Singulari Quadam, An Allocution (A Speech To The Cardinals)

The first of the documents from Pope Pius IX, frequently quoted by those who believe in salvation outside the Church, is Singulari Quadam, an allocution (a speech to the cardinals) given December 9, 1854:

“....those who are affected by ignorance of the true religion, if it is invincible ignorance, are not subject to any guilt in this matter before the eyes of the Lord.”[1]

First of all, this is a speech of Pope Pius IX to the cardinals.  It is not a dogmatic pronouncement, not even an encyclical, nor even an encyclical addressed to the entire Church. 

But is Pope Pius IX saying that the invincibly ignorant can be justified and saved in their condition?  No.  Rather, he is stating that the “invincibly ignorant” will not be held accountable for the sin of infidelity, but they will still go to Hell.  Read carefully the last part of the sentence, “are not subject to any guilt IN THIS MATTER,” that is, in the matter of infidelity.  St. Thomas Aquinas explains that unbelievers who have never heard of the Gospel are damned for their other sins, which cannot be remitted without Faith, not because of the sin of infidelity (or disbelief in the Gospel).[2]  These other sins of the unbelievers serve as the reason why God does not reveal the Gospel to them and which ultimately excludes them from salvation.  If one among them, however, were truly sincere and of good will, and cooperating with the natural law, then God would send a preacher (even miraculously, if necessary) to bring the Catholic Faith and baptism to him.  Pope Pius IX goes on to say in the same allocution concerning a person of good will who is invincibly ignorant:

“the gifts of heavenly grace will assuredly not be denied to those who sincerely want and pray for refreshment by the divine light…

St. Thomas Aquinas, De Veritate, 14, A. 11, ad 1: Objection- “It is possible that someone may be brought up in the forest, or among wolves; such a man cannot explicitly know anything about the faith.  St. Thomas replies- It is the characteristic of Divine Providence to provide every man with what is necessary for salvation… provided on his part there is no hindrance.  In the case of a man who seeks good and shuns evil, by the leading of natural reason, God would either reveal to him through internal inspiration what had to be believed, or would send some preacher of the faith to him…”[3]

St. Thomas Aquinas, Sent. II, 28, Q. 1, A. 4, ad 4: “If a man born among barbarian nations, does what he can, God Himself will show him what is necessary for salvation, either by inspiration or sending a teacher to him.”[4]

St. Thomas Aquinas, Sent. III, 25, Q. 2, A. 2, solute. 2: “If a man should have no one to instruct him, God will show him, unless he culpably wishes to remain where he is.”[5]

Thus, Pope Pius IX was not teaching that people who are ignorant of the Catholic Faith can be saved; he was, rather, stating that such unbelievers are not damned for the matter of infidelity.  The fact that all who die as ignorant non-Catholics are not saved is the affirmation of all of Catholic Tradition and all the saints, besides being the dogmatic teaching of the Catholic Church.

St. Alphonsus Liguori, Sermons (c. +1760): “How many are born among the pagans, among the Jews, among the Mohometans and heretics, and all are lost.”[6]

St. Alphonsus: “If you are ignorant of the truths of the faith, you are obliged to learn them.  Every Christian is bound to learn the Creed, the Our Father, and the Hail Mary under pain of mortal sin.  Many have no idea of the Most Holy Trinity, the Incarnation, mortal sin, Judgment, Paradise, Hell, or Eternity; and this deplorable ignorance damns them.”[7]

St. Alphonsus, Preparation For Death, (c. +1760): “How thankful we ought to be to Jesus Christ for the gift of faith!  What would have become of us if we had been born in Asia, Africa, America, or in the midst of heretics and schismatics?  He who does not believe is lost.  This, then, was the first and greatest grace bestowed on us: our calling to the true faith.  O Savior of the world, what would become of us if Thou hadst not enlightened us?  We would have been like our fathers of old, who adored animals and blocks of stone and wood: and thus we would have all perished.”[8]

Though Singulari Quadam of Pius IX did not teach the HERESY that one can be saved without the Catholic Faith by invincible ignorance, it is weakly worded.  Pope Pius IX should not have concerned himself with trying to satisfy the heretical minds of liberals and apostates who refuse to accept Church dogma.  He should have simply repeated the many times defined dogma that everyone who dies without the Catholic Faith is lost, and clearly explained that no one who is of good will will be left in ignorance of the true religion.  But because of his weakly worded statement, and the following one we will examine, a veritable disaster has resulted.  Almost every single person who wants to advance his heretical belief that one can be saved outside the Catholic Church quotes this fallible statement from Pope Pius IX and the other one we will examine.

What’s interesting, however, and further confirms the point above, is that in Singulari Quadam, after explaining how the invincibly ignorant are not held guilty in this matter, Pope Pius IX declares that a Catholic must hold one Lord, one Faith and one Baptism, and that it is unlawful to proceed further in inquiry! – probably in an attempt to stem the tide of belief that one could be saved outside the Church by “baptism of desire.”  The people who believe in salvation outside the Church almost never quote this part of the allocution.

Pope Pius IX, Singulari Quadam: “For, in truth, when released from these corporeal chains, ‘we shall see God as He is’ (1 John 3:2), we shall understand perfectly by how close and beautiful a bond divine mercy and justice are united; but, as long as we are on earth, weighed down by this mortal mass which blunts the soul, let us hold most firmly that, in accordance with Catholic teaching, there is ‘one God, one faith, one baptism’ [Eph. 4:5]; it is unlawful to proceed further in inquiry.”[9]

Therefore, even Pope Pius IX, in the very statement wrongly quoted by the liberals against the dogma Outside the Church There is No Salvation, admonishes that such theorizing about salvation by other baptisms and other faiths is unlawful.