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Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion - 1908
TWENTY-SEVENTH OBJECTION. OUT OF THE PALE OF THE CHURCH THERE IS NO SALVATION! WHAT INTOLERANCE! I CANNOT ADMIT ANY THING SO CRUEL.
Answer. See what it is that you cannot admit in the sense in which you understand it, namely, Whoever is not a Catholic is damned.
And see, too, how people criticise religion because they do not understand it, and how they make it utter things which are quite contrary to its spirit.
This saying, indeed, understood as the Church teaches, is the most simple of truths, and the most rational. "Out of the pale of the Church there is no salvation;" in other words, out of light there is darkness; out of good there is evil; out of truth there is error; out of life there is death, etc.
Where is, then, the mystery of all this? Where is the difficulty?
"Out of the pale of the Church there is no salvation," simply means, "that we are obliged, under pain of incurring mortal sin, to believe and practice the true religion (which is the Catholic religion), when once it is in our power to do so." That means, that we sin, and consequently lose our souls, if we voluntarily reject truth, when it is shown to us. Is there any thing very extraordinary in this? Any thing to justify the epithets, intolerant, cruel?
A Protestant, or a schismatic person, is not damned simply because he is a Protestant, or because he is schismatic. If he is in good faith in his error, that is, if he has never had the opportunity, from one reason or another, of knowing and embracing the Catholic faith, he is considered by the Church as being one of her children; and if he has lived according to what he has believed to be the true law of God, if he has kept the commandments, he will have the same claim to the joys of heaven as if he were a Catholic.
In other words, the Catholic Church teaches that, whilst no one will be saved on account of Protestantism, it is quite possible for one to be saved in spite of Protestantism.
There are, thank God, a great number of Protestants who have this good faith, and even among their ministers such are to be found. M. de Cheverus, the Bishop of Boston, converted two of these, most learned and pious men; and after their return to the Catholic Church, they declared to the good bishop, that until the moment of their acquaintance with him, they had never entertained any doubts as to the truth of their religion.
Let us not, however, disturb our minds with such questions as the judgment of God on Protestants and infidels. On the one hand, we know that God is good, and He desires the salvation of all, and on the other hand, that He is justice itself. Let us serve Him in the best way we can, and not disquiet ourselves about others.
People usually confound two essentially distinct things; intolerance as regards doctrine, and intolerance as regards persons; and after having confused things together, they affect great indignation, and cry out against the harshness and barbarity of the Church!
If the Church were to teach what people pretend that she teaches, she would, indeed, be harsh and cruel, and it would be no easy matter to cause people to believe in her.
But the case is widely different. The Church is not intolerant, except in a just, true, necessary degree. Full of mercy for individuals, she is only intolerant to doctrines. She imitates God, who detests sin in us, and yet shows mercy to sinners.
Doctrinal intolerance is the essential character of the true religion. The truth, indeed, which it is commissioned to teach, is absolute, is immutable. All must conform to it, it must bend to none. Whoever does not possess it, is deceived. There is no compromise possible with it; you must have it entirely or not at all. Away from it there is nothing but error.
The Catholic Church alone has always preserved this inflexibility in her teaching. It is, perhaps, the most striking proof of her truth, and of the divine mission of her Pastors.
Indulgent toward weakness, she has never been and never will be indulgent toward error. "If any one does not believe what I teach," she says in the rules of faith drawn up by her councils, "let him be anathematized!" that is to say, cut off from the Christian community.
Truth alone speaks with this authority.
Those who accuse the Church of cruelty, with regard to the intolerance they lay to her charge, have, perhaps, never read in Rousseau's "Social Contract" (he was the great apostle of tolerance), this astonishing maxim: "The sovereign may banish from his states all who do not believe the articles of faith of the religion of the country. If any one, after having publicly acknowledged these same dogmas, conducts himself as if he did not believe them, let him be punished with death!" (Book iv. C 8.)
What tolerance!!!
It must be confessed that the Church understands it better than those who accuse her of being wanting in it.
TWENTY-SEVENTH OBJECTION. OUT OF THE PALE OF THE CHURCH THERE IS NO SALVATION! WHAT INTOLERANCE! I CANNOT ADMIT ANY THING SO CRUEL.
Answer. See what it is that you cannot admit in the sense in which you understand it, namely, Whoever is not a Catholic is damned.
And see, too, how people criticise religion because they do not understand it, and how they make it utter things which are quite contrary to its spirit.
This saying, indeed, understood as the Church teaches, is the most simple of truths, and the most rational. "Out of the pale of the Church there is no salvation;" in other words, out of light there is darkness; out of good there is evil; out of truth there is error; out of life there is death, etc.
Where is, then, the mystery of all this? Where is the difficulty?
"Out of the pale of the Church there is no salvation," simply means, "that we are obliged, under pain of incurring mortal sin, to believe and practice the true religion (which is the Catholic religion), when once it is in our power to do so." That means, that we sin, and consequently lose our souls, if we voluntarily reject truth, when it is shown to us. Is there any thing very extraordinary in this? Any thing to justify the epithets, intolerant, cruel?
A Protestant, or a schismatic person, is not damned simply because he is a Protestant, or because he is schismatic. If he is in good faith in his error, that is, if he has never had the opportunity, from one reason or another, of knowing and embracing the Catholic faith, he is considered by the Church as being one of her children; and if he has lived according to what he has believed to be the true law of God, if he has kept the commandments, he will have the same claim to the joys of heaven as if he were a Catholic.
In other words, the Catholic Church teaches that, whilst no one will be saved on account of Protestantism, it is quite possible for one to be saved in spite of Protestantism.
There are, thank God, a great number of Protestants who have this good faith, and even among their ministers such are to be found. M. de Cheverus, the Bishop of Boston, converted two of these, most learned and pious men; and after their return to the Catholic Church, they declared to the good bishop, that until the moment of their acquaintance with him, they had never entertained any doubts as to the truth of their religion.
Let us not, however, disturb our minds with such questions as the judgment of God on Protestants and infidels. On the one hand, we know that God is good, and He desires the salvation of all, and on the other hand, that He is justice itself. Let us serve Him in the best way we can, and not disquiet ourselves about others.
People usually confound two essentially distinct things; intolerance as regards doctrine, and intolerance as regards persons; and after having confused things together, they affect great indignation, and cry out against the harshness and barbarity of the Church!
If the Church were to teach what people pretend that she teaches, she would, indeed, be harsh and cruel, and it would be no easy matter to cause people to believe in her.
But the case is widely different. The Church is not intolerant, except in a just, true, necessary degree. Full of mercy for individuals, she is only intolerant to doctrines. She imitates God, who detests sin in us, and yet shows mercy to sinners.
Doctrinal intolerance is the essential character of the true religion. The truth, indeed, which it is commissioned to teach, is absolute, is immutable. All must conform to it, it must bend to none. Whoever does not possess it, is deceived. There is no compromise possible with it; you must have it entirely or not at all. Away from it there is nothing but error.
The Catholic Church alone has always preserved this inflexibility in her teaching. It is, perhaps, the most striking proof of her truth, and of the divine mission of her Pastors.
Indulgent toward weakness, she has never been and never will be indulgent toward error. "If any one does not believe what I teach," she says in the rules of faith drawn up by her councils, "let him be anathematized!" that is to say, cut off from the Christian community.
Truth alone speaks with this authority.
Those who accuse the Church of cruelty, with regard to the intolerance they lay to her charge, have, perhaps, never read in Rousseau's "Social Contract" (he was the great apostle of tolerance), this astonishing maxim: "The sovereign may banish from his states all who do not believe the articles of faith of the religion of the country. If any one, after having publicly acknowledged these same dogmas, conducts himself as if he did not believe them, let him be punished with death!" (Book iv. C 8.)
What tolerance!!!
It must be confessed that the Church understands it better than those who accuse her of being wanting in it.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre