And what truth is more fundamental for Christianity than that which sees in Jesus the only savior of all men ?

Leo recalled, in the simplest and clearest words, this primordial “creed” in the talk he gave on August 25 to a group of altar servers who had come from France :

“Who will come to save us ? Not only from our sufferings, from our limits and our mistakes, but even from death itself ? The answer is perfectly clear, and resounds in the History of 2000 years : only Jesus comes to save us, no-one else : because only he has the power to do so – He is God Almighty in person – and because he loves us. Saint Peter said it emphatically : ‘There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved’ (Acts 4:12). Never forget these words, dear friends : imprint them on your heart, and place Jesus at the centre of your lives.”

And yet, precisely over this pillar of the Christian faith, a very insidious dispute was ignited in the Church a quarter of a century ago, under the banner of interreligious dialogue and the equality of paths to salvation. A dispute that then-pope John Paul II and his guardian angel of doctrine, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, sought to resolve with the declaration “Dominus Iesus” of August 6, 2000, “on the unicity and salvific universality of Jesus Christ and the Church.”

With the result of fueling the conflict even more. “Dominus Iesus” was contested at all levels : pastoral, theological, hierarchical. It was criticized by illustrious cardinals like Walter Kasper, Edward Cassidy, Carlo Maria Martini.

Nor did the dispute settle down in the subsequent years. So much so that in 2005, in the preconclave following the death of John Paul II, Cardinal Giacomo Biffi felt it his duty to “bring to the attention of the next pope” precisely “the incredible incident of ‘Dominus Iesus’.” And he explained the reason as follows :

“That Jesus is the only necessary Savior of all is a truth that for over twenty centuries – beginning with Peter’s discourse after Pentecost – it was never felt necessity to restate. This truth is, so to speak, the minimum threshold of the faith ; it is the primordial certitude, it is among believers the simple and most essential fact. In two thousand years this has never been brought into doubt, not even during the crisis of Arianism, and not even during the upheaval of the Protestant Reformation. The fact of needing to issue a reminder of this in our time tells us the extent of the gravity of the current situation.”

More: https://www.cal-catholic.com/jesus-is-the-only-one-who-saves-says-leo/