Question:
Answer:
This affirmation [no salvation outside the Catholic Church] 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. (Catechism, 846)
A literal understanding of being an official/external member of the Catholic Church as necessary for salvation is not the teaching of the Church. A priest, Father Feeney, tried to preach that message and was excommunicated in 1953. This error is now named after him and is commonly called Feeneyism or The Boston Heresy.
The Holy Office in 1949 wrote to Fr. Feeney and asked him to accept the Church’s definition/understanding of the doctrine Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus:
Therefore, that one may obtain eternal salvation, it is not always required that he be incorporated into the Church actually as a member, but it is necessary that at least he be united to her by desire and longing.
However, this desire need not always be explicit, as it is in catechumens; but when a person is involved in invincible ignorance God accepts also an implicit desire, so called because it is included in that good disposition of soul whereby a person wishes his will to be conformed to the will of God.