The following are holy quotations from tradition pertaining to various areas of doctrine and spirituality, so that one may best understand the Catholic Faith and not fall into novelty or other errors of modern times:
THERE IS NO SALVATION OUTSIDE THE ONE TRUE CHURCH
The Church is One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman: unique, the Chair founded on Peter ... Outside her fold is to be found neither the true faith nor eternal salvation, for it is impossible to have God for a Father if one has not the Church for a Mother.
Ven. Pope Pius IX
If any man be outside the Church, he will be excluded from the number of sons, and will not have God for Father since he has not the Church for Mother.
Pope Leo XII
Consider, therefore, that whoever is not in the peace and unity of the Church cannot have God.
Pope Pelagius II
God's will is salvation, and this is called The Church.
Clement of Alexandria
This Church, thus marvelously founded, assuredly could not cease with the death of its Founder, nor of the Apostles who led the way in its propagation, for to it the commission was given of bringing all men to eternal salvation: all men, without distinction of time or place ... Now, no one is in this One Church, and no one perseveres in it unless he acknowledges and obediently accepts the power and authority of Peter and his legitimate successors.
Pope Pius XI
He Who reigns on high, to Whom is given all power in Heaven and on earth, has entrusted His Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, outside which there is no salvation, to one person on earth alone, namely: to Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and to Peter's successor, the Roman Pontiff, to be governed by him with the fullness of power.
Pope St. Pius V
Outside the Church there is no salvation.
St. Cyprian
Outside the Church there is no salvation, and therefore if the claims of the Pope be true at all, then he who denies them imperils his soul. If a man take off by himself against an evident truth appearing by the common faith of Christendom, this conscience is very damnable. Whereto I answer that, where there is a law of the whole corps of Christendom in a matter touching belief, the difference standeth between beheading and Hell ... I would certainly maintain, and I think without any opposition, that whatever is necessary for salvation, that is, the things without which we cannot be saved, have been handed down to us in abundance: first of all by Sacred Scripture itself, then by its ancient interpreters, furthermore by the common practice handed down from the early Fathers, and finally by the sacred decrees of the Church.
St. Thomas More
We have on our side the General Councils and all the Fathers and Doctors of the Church for fifteen hundred years.
St. Richard Reynolds
I have the rest of the bishops of Christendom with me and thus, having on my part all the Catholic bishops of the world from Christ's ascension till now, am joined with the whole consent of Christ's universal Church.
St. John Fisher
For one bishop of your opinion, I have a hundred saints of mine; for one parliament of yours — and God alone knows of what kind — I have all the General Councils for a thousand years.
St. Thomas More
Outside the Catholic Church no one is saved.
Ancient Statutes of the Church
There is but one universal Church of the faithful, outside which there is absolutely no salvation.
IV Lateran Council
Neither sanctity nor salvation can be found outside the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church.
Ven. Pope Pius IX
Rome has spoken, the case is closed. Would that error, too, might someday be over and done with!
St. Augustine
Before everything else, fidelity to the Church: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. Jesus did not found several churches, but one single Church.
Pope John XXIII
Christ has declared the unity of the Church. Whoever parts and divides the Church cannot possess Christ ... The House of God is but one, and no one can have salvation except in the Church.
St. Cyprian
The Church is only one: the Roman Catholic. And if there were left upon earth but one Catholic, he would be the one universal Church.
Ven. Anna Catherine Emmerich
The Church is the dwelling-place of the saints, the roof over the pious, under which the just have their abode. Indeed, as many as escape from the punishment of fire find their home in her.
St. Cyril of Alexandria
Whosoever would be saved, let him come into this House. Let no one talk himself out of it; let no one deceive himself: outside this House, that is, out of the Church, no one is saved.
Origen
He who is separated from the Catholic Church will not have life.
Pope Gregory XVI
So certain and so clear is the Catholic faith as expressed in these words of the Apostolic See, so ancient and so well-established, that it would be a sacrilege for any Christian to doubt it.
St. Augustine
It is a sin to believe that there is salvation outside the Catholic Church!
Ven. Pope Pius IX
You certainly sin if, having heard the decrees of the Apostolic See and of the universal Church, and having heard that the same things are confirmed in Holy Scripture, you refuse to follow them.
St. Wilfrid
If any man does not enter the Church, or if any man departs from it, he is far from the hope of life and salvation.
Pope Pius XI
The distinctive mark of the Church is to belong to the Church outside which there is no salvation. On the contrary, he who leaves the Church walks in darkness: he is a heretic.
Origen
What is the road which opens for us the way to Jesus Christ? ... The answer, valid yesterday as it is today and for all time to come, is: the Church.
Pope Pius XII
Where is the road which leads us to Jesus Christ? It is before our eyes: it is the Church. It is our duty to recall to everyone, great and small, the absolute necessity we are under to have recourse to this Church in order to work out our eternal salvation.
Pope St. Pius X
How can the soul walk aright and not stray, except by following the straight road of the law of Almighty God and of the Church?
St. John of the Cross
The Church of God, walking straight in the right and royal road, has condemned all the rest as by-paths.
St. Eusebius of Caesaria
I pray that all people may walk on the one true road that leads to God.
St. Paul Miki
For there is a King's Highway, and that is the Church of God and pathway of truth. But each of the heresies, having left the King's Highway and turning aside to the right or left and then giving itself up without reservation, is dragged onward into error; and the shamelessness of error knows no limits in any heresy. Come, then, ye servants of God and children of the Holy Church of God, you who are acquainted with the safe rule and walking in the way of truth; ye who are not dragged from side to side by words and by the beckoning of each false sect. Slippery are their ways!
St. Epiphanius
No one reaches the heavenly Jerusalem except him who is on the way, although not everyone on the way shall reach it. To be a Catholic Christian is to be on the road and walking in the way. And if through some snare of the enemy, he be led astray from the Catholic Church, either into heresy or whatever other kind of superstition, he has already lost the way and returned to wandering.
St. Augustine
There is but one plain known road ... when you wander from this, you are lost. You must be altogether within the House of God, within the walls of salvation, to be sound and safe from injury. If you wander and walk abroad ever-so-little, if you carelessly thrust hand or foot out of the Ship ... you shall be thrust forth: the door is shut, the ocean roars, you are undone.
St. Edmund Campion
Anyone who is out of this Church is walking a path not to Heaven but to Hell. He is not getting closer to the home of eternal life; on the contrary, he is hurrying to the torment of eternal death. And this is the case not only if he remains a pagan without Baptism, but even if, after having been baptized, he continue as a heretic.
St. Fulgentius
There is only one universal Church of the faithful, outside of which no one at all can be saved.
Pope Innocent III
The Holy, Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is the only true Church, outside the pale of which no one can be saved.
St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori
Q. Is there any other true Church besides the Holy Catholic Church?
A. No; as there is but one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, there is but one true Church.
Q. Are all obliged to be of the true Church?
A. Yes; no one can be saved out of it.
The Irish Catechism
Q. What means: "The Church is Catholic"?
A. "The Church is Catholic" means that she was founded for all men and is spread over the whole world.
Q. Can anyone be saved out of the Church?
A. Out of the Church no one can be saved, because she alone was founded by Christ to save men.
Catechism for Parochial Schools
It is necessary for each individual to become a living part of the Church ... to face even death so as not to lose the faith ... Whoever does not preserve the faith of the Father and the Son does not have life and salvation.
Pope Pius XII
There can be only one Catholic Church, of which I am a member. This, with the help of God, I will profess till my dying hour. Rest assured, outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation.
Ven. Francis Bel
I desire to die in the faith which the Holy, Roman, and Apostolic Church adheres to and defends, in which all the saints of the New Testament have died, and outside which there is no salvation.
St. Charles Borromeo
I am come hither to die for my religion, for that religion which was founded by Christ, established by the Apostles, and propagated through all the ages since, to the present day, by a visible hierarchy: a religion that rests on the testimony of the Scriptures, supported by the authority of the Fathers and Councils, outside which there can be no hopes of salvation.
St. Henry Morse
Q. How is the Church Catholic or Universal?
A. The Church is Catholic or Universal because she subsists in all ages, teaches all nations, and is the one Ark of Salvation for all.
Catechism of Christian Doctrine
The Church is a ship, and even if the ship is in difficulty, it is necessary that we at least be in it.
St. Augustine
Unless you stay in the ship, you cannot be saved!
Acts 27:31
In Holy Mother Church lies all hope of eternal salvation ... If anyone is outside the Ark of Noah, he will perish in the overwhelming flood.
Pope Benedict XV
The Church is rich with heavenly doctrine ... sailing like a ship on the high seas of this world, preserving those who come to her safe and sound, while the world outside perishes.
Ven. Pope Pius IX
Whoever is outside the Ark of Noah will perish in the flood.
St. Jerome
We are compelled in virtue of our faith to believe and maintain that there is only one Catholic Church, and that one Apostolic. This we firmly believe and profess without qualification. Outside this Church there is no salvation and no remission of sins ... For at the time of the Deluge there existed only one Ark, the figure of the one Church. And we read that all things existing upon the earth outside this Ark perished.
Pope Boniface VIII
It must be held as a matter of faith that outside the Apostolic Roman Church no one can be saved, that the Church is the only Ark of Salvation, and that whoever does not enter it will perish in the Flood.
Ven. Pope Pius IX
The Ark of Noah holds a conspicuous place. It was built by the command of God in order that there might be no doubt that it was a symbol of the Church, which God so constituted that all who enter therein through Baptism may be safe from the danger of eternal death; while such as are outside the Church, like those who were not in the Ark, are overwhelmed by their own crimes.
Catechism of Trent
It is certain that all men of Noah's time perished, except those who merited to be in the Ark, which was a figure of the Church. Likewise, they cannot in any way now be saved who are aliens from the Apostolic faith and the Catholic Church.
St. Gaudentius of Brescia
The Church is the Ark into which Jesus enters with all His faithful followers. The sinner leaves the Church as the raven once left the Ark.
St. Hilary of Poitiers
The contemporaries of Noah would not believe in his warnings as he was building the Ark, and thus they became frightful examples for all posterity. Christ our God is now building His Church as the Ark of Salvation, and is calling upon all men to enter it.
St. Augustine
There is no entering into salvation outside the Church, just as in the time of the Flood there was no salvation outside the Ark which denotes the Church.
St. Thomas Aquinas
What was prefigured in the Flood is now fulfilled in Christ's Church ... The wicked are separated from the good ... the heretic from the faithful. For they are lost, as in the Flood ... while the Church alone ... is sustained above the deep. And so ... we tell you that only those who find shelter in the bosom of the Ark of the Church shall escape.
St. Maximus of Turin
It is as impossible for anyone to be saved outside the Catholic Church as it was for anyone to avoid the Deluge who was outside Noah's Ark.
Bl. James Duckett
The Lord Jesus goes up only into the Ark of the Church ... This Ship ... preserves safe from harm all those it carries within it. We have a true figure of this in the Old Testament; for, as all whom Noah took with him in the Ark were saved ... so, when the world shall be destroyed by fire, the Church of Peter will keep safe within her everyone she cherishes as her own.
St. Ambrose
Like Noah, we announce to you the coming of the end of the world, and we warn all men to take refuge in this Ark of the Church.
St. Maximus of Turin
God has given the world a holy Church in whose safe harbor the lovers of truth seek refuge, as well as all those who desire to be saved and to escape the dreadful wrath of God.
St. Theophilus of Antioch
Q. If the Catholic Church is to lead all men to eternal salvation, and has for this purpose received from Christ doctrine, her means of grace, and her powers, what is everyone obliged to do on his part?
A. Everyone is obliged, under pain of eternal damnation, to become a member of the Catholic Church, to believe her doctrine, to use her means of grace, and to submit to her authority.
A Full Catechism of the Catholic Religion
Are there any other direct proofs from Scripture to show that out of the Church of Christ there is no salvation?
First, Christ, speaking of those who were not yet joined in the communion of His Church, but whom He foreknew would make a good use of the graces He would give them for that purpose, says: "Other sheep I have who are not of this fold; them I must bring, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd" (John 10:16): where He plainly declares that all those of His sheep who are not yet of His fold must be brought to it as a necessary condition of their salvation.
Second, in consequence of this settled disposition of the divine providence, no sooner did the Apostles begin to preach the Gospel than immediately "the Lord added daily to the Church such as should be saved" (Acts 2:47), which evidently shows that all who are not added to the Church are out of the way of salvation.
Manual of the Holy Catholic Church
What consequences flow from these Scriptural truths concerning the Church?
First, that the Church of Christ is the sacred rule of faith and the supreme judge of controversy, instituted and ordained by Him to preserve inviolate to the end of time all those divine truths which He revealed to man, and upon the knowledge and belief of which the salvation of souls depends ...
Second, that this Church is one body, having all one and the same faith and governed by one and the same supreme Church authority; so that whatever sect is divided from this body by professing a different faith from her is no part of the Church of Christ, but at best a human invention; and the faith they profess, as differing from hers, is all falsehood and lies.
Third, that the Church of Christ is the only road to salvation, both because it is only in her communion that the true faith of Christ can be found, "without which it is impossible to please God" (Hebrews 11:6), and because Christ has declared that all who refuse to hear are condemned by Him as heathens and publicans, and that those who despise her pastors despise Christ Himself and His Father Who sent Him.
Manual of the Holy Catholic Church
Amen, amen, I say to you: he who enters not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up another way, the same is a thief and robber.
St. John 10:1
O Church of Rome! ... He who seeks another way shall find only eternal perdition.
Bl. Giles of Assisi
There is no salvation outside the Church.
St. Augustine
There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church. Anyone who resists this truth perishes.
St. Louis Marie de Montfort
There is absolutely no salvation outside the Catholic Church.
Ss. Cosmas and Damian
We believe with our hearts and confess with our lips but one Church, not that of heretics, but the Holy, Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, outside of which we believe that no one is saved.
Pope Innocent III
We must believe, moreover, that the Catholic Church alone is the true one; that, consequently, those whom it does not contain in its bosom, or who have separated from it, cannot be saved ... There is only one true Church, the Roman Catholic Church, outside which there is no salvation.
St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori
Outside the Church there is no salvation.
St. Robert Bellarmine
There is no salvation outside the Church.
St. Cyprian
This is the faith of the Catholic Church out of which no one can be saved.
Pope Benedict XIV
Where should we seek the truth? Among heretics, where everything is foreign and opposed to our truth? Among heretics, whom we are forbidden to come near?
Tertullian
Since, therefore, we have such proofs, it is not necessary to seek the truth among others which is easy to obtain from the Church ... Every man whosoever desires can draw from her the water of life. For she is the entrance to life; all others are thieves and robbers. Therefore, it is necessary to obey the prelates of the Church ... who possess succession from the Apostles. But it is also necessary to hold in suspicion others who depart from this primitive succession and assemble themselves together in any place whatsoever.
St. Irenaeus of Lyons
Therefore, let those who wish to be saved come to this pillar, to this foundation of truth which is the Church ... We will never spare Ourselves from any pains whatsoever ... to bring back those who are ignorant and in error to this one and only way of truth and salvation. Moreover, let all those who oppose Us remember that heaven and earth will pass away, but that not one of Christ's words can pass away, nor can anything be changed in the doctrine which the Catholic Church has received from Jesus Christ to preserve, to protect, and to preach.
Ven. Pope Pius IX
O glorious St. Peter ... who wast honored by Jesus Christ with singular privileges and in particular with the leadership of the other Apostles and the primacy of the whole Church, of which thou wast made the foundation stone, do thou obtain for us the grace of a lively faith that shall not fear to profess itself openly, in its entirety and in all its manifestations, even to the shedding of blood ... Obtain for us, likewise, a sincere loyalty to our Holy Mother the Church; grant that we may ever remain most closely and sincerely united to the Roman Pontiff who is the heir of thy faith and authority: the one, true, visible head of the Catholic Church, that mystical Ark outside which there is no salvation.
Pope Benedict XV
CITATIONS: PIUS IX "SINGULARI QUIDEM,"ZPTC 222 LEO XII "UBI PRIMUM," PTC 145 PELAGIUS II DNZ 246 II VATICAN "LUMEN GENTIUM," 11:14 CLEMENT "THE INSTRUCTOR," Bk.1, ch.6; FOC vol.2:117; PIUS XI PG8:247; GCW vol.12:87. Clement was venerated as a Saint up to the 17th cent.; removed from Martyrology by Pope on advice of Cardinal Baronius. Personally, I like him. "MORTALIUM ANIMOS," PTC 861, 872 PIUS V RCH vol.2, p.70, col.1 CYPRIAN UOC VI, CSL 214 THOMAS MORE "DIAGLOGUE CONCERNING HERESIES," Leipzig, RICHARD 1689 cf. LOM JOHN FISHER MARTYRS, Don. Attwater, NY: Sheed & Ward, THOMAS MORE 1957, p.101 GOH 8 STATUTES CANON I, GOH 11 IV LATERAN DNZ 430 PIUS IX OUR GLORIOUS POPES, Slaves of the Immaculate AUGUSTINE Heart of Mary, Cambridge, MA: 1955, p.157; cf RAC 626 SERMON, JUR vol.3:1507 JOHN XXIII ALLOCUTION, PTC 1590 CYPRIAN UOC; CSL 214 ANNA CATHERINE LIFE OF ANNE CATHERINE EMMERICH, Very Rev. CYRIL Carl Schmoger, CSSR, vol. 1, p.398, Rockford, IL: TAN Books and Publishers, 1985 "ON THE ADORATION AND WORSHIP OF GOD," Bk.1: ORIGEN 1:1, Paris: Aubert, 1638; FOC 90 "ON JOSUE," homily III:5; GCW; FOC 134 GREGORY XVI "PERLATUM AD NOS," PTC 186 AUGUSTINE EPISTLE 190, ch.6, PL:33 PIUS IX OUR GLORIOUS POPES, Slaves of the Immaculate WILFRID Heart of Mary, Cambridge, MA: 1955, p. 168 RCH vol.1:273, col.1 490 PIUS XI "MORTALIUM ANIMOS," PTC 873 ORIGEN "ON JOSUE," Homily 3, JUR1:537; PG12;825 PIUS XII Allocution, PTC 1363 PIUS X "SUPREMI APOSTOLATUS," PTC 654; "JUCUNDA SANE," PTC 668 JOHN LFB 206 EUSEBIUS "DE ECCLES. THEOLOG." 1:1, c.8, FOC vol.1 47 PAUL MIKI STR 11 EPIPHANIUS "PANARION AGAINST ALL HERESIES," cf. PG42: 832 AUGUSTINE "THE PILGRIMMAGE OF THIS LIFE," cf. SS vol.4 p.404, no.2-3 EDMUND LFS 177 FULGENTIUS "TO EUTHYMIUS, ON THE REMISSION OF SINS," 8K. 1, ch.19, no.2, PL65:527; cf. also JUR vol.3:2251a INNOCENT III "THE CATHOLIC FAITH," ch.1 at IV Lateran, DNZ 430 ALPHONSUS MARIA CAS 75 IRISH CATECHISM Op. cit., Fr. James Butler, Dublin: Gill & Son, 1950, p.27 PAROCHIAL CAT. Op. cit., Fr. Faerber, 1896 PIUS XII "MEMINISSE JUVAT," PTC 1508, 1547 FRANCIS BEL AEM CHARLES STR 96 HENRY MORSE "CATHOLIC TREASURES," no.41, Feb., 1979, p.9, col.2., cf. MARTYRS OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH IN ENGLAND: 1577-1684. Chailoner, 1878 CATECHISM Op. cit., London: Catholic Truth Society, 1966, p.16 AUGUSTINE THE DIVINE REMEDY, cf. sermon 75, Fr. Augustine Serafini, Oshkosh, WI: Castle-Pierce Press, 1982, p.209 ACTS Op. cit. BENEDICT XV "SPIRITUS PARACLITUS," RSS 77 PIUS IX "AETERNI PATRIS," PTC 311 JEROME Epistle 15:2, RSS 77 BONIFACE VIII "UNAM SANCTAM," DNZ 468 PIUS IX "SINGULARI YUADEM," DNZ 1647 CATECHISM COT 107 GAUDENTIUS "DE LECT. EVANGEL.," PL:20; cf. SS vol.1:273 HILARY cf. "THE PASSING OF THE LAW," PL9:999 AUGUSTINE "ON THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD," sermon 491 THOMAS AQUINAS 361:1, ch.22, cf. PL39:1599 MAXIMUS STL III, question 73, article 3 JAMES DUCKETT SS vol.2, cf. 92-93; cf. also PL57:573, sermon 20 IN QUAD. VI AMBROSE STR 27; his LIFE, Duckett Catholic Book Centre, London MAXIMUS Sermon 37, PL17:675 THEOPHILUS Catholic Almanac, ed. Felician FULL CATECHISM MANUAL Foy, OFM, 1979, p.54 JOHN GILES SS; cf. PL57:573, sermon 20 IN QUAD. VI AUGUSTINE "TO AUTOLYCUS," CORPUS APOLOGETARUM CHRIS- TIANORUM SAECULI SECUNDI, vol.8, Jena:1861; cf. also "CATHOLIC TREASURES,” Sept., 1982, no.84, p.4, col.1, Monrovia, CA Op. cit., Fr. Jos. Deharbe, SJ, New York: Schwartz, Kirvin, & Fauss, 1847, p.145, Question no.64 Op. cit., Fr. James J. McGovern, 1906 Op. cit. "CATHOLIC TREASURES," no.84, Sept. 1982, Monrovia, CA "ON BAPTISM AGAINST THE DONATISTS," Bk.4, no.24; PL4-.107; CSL vol.51; FOC vol.1, 309, note 1. HMG 107 STR 81 PROFESSION OF FAITH, DNZ 423 CAS 57, no.10; PGW 159 LFS 190 "EPISTLE TO JUBAIANUS," JUR vol.1:597a PROFESSION OF FAITH, cf. DNZ 1473 "OBJECTION AGAINST HERETICS," no.12; PL2: 12; CSL p.1, Vienna: 1942; FOC 363-364 "AGAINST HERESIES," PG7:433; cf. JUR 1:213 "UBI PRIMUM," PTC 196 RAC 484