Catholics do not hold to the Calvinist (and seemingly Lutheran) view of grace/predestination, if that is the impression you have.
CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Actual Grace
The universality of actual grace
The universality of grace does not conflict with its gratuity, if
God, in virtue of his will to save all men, distributes with sovereign liberty his graces to all adults without exception. But if the universality of grace is only a result of the Divine will to save all mankind, we must first turn our attention to the latter as the basis of the former.
God's will to save all men
By the "will to save" (
voluntas Dei salvifica) theologians understand the earnest and sincere will of
God to free all men from sin and lead them to
supernatural happiness. As this will refers to human nature as such, it is a merciful will, also called "first" or "antecedent will" (
voluntas prima sive antecedens). It is not absolute, but conditional, inasmuch as no one is saved if he does not will it or does not comply with the conditions laid down by
God for salvation. The "second" or "consequent will" (
voluntas secunda sive consequens), on the contrary, can only be absolute, i.e. a will of justice, as
God must simply reward or punish according as one has deserved by his works heaven or
hell. We consider here solely the "antecedent will" to save; regarding the will of justice see
PREDESTINATION.
Against the error of the
Calvinists and
Jansenists the ecclesiastical teaching authority (cf. Council of Trent, Sess. VI, can. xvii; Prop. v Jansenii damn., in Denzinger, n. 827, 1096) proclaimed in the first place the doctrine that
God seriously wills the salvation not of the
predestined only, but also of other men.
. . .
The universality of grace
The universality of grace is a necessary consequence of the will to save all men. For adults this will transforms itself into the concrete Divine will to distribute "sufficient" graces; it evidently involves no obligation on
God to bestow only "efficacious" graces. If it can be established, therefore, that
God grants to the three classes of the just, sinners, and infidels truly sufficient graces for their eternal salvation, the proof of the universality of grace will have been furnished. Without prejudice to this universality,
God may either await the moment of its actual necessity before bestowing grace, or He may, even in time of need (e.g. in vehement temptation), grant immediately only the grace of prayer (
gratia orationis sive remote sufficiens). But in the latter case he must be ever ready to confer immediate grace for action (
gr. operationis s. proxime sufficiens), if the adult has made a faithful use of the grace of prayer.
So far as the category of the just is concerned, the heretical proposition of Jansen, that "the observance of some
commandments of God is impossible to the just for want of grace" (see Denzinger, n. 1092), had already been exploded by the
anathema of the
Council of Trent (see Council of Trent, Sess. VI, can. xviii). In fact Holy Writ teaches concerning the just, that the yoke of
Jesus is sweet, and His burden light (
Matthew 11:30), that the
commandments of God are not heavy (I John, v, 3), that "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able: but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it" (
1 Corinthians 10:13). These statements warrant not only the full possibility of the observance of the Divine commandments and the triumph over vehement temptation;, they virtually express simultaneously the concession of the necessary grace without which all these salutary acts are known to be absolutely impossible. It is true that in the polemical writings of some
Fathers of the Church against the
Pelagians and Semipelagians we read the proposition: "The
grace of God is not granted to all." But a closer examination of the passages immediately reveals the fact that they speak of efficacious, not of sufficient, grace.
. . .
The third and last question arises: Is the
grace of God also conceded to the heathen? The Divine readiness to grant assistance also to the heathen (see Denzinger, n. 1295, 1379) is a certain truth confirmed by the Church against the
Jansenists Arnauld and Quesnel. To question it is to deny the above-demonstrated intention of
God to save all men; for the overwhelming majority of mankind would fall outside its range. The Apostle of the Gentiles, Paul (Rom., ii, 6 sqq.), lays stress on
God's impartiality towards Jews and Greeks, without "respect of persons", on the Day of Judgment, when he will reward also the Greek "that worketh good" with eternal life. The
Fathers of the Church, as
Clement of Rome (I ep. ad Cor. vii), Clement of Alexandria (Cohort. ad gent., 9), and
Chrysostom (Hom. viii in John, n. 1), do not doubt the dispensation of sufficient graces to the nations "that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death". Orosius (De arbitr. libert., n. 19), a disciple of
St. Augustine, proceeds so far in his optimism as to believe in this distribution of grace "quotidie per tempora, per dies, per momenta, per
atoma et cunctis et singulis" (daily through the seasons, through the days, through the moments, through the smallest possible divisions of time, and to all men and every man). But the clearer the fact, the more obscure the manner. In what way, one instinctively asks, did
God provide for the salvation of the heathen? Theologians to-day generally give the following presentation of the process: It is presupposed that, according to Hebr., xi, 6, the two dogmas of the
existence of God and of future retribution must be, in all instances, believed not only, by necessity of means (
necessitate medii), but also with explicit faith (
fide explicita) before the process of justification can be initiated. As a consequence,
God will not refrain in extraordinary cases from
miraculous intervention in order to save a noble-minded heathen who conscientiously observes the natural moral law. He may either, in a
miraculous manner, depute a missionary to him (
Acts 1:1 sqq.), or teach him the revealed truth through an
angel (Cardinal Toletus), or he may come to his assistance by an interior private revelation. It is clear, nevertheless, that these different ways cannot be considered as everyday ordinary means. For the multitude of heathen this assistance must be found in a universal means of salvation equally independent of wonderful events and of the preaching of
Christian missionaries. Some modern theologians discover it in the circumstance that the two dogmas mentioned above were already contained in the primitive supernatural revelation made in Paradise for all mankind. These truths were subsequently spread over the whole world, survive, as a meagre remnant, in the traditions of the pagan nations, and are orally transmitted from generation to generation as supernatural truths of salvation. The knowableness of these dogmas by unaided reason does not constitute an objection, for they are simultaneously natural and revealed truths. Once the condition of external preaching (cf. Rom., x, 17: "fides ex auditu") has thus been fulfilled, it only remains for
God to hasten to man's assistance with his supernatural illuminating and strengthening grace and to initiate with the faith in
God and retribution (which implicitly includes all else necessary for salvation) the process of justification. In this manner the attainment of the state of grace and of eternal glory becomes possible for the heathen who faithfully co-operates with the grace of vocation. However all this may be, one thing is certain: every heathen who incurs
eternal damnation will be forced on the last day to the honest confession: "It is not for want of grace, but through my own fault that I am lost."
