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This is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church states on this issue:

 

"Outside the Church there is no salvation"

846 How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers? (cf. Cyprian, Ep. 73.21:PL 3,1169; De unit.:PL 4,509-536) Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body:

Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.

 

Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 14; cf. Mark 16:16; John 3:5

847 This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:

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.

 

Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 16; cf. DS 3866-3872

848 "Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men." (Vatican II, Ad Gentes 7; cf. Hebrews 11:6; 1 Corinthians 9:16)

Mission - a requirement of the Church's catholicity

849 The missionary mandate. "Having been divinely sent to the nations that she might be 'the universal sacrament of salvation,' the Church, in obedience to the command of her founder and because it is demanded by her own essential universality, strives to preach the Gospel to all men": (Vatican II, Ad Gentes 1; cf. Matthew 16:15) "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and Lo, I am with you always, until the close of the age." (Matthew 28:19-20)

850 The origin and purpose of mission. The Lord's missionary mandate is ultimately grounded in the eternal love of the Most Holy Trinity: "The Church on earth is by her nature missionary since, according to the plan of the Father, she has as her origin the mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit." (Vatican II, Ad Gentes 2) The ultimate purpose of mission is none other than to make men share in the communion between the Father and the Son in their Spirit of love. (cf. Pope John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio 23)

851 Missionary motivation. It is from God's love for all men that the Church in every age receives both the obligation and the vigor of her missionary dynamism, "for the love of Christ urges us on." (2 Corinthians 5:14; cf. Vatican II, Apostolicam Actositatem 6; Pope John Paul II Redemptoris Missio 11) Indeed, God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth"; (1 Timothy 2:4) that is, God wills the salvation of everyone through the knowledge of the truth. Salvation is found in the truth. Those who obey the prompting of the Spirit of truth are already on the way of salvation. But the Church, to whom this truth has been entrusted, must go out to meet their desire, so as to bring them the truth. Because she believes in God's universal plan of salvation, the Church must be missionary.

852 Missionary paths. The Holy Spirit is the protagonist, "the principal agent of the whole of the Church's mission." (Pope John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio 21) It is he who leads the Church on her missionary paths. "This mission continues and, in the course of history, unfolds the mission of Christ, who was sent to evangelize the poor; so the Church, urged on by the Spirit of Christ, must walk the road Christ himself walked, a way of poverty and obedience, of service and self-sacrifice even to death, a death from which he emerged victorious by his resurrection." (Vatican II, Ad Gentes 5)

So it is that "the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians."

 

Tertullian, Apol. 50,13:PL 1,603

853 On her pilgrimage, the Church has also experienced the "discrepancy existing between the message she proclaims and the human weakness of those to whom the Gospel has been entrusted." (Vatican II, Gaudium et spes 43 § 6) Only by taking the "way of penance and renewal," the "narrow way of the cross," can the People of God extend Christ's reign. (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 8 § 3; 15; Ad Gentes 1 § 3; cf. Pope John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio 12-20) For "just as Christ carried out the work of redemption in poverty and oppression, so the Church is called to follow the same path if she is to communicate the fruits of salvation to men." (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 8 § 3)

854 By her very mission, "the Church . . . travels the same journey as all humanity and shares the same earthly lot with the world: she is to be a leaven and, as it were, the soul of human society in its renewal by Christ and transformation into the family of God." (Vatican II, Gaudium et spes 40 § 2) Missionary endeavor requires patience. It begins with the proclamation of the Gospel to peoples and groups who do not yet believe in Christ, (cf. Pope John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio 42 47) continues with the establishment of Christian communities that are "a sign of God's presence in the world," (Vatican II, Ad Gentes 15 § 1) and leads to the foundation of local churches. (cf. Pope John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio 48-49) It must involve a process of inculturation if the Gospel is to take flesh in each people's culture. (cf. Pope John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio 52-54) There will be times of defeat. "With regard to individuals, groups, and peoples it is only by degrees that [the Church] touches and penetrates them and so receives them into a fullness which is Catholic." (Vatican II, Ad Gentes 6 § 2)

855 The Church's mission stimulates efforts towards Christian unity. (cf. Pope John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio 50) Indeed, "divisions among Christians prevent the Church from realizing in practice the fullness of catholicity proper to her in those of her sons who, though joined to her by Baptism, are yet separated from full communion with her. Furthermore, the Church herself finds it more difficult to express in actual life her full catholicity in all its aspects." (Vatican II, Unitatis Redintegratio 4 § 8)

856 The missionary task implies a respectful dialogue with those who do not yet accept the Gospel. (cf. Pope John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio 55) Believers can profit from this dialogue by learning to appreciate better "those elements of truth and grace which are found among peoples, and which are, as it were, a secret presence of God." (Vatican II, Ad Gentes 9) They proclaim the Good News to those who do not know it, in order to consolidate, complete, and raise up the truth and the goodness that God has distributed among men and nations, and to purify them from error and evil "for the glory of God, the confusion of the demon, and the happiness of man." (Vatican II, Ad Gentes 9)

IV. The Church Is Apostolic

857 The Church is apostolic because she is founded on the apostles, in three ways:

1. she was and remains built on "the foundation of the Apostles," (Ephesians 2:20; Revelation 21:14) the witnesses chosen and sent on mission by Christ himself; (cf. Matthew 28:16-20; Acts 1:8; 1 Corinthians 9:1; 15:7-8; Galatians 1:1; etc.)
   
   
2. with the help of the Spirit dwelling in her, the Church keeps and hands on the teaching, (cf. Acts 2:42) the "good deposit," the salutary words she has heard from the apostles; (cf. 2 Timothy 1:13-14)
   
   
3. she continues to be taught, sanctified, and guided by the apostles until Christ's return, through their successors in pastoral office: the college of bishops, "assisted by priests, in union with the successor of Peter, the Church's supreme pastor": (Vatican II, Ad Gentes 5)
   

   You are the eternal Shepherd
   who never leaves his flock untended.
   Through the apostles
   you watch over us and protect us always.
   You made them shepherds of the flock
   to share in the work of your Son. . . .

    

   Roman Missal, Preface of the Apostles I

The Apostles' mission

858 Jesus is the Father's Emissary. From the beginning of his ministry, he "called to him those whom he desired; . . . . And he appointed twelve, whom also he named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to preach." (Mark 3:13-14) From then on, they would also be his "emissaries" (Greek apostoloi). In them, Christ continues his own mission: "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you." (John 20:21; cf. 13:20; 17:18) The apostles' ministry is the continuation of his mission; Jesus said to the Twelve: "he who receives you receives me." (Matthew 10:40; cf. Luke 10:16)

859 Jesus unites them to the mission he received from the Father. As "the Son can do nothing of his own accord," but receives everything from the Father who sent him, so those whom Jesus sends can do nothing apart from him, (John 5:19, 30; cf. John 15:5) from whom they received both the mandate for their mission and the power to carry it out. Christ's apostles knew that they were called by God as "ministers of a new covenant," "servants of God," "ambassadors for Christ," "servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God." (2 Corinthians 3:6; 6:4; 5:20; 1 Corinthians 4:1)

860 In the office of the apostles there is one aspect that cannot be transmitted: to be the chosen witnesses of the Lord's Resurrection and so the foundation stones of the Church. But their office also has a permanent aspect. Christ promised to remain with them always. The divine mission entrusted by Jesus to them "will continue to the end of time, since the Gospel they handed on is the lasting source of all life for the Church. Therefore, . . . the apostles took care to appoint successors." (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 20; cf. Matthew 28:20)

The bishops - successors of the apostles

861 "In order that the mission entrusted to them might be continued after their death, [the apostles] consigned, by will and testament, as it were, to their immediate collaborators the duty of completing and consolidating the work they had begun, urging them to tend to the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit had appointed them to shepherd the Church of God. They accordingly designated such men and then made the ruling that likewise on their death other proven men should take over their ministry." (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 20; cf. Acts 20:28; St. Clement of Rome, Ad Corinthians. 42,44:PG 1,291-300)

862 "Just as the office which the Lord confided to Peter alone, as first of the apostles, destined to be transmitted to his successors, is a permanent one, so also endures the office, which the apostles received, of shepherding the Church, a charge destined to be exercised without interruption by the sacred order of bishops." (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 20 § 2) Hence the Church teaches that "the bishops have by divine institution taken the place of the apostles as pastors of the Church, in such wise that whoever listens to them is listening to Christ and whoever despises them despises Christ and him who sent Christ." (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 20 § 2)

The apostolate

863 The whole Church is apostolic, in that she remains, through the successors of St. Peter and the other apostles, in communion of faith and life with her origin: and in that she is "sent out" into the whole world. All members of the Church share in this mission, though in various ways. "The Christian vocation is, of its nature, a vocation to the apostolate as well." Indeed, we call an apostolate "every activity of the Mystical Body" that aims "to spread the Kingdom of Christ over all the earth." (Vatican II, Apostolicam Actositatem 2)

864 "Christ, sent by the Father, is the source of the Church's whole apostolate"; thus the fruitfulness of apostolate for ordained ministers as well as for lay people clearly depends on their vital union with Christ. (Vatican II, Apostolicam Actositatem 4; cf. John 15:5) In keeping with their vocations, the demands of the times and the various gifts of the Holy Spirit, the apostolate assumes the most varied forms. But charity, drawn from the Eucharist above all, is always "as it were, the soul of the whole apostolate." (Vatican II, Apostolicam Actositatem 3)

865 The Church is ultimately one, holy, catholic, and apostolic in her deepest and ultimate identity, because it is in her that "the Kingdom of Heaven," the "Reign of God," (Revelation 19:6) already exists and will be fulfilled at the end of time. The kingdom has come in the person of Christ and grows mysteriously in the hearts of those incorporated into him, until its full eschatological manifestation. Then all those he has redeemed and made "holy and blameless before him in love," (Ephesians 1:4) will be gathered together as the one People of God, the "Bride of the Lamb," (Revelation 21:9) "the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven from God, having the glory of God." (Revelation 21:10-11) For "the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb." (Revelation 21:14)

 

In Brief

 

866 The Church is one: she acknowledges one Lord, confesses one faith, is born of one Baptism, forms only one Body, is given life by the one Spirit, for the sake of one hope (cf. Ephesians 4:3-5), at whose fulfillment all divisions will be overcome.

 

867 The Church is holy: the Most Holy God is her author; Christ, her bridegroom, gave himself up to make her holy; the Spirit of holiness gives her life. Since she still includes sinners, she is "the sinless one made up of sinners." Her holiness shines in the saints; in Mary she is already all-holy.

 

868 The Church is catholic: she proclaims the fullness of the faith. She bears in herself and administers the totality of the means of salvation. She is sent out to all peoples. She speaks to all men. She encompasses all times. She is "missionary of her very nature" (Vatican II, Ad Gentes 2).

 

869 The Church is apostolic. She is built on a lasting foundation: "the twelve apostles of the Lamb" (Revelation 21:14). She is indestructible. (cf. Matthew 16:18) She is upheld infallibly in the truth: Christ governs her through Peter and the other apostles, who are present in their successors, the Pope and the college of bishops.

 

870 "The sole Church of Christ which in the Creed we profess to be one, holy, catholic, and apostolic, . . . subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him. Nevertheless, many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside its visible confines." (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 8)

 

 

 

1. — St. Ignatius of Antioch, (A.D. 50-107)
   — St. Justin Martyr, (A.D. 100-163)
   — St. Irenæus of Lyons, (A.D. 125-202)
   — Origen of Alexandria, (A.D. 184-253)
   — St. Cyprian of Carthage, (A.D. 200-258)
   — Lactantius, (A.D. 240-c.330)
   — St. Jerome, (A.D. 342-420)
   — St. Augustine of Hippo, (A.D. 354-428)