Second Sunday After Easter.
The Catholic Church and Salvation.
"Other sheep I have that are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd." — John x. 16.
SYNOPSIS.
Ex.: Doctrines: I. Truth. II. Meaning. III. Consequences.
I. Its truth : i. Truth one. 2. Church one. 3. Figures of Church.
II. Its meaning: 1. Salvation for all. 2. Body and soul of Church. 3. Live members and dead.
III. Catholic's advantage: 1. Apostasy. 2. Repentance. 3. Mysteries.
Per. : 1. Bigotry. 2. Our responsibility. 3. Our attitude toward others.
SERMON.
Brethren, in Catholic theology we find the sentence: " Outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation." First, we will assure ourselves that this sentence is strictly true. Second, we will try to understand well its real meaning. Third, we will resolve to practice always that true Catholicity that stands midway between fanatical bigotry and religious indifference.
Outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation— that is strictly and literally true. For truth is one and it is only by professing the truth that man can be saved. Now if I profess the Catholic religion, and my brother denies it, one of us must be right and the other wrong, or both must be wrong; but both cannot be right, for truth does not contradict itself.
