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(LifeSiteNews) — On this week’s episode of the Bishop Strickland Show, Bishop Joseph Strickland continues his commentary on his second pastoral letter, explaining that salvation comes through the ministration of the Catholic Church alone.
Continuing his commentary, Strickland says that from the perspective of the Catholic Church, once one is baptized, he is incorporated into the Mystical Body of Christ. The incorporation, however, cannot attain its fullness outside of the Catholic Church, as the Catholic Church alone has the fulness of truth and the means of grace. Every unbaptized person, further, is invited to partake of the fulness of Christ through baptism.
While explaining this infallible teaching of the Church, however, Strickland offers a caveat: God asks people to freely accept baptism and grace. “It’s not some automatic thing,” he says. “‘Oh, you’re baptized, so you’re just going to be … living faithfully the way of Jesus Christ.’ It gives you grace, it gives you the opportunity, but all of us have to continue to cooperate [with grace].”
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Strickland also addresses a corollary to this dogma of the Catholic faith, addressing the fate of those who die outside of the Catholic Church. Strickland, referring to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, explains that God can work outside of the Catholic Church, though only through her mediation.
“When we’re not evangelizing well, God can still bring the light of truth to His people,” Strickland maintains. “God’s not bound [by the sacraments] … but … the language the Church uses, the sacraments are the ordinary instruments that God has given us of bringing us into a life of grace, forgiving our sins, strengthening us in that grace.”
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Addressing the mediation of the Catholic Church in the salvation of those outside Her, Strickland states that such is because the Catholic Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, and that anyone who comes to Christ must come to Him through the Church.
Even so, God can work outside the Church to affect the salvation of those known but to Him. “God is always calling His people to Himself through His Son and the power of His Spirit,” Strickland explains. “God can reach out directly to someone, or His Mother can, and bring them close to Him, using the same grace, using the same life of the Body of His Son.”
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