Acts Does Not Teach Indifferentism

And Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation any one who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:34-35).

Yes.

Contrary to what many people think, this passage of Scripture is not advocating religious indifferentism. Those who are not Catholic can be saved.

Commentary:

The sentence in Peter’s discourse: “In every nation he that feareth God and worketh justice is acceptable to Him,” has been interpreted by people either indifferent about, or weak in faith, to mean: “It is all the same what people believe, or what religious creed they profess, if only they live good lives.” Now is this principle, that religion and faith are matters of indifference, correct? No! It is utterly false and un-Christian, and that for these reasons:

1. Peter did not say: “Faith does not signify”; for he was, on the contrary, most anxious to convert Cornelius to the true faith; but his words meant rather that nationality does not signify—it does not matter what nation a man belongs to, for all nations are called to believe in Jesus Christ, and all persons, to whatever nation they may belong, are acceptable to him, if, as Cornelius did, they keep the commandments and strive after a knowledge of the truth. Such men, being acceptable to God, are called by him to believe the true faith, and thereby obtain salvation.

2. Peter, at the end of his discourse, expressly teaches that no one can obtain forgiveness of sins but through faith in Jesus (compare with this his words in chapter LXXXV: “There is no other Name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved”; Acts 4:12).

3. If no account was to be made of holding the true faith, St. Peter need not have preached to Cornelius, and need not have baptized him.

4. If it be a matter of indifference what faith a man holds, then the whole revelation of God would have been unnecessary, and it would have been quite superfluous for our Lord Jesus Christ to have come into the world, to have taught the true faith, and founded his Church.

5. The principle that it does not signify what a man believes is in direct opposition to the teaching of the Gospels, in which we find our Blessed Lord so often demanding faith in himself and his doctrine (see, for example, chapter XV). There is only one true God, one Savior, and one true faith, which Jesus Christ taught and bequeathed to the Church that he founded. Any indifference in matters of faith, or any admiration of it in others must come from a want of firm religious convictions, and is a grievous sin against faith (F.J. Knecht, A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture (776–777).

See also Dominus Iesus.