1. Charity Without Indifferentism

The Sentinel's Voice

"Jesus saith to him: I am the way, and the verity, and the life. No man cometh to the Father; but by me."

— John 14:6 (original Rheims New Testament, 1582)[1]

Meditation at the Wall

Indifferentism does not always deny that truth exists. More often it denies that religious truth is urgent. It permits Christ to be admired while refusing His exclusive claim. It permits the Church to be praised while treating membership in her as one religious choice among many. It praises sincerity, moral conduct, and goodwill, then quietly separates them from the Faith, worship, Sacraments, and authority established by Our Lord.

The error often borrows the language of charity. It says that a warning would wound, that conversion would divide, or that clear doctrine would disturb a fragile peace. But charity cannot make peace with what separates a soul from revealed truth. A physician does not love the sick man by calling poison harmless. A watchman does not love the City by refusing to sound the alarm.

The Catholic must therefore hold two duties together: love the soul and reject the error. He may never mock the lost, delight in condemnation, or presume to judge the secret culpability of another soul. Neither may he speak as though false religion were a saving good. God alone judges the soul; the Church judges the doctrine placed before him. Her judgment is not that every religion is a different road to the same end, but that salvation is in Jesus Christ and that Christ founded one Church.

Indifferentism says, “Leave him where he is.” Catholic charity prays, sacrifices, speaks the truth, and calls him home.

The Church's Witnesses

Sacred Scripture

"And there is not salvation in any other. For neither is there any other name under Heaven given to men, wherein we must be saved."

— Acts 4:12 (original Rheims New Testament, 1582)[1]

"One Lord, one faith, one baptism."

— Ephesians 4:5 (original Rheims New Testament, 1582)[1]

"He that believeth in the Son: hath life everlasting: but he that is incredulous to the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God remaineth upon him."

— John 3:36 (original Rheims New Testament, 1582)[1]

"And if he will not hear them, tell the Church. And if he will not hear the Church, let him be to thee as the Heathen and the Publican."

— Matthew 18:17 (original Rheims New Testament, 1582)[1]

The Fathers

St. Cyprian of Carthage

"He can no longer have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his mother."

— On the Unity of the Church, chapter 6[2]

The Roman Pontiffs

Pope Gregory XVI

“We now pursue another most abundant cause of the evils by which We lament that the Church is at present afflicted: indifferentism, namely, that perverse opinion, spread everywhere by the deceit of the wicked, that eternal salvation may be obtained by any profession of faith, provided morals are conformed to the standard of right and honest conduct.”

— Mirari Vos, §13[3]

“And from this most foul source of indifferentism flows that absurd and erroneous opinion—or rather delirium—that liberty of conscience must be asserted and vindicated for everyone.”

— Mirari Vos, §14[3]

Pope Pius IX

The following propositions are not Catholic teaching. They are propositions condemned in the Syllabus of Errors:

Condemned proposition 15: “Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true.”

Condemned proposition 16: “Men can find the way of eternal salvation and attain eternal salvation in the observance of any religion whatever.”

— Syllabus of Errors, propositions 15–16[4]

Pope Pius IX also guarded against a rash judgment of individual souls while maintaining the dogma without compromise:

“It is known to Us and to you that those who labor under invincible ignorance concerning our most holy religion, and who diligently observe the natural law and its precepts inscribed by God on the hearts of all, and, ready to obey God, lead an honest and upright life, can, by the operative power of divine light and grace, attain eternal life; since God, who perfectly sees, searches, and knows the minds, souls, thoughts, and dispositions of all, in His supreme goodness and clemency by no means permits anyone who is free from the guilt of voluntary fault to be punished with eternal punishments.”

— Quanto Conficiamur Moerore, §7[5]

Pope Leo XIII

“From all these it is evident that the only true religion is the one established by Jesus Christ Himself, and which He committed to His Church to protect and to propagate.”

— Immortale Dei[6]

“…that a regard for religion should be held as an indifferent matter, and that all religions are alike. This manner of reasoning is calculated to bring about the ruin of all forms of religion, and especially of the Catholic religion, which, as it is the only one that is true, cannot, without great injustice, be regarded as merely equal to other religions.”

— Humanum Genus[7]

Pope Pius XI

“Since this is so, it is manifest that the Apostolic See can in no way take part in their assemblies, nor may Catholics in any way support or work for such undertakings; for if they did, they would lend authority to a certain false Christian religion, altogether alien to the one Church of Christ.”

— Mortalium Animos, §8[8]

The Doctors

St. Thomas Aquinas

“If we take faith as a habit, we can consider it in two ways. First on the part of the object, and thus there is one faith. Because the formal object of faith is the First Truth, by adhering to which we believe whatever is contained in the faith.”

— Summa Theologica, II–II, q. 4, a. 6[9]

The Error and Its Condemnation

Indifferentism holds, expressly or in practice, that contradictory religions may be treated as equally acceptable paths to God, or that upright conduct makes the profession of the true Faith unnecessary. The Church condemns this because contradictions cannot all be revealed by God, false worship cannot give God the honor due to Him, and no religious system can save apart from Jesus Christ.

This condemnation does not authorize cruelty toward those in error. Nor does it permit a Catholic to pronounce upon another person's hidden knowledge, culpability, or final judgment. It forbids him to turn those mysteries of Providence into a new doctrine: that false religion itself saves, that conversion is unnecessary, or that the one Church may be placed beside religious bodies founded by men as an equal.

The Catholic Truth Defended

Jesus Christ is not one teacher among many. He is the incarnate Son of God, the only Savior, and Truth Himself. He founded one Church, commanded her to teach all nations, and entrusted to her one Faith and one Baptism.

Therefore the Catholic does not invite a soul merely to become more sincere within error. He desires that every soul receive the whole gift of Christ: His doctrine, His Sacraments, His sacrifice, His authority, and the maternal care of His Church. This is not a denial of whatever fragment of truth another person may possess. It is the refusal to mistake a fragment for the whole, or a human system for the Church established by God.

True charity is missionary. It suffers for souls, prays for their conversion, speaks without contempt, and refuses to purchase human approval by silence about the Faith. It hates heresy because heresy wounds souls; it loves those wounded by it because Christ died for them.

What the Pilgrim Must Do

Examine yourself:

• Have I spoken as though sincerity could replace revealed truth?
• Have I concealed the necessity of conversion because I feared disapproval?
• Have I confused courtesy toward persons with approval of false worship?
• Have I prayed and sacrificed for those outside the Church, or merely argued about them?
• Have I thanked God humbly for the gift of the Catholic Faith?

Cultivate the virtues opposed to indifferentism: supernatural faith, gratitude, fortitude, zeal for souls, humility, and charity governed by truth. Learn the Church's doctrine well enough to state it accurately. Refuse both cowardly silence and needless harshness. Let your life show that conversion is not entry into a party, but a homecoming to Christ and His Church.

The Watchman's Prayer

O Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, preserve me from every compromise with religious error. Give me a firm faith without pride, a hatred of heresy without hatred of souls, and a charity that neither flatters nor abandons those who are astray. Through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, keep me faithful to Thy Church; teach me to pray, suffer, speak, and live for the conversion of souls; and grant that I may persevere in the true Faith until death. Amen.

Continue the Watch

Return to The Deposit of Faith, then continue to False Ecumenism, Religious Relativism, and Why Sincerity Cannot Replace the One True Church.

Sources and Editorial Notes

1. The New Testament of Jesus Christ, Translated Faithfully into English, out of the Authentical Latin (Rheims: John Fogny, 1582), original translation with spelling modernized; typographical ampersands expanded and annotation markers omitted.
2. St. Cyprian, The Treatises of Cyprian, treatise I, On the Unity of the Church, chapter 6, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. V, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe (Buffalo: Christian Literature Publishing Company, 1886), p. 423.
3. Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos (15 August 1832), §§13–14. The English text above is a literal translation prepared for this site from the Latin original; it is not presented as an official historical English translation.
4. Pius IX, Syllabus Errorum (Rome, 8 December 1864), propositions 15–16. The English text above is a literal translation prepared for this site from the Latin original. These sentences are condemned propositions, not affirmations by Pius IX.
5. Pius IX, Quanto Conficiamur Moerore (10 August 1863), §7. The English text above is a literal translation prepared for this site from the Latin original.
6. Leo XIII, Immortale Dei (1 November 1885), in The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII: Translations from Approved Sources (New York: Benziger Brothers, 1903), p. 112.
7. Leo XIII, Humanum Genus (20 April 1884), in The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII: Translations from Approved Sources (New York: Benziger Brothers, 1903), p. 92.
8. Pius XI, Mortalium Animos (6 January 1928), §8, Acta Apostolicae Sedis 20 (1928), pp. 5–16. The English text above is a literal translation prepared for this site from the Latin original.
9. St. Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province, 2nd and rev. ed. (London: Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1920), II–II, q. 4, a. 6.