In order to be saved, a human person must be a member of the universal Church.
Fourth Lateran Council: “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.”
In order to be saved, a human person must die in a state of grace.
Pope Pius XII: “Above all, the state of grace is absolutely necessary at the moment of death; without it, salvation and supernatural happiness — the beatific vision of God — are impossible. An act of love is sufficient for the adult to obtain sanctifying grace and to supply the lack of baptism.” (Address to Midwives, 21.a.)
However, the Magisterium teaches that ALL human persons who die in a state of grace are saved, without exception. Therefore, possessing the state of grace is the minimum requirement for true membership in the Church. All persons who are in a state of grace are in some sense members of the Church.
Pope John Paul II: “Since Christ brings about salvation through his Mystical Body, which is the Church, the way of salvation is connected essentially with the Church. The axiom ‘extra ecclesiam nulla salus’ — ‘outside the Church there is no salvation’ — stated by St. Cyprian (Epist. 73, 21; PL 1123 AB), belongs to the Christian tradition. It was included in the Fourth Lateran Council (DS 802), in the Bull ‘Unam Sanctam’ of Boniface VIII (DS 870) and the Council of Florence (Decretum pro Jacobitis, DS 1351). The axiom means that for those who are not ignorant of the fact that the Church has been established as necessary by God through Jesus Christ, there is an obligation to enter the Church and remain in her in order to attain salvation (cf. LG 14). For those, however, who have not received the Gospel proclamation, as I wrote in the Encyclical ‘Redemptoris Missio,’ salvation is accessible in mysterious ways, inasmuch as divine grace is granted to them by virtue of Christ’s redeeming sacrifice, without external membership in the Church, but nonetheless always in relation to her (cf. Redemptoris Missio, n. 10). It is a mysterious relationship. It is mysterious for those who receive the grace, because they do not know the Church and sometimes even outwardly reject her. It is also mysterious in itself, because it is linked to the saving mystery of grace, which includes an essential reference to the Church the Savior founded. In order to take effect, saving grace requires acceptance, cooperation, a ‘yes’ to the divine gift. This acceptance is, at least implicitly, oriented to Christ and the Church. Thus it can also be said that ‘sine ecclesia nulla salus’ — ‘without the Church there is no salvation.’ Belonging to the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, however implicitly and indeed mysteriously, is an essential condition for salvation.” (All Salvation Comes through Christ, General Audience, 31 May 1995.)
But what of persons who know about Christ and the Catholic Church, and yet reject one or both? Can a human person who deliberately chooses to reject Christianity or Catholicism still be saved?
The definitive teaching of the Magisterium is that all persons who die in a state of grace are saved, without exception. Those persons only are condemned to Hell who die unrepentant from actual mortal sin.
My position on dying in original sin is this: Those who die in a state of “original sin only” are only those persons who died unrepentant from the actual mortal sin of omission of never having found sanctifying grace in their lifetime, despite ample opportunity. All prenatals, infants, and young children, who die at that young age and without formal baptism, are given a baptism of blood prior to their deaths, so that they die in a state of grace.
The Magisterium teaches that a person who commits a mortal sin, such as the mortal sin of rejecting Christ or His Church, only loses the state of grace if it is an actual mortal sin, which must include full knowledge of the grave immorality of the act, and full deliberation (full consent). So if someone rejects the Church with invincible ignorance or at least with enough reduction of knowledge as to make it only a venial sin, then they would not be guilty of an actual mortal sin. They would not lose the state of grace, and they could still be saved.
But anyone who dies unrepentant from actual mortal sin will not be saved.
Will God condemn to Hell all atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and other non-Christians, as well as all Protestants, IF they know about Christ and the Catholic Faith, AND do not choose to convert? Certainly not. Their decision not to convert is not an actual mortal sin unless it includes the full knowledge that the rejection of Christianity or Catholicism is a grave sin. If they do not know that such refusal of the Catholic Christian Faith is a grave sin, then they are not guilty of actual mortal sin. Such a person could still end up in Hell if they commit some other actual mortal sin and refuse to repent. But they will not be condemned for rejecting Christianity, or for rejecting Catholicism, unless they fully realized that such rejection is a grave sin.
by
Ronald L. Conte Jr.
Roman Catholic theologian and
translator of the Catholic Public Domain Version of the Bible.
the reproach of Christ 
how do non Catholics reach a state of grace ater sinning?
Suppose a non-Catholic has a baptism of desire, which gives him the state of grace. Then suppose that he commits an actual mortal sin, thereby losing the state of grace. He cannot go to Confession, because he is a non-Catholic. Supposing that he does not convert, how can he return to the state of grace? He can return to the state of grace by an act of perfect contrition, that is, by true sincere selfless sorrow for sin out of love for God and neighbor. If he is an atheist or an agnostic, he might still (with difficulty) cooperate with God’s grace and obtain perfect contrition, by a selfless love of neighbor which (unknown to him) implicitly includes the love of God.
How can a non-baptized adult, one who dies in the state of grace, receive a baptism of desire before his death, if this adult has never even considered the Church or Christ as the Truth during his lifetime? [redacted]
”All this holds true not only for Christians, but for all men of good will in whose hearts grace works in an unseen way. For, since Christ died for all men, and since the ultimate vocation of man is in fact one, and divine, we ought to believe that the Holy Spirit in a manner known only to God offers to every man the possibility of being associated with this paschal mystery.” (Gaudiem et Spes 22, Second Vatican Council).
Pope Pius XII: “An act of love is sufficient for the adult to obtain sanctifying grace and to supply the lack of baptism.”
An unbaptized adult can receive the state of grace by means of a baptism of desire at any time, by a selfless act done in full cooperation with grace. This would be an act of true love of God, or an act of true full selfless love of neighbor. Even an atheist can receive the state of grace by a baptism of desire, because all true love of neighbor is implicitly also love of God.
See my Treatise on Mystical Baptism for a full explanation.
Very good article. There’s seem to be a few things that are not accounted for. How do you account for baptism of non-baptized adults who die in a state of grace ? Dogma teaches they need a baptism as well to be saved. Where does it occur prior to their moment of death ? If non-baptized infants receive a mystical baptism, then so must the adults who die in a state of grace, in some way shape or form ?
Adults must obtain a baptism, prior to death, by water (the formal Sacrament) or by desire or by blood. Even the baptism by blood of a martyred catechumenate confers sanctifying grace prior to death. Notice that their impending death has not yet happened when they receive the state of grace in a baptism of blood. Similarly, with unbaptized infants, they receive the state of grace prior to their death.
It does not follow that if an unbaptized infant receives the state of grace prior to death, as a baptism of blood, that all unbaptized adults must also receive the state of grace prior to death. The adult may be guilty of the actual mortal sin of omission of not having found sanctifying grace in his life, despite ample opportunity. If he is unrepentant from that sin at death, he will not receive a baptism of blood. Adults only receive a baptism of blood if they die for the Faith (not having been formally baptized prior to death). Infants like the holy Innocents can receive a baptism of blood due to the suffering of dying at such an early age and their own freedom from personal sin. The universal salvific will of God requires this conclusion.