Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus

A large portion of the Catholic laity are insufficiently instructed in the principles and reasons of their religion, and need a further instrction, in order to detect and resist the wiles of their Protestant and infidel enemies, who lie in wait for their souls. They need the fullest instruction, not only in Catholic dogmas and practices, but in the great underlying principles which show that the Church is inherent in the divine order of creation and represents it, and that whatever is incompatible with her teaching is incompatible with her divine order to detect and avoid the poisonous breath of the world. The Church is not one religious body among many; it is the ONLY religious body. As with God there is nothing, so without the church, or outside of her, there is no religion, no spiritual life. All religious outside her are shams, at best they have no basis, stand on nothing, and are nothing, and can give no life or support to the soul…

Catholics need to know this, and understand well how religion is based on divine revelation, and its guardianship on earth invested on a body of men presided over by an infallible guide, divinely commissioned to teach all men, authoritatively and infallibly, all its sacred and immutable truths, – truths which are consequently bound in conscience to receive without hesitation. This is the fixed standard of Christian belief; it is the basis upon which all dogmas rest. If this all-important truth is well understood by Catholics, they will not easily be caught in the snares of infidelity.

(An Excerpt from The Church and Her Enemies by Michael Muller C.SS.R.)