A Catholic Land

Extra Ecclesium nulla salus.

Extra Ecclesium Nulla Salus (No salvation outside of the Church.)

This central and constant Church teaching, bound and loosed by the Church from the start, is in line with Our Lord's Words about His Church:

And I say to thee, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give thee the keys
of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever thou shalt bind on earth shall be
bound in heaven; and whatever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven."[Mt 16:18-19]

The “Rock” St Peter on which He (Our Lord) will build. And so the Popes, down through the centuries, and some in a quite forceful as well as eloquent way, reflecting the concern of the Church for souls, have constantly affirmed this doctrine. One of the most well known later statements is that made by Pope Pius IX in his Allocution: Singulari Quadem (1854) where he writes:

"Far be it from Us, venerable brethren, to presume on the limits of the
divine mercy, which is infinite; far from Us, to wish to scrutinize the
hidden counsel and "judgments of God" which are "a great abyss"
(Ps. 35.7) and cannot be penetrated by human thought. But, as is
Our Apostolic Duty, we wish your episcopal solicitude and vigilance
to be aroused, so that you will strive as much as you can to drive
from the mind of men that impious and equally fatal opinion, namely,
that the way of eternal salvation can be found in any religion whatsoever." (Pope Pius IX)

And in his encyclical Singulari Quidem 1856:

"Teach that just as there is only one God, one Christ, one Holy Spirit, so
there is also only one truth which is divinely revealed. There is only one
divine faith which is the beginning of salvation for mankind and the basis
of all justification, the faith by which the just person lives and without which
it is impossible to please God and come to the community of His children
(Romans 1; Hebrews 11; Council of Trent, Session 6, chapter 8). There is
only one true, holy, Catholic Church, which is the Apostolic Roman Church.
There is only one See founded on Peter by the word of the Lord (St Cyprian,
Epistle 43), outside of which we cannot find either true faith or eternal salvation...
Outside of the Church, nobody can hope for life or salvation unless he is
excused through ignorance beyond his control." (Pope Pius IX)

See also: