Dear Genny:

The Catechism on this subject states:

846 How are we to understand this affirmation ["Outside the Church there is no salvation"], often repeated by the Church Fathers? 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.

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.

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."

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":339 "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."

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." 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.

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." Indeed, God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth"; 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." 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." So it is that "the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians."

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." Missionary endeavor requires patience. It begins with the proclamation of the Gospel to peoples and groups who do not yet believe in Christ, continues with the establishment of Christian communities that are "a sign of God's presence in the world," and leads to the foundation of local churches. It must involve a process of inculturation if the Gospel is to take flesh in each people's culture. 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."

856 The missionary task implies a respectful dialogue with those who do not yet accept the Gospel. 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." 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."

Well, we need to preach the Gospel to the whole world because Christ commanded us to do it. That alone is reason enough, but obviously Jesus had a reason for this.

He desires all people to be saved:

(1 Tim 2:4) "[G]od, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

Thus, He command us (it is not a option, but a commandment):

(Mark 16:15-16) "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned."

What does this Scripture passage mean? It does not mean that those who do not believe all go to hell; it means those who refuse to believe after coming to a knowledge of the truth of the Gospel.

A person who is sincere in his heart to know God will not reject the Gospel if he is convinced of it.  It is not the "mere knowledge" of the name of Jesus Christ or the Church that obligates one to convert and makes him culpable before God. One must come to know, that is, be convinced in his heart that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and that He wishes us to come into His Church.

If a person is so convinced and then rejects the faith, it is then, and only then, that his soul is at risk for hell after hearing the Gospel.

How do we know when a person is so convinced in his heart to make him culpable? Only God knows that. Our job is not to make that determination. Our job is to spread the message of the Gospel to all peoples of all nations.

While it is possible for a non-Christian to be saved when he is invincibly ignorant through no fault of his own, it is no guarantee. The best and surest way to die in a state of grace and spend eternity with God in heaven is to believe in Jesus Christ, to convert to Christianity, and the surest way of Christianity is in the Catholic Church, founded by Christ himself, and which alone has the fullness of the faith.

Christ knew that man could not run this race be himself. He said that it was impossible, but with God all things are possible. Thus, he gave us His Church, under the leadership of the Pope, to guarantee the faith and to give us the Sacraments. Frequenting the Sacraments gives us an assurance of God's salvation as God promises he will save us when we confess Him and confess our sins (1 John 1-9). God does not lie.

In addition, the Catechism give us another reason to evangelize:

[We are to] 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."

Those without Christ, even if they are sincere of heart to reach God and God chooses to save them, are living without the fullness of "truth and goodness" of the Christ-life and the "purity from error and evil" and "happiness" that comes with that life.

Christ wants us to be more than saved. He wants us to live out the full fruits of our salvation here on earth. That cannot happen unless one comes into a saving knowledge of Christ, is baptized, and live the Christ-life with His Church and her Sacraments.

So we need to evangelize all peoples to help them come to know Jesus, not his name, but to know Him. Once those with the sincere heart come to know Him, they will and do convert.

There is no risk to preach the Gospel to those who do not know it for fear they will hear and reject it, when they could have never heard and be saved. Any non-Christian who goes to hell after being convinced of the Gospel is a person who would have gone to hell anyway without ever knowing the Gospel existed. Thus, there is no fear in evangelizing those ignorant of the Gospel. Instead, there is great hope.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary