Recently I was asked the question that many religious and non-religious will ponder at some point in their lives: who gets to go to heaven?  Who goes to hell?  Do only Catholics go to heaven?  Does it matter if you're Catholic, can you be any religion and still go to heaven?  What if you're a really morally responsible and just individual, and yet athiest, Buddhist, whatever... would you still get to go to heaven?

There are a couple of ways to answer this.  The first is the most obvious way: answering with a straight yes or no... but that's no fun, so let's look at this question using an analogy.

Let's say you hear about a really good person named Michelle.  Michelle's throwing a really huge party in the very near future (she doesn't tell you exactly when but it's soon) and this party becomes more popular day-by-day.  In fact, her party is promising to be one of the most prestigious social events ever to be held in a long time, and of course, people are wanting to go to this extravagant party, yourself included.  Michelle is a very friendly and outgoing gal, so much so that she's decided to send out invitations to pretty much everyone.  Anyone can go to the party, the only requirement for one to be allowed to go is to follow what it says in the invitation.  The invitation says that, among other things, you need to have a liking for classical music, a liking for red wine, and a knowledge of Homer Simpson.  Most importantly, on the invitation, Michelle has written: "I personally hope that you take the time to give me a quick phone call and to tell me a little about yourself before you come to my party... I look forward to meeting you!"

So time goes by, and the party day arrives.  You're excited like crazy and ring the doorbell to Michelle's place.  She opens the door... and gives you a puzzled look.  She doesn't know who you are - you haven't given her the phone call she expected, nor have you taken the time to learn to like classical music, red wine, and Homer Simpson.  In fact, you haven't done anything that the invitation requested, yet you still hope to get into the party.  But Michelle doesn't know you, and you aren't even prepared for the party.  To Michelle, your unpreparedness tells her that you really don't want to join her party... so she smiles at you, and then closes the door, giving you essentially what you wanted, according to your being unprepared.  And you walk away, having messed up your one and only chance to be a a part of the "party of the century".

Draw your own analogies there...  Officially, the Catholic Church teaches that one must die in a state of grace, in a loving relationship with God, in order to go to heaven. 

Those who die in God's grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live for ever with Christ. They are like God for ever, for they "see him as he is," face to face.  http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2M.HTM

So, if all you need is a friendship with God, can't religious non-Catholics also go to heaven?  Well, one needs the grace of God as well.  How can one truly experience such grace?  Through the sacraments of the Catholic Church.

Final thoughts for the undecided from philosopher Blaise Pascal:

Pascal's Wager (or Pascal's Gambit) is the application by the French philosopher Blaise Pascal of decision theory to the belief in God. It was set out in the Pensées, a posthumous collection of notes made by Pascal towards his unfinished treatise on Christian apologetics.

The Wager posits that it is a better "bet" to believe that God exists than not to believe, because the expected value of believing (which Pascal assessed as infinite) is always greater than the expected value of not believing. In Pascal's assessment, it is inexcusable not to investigate this issue:

"Before entering into the proofs of the Christian religion, I find it necessary to point out the sinfulness of those men who live in indifference to the search for truth in a matter which is so important to them, and which touches them so nearly."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascals_wager