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Show Exclusive Salvation. Park City. June 13, 1902. Editor lntermountain Catholic: Will you please explain what your church teaches regarding exclusive salvation. sal-vation. Does she teach that to be saved one must be a Catholic, or that a person not a Catholic is not saved? By explaining it you. will confer a favor on B. E. C. AS the question of our esteemed correspondent is not fully understood under-stood by many, and embraces many delicate points, we will preface by stating that when our divine Lord told his diciples that he would give them his flesh to eat and his blood to drink, they said amongst themselves: "This is a hard saying, and who can . believe it, and many of his disciples left him and walked no longer with him." Scripture does not tell us that he called them back and explain that he only meant a "figure" of his flesh and blood. No, for he meant what he said, and so they left him and walked no longer with him. The would-be Christians of today, too, find many a hard saying, but there is scarcely any saying or claim of the church of God that they seem to find so hard as when the Catholic church informs them that outside it there is no salvation. In their eyes it has always been an unwarranted assumption to say tha none would ; enter heaven unless they belonged to this particular church. . The Catholic church does not invent new doctrines, but bears witness to those already taught by Christ and his apostles. The apostles have included in their creed, which is the sum of our belief, the doctrine: "I believe in the holy Catholic church." This church alone professes "one faith," "one Lord, one baptism." (Eph. iv, 5), "He that believes it and is baptized shall be saved, he that believes it not shall be condemned. (Mark xx, 16). Nothing could be clearer or plainer. This the church teaches and explains, and nothing more. Still, in explaining and teaching this doctrine handed down to us by Christ and his apostles, it is of the utmost importance that Catholics-and all fair-minded fair-minded inquiring non-Catholics should understant this teaching aright. When the Catholic church teaches that outside it there is no salvation, it is only another way of saying we must "believe in the holy Catholic church," as the apostles in their creed teach us, and that as members of this church we must profess the "one faith" in order to be saved, as "he that believes it not shall be condemned." (Mark xxvl, 16). Both forms of expression mean and come to one and the same thing. The Catholic church teaches nothing new in saying that outside it no one can be saved, for it is the clear and most explicit declaration: of her divhie. founder. There is no such thing in the whole of the scripture as a permission to select se-lect or invent a . religion to suit our own circumstances or character, or fancy, under our feeble human reasoning. reason-ing. On this point the church teaches nothing more or less than Christ himself. him-self. But the Catholic church does not say, at the same time, that "all" outside it will therefore be lost nothing of the kind. It teaches distinctly that there is one circumstance which would excuse and which is Invincible ignorance or a moral impossibility of recognising the claims of the church. x It also teaches that (1) whether on account of such Ignorance or inability, or any other reason whatsoever, there is nothing more unfortunate than to live outside the pale of the Catholic church. 2. It teaches that a man who will wilfully remain outside the pale of the Catholic church, either through "wilful "wil-ful ignorance" or "gross neglect and indifference" "will .most certainly be lost," ghoul he, persevere and die in that state. What a matter for consideration for any non-Catholic who is conscientious and knows what is at stake! 3. A man who is out of "visible" unity uni-ty with the Catholic church through invincible in-vincible ignorance and through no fault of his own, would , be txcused '. from "formal heresy." Hp would not be lost for this sin, but he 'may, of course, for other sins. .. 4. Whilst the Catholic church teaches that some non-Catholics can be and are saved, being excused from formal heresy on account of invincible ignorance, ignor-ance, it teaches that it, is not on ac- ; count of being a non-Catholic, but in spite of it. A reformer "as such" has no saving pwer. A non-Catholic who is saved is so, ' not in so far as he was not a Catholic, , but in so far as he was a Catholic. j There are certain conditions that are essential on the part of those non-j non-j Catholics whom the Catholic church teaches may be saved. 1. They must be baptised, and that, of course, "validly." i!. They must be in "invincible ignorance" ignor-ance" of the true church and of their obligation to belong to it. 3. If they commit any grave sin which excludes from the kingdom of heaven, they must have true sorrow arising from the love of God, for it. These conditions make such non-Catholics, non-Catholics, who do not belong to the "body" of the church, members of the "soul" of the Catholic church. They are Catholics before God, although al-though only he alone may know it: . This class of non-Catholics are "not included" when the church teaches that outside it there is no salvation. Neither are all the "validly baptised'' children of non-Catholics. Each one through baptism is a child of the church. j |