"Outside the Church there is no salvation" is a doctrine of the Catholic Faith that was taught by Jesus Christ to His Apostles, preached by the Fathers, defined by popes and councils and piously believed by the faithful in every age of the Church. This tract contains some of the proofs of this dogma which all Catholics are bound to believe, or else forfeit their own salvation.

"We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff." (Pope Boniface VIII, the Bull Unam Sanctum, 1302.)

"The most Holy Roman Catholic Church firmly believes, professes, and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go into the eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless before death they are joined with Her; and that so important is the unity of this ecclesiastical body that only those remaining within this unity can profit by the sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and they alone can recieve an eternal recompense for their fasts, their almsgivings, their other works of Christian piety and the duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ, can be saved, unless he remain within the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church." (Pope Eugene IV, the Bull Cantate Domino, 1441.)

Saint Cyprian (died A.D. 258): "He who has turned his back on the Church of Christ shall not come to the rewards of Christ; he is an alien, a worldling, an enemy. You cannot have God for your Father if you have not the Church for your mother. Our Lord warns us when he says: 'he that is not with Me is against Me, and he that gathereth not with Me scattereth.' Whosoever breaks the peace and harmony of Christ acts against Christ; whoever gathers elsewhere than in the Catholic Church scatters the Church of Christ." (Unity of the Catholic Church)

Lactantius (died A.D. 310): "It is the Catholic Church alone which retains true worship. This is the foundation of truth, this is the abode of the Faith, this is the temple of God; into which if anyone shall not enter, or from which anyone shall go out, he is a stranger to the hope of life and eternal salvation." (The Divine Institutes)

Saint Augustine (died A.D. 430): "No man can find salvation except in the Catholic Church. Outside the Catholic Church one can have everything except salvation. One can have honor, one can have the sacraments, one can sing alleluia, one can answer amen, one can have faith in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and preach it too, but never can one find salvation except in the Catholic Church." (Sermo ad Caesariensis Ecclesiae plebem)

Saint Fulgentius (died A.D. 533): "Most firmly hold and never doubt that not only pagans, but also all Jews, all heretics, and all schismatics who finish this life outside of the Catholic Church, will go into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." (Enchriridion Patristicum)

Pope Pelagius II (A.D. 578-590): "Consider the fact that whoever has not been in the peace and unity of the Church cannot have the Lord. Although given over to flames and fires, they burn, or, thrown to wild beasts, they lay down their lives, there will not be for them that crown of faith but the punishment of faithlessness. Such a one can be slain, he cannot be crowned. If slain outside the Church, he cannot attain the rewards of the Church." (Denzinger 246-247)

Pope Saint Gregory the Great (A.D. 590-604): "Now the holy Church universal proclaims that God cannot be truly worshipped saving within herself, asserting that all they that are without her shall never be saved." (Moralia)

Saint Thomas Aquinas (died A.D. 1274): "There is no enterning into salvation outside the Church, just as in the time of the deluge there was none outside the ark, which denotes the Church." (Summa Theologiae)

Saint Peter Canisius (died A.D. 1597): "Outside of this communion - as outside the ark on Noah - there is absolutely no salvation for mortals: not for Jews or pagans who never recieved the faith of the Church, nor for heretics who, having recieved it, corrupted it; neither for the excommunicated or those who for any other serious cause deserve to be put away and separated from the body of the Church like pernicious members...for the rule of Cyprian and Augustine is certain: he will not have God for his Father who would not have the Church for his mother." (Cathechismi Latini et Germanici)

"And He said to them: Go ye into the whole world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be condemned." (Mark 16:15-16)

"Jesus answered: Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3:5)

"But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyeself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." (1 Tim. 3:15)

"And if he will not hear them: tell the church. And if he will not hear the church, let him be to thee as the heather and the publican." (Matt. 18:17)

"And Jesus coming spoke to them saying: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Going therefore teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And behold I am with you all days, even until the consummation of the world." (Matt. 28:18-20)

"And I say to thee: That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven." (Matt. 16:18)

"Without Faith, it is impossible to please God." (Heb. 11:16)

"Whosoever shall not recieve you, nor hear your words, going forth out of that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. Amen, I say to you, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgement, than for that city." (Matt. 10:14)

In his encylical Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907), Pope St. Pius X condemned a heresy he called "Modernism," which is still with us today. In the encylical, the Holy Father said Modernism teaches us that "the formulas which we call dogma must be subject to these vicissitudes, and are, therefore, liable to change. Thus the way is open to the intrinsic evolution of dogma. Here we have an immense structure of sophisms which ruin and wreck all religion." According to the only canonized pope of the last 500 years, the idea that dogma can change will ruin all religion. Thus, it is forbidden for any Catholic to even think dogma can change.

Though this liberal heresy is condemned, and though countless popes and saints have taught us that truth cannot change, most Catholics today are Liberals and/or Modernists. Most of them reject the Church's teachings on one or more points. From the Church's teaching against contraception, divorce, and abortion to the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, there are few Catholic teachings which are not under assault in these terrible times.

The Catholic Faith is an integral whole, like the seamless garment our Lord wore. To tear one doctrine out of the whole would be to alter that which was made by God's Hands, and thus, as we said above, to forfeit one's salvation. We stress again that the dogma "outside the Church there is no salvation" has been infallibly taught and all Catholics must believe it by Faith. Since dogma cannot change or evolve, this article of Faith is just as true now as it ever was. As the ancient Athanasian Creed says, "Whoever wishes to be saved must above all, keep the Catholic faith; for unless a person keeps this faith whole and entire he will undoubtedly be lost forever..."

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