Official Catholic view on soteriology

[sodah987]

I am under the impression that according to the catholic doctrine, that people who do not believe Jesus is the son of God and he died for their sins and Jehova or whatever is the one and only god etc, go to hell; If you are the best most philanthropic jew or muslim you still go to hell. I have a friend who is quasi-catholic who disagrees with me, and feels that if they are good people they will get to the pearly gates and have a chance to recant their sins and submit. I would like to point out the inhumanity of this position, but I am not sure what to direct him to, ideally concrete church positions that point to their absurd position. Any suggestions?

[Baruch]

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13407a.htm

Salvation is a process, not a one time event.  As defined by the Council of Trent

Look at the last paragraph.  Those unable to reason, are saved by baptism.  No baptism, no salvation.  Obviously those able to reason, but who are not baptized, are not saved.  The Church has never been a theologically charitable organization.

[SGOS]

I am under the impression that according to the catholic doctrine, that people who do not believe Jesus is the son of God and he died for their sins and Jehova or whatever is the one and only god etc, go to hell; If you are the best most philanthropic jew or muslim you still go to hell. I have a friend who is quasi-catholic who disagrees with me, and feels that if they are good people they will get to the pearly gates and have a chance to recant their sins and submit. I would like to point out the inhumanity of this position, but I am not sure what to direct him to, ideally concrete church positions that point to their absurd position. Any suggestions?

That's one of the convenient things about God, if you refuse to believe any part of his nature, you can just invent a new god with a nature that pleases you.  I happens all the time, from one Christian sect to the next, and within each sect there are multiple gods of parishioner preference, with each parishioner thinking he's got it right, but that the other member's of the sect are close enough that they get a pass from the particular one true god he's concocted.  But leave the sect and you're fate is to become eventual toast.

This is hardly ever admitted or discussed.  Noncompliance with peer pressure is a spooky thing.  While parishioners have their own disbeliefs, they realize that challenging other mindsets in their home group could threaten group cohesion.

However, there is at least one sect that encourages tailor-made gods of preference.  It's Alcoholics Anonymous, because there, the only group think required is that you need to believe in a "higher power," which can be anything.  A door knob or a piece of wood will do.  That's because without a higher power, your only alternative is a life in the gutter.  By the way, I'm not exaggerating about the door knob.  It is often suggested for those who can't believe in the unseen.  It is totally adequate for the purpose of a salvation and happiness bestowed by any of the 12 Step Spinoff religions.

During my life as a Christian, I under took the tailor made customization process myself.  This was not so I could sin or have it my way.  It was just a last breath attempt to make a god that was not a logical contradiction of himself, and I left many holes in my self made god.  In fact, there were so many areas defying my comprehension, that I knew that making sense out of all of them would be an infinite futility.  Eventually, I realized this personal god made no more sense than the cardboard cutout version offered by my Lutheran Church.  And furthermore, neither of them was essential for coping with my environment.  Nor did they offer anything that would make me more moral or fit for society.

[Blackleaf]

Depends on what the current pope says. From what I've seen of him, he seems to be one of those who is very touchy feely, and isn't afraid to contradict previous Catholic tradition (see his views on evolution). I'd expect he'd believe that good people would go to Heaven, or at least Purgatory. And remember, there is that Catholic tradition of praying for your dead family. So as long as you have one Catholic family member who doesn't hate you, you're good.

[widdershins]

I believe there is also an exchange of money involved between the individual and the Catholic church in order to avoid eternal damnation.  Historically this exchange of money (or sometimes sexual favors) has been the pivotal process involved in "saving' people from damnation.

[Randy Carson]

I am under the impression that according to the catholic doctrine, that people who do not believe Jesus is the son of God and he died for their sins and Jehova or whatever is the one and only god etc, go to hell; If you are the best most philanthropic jew or muslim you still go to hell. I have a friend who is quasi-catholic who disagrees with me, and feels that if they are good people they will get to the pearly gates and have a chance to recant their sins and submit. I would like to point out the inhumanity of this position, but I am not sure what to direct him to, ideally concrete church positions that point to their absurd position. Any suggestions?

This is incorrect. The subject is covered in detail in this article:

The Necessity of Being Catholic
by James Akin
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=3447

Here is a snippet:

"Later Catholic teaching has clarified the nature of this desire and shown it can be either explicit or implicit. One has explicit desire for baptism if he consciously desires and resolves to be baptized (as with catechumens and others). One has an implicit desire if he would resolve to be baptized if he knew the truth about it.

"How does implicit desire work? Consider the following analogy: Suppose there is a person who is sick and needs a shot of penicillin to make him better. He tells his physician, "Doc, you've got to give me something to help me get well!" The doctor looks at his chart and says, "Oh, what you want is penicillin. That's the right drug for you." In this case the man had an explicit desire for a drug to make him better -- whatever that drug might be -- and the appropriate one was penicillin. He thus had an implicit desire for penicillin even if he had not heard of it before. Thus the doctor said: "What you want is penicillin." This shows that it is possible to want something without knowing what it is.

"A person who has a desire to be saved and come to the truth, regardless of what that truth turns out to be, has an implicit desire for Catholicism and for the Catholic Church, because that is where truth and salvation are obtained. By resolving to pursue salvation and truth, he resolves to pursue the Catholic Church, even though he does not know that is what he is seeking. He thus implicitly longs to be a Catholic by explicitly longing and resolving to seek salvation and truth.

"Papal and conciliar writings in the last hundred years have clarified that those who are consciously non-Catholic in their theology may still have an overriding implicit desire for the truth and hence for Catholicism. Pope Pius XII stated that concerning some of "those who do not belong to the visible Body of the Catholic Church . . . by an unconscious desire and longing they have a certain relationship with the Mystical Body of the Redeemer" (Mystici Corporis 103).

"How does this work? Consider our example of the sick man who needs penicillin. Suppose that he thinks that a sulfa drug will cure him and he explicitly desires it. So he tells the doctor, "Doc, I'm real sick, and you've got to give me that sulfa drug to make me better." But the doctor notices on his chart that he has an allergy to sulfa drugs, and says, "No, you don't want that; what you really want is penicillin." In this case the person's primary desire is to get well; he has simply mistaken what will bring that about. Since his primary desire to be well, he implicitly desires whatever will cause that to happen. He thus implicitly desires the correct drug and will explicitly desire that drug as soon as he realizes the sulfa would not work.

"As papal and conciliar writings have indicated, the same thing is possible in religion. If a person's primary desire is for salvation and truth then he implicitly desires Catholicism even if he is consciously mistaken about what will bring him salvation and truth. He might be a member of some other church, yet desire salvation and truth so much that he would instantly become a Catholic if he knew the truth concerning it. In this case, his primary desire would be for salvation and truth -- wherever that might be found -- rather than his primary desire being membership in a non-Catholic church.

"However, the situation could be reversed. It is possible for a person to have a stronger desire not to be a Catholic than to come to the truth. This would be the case when people resist evidence for the truth of Catholicism out of a desire to remain non-Catholic. In this case their primary desire would not be for the truth but for remaining a non-Catholic. Thus their ignorance of the truth would not be innocent (because they desired something else more than the truth), and it would constitute mortal sin."

[Randy Carson]

I believe there is also an exchange of money involved between the individual and the Catholic church in order to avoid eternal damnation.  Historically this exchange of money (or sometimes sexual favors) has been the pivotal process involved in "saving' people from damnation.

This is a lie.

Study the documents of the Council of Trent.