Every month we answer questions about our faith and Christian life in the St. Martin Magazine. Included here are two questions and answers which we published already.
Question Box
Q.
What is the teaching of the church concerning salvation? Will everyone enjoy the vision of God? When is meant by the phrase ‘ outside the church there is no salvation.’?
A.
The phrase ‘outside the church there is no salvation’ was never intended to mean that only catholics will be saved. It might have seemed like that because of the wording of the phrase. The Catholic Church holds that anyone of good will may come to the vision of God in Heaven. The Catholic Catechism(no. 847) says ‘Those who through no fault of their own, do not know the gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and moved by grace, try in their actions to do His will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience – these too may achieve eternal salvation.’ Because God is at work among the christian denominations, across religions, and in the hearts of those who profess to have no religion, anyone of good will may come to the vision of God in Heaven.
Q.
Where was Mary, the mother of God, born? Is it true, as I heard it said, that Our Lady was supposed to have been born in Turkey?
A.
There is a house in Ephesus (Turkey) which has been venerated for centuries as a place where Mary lived. Since Jesus, on the cross, entrusted Mary to the care of St. John and because John lived in Ephesus and died there, it was accepted that Mary also lived there and indeed some would say she also died there. Others would say that she died in Jerusalem. However there is no tradition saying that she was born in Ephesus. St. Luke’s gospel (Lk1:26) tells us that ‘the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph …the virgin’s name was Mary.’ It seems reasonable to assume that Mary was born in Nazareth.
