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BY

Right Rev. Mgr. Canon John Vaughan

International Catholic Truth Society

407 Bergen Street’ ’

Brooklyn, New York

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IS THERE SALVATION

OUTSIDE THE CHURCH?

BY THE

Right Rev. Mgr. Canon John Vaughan

A
MONG the many doctrines taught by. the Catho-
lic Church there is hardly one which has given,

and which continues to give, such offense to non-

Catholics as the doctrine of what has been termed “ex-

clusive salvation.” When our separated brethren ex-
amine our formularies, when, for instance, they read

in the Athanasian Creed, “Nisi quisque fideliter firmi-

terque crederit fidem catholicam, salvus esse non po-

terit”
—

“Unless one faithfully and firmly believes the

Catholic faith he cannot be saved”—or when they
consider the formal and authoritative declaration, “Ex-

tra Ecclesiam nulla salus”

—

i. e., “Out of the Church

there is no salvation”—they are annoyed and indig-
nant. To reserve salvation exclusively to members of

the Catholic Church, and to say that none shall enter

heaven except such as acknowledge the jurisdiction of

the Pope, they take to be a most arrogant and unwar-

rantable assumption. In fact they do not hesitate to

describe such a doctrine as harsh, cruel and unjust.

A Church that can teach it, they argue, must indeed
be bigoted and intolerant, as well as narrow and exclu-

sive. As for themselves, they profess much broader

views. Indeed they boast with seeming charity—but
a charity which outrages sound reason and makes

truth a veritable fool—that “all religions are good,”
and that “men may be saved as readily in one sect as

Deaddffled



2 Is There Salvation Outside the Church?

in another/’ and that the various divergent forms of

Christianity are to be considered as various routes,

not perhaps all equally secure or direct, but still all

leading to one and the same supernatural end, ap-

pointed by God
;
that, in fine, “Romanists,” Anglicans,

Methodists and Salvationists, and others, may each

travel to heaven very comfortably in their own way.

They grow indignant when they hear the Catholic

Church stoutly denying that any persons can by any

possibility be on the right and divinely appointed path,

but such as follow her guidance and listen to her voice,

and they have no hesitation in describing such a doc-

trine as revoltingly harsh and uncharitable.

Now, without altogether denying the impeachment,

it may here be remarked, in parenthesis, that because

a statement appears hard to us
,

it does not necessarily

and at once follow that it is untrue. Truth is some-

times hard. When, for example, wandering along the

border of a precipice, it is hard, yes, very hard, to be

hurled to the bottom, and dashed to pieces on the rocks

below, merely for taking just one little step, quite inad-

vertently, over the edge! Yet that such an agoniz-

ing death may be the penalty of one incautions step

is none the less true for all that. So, again, it is

“hard” that a whole train full of passengers should be

pounded to a jelly, just because the pointsman is

sleepy and tired, and forgets to change the points

when the express is rushing by
;
but however “hard”

this may be, nevertheless its “hardness” in no way

affects its truth.

The question we have to inquire into is not whether

a doctrine, in our judgment, is hard or unkind or un-

fair, but simply whether it is true; whether, that is to

say, it is a doctrine actually propounded by Jesus

Christ or no.
,

For bear this well in mind. The Catholic Church on

earth is but the agent of God. However great and

indisputable her authority, she has no authority apart

from Him. She teaches nothing of herself. She does

not and cannot initiate any doctrine. She does but



Is There Salvation Outside the Church? 3

bear witness to the truths already enunciated by Christ.

Her office is to explain His utterances, to interpret His

words, to unravel their hidden sense and to develop

and unfold more and more explicitly, as centuries wear

on, the sublime and momentous truth which they con-

tain. It does not lie within her competence to relax,

or modify, or alter at will, or in any way to tamper

with or to interfere with the laws and regulations and

dogmas laid down by God. She is but the living and

infallible witness to the truth; its divinely appointed

guardian, custodian and defender—a witness which
can never fail and which all the powers of hell com-

bined can never corrupt or bribe or silence or destroy.

“The gates of hell shall not prevail against her.” For

the rest she is wholly dependent upon Him, and her

voice is nothing and can be nothing but the echo of

His. “Who heareth you, heareth Me” (Luke x., 16).

Hence it follows: If she teaches that out of the

Church of God there is no salvation, it is simply and

solely because such is the clear and most explicit

declaration of the Infinite God Himself. That this is

indeed His teaching is at once made manifest by a

reference to the Bible. Thus, when Our Lord de-

spatched His apostles over the earth, He made use of

these remarkable words : “Go ye into the whole world

and preach the Gospel.” Observe, He did not say
“
any ” Gospel

;
nor “ a ” Gospel

;
nor “ your own

”

Gospel; but “the” Gospel (to evayyeXiov) : that is to say,

the Gospel that I have delivered to you
;
the particular

and specific body of truths that I have committed to

your keeping; just that and no other. Yes, Go, and

announce these dogmas to every creature, and “he that

believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that

believeth not shall be condemned.” Or, according to

the Anglican translation of 1611, “he that believeth

not shall be damned” (Mark xvi., 16).

Weigh well the forces of these words : “He that be-

lieveth not.” What is “to believe ?” It is to accept and

embrace, on the authority of Christ, the doctrine He

reveals. It does not mean to construct a creed for



4 Is There Salvation Outside the Church?

ourselves. There is no permission given us here to

take the Bible and to pick and choose a religion to suit

our own circumstances or character under the guid-

ance of our own feeble and blundering human reason.

No, quite the reverse.

We are distinctly commanded to surrender aU per-
sonal opinions, to set aside altogether our private judg-

ment, and to be "taught of God.” We are ordered to
submit to a divinely constituted authority, and to ac-

cept as certain those specific truths which Christ taught

first, which the apostles taught after Him, and which

the Church of God teaches today, and will continue to

teach to the end of the world, with the same authority

as Himself, and to humble ourselves "as little chil-

dren,” in order to enter the Kingdom of God, which

is the Church. If all obeyed this command and em-

braced this teaching, then all would be united, all

would agree, and there would be no divisions, no sects,

no churches—only one Church. If some do not agree,
it proves that some have not accepted the words of

God, Now, not to accept the doctrines, and not to

belong to the Church is precisely one and the same

thing. Hence, to say, as the Catholic religion says,

viz., “Out of the Church there is no salvation,” is

exactly the same thing as to say what Christ Himself

says, viz., “Who believeth not shall be condemned.”

On this point, as upon all others, the Church teaches

nothing more and nothing less than what Christ

teaches. The only difference between them is that

Christ, while expressing identically the same truth,

expresses it in a far more emphatic and energetic way.

One statement is no harder than the other. Why?
Because both are exactly the same, though expressed

in different words.

Some persons have endeavored to evade the diffi-

culty by throwing doubt upon the authenticity of the

text
;
and would excise it from the Gospel. But even

were this possible, which it is not, nothing would be

gained, for the equivalent doctrine is contained in

many another passage of Holy Writ. Thus, in the



Is There Salvation Outside the Church ? 5

eighteenth chapter of St. Matthew, we find Christ in-

sisting upon the authority of the Church, which He

clearly declares none may gainsay or deny, or oppose

without peril to his salvation. He tells us that if men

quarrel and differ the case is to be referred to the

Church. “Tell the Church/’ is our Lord’s express

command. And for what purpose ? Is it that each may

continue to hold his own opinion? No. It is that

the Church may pronounce upon and settle the differ-

ence; that she may decide the point at issue, once for

all, and so heal up the breach. And so soon as s]je

has pronounced her decision the disputants are bound

to hear her voice and abide by it. “Bound?” Yes,

bound, in the strictest sense of the word, for, “If he

will not hear the Church, let him be to thee as the

heathen and the publican” (Matt, xviii., 17). Not to

hear the Church, not to conform to her doctrine, is a

mark of reprobation. In fact, Our Lord expresses

Himself far more strongly on this point than the

Church herself, for He tells us that he who will not

hear the Church is not to be considered a Christian at

all
;
he is to be classed among heathens and publicans,

and is therefore, according to Christ’s own judgment,

outside the pale of salvation. Again, let me ask, what

is all this but to express, in another way, that “out of

the Church there is no salvation?”

In the tenth chapter of St. Matthew we have the

same doctrine set before us again in a somewhat differ-

ent form. The Evangelist describes how Christ sent

the twelve apostles to preach the Gospel and to estab-

lish His spiritual kingdom. It was not a mere invita-

tion which men might accept or reject as they pleased.

No; it was a solemn command, the rejection of which

carried with it eternal reprobation. “Whosoever shall

not receive you, nor hear your words
,
going forth out

of that house or city, shake off the dust from your

feet” (Matt, x., 14). And what consequences were to

follow? When the messenger of God had shaken off
the dust and departed, was each left in peace to exer-

cise his own private judgment? Was each allowed to



6 Is There Salvation Outside the Church?

set up a Church for himself, such as was done later on

in the sixteenth century, e. g., an Anglican Establish-

ment in England, a Lutheran Church in Germany,

etc.? Was each still free to select his own religion
and to turn a deaf ear to the Divine Teacher? Noth-

ing of the kind. Those who did not take the doctrine

as it was given to them

,

and who refused to obey the

authority established by Christ, were to be most severe-

ly dealt with. They were to be punished and con-

demned. Were all sects to be regarded as so many

different roads, every one of which led to the same

kingdom? Far from it. "Amen, I say to you,” cried

out the Son of God
;
"it shall be more tolerable for the

land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment

than for that city” (Matt, x., 15). That is to say, the

very worst carnal excesses and moral crimes will not

be so severely and so fiercely punished as infidelity,

heresy and schism. Nothing could express more em-

phatically than this that "outside the Church there is

no salvation.” If the Catholic Church be indeed the

Church of God, if she teach wdth the authority of the*

apostles, then the above words apply to her, and we

may truly declare, in the language of Christ, that "it

shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and

Gomorrha in the day of judgment” than for the city

or country or the individual that refuses to receive the

Catholic Church and to hear her words.

What we have demonstrated from Scripture may be

deduced also from the intrinsic nature of truth
;
and

certainly the most obstinate will admit that Jesus

Christ taught neither errors, nor falsehoods, nor fa-

bles, but the truth. "For this was I born, and for this

am I come into the world, that I should bear witness

to the truth (John xviii., 37).

Now truth is one, so essentially and absolutely one,
that it is a metaphysical impossibility that there should

be two true Churches teaching opposite or contradic-

tory doctrines. This principle is of universal applica-

tion, and is as true in the natural order as in the super-

natural order. Take some simple and obvious illustra"



Is There Salvation Outside the Church? 7

tion. Thus : if it be really true that “twice two are

equal to four/’ then any person, however exalted and

respectable and wise, who teaches me that twice two

are equal to three or to five, or to three and a half, or

to anything else whatsoever but just exactly four, must

necessarily, and from the very nature of the case, be

teaching what is false and erroneous. And what holds

good of a single truth holds good equally of a series

of truths. Hence it follows that if a series of doctrines

taught by the Catholic Church be true, then it is wholly

impossible to have or even to conceive, either in Eng-

land or anywhere else, a second true Church teaching

other doctrines irreconcilable with the first. They

must be mutually exclusive. And if even two true yet

opposite Churches is an impossibility, of course ten or

fifteen or a hundred such Churches must be a yet

greater impossibility. Hence, out of the two or three

hundred Churches or forms of religion actually exist-

ing in this land, all except one must be propounding

false doctrines and propagating lies. So soon as we

admit that the Catholic Church is dispensing the truth

revealed by God we art bound and constrained not

only by faith, but by reason also—yes, by the very
rigor of logic—to declare that every single one of the
hundreds of Churches differing from her is dispensing

what is false and pernicious and contrary to truth and

that each of such Churches is more or less in error
,

according as it is more opposed to her
,
or less opposed.

People cry “Bigotry !” But, pardon me, there is no

bigotry in this. It is very sad, but we cannot help it.

We cannot alter facts! It could not be otherwise. It
is a logical necessity, rooted in the very nature of

things. If twice two make four no power on earth can

ever cause them to make anything else. They will

make four in spite of us. They will make four in

Europe and out of Europe, in this world and the next.

And precisely the same necessity extends equally to

spiritual things. The Holy Spirit, speaking through

the lips of St. Paul, announces
—
“One Lord, one Faith,

one Baptism.”



8 Is There Salvation Outside the Church

?

Why does he say "one Faith ?” Because he is talk-
ing of true faith ! and it is no more possible to con-

ceive two true faiths or two true Churches than it is

to conceive two true Gods. Two true irreconcilable
Churches are just as repugnant as two true Gods.

There may be many false Churches and many false

faiths as there may be and have been many false gods,

but to suppose more than one true Church is quite as

absurd as to suppose more than one true God.

This may seem a truism. Nevertheless, in this

country of mushroom sects, in this land where every

variety of religion unfurls its flag and flourishes, it

seems of importance to insist again and again upon the

great central fact that ought to be patent to the mean-

est capacity, viz., there is and can be one only true

Church of God.

“Harsh!” “Unkind!” “Unfriendly!” are exclama-

tions heard when it is pointed out that the Church

refuses absolutely to recognize any one of the many

religious persuasions around her
;

but, really, some

of our friends seem to forget the plain fact that one

cannot make contradictory doctrines nor contradictory

Churches true by merely wishing it! Talk of kind-

ness! Talk of good-will! Why, all the kindness, all

the good-will in the world can never make black white

or darkness light. We are compelled to recognize
things as they are. Truth is one. Consequently the

Church, which is the very “pillar and ground of truth,”

must also be one, and no second Church can be

acknowledged as sharing in her prerogative.

But people complain that “the Church of Rome is
so exclusive and so narrow, rigid and unyielding.”

Quite so
;
but then so is the multiplication table. What,

exclusive ? Of course she is exclusive. Indeed it
stands to reason that if she be indeed true she must be

exclusive. Exclusiveness is a note and characteristic

of truth. There is nothing in the whole universe of

being so exclusive. This is unavoidable and necessary.

Truth is truth, and what deflects from it or differs

from it, even though it be but by a hair’s-breadth, is



Is There Salvation Outside the Church? 9

simply not true, but false. Hence there is no denying

the fact that any one who wilfully and deliberately and

with his eyes open rejects the message that*God sends

to him by the mouth of His one and only Church,

resists God and refuses to surrender his reason to

God, is consequently guilty of a great crime, and so

stands condemned : '‘Who believeth not, shall be con-

demned.” This is the declaration not of man, but of

God; we do but paraphrase it when we affirm “Out of

the Church there is no salvation.”

Then we are going to affirm that every man who is

not in visible communion with the Catholic and

Roman Church is to be eternally and irrevocably lost ?

No. Far from it. We should never dream of making
such a statement. And why? Because there is just

one, though only one, circumstance that may excuse

a man from submitting to her authority. That one

circumstance is a sincere and honest conviction that

her authority is but a usurpation; in other words, a

genuine inability to recognize the Church’s claims.

In order to explain this more clearly, we may here

remark that there is no more common, and no more

prolific source of mistake and confusion, than the habit

of fixing one’s attention upon one special statement of

Holy Scripture, to the exclusion of every other. To

isolate one particular passage of the Bible, or one par-

ticular doctrine of the Church, and to consider it in

itself alone; instead of confronting and balancing it

with other passages and other doctrines, emanating

from the same authority, is a fruitful cause of error.

To avoid committing such a blunder, we will com-

pare this doctrine of exclusive salvation with another

doctrine, which will greatly help to soften its apparent

asperity, and to reconcile us to its truth.

Thus, if our religion infallibly declares that, “Out of

the Church there is no salvation,” she also declares,

just as infallibly
,
that “No one can possibly be lost,

except through his own fault?' Both these statements

are absolutely true, and equally true. They both rest

upon one and the same authority, and possess an



10 Is There Salvation Outside the Church?

equal value. Consequently it is absolutely requisite, so

to interpret the first statement that it may not, in any

way, conflict or contradict or be out of harmony with

the second statement.

“Out of the Catholic Church there is no salvation.’'

True. But are we, then, to conclude that every one

who, through no fault of his own, is not visibly a

member of the Catholic Church, is hopelessly repro-

bate? No. This cannot be, for the simple reason that

“no one can be lost except by his own fault.” If,

therefore, it is not through his own fault that he is

outside the visible pale of Catholic unity

,

he is not held

responsible. Hence the only meaning we can attach

to the above doctrines, when taken together, is that

any person who is outside the visible Body of the

Church, and who remains out through his own fault,

will be lost; this supposes that he recognizes the

Church to be indeed the true Church of God, and

the mystical Body of Christ, and her authority to be

the authority of God Himself. If, however, a non-

Catholic, through no personal fault, fails to recognize

her claims
;

if he quite honestly and conscientiously

persuades himself that she is a sink of iniquity, and

the “Scarlet Lady,” and so forth—then this ignorance
may excuse him. This is no imaginary case

;
nor is it

even a rare case. Indeed, there are no doubt a great

many who are thus blinded. Of them our Lord will say

at the last day, what He said of the Jews who cruci-

fied Him, “Father, forgive them, for they know not

what they do” (Luke, xxiii., 34).

Inability to recognize the truth can alone excuse

them
;
and this really will excuse them, provided they

are sincere and act according to their consciences,

even though their consciences may be erroneous. In

order, however, that this excuse may avail, it is re-

quisite that they be so disposed that did they know the

Catholic Church to be the Infallible Church founded

by Christ, they would enter its fold, however much it

might cost them. Persons in these dispositions in

sober truth already belong to the soul of the Church.



Is There Salvation Outside the Church? 11

No one in such dispositions will be condemned for
want of faith . If such a person be condemned, it will

be for other sins, and not for being outside the visible

unity of the Catholic Church. This doctrine is very

clearly pointed out by Pope Pius IX., of blessed mem-

ory, in his Encyclical, “Quanto Conficiamur,” where-

in he teaches that

:

“Those who are in invincible ignorance of our most

holy religion, and who, carefully observing the natural

law and its precepts which have been engraved by God

on the hearts of all men, and who, being ready to obey

God, actually lead a good and upright life, can, by

the help of divine light and grace, attain life eternal.
v

This is the teaching of all theologians, and it is con-

sonant not only with our sense of justice, but with the

ordinary doctrine concerning sin in general, of which,

after all, heresy is but a particular variety.

Before the guilt of sin is imputed to anybody three

conditions must be realized. The first has to do with

the person’s intellect, the second has to do with his

will and the third has to do with the act itself. With

regard to his intellect, there must be sufficient knowl-

edge. With regard to his will, there must be freedom

and full consent
;
and with regard to the act itself there

must be a serious and grave violation of God’s law.

We will illustrate these principles by an example,
and then apply them to the case of a conscientious

non-Catholic. Thus, let us suppose a sportsman is

shooting tigers in the jungle. He is moving carefully
along, when all at once he hears a crackling of the

branches, and detects something stirring in the under-

wood. At once he aims and shoots at what he takes

to be a wild beast
;
when lo ! to his horror he finds he

has killed a man ! He has shot dead a native. Now
observe

;
he has most undeniably broken the letter of

the law
;
for he has killed an innocent man. He has

been guilty of material murder. Yet he is not held

guilty by the judge and before the law. And why?

Because he did not know it to be a man. He acted in
ignorance. Observe; he aimed and shot quite de-



12 Is There Salvation Outside the Church

t

liberately. Nay, more. He not only caused, but he
fully intended to cause death. True. Then what frees

him from blame? Ignorance. He thought he was
slaying a beast, and all the while he was slaying a

fellow-creature. His want of knowledge is his only

defense, but it is enough. That alone will suffice to

save him from capital punishment.

If instead of the crime of murder we substitute

what is, in itself
,
a far worse crime, viz., the crime of

heresy, we may apply the same principle.

The Catholic Church is the infallible messenger of

Christ; she has been established by divine authority,

to teach all men. God has ordered every human being

to obey her voice, and to accept her doctrine, under

pain of eternal death. Nothing can excuse a man who

refuses to obey God; but he who rejects her teaching,

does refuse to obey God, for it is God who commands

him to hear His Church as Himself. Nothing can ex-

cuse him but ignorance of her claims; just as noth-

ing can excuse his shooting an innocent man, except

ignorance of the fact that it is an innocent man. But

if a person simply cannot get himself to believe that

the Catholic Church is the Church of God at all
;

if

he cannot persuade himself that she is “the pillar of

truth ;” if, on the contrary, he honestly fancies her to

have nothing but a usurped authority, then, though

he abuses and disobeys and opposes her, and rejects

her teaching, his ignorance may still excuse him even

in the eyes of the Sovereign Judge Himself.

Nor is the above supposition by any means an im-

possible one. Take the case of a child born of non-

Catholic parents, brought up from the earliest infancy

(as tens of thousands of children are) to believe that

the “Church of Rome” is the “Beast of Revelations/'

“drunk with the blood of the martyrs’’ and a veritable

sink of iniquity. Suppose it is carefully trained to con-

nect Catholicity with every species of crime, and per-

fidy, and horror and abomination, and grows up fully

believing that Catholics worship images, and purchase

permission to commit sin, and that they exalt the



Is There Salvation Outside the Church? 13

Blessed Virgin above God, and would (if only they

had the power) imprison, torture and burn all those

who differ from them, and so forth. May not such a

child, even when he has grown to man’s estate, be ex-

cused if he hates the Church which he ought to love,

and which he probably would indeed love were he bet-

ter acquainted with her? Is not such a person, in re-

gard to the Catholic Church, very much in the position

of the hunter of whom we have spoken, in regard to

the unfortnate man whom he shoots under the impres-

sion that he is shooting a wild beast? A typical Prot-
estant, or other non-Catholic, brought up in the tradi-

tions of his own sect, is not really acquainted with the

true Catholic Church. He thinks he is, but such is by
no means the case. We must be careful here to distin-
guish between two totally different things. The one

is the divinely established Church, the Bride of Christ,

the Pillar and ground of Truth, and the other is the

grotesque, ill-formed, false and most repulsive carica-

ture of the Church, drawn by her bitterest enemies.

Now, what is it that nine out of ten of our separated

brethren abuse, denunciate and condemn? It is not

the Church at all
;

no, it is but the distorted and

hideous caricature of her—the creation of malice, of
suspicion and of hate. The opposition of men such

as these is directed, not against the true Church, with

which indeed they are not even distantly acquainted,

but against the false and libellous misrepresentation

of the Church which they, through the force of mis-

representation and tradition, take to be the Church.

The mind of youth is most impressionable
;

it is “as

wax to receive, and as marble to retain.” It would

indeed be hard to exaggerate the influence of early

education, so strongly directed against the Catholic

Church. Add to this strong prejudice, deliberate mis-
interpretation, the hostile tradition of over three hun-

dred years, and we shall easily understand how even

some of our bitterest enemies may be in good faith

;

and may honestly come to persuade themselves that

the Catholic Church has no claims upon them. Thus,



14 Is There Salvation Outside the Church?

while remaining outside the true fold, they may be

acting up to their consciences, and therefore be held

excused by the Just Judge. Even clever and talented

men may be under the influence of the delusion for

years. Consider such intellectual giants as Cardinals

Newman and Manning—men whom we all know; men
whose sincerity, moral integrity and honesty are above

suspicion—and then recall to mind the number of
years that were needed for even such as these to

struggle against their prejudices and to grope their

way through all the obscurities and misrepresentations

erected by a hostile world between them and the true

Church. Their early training and Anglican education

and their Protestant friends, relations and surround-

ings had left deep impressions upon their minds not to

be worn away and obliterated save by many a long

year of toil and trouble, and prayer, and effort, and

anxiety. If, then, men so truthful and honest and so

highly endowed intellectually needed forty years to

find their way into the Church of God, may we not

reasonably conclude that there must be a very con-

siderable number indeed with less abilities who never

find their way into the Church at all, yet who are

equally honest and sincere, and who may yet be saved,

by reason of their good faith and upright intentions?

We will sum up the whole teaching of the Church in
the following four propositions

:

Firstly. It is strictly true to say that there is no

greater misfortune than to be living outside the pale

of the Catholic and Roman Church—whether it be
through a man’s own personal fault or not.

Secondly. A man who deliberately remains outside
the pale of the said Catholic Church through his own

fault (such as through pride or wilful ignorance, or

through fear or loss of goods or of friends, or gross

neglect or indifference), will most certainly be lost

should he continue in this state to the end.

Thirdly. He who is out of visible unity with the

Catholic Church, through invincible ignorance, and



Is There Salvation Outside the Church? 15

from no fault of his own, will be excused from the

formal guilt of heresy
;
so that, though he may be con-

demned for other offenses, that sin, at all events, will

not be laid to his charge.

Fourthly. Though we assert, without any doubt,

that Protestants may be saved, and though we are

quite ready to allow even that a great many actually

are saved, owing to their excusable inability to recog-

nize the truth, yet there is one thing of which we are

still more certain, and that is that, though a Protestant

may be saved, it will not be by means of his Protes-

tantism, but in spite of it; in fact, in the very teeth of

it. Protestantism, as such
9

has no saving power.

Though it may, perhaps, seem a strange thing to say,

it is nevertheless undoubtedly true that a Protestant

who is saved
,

is saved, not in so far as he is a Prot-

estant, but simply in so far as he is a Catholic.

Suffer me to explain. The Catholic Church existed

for fifteen hundred years before Protestantism. At

the period of the so-called Reformation many left the

Catholic Church to become Anglicans, Lutherans, Cal-

vinists, etc. But in leaving they carried away with

them a considerable number of important Catholic

doctrines. Now, it is precisely these doctrines that

will save them; just these, and no others.

For instance. A Protestant believes in the existence
of God. He believes in His goodness, His justice and
His mercy

;
he believes in the Incarnation and

acknowledges Christ to be his God and his Saviour;
he also trusts in the merits of Christ and in the use of

earnest prayer and in the advantages of a humble and

contrite heart, and of sorrow for sin. Where did he
get these doctrines from? From the Catholic and
Roman Church. Every single one of these doctrines
is essentially Catholic. All of them had been taught,

for hundreds of years in every Catholic school in

Christendom, before Protestantism arose to work con-

fusion in our ranks. In fact they are purely Catholic

doctrines, and, as such, they may be the means of



16 Is There Salvation Outside the Church?

supernatural grace and eternal glory to those who

yield to their influence.

But the genuine and distinctly Protestant doctrines

can save nobody. On the contrary, they can but hin-
der and impede salvation. What do I mean by “genu-

ine Protestant doctrines ?” Well, I mean not the

doctrines which Protestants have received from us,

and which because they come from us are Catholic,

but I mean the doctrines that are exclusivelyn Protes-

tant—the doctrines, in fact, which differentiate the
Protestant from the Catholic. For instance, the doc-

trine that the Mass is a blasphemous fable
;
that the

Successor of St. Peter is not the head of Christ’s

Church; that the Pope has no prerogative of infallibil-

ity
;
that there are not seven Sacraments, but only two

;

that Christ is not substantially present in the Blessed

Sacrament, and that confession is not necessary, and

Our Lady not immaculate. All these, and a great

many more, are distinctly and genuinely Protestant

tenets. None of these doctrines can save anybody,

since they are not merely without efficacy, but utterly

false and pernicious. Hence, as I have already re-

marked, Protestants who are saved, are saved in so

far as they are Catholics. The good, honest, sincere,

God-fearing Protestants, of whom there are no doubt
many, will obtain eternal life; but this will be not in

the least degree on account of their Protestantism, but

in spite of it, and solely in virtue of the Catholic doc-

trines which (fortunately for themselves) they have

retained, when they went out from the only true and

infallible Church of God, whose centre is at Rome, but

whose circumference is the world.

/ By Courtesy of tee Catholic Truth Society.





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