Are ONLY Catholics worthy of Heaven?

This question has been tossed about forever & before I even did any research on the topic I knew in my heart this could NOT be true. Not JUST because our God is benevolent but it just didn't make any sense. How could a little Baptist girl from Mississippi who never even MET a Catholic a day in her life not be worthy of Heaven & expected to convert? How could a holy & Godly Rabbi not have that shot at Heaven? It just didn't make any sense to me at all.  And, as always, we are TRULY blessed as Catholics because EVERY, SINGLE question I have ever held about our beautiful faith has ALWAYS led back to the truth and the truth is ALWAYS sensible. It maybe a difficult position but it is always benevolent and sensible. 
I have heard SO MANY lies, falsehoods, misguided comments on this topic that I thought I’d go to the source & find out if my personally held belief all these years was accurate or just wishful thinking. 
I strongly urge, if you ever have a question about the faith to visit http://www.catholic.com/ the Catholic Answers website.  What a tremendous & authentic source for us all.  A true gift because it does all the hard work for us.
It answers any & all of your questions sourcing ONLY authentic Catholic sources and allows us to view all previous answered questions we can find under broken down categories. 
Someone once asked “Is it possible to be saved without knowing anything about the Bible or Jesus?” 
I thought this question was great since it encompassed ALL people and Jim Blackburn (a regular writer for the Catholic Answers magazine & poster on the site) responded with this: 

“All people are called by God to know him and to please him. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, "The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for" (CCC 27).

God freely gives everyone the grace to respond to his call. "Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life" (CCC 1996).

So what happens to those who have the desire for God written on their hearts and are moved by grace to respond to him but never hear the gospel or know of Jesus? The Church teaches that they may attain salvation. Quoting from Vatican II document Lumen Gentium, the Catechism explains, "Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience—those too may achieve eternal salvation" (CCC 847).”

Another question asked was: “Someone told me that atheists could be saved if they acted charitably, but I said that apart from God's saving works, man cannot save himself.”

The answer from Michelle Arnold, another apologetic from the website said this:

While you are correct that man cannot save himself, God can choose to save someone who is unable in conscience to believe God exists but lives as best he can according to the knowledge he does have. Gaudium et Spes states about atheism:

Undeniably, those who willfully shut out God from their hearts and try to dodge religious questions are not following the dictates of their consciences, and hence are not free of blame; yet believers themselves frequently bear some responsibility for this situation . . . To the extent that they [believers] neglect their own training in the faith, or teach erroneous doctrine, or are deficient in their religious, moral, or social life, they must be said to conceal rather than reveal the authentic face of God and religion. (19)

This implies that the culpability for atheism is not necessarily entirely the individual’s. To the extent that belief in God has been made impossible for him by others, there may be some mitigation of his culpability for unbelief. Ultimately we must trust that even he is not beyond the reach of God’s mercy if he strives to live morally (cf. Lumen Gentium 16). The second great commandment is love of neighbor (Matt. 22:39) and Christ said of those who serve others, even if they do not explicitly do it for Christ’s sake:

Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?" And the King will answer them, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me" (Matt. 25:37-40).

And finally I found THIS question posed: “I was reading something that said "There is no salvation outside the Church," meaning the Catholic Church. But I always thought that Catholics considered Protestants and Orthodox to be Christian too.”

The answer by Jim Blackburn again:

“The affirmation "outside the Church there is no salvation" is explained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church as follows:

How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers? Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body: Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his Body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.

This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church: Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience—those too may achieve eternal salvation.

Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men. (CCC 846-848)

Specifically concerning non-Catholic Christians, the Catechism notes:

The Church knows that she is joined in many ways to the baptized who are honored by the name of Christian, but do not profess the Catholic faith in its entirety or have not preserved unity or communion under the successor of Peter. Those who believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in a certain, although imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church. With the Orthodox churches, this communion is so profound that it lacks little to attain the fullness that would permit a common celebration of the Lord’s Eucharist. (CCC 838)


So, once again…for all those who like to paint Catholics as non-inclusive or judgmental (& like such Earthly & human traits would be the reasons for our tenets anyway)…they’d be wrong. I find it interesting how (especially other Christians) spend so much of their evangelization efforts it attempting to smear & discredit OTHER faiths as to somehow legitimize their own.  If their faith was so truthful...so accurate & authentic wouldn't by merely explaining their OWN tenets be enough to persuade us?  Wouldn't the TRUTH of their faith be strong enough make ME a believer? There is so much "in-fighting" among non-Catholic Christians because everyone (of course) believes THEIRS is the one true faith and correct pathway to heaven.  But the Catholic faith needs no defense...it just needs more people to LEARN what it truly means to BE Catholic (which is no easy task.) BUT that is why Catholics are so blessed.  We CAN answer every question about our faith, belief & practices by citing our tenets alone & their link to the Bible and the Father's of the Church and they are ALWAYS accurate, authetic and TRUTHFUL.  There are so many lies spread about the faith but if you do even a LITTLE bit of homework (again not citing other people's OPINIONS about the faith when it comes to our tenets or sources that are not from the Catechism itself or Papal encyclical...e.g. 'Catholic's' who have chosen not to accept Vatican II because they feel it wasn't authentic enough for them...they can have some pretty radical positions that are OPINION based not based in the Catechism or on the flip side Pro-Choice 'Catholic's' they too are are not in line with our accurate beliefs and I'd be wary about citing anything opinion based from these groups/individuals as an authentic source for Catholicism. Sadly, you can find a Catholic out there who believes ANYTHING BUT traditionl Catholicism yet still consider themselves Catholic...) from a true & approved apologetic source like Catholic Answers one would find out how spot on the Catholic faith truly is.  But with such a HOST of conflicting LIES it is sometimes hard to sort through.  The Catholic Church is so old that there is so much history people have they can attempt to distort, that many spend alot of their time trying to do just that. The HATE so many hold against Her is astonishing & makes one wonder...why so brothers? "Me thinks thou doth protest too much!" Why are these folks not focusing on their particular produt to sell instead of focusing so much effort on tearing down the competition?  That is why we have such a gift in some of these sources and know that every question is answered in our Catechism. 

By knowing that not only Catholic's are saved, I hope that doesn't discourage you from wanting to spread OUR Good News to others because it is a true GIFT you are giving someone else.  Cradle Catholics were given the gift at birth. Converts have WORKED for the gift and who I feel many times, cherish it more.  I don't think Catholics EVER have to discredit another's faith it attempt to do that but if someone ever has a question for you about our beautiful faith...it is always nice to be able to help them understand it accurately.   Carry on the good work in 2012 friends!