Saturday, September 1, 2018

Can people who are not Catholic go to Heaven?



God calls all people to Heaven. As Paul writes in his first letter to Timothy: God “wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.” (1 Tm 2:4) So if God wants everyone to be saved, God gives everyone the means to be saved.

The best way to be saved is through the Catholic Church, which was established by Jesus and has the fullness of the means of salvation. But God can save people who are not visibly in the Catholic Church as well.

The Catechism teaches “Those ‘who believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in a certain, although imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church.’” (para. 838) “Those who have not yet received the Gospel are related to the People of God….” (para. 839) Jews and Muslims have a special connection because of their faith in God. “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.”

Read more about salvation in the Catechism, paragraphs 836-856.

Know your faith. Live your faith. Teach your faith.

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