Is the Roman Catholic church condemning Protestants?
score:1
The Catholic Church certainly did historically condemn Protestants and all who questioned its teaching, but this is one area in which change has occurred.
The Second Vatican Council, which met in 1962, issued a Declaration on Religious Freedom, with the subtitle “On the Right of the Person and of Communities to Social and Civil Freedom in Religious Matters.” When debated, the Declaration met with considerable resistance from some Vatican officials and a number of bishops, but was passed by the Council in December 1965. It stated, “the human person has a right to religious freedom.”
In defining this freedom, it asserted that
all men are to be immune from coercion” by individuals, social groups, or “any human power,” so that “in matters religious no one is forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs. Nor is anyone to be restrained from acting in accordance with his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, whether alone or in association with others, within due limits.
Since the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church has therefore taught what Catholics must believe for their salvation and what the Church wishes others to believe, but the Church does not, as a body, use condemnation or any other form of coercion against non-Catholics:
[I]n spreading religious faith and in introducing religious practices everyone ought at all times to refrain from any manner of action which might seem to carry a hint of coercion or of a kind of persuasion that would be dishonorable or unworthy, especially when dealing with poor or uneducated people. Such a manner of action would have to be considered an abuse of one's right and a violation of the right of others.
Upvote:3
The Catholic Church has traditionally declared, "There is no salvation outside the Church", meaning, "outside the Catholic Church". To the best of my knowledge, this is still the teaching of the Catholic Church. See, for example, No Salvation Outside the Church.
Let me add that, as a Baptist, I don't find anything particularly remarkable or offensive about this teaching. Presumably every religion believes that its beliefs are true, or what would it mean to say that they believed them? It logically follows that any contradictory beliefs must be false. Catholics believe that you must participate in certain rituals, i.e. the Sacraments, to be saved. Some of these rituals specifically require that they be administered by a priest. Therefore, you cannot be saved without going through a Catholic church and a Catholic priest.
Protestants say that these rituals are not essential to salvation. So a Protestant would say that, while he believes Catholics to be in error on many points, he nevertheless sees no inherent barrier to a Catholic being saved. Catholics cannot say the reverse.
Upvote:4
The language of the Council of Trent you quoted is clear and answers your question: "If anyone denies…" etc. Thus, that proposition clearly applies to anyone, Catholic or Protestant, Jew, pagan, etc.
One must profess the Catholic Faith to be a member of the Catholic Church. "Anathema sit" ("let him be anathema") simply professes the heretic's non-membership in the Catholic Church.
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