“It’s true, Jesus has saved us all, but not in a general fashion. All of us, each one with their name and surname. And this is our personal salvation. I am truly saved, the Lord looked at me, gave his life for me, opened this door, this new life for me and each of us can say ”˜For me.’ But there’s a danger of forgetting that He saved us individually but at the same time as part of his people or community. His people. The Lord always saves his people. From the moment he calls Abraham and promises to make them his people. And the Lord saves us as part of this community. That’s why the writer of this Letter (to the Hebrews) tells us: ”˜Let us be concerned for each other.’ There is no salvation solely for me. If that’s the way I understand salvation, I’m mistaken and going along the wrong path. The privatization of salvation is the wrong path.”
Pope Francis explained that there are three criteria for not privatizing salvation: ”˜faith in Jesus who purifies us,’ hope that ”˜stirs us to look at his promises and go forward’ and charity: namely taking care of each other, to encourage us all to practice charity and good works.’
“And when I’m in a parish, in a community — or whatever it is ”“ I am there, I can privatize salvation and be there only on a small social level. But in order not to privatize salvation, I need to ask myself if I speak and communicate the faith, speak and communicate hope, speak, practice and communicate charity. If within a particular community there is no communication between people and no encouragement is given to everybody to practice these three virtues, the members of that community have privatized their faith. Each of them is looking for his or her personal salvation, not the salvation of everybody, the salvation of their people. And Jesus saved all of us but as part of his people, within a Church.”
Read it all (Vatican Radio).
This seems slightly confused to me, although it may be in translation.
On the one hand there is the question of whether salvation by Jesus Christ is individual or corporate. There are those who say there is no individual salvation indeed it is a heresy. The Presiding Bishop is on record stating such a view. Then there are those who say salvation is corporate and through the church gathered and membership of that particular church, a traditional Catholic view one heard up until quite recently.
Then again there are those who say no, salvation is an individual act of grace by God upon repentence and belief [John 1:12], such as that shown to the thief on the cross, and there is no need for the mediation of church or anyone other than Jesus.
Then there is the question of what that life produces, its fruit, and the admonition to do many of the things Pope Francis commends including preaching the Word and performing acts of charity to others.
Both these things are necessary, but it is confusing to meld the concepts of charity and salvation as an argument against individual salvation, though I can see from a Catholic Church point of view why he might say that.