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Profession of Faith at the Reception of Converts into the Catholic Church.
I, N.N., having before my eyes the holy Gospels, which I touch with my hand, and knowing that no one can be saved without that faith which the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Roman Church holds, believes, and teaches, against which I grieve that I have greatly erred, inasmuch as I have held and believed doctrines opposed to her teaching.
I now, with grief and contrition for my past errors, profess that I believe the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Roman Church to be the only and true Church[1] established
- ↑ Out of the Catholic Church none can be saved. This proposition, which highly displeases all sectarians and infidels, is not only clearly established by the authority of Scripture, and by the perpetual and constant belief of the Catholic Church, but it is also evident from reason itself, so that one must needs be blind who does not perceive its truth. This, however, applies only to those persons who culpably and wilfully adhere to heresy, or schism, or infidelity, but by no means to those who have been imbued with errors and prejudices from their earliest years, and to whom not even a doubt occurs that they are involved in heresy or schism, or who, if any doubt arises in their minds, earnestly and sincerely seek after the truth; such persons we leave to the judgment of God, to whom it belongs to penetrate and search the thoughts and dispositions of hearts. For it is incompatible with the divine goodness and clemency that any one should suffer eternal torments who is not guilty of a wilful transgression. To assert the contrary would be against the express doctrine of the Church. "Let us hear St. Augustine: 'We must not,' says he, 'class among heretics those persons who, without wilful obstinacy, maintain a false and perverse doctrine, especially if it is not the offspring of their bold presumption, but a legacy from their deceived and mistaken parents, and who search after the truth with earnest care, being disposed to renounce their error as soon as they are apprised of it.' — Epist. 43, Edit. Benedict, alias 162. A long list of other Fathers might be cited who are of the same opinion ... It follows from what has been said that every one is bound, to the best of his power, to consider the doubts which sometimes occur to him, and to investigate the truth, and when he has found it, to embrace it without delay; unless he wish to live under an habitual and most grievous guilt, and, by deferring his conversion, expose himself to a manifest danger of eternal damnation."
