'Nulla Salus' Pt. 1: No Salvation Outside the Church

This dogma must be understood in that sense in which the Church herself understands it. For, it was not to private judgments that Our Savior gave for explanation those things that are contained in the deposit of faith, but to the teaching authority of the Church. Holy Office, Suprema Haec Sacra,1949

The Church is the Ark of salvation. Unsplash Image by Elias Hull

In 1949 the letter Suprema Haec Sacra  was issued from the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office.* The letter was in response to a

grave controversy stirred up by certain associates of "St. Benedict Center" and "Boston College" in regard to the interpretation of that axiom: "Outside the Church there is no salvation"...[which] was not correctly understood and weighed.

Suprema Haec Sacra derives its authority from the approval of the Pope Pius XII, and its truth from the Church tradition it summarizes. Here I have quoted** the main points of the letter. My notes follow, with the intention both of determining what kind of authority may be attributed to the conclusion drawn by the Holy Office, and of explaining the teaching.

I have divided these quotes into two, first on the necessity of the Church for salvation, and second on what it means to be outside the Church.

I. The Necessity of the Church for Salvation

1. [T]he Church has always preached and will never cease to preach...that infallible statement by which we are taught that there is no salvation outside the Church. 2. Now, in the first place, the Church teaches that in this matter there is question of a most strict command of Jesus Christ... He also decreed the Church to be a means of salvation without which no one can enter the kingdom of eternal glory. 3. Therefore, no one will be saved who, knowing the Church to have been divinely established by Christ, nevertheless refuses to submit to the Church or withholds obedience from the Roman Pontiff, the Vicar of Christ on earth.

* Recently termed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and now replaced by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

** Formatting is my own.

1. An Infallible Dogma

As early as 1302, Pope Boniface VIII declared infallibly in Unam Sanctam, in an ex cathedra pronouncement:

[T]hat every human creature is subject to the Roman pontiff – this we declare, we say, we define, and we pronounce to be altogether necessary to salvation.

In a similar manner have other Popes reiterated the dogma that there is no salvation outside of the Catholic Church:

P. Eugene IV, Council of Florence, 1441

P. Leo X, Fifth Lateran Council, 1516

P. Pius IV, Council of Trent, 1565

P. Benedict XIV, Nuper ad nos, 1743

P. Gregory XVI, Summo Iugiter Studio, 1832

P. Pius IX, First Vatican Council, 1869

P. Pius XII, Humani Generis, 1950

That 'no one can be saved outside of the Catholic Church' is a truth recognized by the Holy Magisterium variously acting through each of its modes of teaching:

the ordinary magisterium, definitions of councils of Bishops in union with the Pope, and the Pope speaking ex cathedra.

That 'no one can be saved outside of the Catholic Church' is recognized as a first category dogma, i.e. divinely revealed in Scripture and Tradition.

Therefore, the dogma that 'no one can be saved outside of the Catholic Church' is to be definitively held based on faith in the authority of the Word of God.

To teach or hold otherwise, i.e. to hold that one can be saved outside of the Catholic Church, is a material heresy.

2. Necessity of Precept and of Means

The first distinction that Suprema Haec Sancta makes is between the necessity of precept and the necessity of means.

He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned. Mk 16:16

Belonging to Christ's Church through baptism is necessary because He Himself has commanded it. This is the necessity of precept.

Christ, present to us in His Body, which is the Church, is the one Mediator and the unique way of salvation. In explicit terms He Himself affirmed the necessity of faith and baptism and thereby affirmed also the necessity of the Church, for through baptism as through a door men enter the Church. Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium 14

Even if Christ had not commanded it, baptism is the only means by which we can share in His Divine Life via sanctifying grace, and is therefore absolutely necessary for salvation.

This is the necessity of means.

As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me... I am the vine, you are the branches. John 15: 4-10

3. Refusal to Submit

In the first century, St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, himself taught by the Apostles, makes it clear that the Church to whom we must be united has a visible hierarchy established by Christ.

For as many as belong to God and Jesus Christ—these are with the bishop. And as many as repent and come to the unity of the Church—these also shall be of God, to be living according to Jesus Christ.  Be not deceived, my brethren; if anyone follow a maker of schism, he does not inherit the kingdom of God. St. Ignatius of Antioch, Ep. I ad Phil., III, 70 AD

St. Irenæus concurs that

the authentic guardian of both [Scripture and tradition] is the Church, i.e. the bishops as successors of the Apostles: "Apostolic tradition is manifested throughout the world, and everywhere in the Church it is within the reach of those who desire to know the truth, for we can enumerate the bishops established by the Apostles, as well as their successors down to our own times." Against Heresies III.2, quoted in Catholic Encyclopedia

If we know that the Catholic Church is Christ’s Church, she is recognizable through her ordained bishops. It would be to our peril to disobey our Lord’s precept and reject that Church or her dogmas, either refusing her communion through entering or refusing communion after entering.

Pope Pius XII lays out the conditions for being an actual member of the Catholic Church: 

Only those who have been baptized, who profess the true faith, who have not miserably separated themselves from the fabric of the Body, and who have not, by reason of very serious crimes, been expelled by legitimate authority, are actually to be counted as members of the Church. Pius XII, Mystici Corporis, 22

Hence, those are not members who:

a) have not received baptism,

b) are heretics, 

c) are schismatics, or

d) are under the sentence of total excommunication.

We will save heresy and schism for a separate discussion, but suffice it to say that heretics, by there obstinate disbelief, differ from those who merely believe false doctrine. Again schismatics, by their manifest and obstinate refusal to submit to the Pope and to worship with the Church, differ from those who merely worship with those in schism.

It is clear then that the Church is necessary for salvation, and that her actual and visible members are those who having been baptized, profess her one true faith, and submit to her legitimate governing authority.

Does this mean that those non-Catholics of good will but blinded by ignorance, are outside of the Church?

Continued in Part II.