Given from the Catholic Broadcasting Station 2SM Sydney Australia
Choose a topic from Vol 4:
That does not conflict with anything I have just said. A non-Catholic who dies repentant of his sins and with the will to do God's will in all things can attain salvation even though he never professed to be a Catholic at any time in this world. But the moment he enters the next world he will realize the truth he never knew in this world, and will acknowledge that the Catholic religion was indeed, the right religion. In that sense, all who do get to heaven will there be Catholics, acknowledging the truth of all Catholic teachings. We do not, therefore hold that the only ones likely to attain to eternal life are those who are Catholics in this world. Yet it remains true that the man who finds out that the Catholic religion is right is obliged to become a Catholic when he does discover the truth, if he wishes to save his soul.
She does not. Naturally, the Catholic Church holds that any religious position differing from and opposed to the Catholic religion is mistaken; but the people belonging to mistaken religions she leaves to God. They may be in quite good faith, sincerely believing their mistaken position to be right. The Catholic Church certainly does not condemn them as if they were wicked to believe as they do. The interior dispositions of individual human beings are subject to God's judgment alone; and the Catholic Church refuses to pass any sentence upon them.
There is a sense in* which that belief is quite sound. But there is another sense in which it is not sound. People must be free to follow their consciences, choosing in accordance with what they sincerely believe to be right. But if we consider, not the person choosing, but the thing to be chosen, there are difficulties at once. For example, as a Protestant, you believe in Christ, holding that He is the Son of God and the Savior of mankind. Now here is the problem. When people come up against the claims of Christ, do you hold that they are obliged to accept those claims, or do you hold that they are quite free to reject them? If you hold that the claims of Christ are true and that people are not free to reject them once they have become aware of them, we simply hold that the claims of the Catholic Church are also true and that we are equally obliged to accept those, once we are aware and convinced of them.
Every person who professes to be a Christian would have to admit that true Christians are to be found only in the true Church, unless he attaches no significance whatever to the words of Christ: "I will build My Church." Matt., XVI, 18. The one question arising here is which of all the religious bodies professing to be Christian constitutes the true Church? Catholics are convinced that the Catholic Church alone constitutes the true Church, and that to be Christians in the true and full sense of the | word we must belong to that true Church. This does not mean that other people who, through no fault of their I own, belong to other Churches cannot, despite their mistake, be earnest and sincere in their efforts to live up to the moral and spiritual ideals of the I Christian religion according to their understanding of it. They are good Christian people from that point of view. But they are not truly and fully Christian so long as they are content with a Christianity which omits that part of it requiring membership of the one, true, visible Catholic Church I established by Christ Himself.
"THAT CATHOLIC CHURCH
A Radio Analysis"
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