No Salvation Outside the Catholic Church: Papal Teachings
by Richard Joseph Michael Ibranyi
A brief list follows of all the popes and Councils that infallible condemned the implicit faith heresy and infallibly taught the dogma "Outside the Church there is no Salvation" in the exact same sense as their predecessors. They all clearly teach that there are absolutely no exceptions, no exceptions for men who are invincibly ignorant of the Church to be saved.
Pope Clement I, (90-100)
"And we also, having been called through His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves nor by our own wisdom or understanding or piety, nor by the works which we have done in holiness of heart, but through the faith by which Almighty God has justified all men from the beginning." (To the Corinthians, IV:32, The Epistles of St. Clement of Rome)
Athanasian Creed
"Whoever wishes to be save must, above all, keep the Catholic faith: for unless a person keeps this faith whole and entire he will undoubtedly be lost forever... This is the Catholic faith: everyone must believe it, firmly and steadfastly, otherwise he cannot be saved." (D. 39-40)
Pope St. Leo the Great, (440-461)
"Upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Mt. 16:18) �These words are the worlds of life and just as they raise up to Heaven those who confess them, so do they plunge down into Hell those who deny them." (Sermon 83, PL54:429; SS vol. III: 267-268)
Pope St. Hormisdas, (514-523)
"The first condition of salvation is to keep the norm of the true faith and in no way to deviate from the established doctrine of the Fathers." (Book on the Profession of Faith, (D. 171)).
Pope Pelagius II, (579-590)
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." (D. 246-247)
Pope St. Gregory the Great, (590-604)
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)
Pope Adrain II, (867-872)
"The first requirement of salvation is to keep to the standard of the true faith." (ACTIO I, (D. 171, n.1, quoting the Rule of Pope St. Hormisdas, IV Constantinople)
Pope Innocent III, Fourth Lateran Council, (1215)
Pope Innocent III (A.D. 1198 - 1216): "With our hearts we believe and with our lips we confess but one Church, not that of the heretics, but the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church, outside which we believe that no one is saved." (D. 423)
Pope Boniface VIII, (1294-1303)
Pope Boniface VIII, in Unam Sanctum, 1302:
"With Faith urging us we are forced to believe and to hold the one, holy, Catholic Church and that, apostolic, and we firmly believe and simply confess this (Church) outside which there is no salvation nor remission of sin, the Spouse in the Canticle proclaiming: "One is my dove, my perfect one. One she is of her mother, the chosen of her that bore her" [Cant. 6:8]. Certainly Noe had one ark at the time of the flood, prefiguring one Church which perfect on one cubit had one ruler and guide, namely Noe, outside which we read all living things on the earth were destroyed... .This is that "seamless tunic" of the Lord [John 19:23], which was not cut, but came forth by chance. Therefore, of the one and only Church (there is) one body, one head, not two heads as a monster, namely, Christ and Peter, the Vicar of Christ and the successor of Peter, the Lord Himself saying to Peter: "Feed my sheep" [John 21:17]. He said "My," and generally, not individually these or those, through which it is understood that He entrusted to Peter and his successors, of necessity let them confess that they are not of the sheep of Christ, since the Lord says in John, "to be one flock and one Shepherd" [John 10:16]."
Pope Clement VI, (1342-1352)
"Not one man of those traveling outside the faith of the Church and outside obedience to the Pontiff of the Romans can finally be saved �All those who set themselves up against the faith of the Roman Church and who die in final impenitence will be damned and descend into the perpetual torments of Hell." (Super Quibusdam, D. 570 b, 1)
Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, (1445)
Council of Florence, Bull Cantate Domino, 1441: "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, 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 receive 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 the unity of the Catholic Church."
Council of Trent, (1563)
Pope Gregory XIII, (1572-1585)
"No one can be saved outside this true Catholic faith." (Profession of Faith, D. 1085, D. 1000
Pope Benedict XIV, (1740-1758)
"No one can be saved without the faith of the Catholic Church." (Nuper Ad Nos, D. 1473)
Pope Leo XII, (1823-1829)
Pope Leo XII (A.D. 1823 - 1829): "We profess that there is no salvation outside the Church. ...For the Church is the pillar and ground of the truth. With reference to those words Augustine says: `If any man be outside the Church he will be excluded from the number of sons, and will not have God for Father since he has not the Church for mother.'" (Encyclical, Ubi Primum)
Pope Pius VIII, (1829-1830)
"It will be especially fitting to remember this firm dogma of our religion: that outside the true Catholic faith no one can be saved." (cf. Recollections of the Last Four Popes, Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman, London: 1858)
Pope Gregory XVI, (1831-1846)
Pope Gregory XVI (A.D. 1831 - 1846): "It is not possible to worship God truly except in Her; all who are outside Her will not be saved." (Encyclical, Summo Jugiter)
Pope Pius IX (A.D. 1846 - 1878)
"It must be held by faith that outside the Apostolic Roman Church, no one can be saved; that this is the only ark of salvation; that he who shall not have entered therein will perish in the flood." (Denzinger 1647)
Pope Pius IX, Singulari Quadem, 1854
"Not without sorrow we have learned that another error, no less destructive, has taken possession of some parts of the Catholic world, and had taken up its abode in the souls of many Catholics who think that one should have good hope of eternal salvation of all those who have never lived in the true Church of Christ. Therefore they are wont to ask very often what will be the lot and condition after death of those who have not submitted in any way to the Catholic faith, and by bringing forward most vain reasons, they make a response favorable to their false opinion. �For, it must be held by faith that outside the Apostolic Roman Church, no one can be saved; that this is the only ark of salvation; that he who shall not have entered therein will perish in the flood. �Truths of this sort should be deeply fixed in the minds of the faithful, lest they be corrupted by false doctrines, whose object is to foster an indifference toward religion, which we see spreading widely and growing strong for the destruction of souls."
Pope Leo XIII, (1878-1903)
"Those who acknowledge Christ must acknowledge Him completely and entirely. The Head is the only-begotten Son of God; the Body is His Church. All who dissent from the Scriptures concerning Christ are not in the Church, and all who agree with the Scriptures concerning the Head but who do not communicate in the unity of the Church are not in the Church. They can in no way be counted among the children of God unless they take Jesus Christ as their Brother and, at the same time, the Church as their Mother �Consequently, all who wish to reach salvation outside the Church are mistaken as to the way and are engaged in a futile effort� Christianity is, in fact incarnate in the Catholic Church; it is identified with that perfect and spiritual society which is the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ and has for its visible head the Roman Pontiff �This is Our last lesson to you: receive it, engrave it upon your minds, all of you: by God�s commandment salvation is to be found nowhere but in the Church." (Annum Ingressi Sumus, Papal Teachings of the Church 652-653; Tametsi, PTC 647)
Pope Saint Pius X (A.D. 1903 - 1914)
"It is our duty to recall to everyone great and small, as the Holy Pontiff Gregory did in ages past, the absolute necessity which is ours, to have recourse to this Church to effect our eternal salvation." (Encyclical, Jucunda Sane) "
Pope Benedict XV, (1914 � 1922)
"Such is the nature of the Catholic faith that it does not admit of more or less, but must be held as a whole, or as a whole rejected: This is the Catholic faith, which unless a man believe faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved." (Encyclical, Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum)
Pope Pius XI (A.D. 1922 - 1939)
"The Catholic Church alone is keeping the true worship. This is the font of truth, this is the house of faith, this is the temple of God; if any man enter not here, or if any man go forth from it, he is a stranger to the hope of life and salvation. ...Furthermore, in this one Church of Christ, no man can be or remain who does not accept, recognize and obey the authority and supremacy of Peter and his legitimate successors." (Encyclical, Mortalium Animos)
Pope Pius XII
Mystici Corporis Christi: "22. Actually only those are to be included as members of the Church who have been baptized and profess the true faith, and who have not been so unfortunate as to separate themselves from the unity of the Body, or been excluded by legitimate authority for grave faults committed. "For in one spirit" says the Apostle, "were we all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free". As therefore in the true Christian community there is only one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one Baptism, so there can be only one faith. And therefore, if a man refuse to hear the Church, let him be considered - so the Lord commands�as a heathen and a publican. It follows that those who are divided in faith or government cannot be living in the unity of such a Body, nor can they be living the life of its one Divine Spirit."
Pope Pius XII (A.D. 1939 - 1958): "By divine mandate the interpreter and guardian of the Scriptures, and the depository of Sacred Tradition living within her, the Church alone is the entrance to salvation: She alone, by herself, and under the protection and guidance of the Holy Spirit, is the source of truth." (Allocution to the Gregorian, October 17, 1953)
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