A document that was produced by the Vatican on June 29 was finally released. It offers answers to five questions pertaining to the place of the Catholic Church compared to other Christian Churches. The article I read made it sound like the Pope said all non-Catholic Christians are going to hell as they are not true Churches. But if you read the document itself and use proper rationality, you will see that this is an exaggeration.
There is but one Truth—Jesus Christ (“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”). But how can there be more than one true, complete Church of Christ? There simply can’t. Christ established one Church with the Apostles as its pillars. After Pentecost, they went out to spread the gospel and establish local churches by leaving leaders through the laying on of hands (this is all over the Acts of the Apostles.) Essentially, the Apostles stayed in certain areas overseeing certain local churches, becoming the first bishops. Peter, for example, ended up in Rome becoming the first Bishop of Rome. And when he seat was finally recognized as the primary seat, the Bishop or Rome became the Pope.
It wasn’t until years later after all of the above had taken place that the first schism occured—that between the Eastern Churches and the Western Churches. Due to disagreements on who should lead in the place of Peter, the two sides split, making the Orthodox Churches and the Catholic Churches. Then came the Reformation some years later, where the ancestors of today’s Protestants left the Catholic Church, beginning the relativistic plethora of churches we have today in the United States. None of these Churches has a Priesthood of Christ through the laying on of hands, nor can they claim a true Apostolic succession.
But don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that all non-Catholic Christians are going to hell. Quite the contrary. Only God knows that in the end. What the Church is saying in all of this is that non-Catholic Christian churches are not “Churches” in the strictest since because they have no universality to them like the Catholic and Orthodox Churches do. On top of that, the non-Catholic Christian Churches are not teaching the fullness of the Truth, as they do not have things such as the Eucharist, the Priesthood of Christ, etc.
According to Vatican II: "It follows that these separated churches and Communities, though we believe they suffer from defects, are deprived neither of significance nor importance in the mystery of salvation. In fact the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as instruments of salvation, whose value derives from that fullness of grace and of truth which has been entrusted to the Catholic Church”. The media has strategically left this quote out in order to keep their controvery…
Thus, the Catholic Church is not the only way to salvation, but rather the only sure and complete way.
