The Four Marks Of The Church — Catholicity

By DON FIER

Part 3

As we continued to examine the third mark of the Church last week, that she is catholic (or universal), we saw that all mankind is called to belong to the one true Church, the new People of God. Christ’s clear mandate to His apostles was to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19). And indeed, as the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCCC) teaches, “All human beings in various ways belong to or are ordered to the Catholic unity of the people of God” (n. 168).
Yet, as described by Pope Paul VI in Ecclesiam Suam, the relations of people to the Church varies widely and may be described as “consisting of a series of concentric circles” (n. 96).
Fully incorporated into the Church are those who accept all the means of salvation that she offers, those who are joined to her visible structure through profession of faith, the sacraments, ecclesiastical governance (obedience to the bishops under the Bishop of Rome), and communion with one another. However, there are many people, our “separated brethren,” who only partly belong to the Church. Validly baptized, they belong to the extent that they share partly in her riches. As expressed in the Compendium, “The baptized who do not enjoy full Catholic unity are in a certain, although imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church” (CCCC, n. 168).
The Church looks also with great respect upon non-Christians, recognizing all that is true and good in other religions. But as renowned Jesuit theologian and catechist Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, explains, “Her estimate differs for different people. Judaism is held in special honor because the Jews received the first covenant from God; Islam is also highly regarded because Muslims believe in one God; all non-Christians are recognized as having one bond of human origin and destiny with the followers of Christ; at the same time, the Church sees various limitations and errors in non-Christian beliefs; finally, she offers the non-Christian world the fullness of God’s truth in the one bark of salvation, which is the Roman Catholic Church” (The Faith, p. 90).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) focuses next on a truth of our faith that is often misinterpreted and misunderstood: “Outside the Church there is no salvation,” or in Latin, “extra ecclesiam nulla salus.” What precisely does this dogmatic teaching mean? First of all, we know that all salvation comes through Jesus Christ: “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).
But how is the salvific grace of Christ dispensed to mankind? “Taken up to heaven and glorified after he had thus fully accomplished his mission, Christ dwells on earth in his Church” (CCC, n. 669). In other words, Christ’s presence in the world is through His Body the Church. Therefore, all graces necessary for salvation come “from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body” (CCC, n. 846). As expressed by the Second Vatican Council Fathers: “Christ, present to us in His Body, which is the Church, is the one Mediator and the unique way of salvation” (Lumen Gentium, n. 14 § 1).
It is thus that the Council Fathers are able to authoritatively pronounce: “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” (ibid.).
Two divergent errors have manifested themselves in the minds of many with regard to their understanding of the theological axiom “extra ecclesiam nulla salus.” One extreme is the view that all who are not united to the visible structure of the Catholic Church will be condemned.
On the other end of the spectrum is a view that is widespread in contemporary times and inestimably more dangerous. It consists in the misguided opinion that this teaching of the Church is arrogant, outdated, and irrelevant in our so-called enlightened and tolerant age. It is a form of modernism that expresses itself in various ways (e.g., religious relativism, indifferentism, etc.) depending on how radical are the views of its adherents.
In an extreme form, this belief system falsely holds that it doesn’t matter what religion one belongs to (or even if one belongs to one at all) because, after all, God is infinitely loving and all-merciful and will certainly transport everyone to Heaven (except perhaps for a few universally acknowledged tyrants and mass murderers).
The first error, that only those united to the Church’s visible structure can be saved, especially rocked the Church in the mid-20th century. Fr. Leonard E. Feeney, SJ, a priest and former instructor at the Jesuit seminary in Weston, Mass., “publicly denounced the Catholic archbishop of Boston as a heretic for declaring that non-Catholics could be saved. Fr. Feeney’s contention was that Archbishop Cushing’s view was in direct contradiction to the dogma which states there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church” (Fr. Francis A. Sullivan, SJ, Salvation Outside the Church, p. 1).
His strict literal interpretation of “extra ecclesiam nulla salus” and refusal to retract his stance, which he felt he could not do in conscience, resulted in his dismissal from the Society of Jesus, and later his excommunication by order of the Holy See. Before his death in 1978, however, Fr. Feeney was reconciled to the Catholic Church.
Fr. Feeney’s public accusation against the ordinary of Boston resulted in the release of an important letter by the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office to Archbishop Richard J. Cushing on August 8, 1949. Approved by Pope Pius XII, the letter “explained the true sense of Catholic doctrine that there is no salvation outside the Church.” It authoritatively clarified that one could be united to the Church “by desire and longing,” which could occur by explicit means (e.g., in the case of catechumens), or even implicitly if invincible ignorance was involved. At the same time, the letter cautioned that the desire must “be animated by perfect charity.”
Clearly, as affirmed by Fr. Hardon, “the New Testament makes it plain that Christ founded the Church to be a society for the salvation of all men” (The Catholic Catechism [TCC], p. 234). But what do the doctors and fathers of the Church have to say? “The ancient Fathers held the unanimous position,” states Fr. Hardon, “that salvation cannot be achieved outside the Church” (ibid.).
However, their teachings must be taken in context, for they were being written primarily with concern for those who had once believed or had the Gospel message proclaimed to them, but now rejected it. The Early Church Fathers were, in effect, laboring and writing to combat defections from the one true Church and to repudiate heresies that divided Christianity in the Mediterranean world during the times during which they lived.

Gravely Deficient

A parallel tradition arose over time when it became evident that some were deprived of their Catholic heritage without personal fault. “By the twelfth century, it was widely assumed that a person can be saved if some ‘invincible obstacle stands in the way’ of his baptism and entrance into the Church” (TCC, p. 235). As taught by the Catechism, “God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments” (CCC, n. 1257).
In other words, God makes the grace of salvation available to all, including “those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church” (CCC, n. 847), in ways unknown to us. But it is only through His Church that these salvific graces are mysteriously dispensed.
As taught by Pope St. John Paul II in his encyclical Redemptoris Missio, “For such people salvation in Christ is accessible by virtue of a grace which, while having a mysterious relationship to the Church, does not make them formally part of the Church but enlightens them in a way which is accommodated to their spiritual and material situation. This grace comes from Christ; it is the result of his Sacrifice and is communicated by the Holy Spirit. It enables each person to attain salvation through his or her free cooperation” (n. 10 § 1).
Yet we are strongly warned by the Church not to fall prey to an attitude of indifferentism or religious relativism. For as taught by Dominus Iesus, a declaration issued by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith in 2000, “If it is true that the followers of other religions can receive divine grace, it is also certain that objectively speaking they are in a gravely deficient situation in comparison with those who, in the Church, have the fullness of the means of salvation” (n. 22).
Highly recommended for those who wish to learn more about this topic is a recently published book entitled Will Many Be Saved? What Vatican II Actually Teaches and Its Implications for the New Evangelization. Its author, Dr. Ralph Martin, provides a well-researched examination of what Vatican II teaches regarding the possibility of salvation outside the Church, particularly as found in paragraph 16 of Lumen Gentium.

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(Don Fier serves on the board of directors for The Catholic Servant, a Minneapolis-based monthly publication. He and his wife are the parents of seven children. Fier is a 2009 graduate of Ave Maria University’s Institute for Pastoral Theology. He is doing research for writing a definitive biography of Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ.)