Dear Chris:

God can save whomever He pleases, but the Church teaches (and thereby God teaches) that when anyone is saved that salvation comes through Christ and His Church alone, even if the person being saved does not know that.

The dogma of the Church states:

"Outside the Church there is no salvation"

846 How are we to understand this affirmation, 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."

"Do not know Christ and his Church" does not mean that a person must have never known the existence of the Gospel or the Catholic Church to qualify for this exception to the norm that all must come to God through the Catholic Church. Rather, a person may qualify for this exception even though they may know that Jesus exists and that the Catholic Church exists, but are honestly not convinced of the truth of the Christ and His Church.

The Catechism give an example of this scenario:

2125 Since it rejects or denies the existence of God, atheism is a sin against the virtue of religion. The immutability of this offense can be significantly diminished in virtue of the intentions and the circumstances.

 A person who was raised an atheist can have "diminished responsibility" because of that fact. He knows no better and thus the grave sin of atheism may not be imputed to him. Again, the Catechism explains:

1735 Imputabilty and responsibility for an action can be diminished or even nullified by ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, habit, inordinate attachments, and other psychological or social factors.

1859 Mortal sin requires full knowledge and complete consent. It presupposes knowledge of the sinful character of the act, of its opposition to God's law. It also implies a consent sufficiently deliberate to be a personal choice. Feigned ignorance and hardness of heart do not diminish, but rather increase, the voluntary character of a sin.

1860 Unintentional ignorance can diminish or even remove the imputabilty of a grave offense. But no one is deemed to be ignorant of the principles of the moral law, which are written in the conscience of every man. The promptings of feelings and passions can also diminish the voluntary and free character of the offense, as can external pressures or pathological disorders. Sin committed through malice, by deliberate choice of evil, is the gravest.

The atheist does not have knowledge that atheism is a sin. He may know that we consider it a sin, but he does not believe that himself and has not been convinced otherwise.

But, if a person comes to "know" that truth, that is, becomes convinced of the truth, and then rejects it, or worse feigns ignorance, or stubbornly refuses to accept the truth that he knows is true (hardened heart), he is then culpable for his sin.

So the answer is that a Buddhist can be saved, but he is not saved through Buddhism. Should an individual Buddhist "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."

The salvation of this Buddhist comes through Christ and His Church even though the fella does not know this. No one comes to the Father except through Christ and His Church, but God can save people who are not Catholics through His Son and the Church in ways that are extraordinary. God is not bound by the Sacraments he requires of us.

Only God, however, can know where the lines are drawn to qualify a non-Catholic for salvation, that is, only He knows the line when the person is no longer invincibly ignorant but fully culpable for his rejection of Christ and/or His Church. We must still work to evangelize the unbeliever since, while it is possible for him to be saved if the right circumstances are present, it is far more certain to be saved if coming into the Church with her Sacraments.

Protestants are genuine Christians, believers in Christ, and know that they must come through Christ to be saved. Protestants, however, reject that salvation must come through the Catholic Church. They are ignorant (not convinced) that the Catholic Church is necessary, yet they are imperfect members of the Catholic Church, whether or not they know it, by virtue of a valid baptism. Protestants may be saved because of their diminished responsibility, that through no fault of their own they do not believe the Catholic Church because of the way they were raised, or the fact that they were evangelized by a non-Catholic faith group, etc.

But, once their eyes are opened to the Truth of the Catholic Church, they will be responsible to convert, and if they don't, they risk their souls.

I was a Baptist minister for fifteen years. Then, on a challenge, I re-read passages in the Bible, such as Matthew 16, backed by Isaiah 22 that proves the papacy, and also John 6 which proves the Eucharist. I discovered the Catholic Church was the right and that she was the Church of the first century. When I came to realize that I became culpable. If I tried to ignore this truth and remain Protestant, my soul would have been in danger of damnation.  Fortunately, my eyes were opened, and I had an intense desire to become Catholic as soon as possible. Unless we work hard to delude ourselves, that is what Truth does to us. It creates an insatiably desire to know more and to be part of that Truth.

Bottomline: The normative way to salvation is through Christ and His Catholic Church. But, God is not bound by this. Thus, God may save whomever He desires who are invincibly ignorant of the necessity of Christ and His Church through no fault of their own(because of upbringing, conversion to another faith community and thus all they know is what they are taught by them, for whatever reasons that only God knows), who "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."

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary