c. AD 30
Scripture
Jesus John 14:6
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.”
Short answer
The Church does not teach this. She teaches that Christ is the one mediator and the way of salvation, and that the Church is necessary for salvation. She also teaches that those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ or his Church can be saved by his grace. Other religions can hold things that are true and holy. The Church has rejected the opinion that all religions are more or less good, and the idea that they are ways of salvation alongside her.
Drafted from primary sources. Every quotation is checked against the page it links to.
16 quotations in date order
The Apostolic AgeAD 1 to 100
c. AD 30
Scripture
St. Peter Acts 4:12
“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
c. 40
Scripture
St. Peter Acts 10:34-35
“Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation any one who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”
The Early Church100 to 325
c. 155
Church Father
St. Justin Martyr Second Apology, ch. 13
“Whatever things were rightly said among all men, are the property of us Christians. … For all the writers were able to see realities darkly through the sowing of the implanted word that was in them. For the seed and imitation impacted according to capacity is one thing, and quite another is the thing itself”
251
Church Father
St. Cyprian of Carthage On the Unity of the Church 6
“Whoever is separated from the Church and is joined to an adulteress, is separated from the promises of the Church; nor can he who forsakes the Church of Christ attain to the rewards of Christ. He is a stranger; he is profane; he is an enemy. He can no longer have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his mother.”
The Age of the Councils325 to 800
409
Church Father
St. Augustine of Hippo Letter 102, 12
“Therefore, from the beginning of the human race, whosoever believed in Him, and in any way knew Him, and lived in a pious and just manner according to His precepts, was undoubtedly saved by Him, in whatever time and place he may have lived.”
The Middle Ages800 to 1500
1215
Council
Fourth Lateran Council Constitution 1, Confession of Faith
“There is indeed one universal church of the faithful, outside of which nobody at all is saved, in which Jesus Christ is both priest and sacrifice.”
c. 1271
Doctor of the Church
St. Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 2, a. 7, Reply to Objection 3
“If, however, some were saved without receiving any revelation, they were not saved without faith in a Mediator, for, though they did not believe in Him explicitly, they did, nevertheless, have implicit faith through believing in Divine providence, since they believed that God would deliver mankind in whatever way was pleasing to Him”
The Modern Era1800 to today
1863
Magisterium
Pope Pius IX Quanto Conficiamur Moerore 7
“Here, too, our beloved sons and venerable brothers, it is again necessary to mention and censure a very grave error entrapping some Catholics who believe that it is possible to arrive at eternal salvation although living in error and alienated from the true faith and Catholic unity. Such belief is certainly opposed to Catholic teaching. There are, of course, those who are struggling with invincible ignorance about our most holy religion. Sincerely observing the natural law and its precepts inscribed by God on all hearts and ready to obey God, they live honest lives and are able to attain eternal life by the efficacious virtue of divine light and grace.”
1928
Magisterium
Pope Pius XI Mortalium Animos 2
“Certainly such attempts can nowise be approved by Catholics, founded as they are on that false opinion which considers all religions to be more or less good and praiseworthy, since they all in different ways manifest and signify that sense which is inborn in us all, and by which we are led to God and to the obedient acknowledgment of His rule.”
1965
Council
Second Vatican Council Nostra Aetate 2
“The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men. Indeed, she proclaims, and ever must proclaim Christ "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6), in whom men may find the fullness of religious life”
1992
Magisterium
Catechism of the Catholic Church CCC 846-847
“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. … 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.”
2000
Magisterium
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Dominus Iesus 21
“…it would be contrary to the faith to consider the Church as one way of salvation alongside those constituted by the other religions, seen as complementary to the Church or substantially equivalent to her, even if these are said to be converging with the Church toward the eschatological kingdom of God. Certainly, the various religious traditions contain and offer religious elements which come from God”
2013
Magisterium
Pope Francis Evangelii Gaudium 254
“Non-Christians, by God’s gracious initiative, when they are faithful to their own consciences, can live “justified by the grace of God”, and thus be “associated to the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ”. But due to the sacramental dimension of sanctifying grace, God’s working in them tends to produce signs and rites, sacred expressions which in turn bring others to a communitarian experience of journeying towards God. While these lack the meaning and efficacy of the sacraments instituted by Christ, they can be channels which the Holy Spirit raises up in order to liberate non-Christians from atheistic immanentism or from purely individual religious experiences.”
2019
Magisterium
Pope Francis General Audience, 3 April 2019
“…why does God allow many religions? God wanted to allow this: Scolastica theologians used to refer to God’s voluntas permissiva. He wanted to allow this reality: there are many religions. Some are born from culture, but they always look to heaven; they look to God. But what God wants is fraternity among us”
2024
Magisterium
Pope Francis Address at the Interreligious Meeting with Young People, Catholic Junior College, Singapore, 13 September 2024
“All religions are paths to God. I will use an analogy, they are like different languages that express the divine. But God is for everyone, and therefore, we are all God’s children. … There is only one God, and religions are like languages, paths to reach God.”