are baptized by their death for and with Christ. This Baptism of blood, like the desire for Baptism, brings about the fruits of Baptism without being a sacrament.
1259 For catechumens who die before their Baptism, their explicit desire to receive it, together with repentance for their sins, and charity, assures them the salvation that they were not able to receive through the sacrament.
1260 “Since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partakers, in a way known to God, of the Paschal mystery.”[62] Every man who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can be saved. It may be supposed that such persons would have desired Baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity.
The bottom line is summed up in CCC 1257: “God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments.” For our part, we are not free to ignore the sacraments and we must continue to evangelize. But we must also remember that God can do as he pleases. December 28, the Feast of Holy Innocents, commemorates, among other things, the fact that at least some people without the sacrament of baptism were not thereby beyond the reach of the saving grace of Christ. Nor were they sentenced to “limbo” (an idea which is not part of the deposit of faith but is merely a theological speculation). The unbaptized babies of Bethlehem are acclaimed as saints by Holy Church. This is cause, not for presumption (since we are not to draw from this the lesson that everybody is bound to be saved) but for hope (that Jesus' grace can reach those who have never heard of him). Meantime, we should keep in mind Jesus' words to Peter when he was too interested in trying to prognosticate the spiritual destinies of other people: “What is that to thee? Follow thou me!” (John 21:21-22). As Catholics we are not called to live either in presumption (imagining we know that everybody will be saved) nor despair (imagining we know that certain people [and we have a pretty good idea who] are doomed to hell). We are to live in hope, not knowledge. For we are under judgment, not over it.
God will take care of the rest.
Hope that helps!
Blessings!
Mark Shea
Senior Content Editor
Catholic Exchange
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Kudos and Inspiration
Dear CE,
This site is awesome. Do you happen to have all the text articles on disk that I can purchase? I'm seriously considering writing a book on Catholic apologetics.
JMJ,
Steve
Salvation Outside the Catholic Church
Dear Editor,
I am in a real quandary. A relative is a pure 1000% follower of the Rev. John Hardon's catechism. I am being badgered by “micro-managing” of such detail. I am a good and devout Catholic. However, I believe that people who spent their lives doing good for others, who were righteous people have every opportunity to go to Heaven. I was never taught that no one but Catholics could go to heaven and I am a 57 year old woman with 12 years of parochial education.
Is it possible that a person who was an unbaptized adult – like Gandhi for example, would go to a “heavenly place” without the Beatific Vision? (A sort of “limbo”?) Or are they banned to …. where? I am being pummelled with bible quotes and stuff from Father Hardon and “Jesu Dominus”. It is at the point where even if I find something from a great church doctor, the reply is “But find where Father Hardon said it in the catechism”. Am I to believe that a righteous Jew will never get to Heaven – OR that they will go to limbo and enjoy happiness but not the Beatific Vision OR that because they do not have the grace to know and accept Jesus as the Redeemer that they will just lose eternal happiness no matter how good they have been? I have never ever been taught that. So, that being the case … Does Jesus, at His return, give non-Christians a chance to accept Him? At times God seems to be totally loving. At others he is depicted as a real hardline nitpicker. What am I to answer someone about salvation?
Do I believe that anyone – from all of time – who does not accept Jesus will not get into Heaven? I can't answer that in black and white. It doesn't seem that simple to answer.
Please help me find out who can answer me with sources that are indisputable (i.e. suitable for the Catholic micro-manager). Thank you and God Bless you.
Lucia
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Dear Mark Shea –
You were able to sift through ALL of it so wonderfully. I thank you. Even better, I think I shall get a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
By the way, I have shared many of your articles with friends and, hopefully, have managed to get them to be Catholicexchange.com fans and patrons.
Keep up the good work. I thank you for sharing your knowledge, your talent, your SELF. (What a good steward!) God bless you in the New Year and always.
Lucia
