No Salvation Outside the Catholic Church

 Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus escapes the minds of many individual Catholics today as a dogma of faith which must be held in order to be a faithful member of the Catholic Church. To the present day, the truth of this doctrine is being doubted by the increasing majority of Catholics worldwide, due to poor catechesis and failure of the hierarchy to defend this doctrine.

What is it about personal human conviction that trumps this article of truth? In modern times, truth established by man comes from inner feelings and interior disposition. The effort of man to defend truth has become what he believes to be true, therefore must be respected by everyone. Or, he may following the line of think that 'what is true for me, may not be true for you' mentality. This is what the world has taught us or, rightly so, this is what humanity is thinking.

No longer is it a truth that is revealed by God and taught by His apostolic successors in a religious formal setting. Modern thinking has taken on the notion that man has becoming his own God, so to speak. Quite frankly, this is a fallacy. Sadly to say, it is a world that we live in.

The authority of God is demoted to the human discovery of truth. The veracity of such gives rise to various interpretations of how the world ought to be. Who has taught what must be believed on human authority as enshrined as principle, fundamentally altering truth that is true apart from man as God Himself has spoken.

Society begins to value its thinking over the authority of God and His teachings. And it begins to doubt even the institution established by God. No it is not on a firm solid ground, it is a shakeable rod moved by the strenght of today's social currents. Man begins to doubt, thinking himself over his Creator. The plan of God is not good enought for the contemporary mind.

Then false human charity and compassion overwhelms the mind. Anxiety creeps in, he feels like a social outcast, a political extremist, a religious intolerant.

But when is the truth of God based on a majority or minority votes? Truth is true even when no man believes it; falsehood is false even when every man believes it.