Is the Holy Spirit at work outside of the Catholic Church?

Is the Holy Spirit at work outside of the Catholic Church? This is a question that I get asked often by Protestants I am catechizing for reception into the Catholic Church. They have, for the most part, accepted many of the Catholic claims but are troubled by the idea that the Catholic Church is as the catechism states “the Temple of the Holy Spirit."(1) Many of them share stories with me about their friends and family members, whom they believe to be good and holy people, and question how they could be the way they are without the help of the Holy Spirit. Usually, they are very surprised to find out that they are, to a certain extent, correct. Holiness, if it is genuine, is the unique work of the Holy Spirit, and no authentic holiness can be realized by human nature alone. So, how can both views be right? How can the Catholic Church teach that she alone is the special dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, while also recognizing that the Holy Spirit is at work beyond her visible boundaries?

It is a longstanding theme in Catholic Teaching to emphasize the special relationship between the Church and the Holy Spirit by referring to the Spirit as the soul of the Church. In his Encyclical Letter Divinum Illud, Pope Leo XIII said, "Let it suffice to say that, as Christ is the Head of the Church, so is the Holy Spirit her soul."(2) This particular image of the Holy Spirit emerges from the idea that it is the Holy Spirit who animates or gives life to the Church, just as a soul animates and gives life to a body. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples, transforming them into the Church, the body of Christ. But, as St. John Paul II points out, “the expression ‘The Holy Spirit animates the Church’ should be understood as an analogy.”(3) In other words, the Holy Spirit is not a soul in the same way that human souls are. 

Human souls are confined to the one body they animate. But the Holy Spirit cannot be confined to one place because he is God, and God cannot be confined (Psalm 139:7-12), or as St Augustine put it, “If God is everywhere, his Spirit is everywhere.”(4) So, what is the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the Church? St. John Paul II describes it as being “intimate yet transcendent.”(5) Intimate in the sense that the Church and the Holy Spirit have a special relationship that is unique to them. Transcendent in the sense that the Holy Spirit is not spatially confined to particular times and places by its relationship with the Church. In the Old Testament, God had a special relationship with His chosen people and dwelt in their temple in a uniquely intimate way. But his special presence in the temple did not restrict him to that one particular place, nor does the Holy Spirit's special relationship with the Church mean that he is only at work within her walls. The English Apologist Monsignor Ronald Knox put it this way:

"It should not be suggested that Pentecost limited the operations of the Holy Spirit. It remains true that he blows where he will; we know nothing of the way he comes or goes. When we said he spoke by the prophets, we did not mean that in the rest of creation he was dumb. And if he animates the Church, that does not exhaust his infinitude."(6)  

The Catholic Church teaches that, despite the Holy Spirit’s unique relationship with the Church, His presence and activity are not confined to being only within her walls. I believe Cardinal Charles Journet summed up this teaching best when he said, “I do not say that there is no supernatural life at all outside the Church, but simply that there is none that does not look towards her.”(7) The Holy Spirit is active and at work outside of the Catholic Church, but all of his activities are aimed at bringing people into the Catholic Church rather than keeping them where they are. Consider the parable of the laborers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16). 

In this parable, a man goes into town in the morning to hire laborers to work in his vineyard. He then goes out again at 9:00, 12:00, and 3:00 to hire more workers. He then makes one final trip out at 5:00 and finds a group of people just standing around doing nothing. He asks them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ They answer that no one has hired us (Matt 20:7). After hearing this, the owner hires them to work in his vineyard as well (Matt 20:8). At the end of the day, the man pays every worker the same wage regardless of when they started working. What on the surface appears to be fiscal irresponsibility and unfairness on the part of the owner of the vineyard actually reveals a great truth about God. According to Pope Benedict XVI, “the first message of this parable is inherent in the very fact that the landowner does not tolerate, as it were, unemployment: he wants everyone to be employed in his vineyard.”(8)

It was common knowledge during those days that “vineyard” was an image for a bride (Song 2:15, 7:12). In the New Testament, it is the Church that is called a bride (Rev 19:7-9). The owner of the vineyard is meant to be a depiction of God, whereas the vineyard is a depiction of the Church. The owner leaves his vineyard on many occasions, not because he does not care about her, but because he loves and cares about her so much that he wants everyone to work in his vineyard. Likewise, the Holy Spirit, despite being the soul of the Church, is constantly going beyond the walls of the Church in order to bring more people into her fold. When the Holy Spirit came to the gentile Cornelius, it was not to tell him that he was already where God wanted him to be, but to tell him to be baptized and received into the Church (Acts 10). So, when people ask me if the Holy Spirit only dwells in the Catholic Church, I say no. However, I always make sure to point out that everything the Holy Spirit does outside of the Catholic Church is done to bring with the goal of bringing more people into the Church. 

1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 737.

2. Leo XIII, Divinum Illud Munus 6.

3. John Paul II, General Audience of November 28, 1990.

4. Augustine, On The Holy Trinity 2.7 (trans. A.W. Haddan, NPNF 1:3:40).

5. John Paul II, General Audience of November 28, 1990.

6. Ronald Knox, Stimuli, 58.

7. Charles Journet, The Church of the Word Incarnate Vol I: The Apostolic Hierarchy, (Sheed & Ward), 35.

8. Benedict XVI, Angelus Address September 28, 2008.