Does the Catholic Church Teach a True Gospel?

Marshall was concerned about my statement that the RCC does not preach a pure and true Gospel. He grew up in a Catholic church that taught salvation by faith alone in Christ. However, that is not the official teaching of the Roman Church. The following statements from Catholic Church fathers and popes, along with statements from Vatican II can all be found in Catholic documents online, including the Catholic Encyclopedia and websites about the different popes through the ages. The following clearly shows that the RCC does not teach salvation by faith alone in Jesus Christ as proclaimed, for example,in Ephesians 2:8-9.

I want to emphasize that I have known many wonderful people who were Catholic, and I believe sincerely that some of them are saved, but I believe they are saved IN SPITE OF their church's teaching - not because of it.

"… it is clear that Jesus and the Church are the same thing: indissoluble, inseparable. Christ and the Church are only one thing. It is not possible to say: 'I believe in Jesus, I accept Jesus, but I do not accept the Church."
Pope John Paul I, September 13, 1978

"A man cannot have salvation except in the Catholic Church. Outside the Catholic Church he can have everything except salvation. He can have honor, he can have Sacraments, he can sing Allelulia, he can answer Amen, he can possess the Gospel, he can preach faith in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: but never except in the Catholic Church will he be able to find salvation."
St. Augustine, Discourse to the People of the Church at Caesarea, and The Faith of the Early Fathers.

"O Mary Mother of Mercy and Refuge of Sinners! We beseech thee to look with pitying eyes on poor heretics and schismatics. Do thou, who art the Seat of Wisdom, enlighten the minds wretchedly enfolded in the darkness of ignorance and sin, that they may clearly recognize the Holy, Catholic, Roman Church to be the only true Church of Jesus Christ, outside of which neither sanctity nor salvation can be found. Call them to the unity of the one fold, granting them the grace to believe every truth of our holy faith and to submit themselves to the Supreme Roman Pontiff, the Vicar of Jesus Christ on earth, that, thus being united with us by the sweet chains of charity, there may soon be but one fold under one and the same Shepherd; and may we all thus, O Glorious Virgin, exultantly sing forever: 'Rejoice, O Virgin Mary! Thou alone hast destroyed all heresies in the whole world!' Amen."
Pope Pius XII, The Raccolta, Benzinger Brothers, Boston, 1957

"According to the words of St. Augustine, who takes up an image dear to the ancient Fathers, the ship of the Church must not fear, because it is guided by Christ and by His Vicar. 'Although the ship is tossed about, it is still a ship. It alone carries the disciples and receives Christ. Yes, it is tossed on the sea, but, without it, one would immediately perish." (Sermon, Only in the Church is salvation. 'Without it one perishes.' Pope John Paul I, August 27, 1978

"The mystery of salvation is revealed to us and is continued and accomplished in the Church... Dear young people and members of the faithful, like Brother Francis we have to be conscious and absorb this fundamental and revealed truth, consecrated by tradition: 'There is no salvation outside the Church.' From her alone there flows surely and fully the life-giving force destined in Christ and in His Spirit, to renew the whole of humanity, and therefore directing every human being to become a part of the Mystical Body of Christ."
Pope John Paul II, Radio Message October 3, 1981, and L'Osservatore Romano, October 12, 1981.

"They, therefore, walk in the path of dangerous errors who believe that they can accept Christ as the head of the Church, while not adhering loyally to His Vicar on earth. They have taken away the visible bonds of unity and left the Mystical Body of the Redeemer so obscured and so maimed, that those who are seeking the haven of eternal salvation can neither see it nor find it."
The Papal Encyclicals 1939-1958, Claudia Carlen, I.H.M., McGrath Publishing Co., 1981, p. 45.

From the Second Vatican Council


"But the task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone." (Vol. 1, p. 755)

"... the Church in its pilgrim members, from the very earliest days of the Christian religion, has honored with great respect the memory of the dead; and because it is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins' (2 Mac. 12:46) she offers her suffrages for them." (Vol. 1, p. 410)

"The faithful who use with devotion an object of piety (crucifix, cross, rosary, scapular or medal) after it has been duly blessed by any priest, can gain a partial indulgence." (Vol. 1, p. 77)


"By baptism men and women are cleansed from original sin and from all personal sins, they are born again as children of God, are made part of the Church and are made holy by the gifts of the Holy Spirit." (Vol. 2, p. 561)

"Basing itself on scripture and tradition, it teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is 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 (cf. Mk. 16:16; Jn. 3:5), 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." (Vol. 1, pp. 365 and 366)