Christ and the true Church, that whosoever lives outside the Catholic Church, denies the true Church, denies Christ, denies the Father; whosoever is an enemy to the Catholic Church, is an enemy to his Redeemer and Creator, and will receive the reward of God's enemies— eternal damnation. That is why the Catholic Church is so essentially intolerant, that her very intolerance is the strongest proof of her divinity. That is why, too, no sect claiming to be the true church ever admitted salvation for its separated brethren; or if perchance it did, its indifferentism soon proved its own refutation and its ruin. But the Catholic Church has ever held that outside of her pale there is no salvation; that she is the house of Rahab, wherein alone the inhabitants of the tottering universe may find shelter; that she is the ark of the New Covenant wherein alone men may ride safely over the deluge of sin and error, on through life to eternity.
Outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation. That is true, but I pray, understand it well. What does it mean? Does it mean that every Catholic, howsoever bad, will be saved? No. That the great and good men who mistook error for truth and were willing, or actually did, lay down their lives for their error, that they are all lost? No. That the negro in darkest Africa, the simple celestial of China, or the poor Indian here before Columbus, who never heard of God or Christ or Christ's Church, that they are all lost? No. But, you say, they were not Catholics. Still, I say, they may have been. Let me explain.
