No Salvation Outside the Church?

Gospel Reflection for Friday of the Fourth Week of Easter, May 16th, 2025

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”^[1]

In my recent article on the newly elected Pope Leo XIV, the comments brought to the attention of our community here the topic of distorting the tradition of the Church regarding its soteriology, or how we will be saved. My approach to the subject is to understand how God’s grace, will, the gift of faith, and our response to grace all work together in the process.

Some, like Fr. Leonard Feeney, have asserted an absolutist view on no salvation outside the Church—that is not the Catholic position. The heresy is now called Feeneyism. It states that one must be a baptized, faithful, sacrament-going Catholic within the Catholic Church to be saved.

The Catholic doctrine of extra ecclesiam nulla salus, or no salvation outside the Church, was first introduced during the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. The Catholic Church infallibly teaches this doctrine, so it is essential to examine what the Church teaches on the subject.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church CCC 846-848

“Outside the Church there is no salvation”

846 How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers? Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body: (161; 1257)

Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.

847 This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:

Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience—those too may achieve eternal salvation.

848 “Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men^[2]

I recently heard an evangelical challenge the Catholic teaching on invincible ignorance. The evangelical asked rhetorically, “So, if one is invincibly ignorant, they can be saved…So, why proclaim the gospel, why dispel their ignorance?”

What is interesting about our Catechism and leading apologists like Bishop Robert Barron, who favors von Balthasar’s hopeful universalism, is that for some strange reason, they fail to quote the rest of what the Catholic Church promulgates in Lumen Gentium 16—and the most important part of it!

Lumen Gentium 16:

“But often men, deceived by the Evil One, have become vain in their reasonings and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, serving the creature rather than the Creator. Or some there are who, living and dying in this world without God, are exposed to final despair. Wherefore to promote the glory of God and procure the salvation of all of these, and mindful of the command of the Lord, “Preach the Gospel to every creature”, the Church fosters the missions with care and attention.”^[3]

Does the Church teach that being saved outside the Catholic Church is possible? Yes. So, what is my opinion on the matter? I follow St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas’ traditions of massa damnata. What does this mean in plain language? Humanity has one foot in hell and is likely to find themselves there because of original sin, and desperately needs the gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life—but by God’s intervention, He can save anyone.

What does the tradition say regarding the passage and understanding?

Cornelius a Lapide, a 16^th-17^th century Catholic biblical scholar, who is generally well respected in traditional circles of the Church, writes this regarding the passage we find in today’s gospel:

He adds, by way of explanation, No one cometh to the Father but by Me. The Father, therefore, is the goal or terminus. I am the way to it. I am the way, i.e. I am the teacher, the guide, and the leader of the true way which leads straight to the eternal and beatific life. I am the way, because I point out and teach the true faith…But because some ways are true and right, others false and erroneous, therefore is Christ called the way and the truth, i.e. the true and right way according to the words in Isa. 35:8, “And this shall be to you the direct way, so that fools shall not err in it.” (Vulg.) As though Christ said, both Jewish and Gentile philosophers have taught many things concerning blessedness and the virtues which as a road lead to blessedness, yet they have fallen into many errors, and so have led men not to life, but to the destruction of hell.”^[4]

St. Augustine, quoted by St. Thomas Aquinas, understands that pagan philosophers can know the truth, even though in the treatise On Grace and Nature Augustine takes arguably a more absolutist stance regarding the necessity of baptism:

“As if He said, I am the way, whereby thou wouldest go; I am the truth, whereto thou wouldest go; I am the life, in which thou wouldest abide. The truth and the life every one understands (capit); but not every one hath found the way. Even the philosophers of the world have seen that God is the life eternal, the truth which is the end of all knowledge. And the Word of God, which is truth and life with the Father, by taking upon Him human nature, is made the way. Walk by the Man, and thou wilt arrive at God. For it is better to limp on the right way, than to walk ever so stoutly by the wrong.”^[5]

The tradition falls into line with what is taught in the fullness of paragraph sixteen of Lumen Gentium. The problem with the paragraph occurs when churchmen, theologians, and the laity fail to teach the paragraph in its fullness—they leave out that Satan is likely to lead those without the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to hell. Furthermore, Ludwig Ott agrees with what Lumen Gentium will later articulate regarding extra ecclesiam nulla salus, “The necessity of means is, however, not an absolute necessity, but a hypothetical one. In special circumstances, namely, in the case of invincible ignorance, or of incapability, actual membership of the Church can be replaced by the desire (votum) for the same. This need not be explicitly present, but can also be included in the moral readiness to fulfill faithfully the will of God.”[6]

The absolutist notion regarding the topic of extra ecclesiam nulla salus was rejected by the Holy Office in 1953. The heresy now known as Feeneyism was named after a Catholic priest who promoted the notion. Fr. Francois Laisney SSPX writes, “The error of Fr. Feeney’s reaction precisely lies in this, that, though he admitted that God could infuse sanctifying grace before baptism, yet he said, “God would not allow one to die in the state of grace, but not yet be baptized.”[7]

Fr. Feeney took it too far and would not relent from the position. Sadly, Fr. Feeney’s legacy continues with schismatic groups—ironically outside the Church.

There is a nuance, for example, in the Augustinian and Thomistic position that those outside the Church can be saved, but it would be a rare instance due to the Evil One prowling around like a lion. And that being said, we must trust in God’s mercy because, in some sense, the purpose of this understanding is an attempt to avoid becoming too lukewarm in the faith. We must continue to proclaim the gospel to give everyone the means of receiving the gifts of the Church.

Last Judgement by Michelangelo

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^[1] Jn 14:6, NAB-RE

^[2] Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Ed. (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2000), 224–225.

^[3] Catholic Church, “Dogmatic Constitution on the Church: Lumen Gentium,” in Vatican II Documents (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2011).

^[4] Cornelius à Lapide, The Great Commentary of Cornelius À Lapide: S. John’s Gospel—Chaps. 12 to 21 and Epistles 1, 2, and 3, trans. Thomas W. Mossman, Fourth Edition., vol. 6 (Edinburgh: John Grant, 1908), 82.

^[5] Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers: St. John, ed. John Henry Newman, vol. 4 (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1845), 452.

[6] Ludwig Ott et al., Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma (London: Baronius Press, 2023), 334.

[7] 1. François Laisney, Is Feeneyism Catholic?: The Catholic Meaning of the Dogma “Outside the Catholic Church There Is No Salvation” (Kansas City, Mo: Angelus Press, 2001), 91.