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Originally Posted by asaris
SecretMethod -- I'm pretty sure that the Catholic Church does not in fact teach that salvation can come through any of the world religions. Do you have a quote from the catechism or a council?
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I don't have time to look through my class notes at the moment to see if I wrote down the specific document or passage, but I was taught by a Catholic theologian at a Catholic university (I know you know this but I'm saying it for others to be aware I'm not just making this up) that it was stated in Vatican II that the FULLNESS of Truth subsist only in the Catholic Church, but there is REAL Truth in other religions as well, thereby making it so that, naturally, Catholics are considered to have the full amount of tools if you will that lead to salvation, but that salvation can be found through other religions as well - it's only more difficult. Like I said before though, even in my short lifetime and limited experiences within the Catholic Church - one congregation my whole life and 2 Catholic schools, as well as reading various things - I can see that there is great variation in any one person's understanding of the Church and its teachings. Different people within the Church place different degrees of importance on different Church decisions. So, it never surprises me to hear of any person within the Church who still may hold on to something like the tradition explanation of Original Sin and so forth. Personally, however, I prefer and my conscience leads me to agree more with the progressive thinkers within the Church such as Thomas Merton and Andrew Greeley.