Outside the Church there is No Salvation

Outside the Church there is No Salvation - Part 5

In another forum, I was asked to provide a reference for the assertion that:

For Supernatural Faith, the minimum requirement is the belief in God and that He rewards the good and punishes the bad. (part 4)

Attached is the reference:

Reference Ott – Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma – as well as the letter to Archbishop Cushing by the CDF. pg 241
Theological faith, that is, a supernatural faith in Revelation, is necessary, and this is an effect of grace (D 1789); nemini unquam sine ilIa contigit iustificatio (D 1793). As far as the content of this faith is concerned, according to Hebr. 11, 6, at least the existence of God and retribution in the other world must be firmly held, necessitate medii (by the necessity of means) with explicit faith. In regard to the Trinity and the Incarnation, implicit faith suffices.

From this definition it is concluded that:

A Jew
A Muslim
A Pagan

Could theoretically achieve (with God's Grace) Supernatural Faith.

Putting this incontext with the rest of the 'baptism of desire' doctrine we have:

An unbaptized person (or even baptized non-Catholic) achieves a state of invincible ignorance, removing culpability for not entering the Church.
By default a person of either the Jewish or Islamic religion, can achieve the minimum requirements for Supernatural Faith. It is much easier for a protestant.
If this person is trying to align his will to that of God as he understands it and manifests implicit desire. Meaning if he knew that the Church of Christ is the True Church, then he would transition from an implicit to explicit desire to enter the Church.
Finally, based on the aforesaid items, if this person made a perfect act of charity / contrition then they will achieve a state of grace.

If the person then died in this state, they would be saved.

However, it is critical to note that if a person does not fulfill the first criteria (Invincible Ignorance) and does not want to join the Church the following applies in all its rigour:

Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved. Vatican II

Nota Bene: I could have just as easily quoted Pius IX or a few others, but selected this to demonstrate one area in which the Second Vatican Council is simply repeating Church Teaching. As noted, when I presented this to a group of 'regular' Catholic men and one Jesuit, they were mildly surprised.

Comments

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