For a summary of Catholic teaching on salvation, see my Short Syllabus post. For a full explanation of soteriology (salvation theology), see my book: Forgiveness and Salvation for Everyone.

In summary, the Church has always taught three types of baptism:
1. the Sacrament of Baptism with water
2. a baptism of desire which can be implicit
3. a baptism of blood
Any form of baptism gives the person the state of grace, and is sufficient for salvation. If a person loses the state of grace by actual mortal sin, then they must repent and be forgiven by God to return to the state of grace. Dying in a state of grace means you are saved.

Pope Pius XII: “Above all, the state of grace is absolutely necessary at the moment of death; without it, salvation and supernatural happiness — the beatific vision of God — are impossible. An act of love is sufficient for the adult to obtain sanctifying grace and to supply the lack of baptism.” [Address to Midwives, 21.a.]

An implicit baptism of desire refers to persons who are not baptized with water, and who do not explicitly desire baptism with water. This implicit baptism of desire applies to persons who choose an act of love, in full cooperation with grace, or to persons who have perfect contrition for their sins. The full extent of an implicit baptism of desire is not yet fully explained by the Magisterium. But generally, a person who receives this implicit baptism of desire would be a non-Christian. Yet by that baptism, they are in the state of grace and are children of God. This clearly implies that non-Christians can be saved in this way.

The “act of love” cited by Pius XII above refers to this type of baptism. See this article: Roman Catholic Teaching on Implicit Baptism of Desire

Pope Saint John Paul II: “The universality of salvation means that it is granted not only to those who explicitly believe in Christ and have entered the Church. Since salvation is offered to all, it must be made concretely available to all. But it is clear that today, as in the past, many people do not have an opportunity to come to know or accept the gospel revelation or to enter the Church. The social and cultural conditions in which they live do not permit this, and frequently they have been brought up in other religious traditions. For such people salvation in Christ is accessible by virtue of a grace which, while having a mysterious relationship to the Church, does not make them formally part of the Church but enlightens them in a way which is accommodated to their spiritual and material situation. This grace comes from Christ; it is the result of his Sacrifice and is communicated by the Holy Spirit. It enables each person to attain salvation through his or her free cooperation.

“For this reason the Council, after affirming the centrality of the Paschal Mystery, went on to declare that ‘this applies not only to Christians but to all people of good will in whose hearts grace is secretly at work. Since Christ died for everyone, and since the ultimate calling of each of us comes from God and is therefore a universal one, we are obliged to hold that the Holy Spirit offers everyone the possibility of sharing in this Paschal Mystery in a manner known to God.’ [GS 22]”

The Magisterium teaches that salvation is granted “not only to those who explicitly believe in Christ and have entered the Church”. One enters the Church by the Sacrament of Baptism with water. An explicit baptism of desire would include explicit belief in Christ. One does not have to explicitly believe in Christ or formally enter the Church by the Sacrament of Baptism in order to receive salvation. This means that a person can implicitly accept Christ and become a member of the Church implicitly by an implicit baptism of desire.

Does this mean that belief in Christ and reception of the Sacrament of Baptism is optional? Not at all. Everyone has a grave moral obligation, under penalty of actual mortal sin of omission, to accept Christ and formally enter the Church by Baptism with water — and to do the other things required to practice the Faith. But for those with invincible ignorance of these grave moral requirements, God permits an implicit baptism of desire, so as to receive the state of grace, the three infused virtues of love, faith, and hope, and so as to become children of God by spiritual adoption.

Now the Council of Trent infallibly taught that anyone who receives the “washing of regeneration”, i.e. the Sacrament of Baptism with water, “or its desire”, i.e. a baptism of desire, is in the state of grace and is a child of God by spiritual adoption.

DECREE ON JUSTIFICATION, CHAPTER IV.
A description is introduced of the justification of the impious, and its mode under the law of grace

By these words, a description of the justification of the impious is introduced, as being a translation from the state, in which a person is born a child of the first Adam, to the state of grace and of the adoption of the children of God, through the second Adam, Jesus Christ, our Savior. And certainly [this] translation, after the promulgation of the Gospel, is not able to occur without the washing of regeneration or its desire, just as it is written: “unless one has been reborn by water and the Holy Spirit, he is not able to enter into the kingdom of God.” [John 3:5]

Notice that the official magisterial infallible interpretation of John 3:5 is that this required baptism can be the Sacrament of Baptism with water, or a baptism of desire. Then the ordinary universal magisterium has always taught that a baptism of blood provides the same benefits as the baptism of desire. And ANYONE receiving any of these three forms of baptism receives “the state of grace and of the adoption of the children of God”. It is NOT the case that only those who receive a Baptism with water are saved, or only they are children of God. Such a claim is HERESY as it contradicts the infallible teaching of the Council of Trent and of the ordinary universal magisterium.

The magisterial teachings on the universal salvific will of God, the implicit baptism of desire, the state of grace and adoption as children of God, and related teachings absolutely excludes as HERESY the claim that only Christians are saved, or only Catholics are saved, or the claim that we don’t really know if God saves any non-Christians.

Also excluded as HERESY is the claim, contrary to the universal salvific will of God and the omnipotence and overflowing mercy of God, that few persons other than baptized Christians are saved. God will all persons to be saved, so the offer is UNIVERSAL and concretely available to all human persons in any circumstance. However, anyone who dies without the state of grace, by an unrepented actual mortal sin, will go to Hell forever. The offer is universal, but some persons abuse the mercy of God and refuse that offer through the last moment of their lives, so that they are not saved. God wishes all to be saved, but He respects our free will.

Feeneyism is Heresy

Fr. Leonard Feeney taught that only those persons are saved who receive the Sacrament of Baptism with water and are Catholic Christians. He excluded salvation for all other persons: non-Catholic Christians (Protestant, Orthodox), schismatics, heretics, Jews, Muslims, other believers, atheists. He rejected the implicit baptism of desire and the baptism of blood. He claimed that the Christian catechumenate martyrs were miraculously given a baptism of water before their deaths.

Now please understand that heresy is defined NOT by the particular details in the ideas of the founder of the heresy. Rather, heresy is defined as whatever is fundamentally contrary to formal dogma. So if someone proposes a new version of Feeneyism, with different details, but the same fundamental errors in opposition to dogma, then the idea remains heresy. Arianism is heresy. Semi-Arianism is still heresy. Pelagianism is heresy. Semi-Pelagianism is still heresy. Millenarianism is heresy. Mitigated Millenarianism is still heresy.

A version of Feeneyism which says we just don’t know if or how non-Christians might be saved, is still heresy. We do know how non-Christians are saved: implicit baptism of desire or baptism of blood. A version of Feeneyism that allows implicit baptism of desire only in few narrow extraordinary cases, is just mitigated Feeneyism. It is still opposed to the dogmatic teaching of the Church on the universal salvific will of God, the three types of baptism, the availability of an implicit baptism of desire, and “the state of grace and of the adoption of the children of God” by means of “the washing of regeneration or its desire”. Any version of salvation theology which is narrowed beyond the teaching of the Church in the Ecumenical Councils and the ordinary universal magisterium is heretical. Any version of “only Catholics can be saved and maybe a few others” is heresy. That is simply not the teaching of the Church.

As the Holy Office (later called CDF, then DDF) wrote to the diocese of Boston in opposition to the errors of Fr. Feeney:

Holy Office: “To gain eternal salvation, it is not always required that a person be incorporated in reality (reapse) as a member of the Church, but it is necessary that one belong to it at least in desire and longing (voto et desiderio). It is not always necessary that this desire be explicit as it is with catechumens. When one is invincibly ignorant, God also accepts an implicit desire, so called because it is contained in the good disposition of soul by which a person wants his or her will to be conformed to God’s will.”

Pope Pius IX: “Here, too, our beloved sons and venerable brothers, it is again necessary to mention and censure a very grave error entrapping some Catholics who believe that it is possible to arrive at eternal salvation although living in error and alienated from the true faith and Catholic unity. Such belief is certainly opposed to Catholic teaching. There are, of course, those who are struggling with invincible ignorance about our most holy religion. Sincerely observing the natural law and its precepts inscribed by God on all hearts and ready to obey God, they live honest lives and are able to attain eternal life by the efficacious virtue of divine light and grace. Because God knows, searches and clearly understands the minds, hearts, thoughts, and nature of all, his supreme kindness and clemency do not permit anyone at all who is not guilty of deliberate sin to suffer eternal punishments.”

There is a grave moral obligation to enter the Church by the Sacrament of Baptism. With invincible ignorance of this obligation, a person might still “attain eternal life” by “observing the natural law” and by an implicit baptism of desire. Such a person is a member of the Church, implicitly, so the Church is still the sole Ark of Salvation.

The saying “No Salvation Outside the Church” is only true when the Church is considered broadly, including all those who have received any of the three forms of baptism, just as the Church has long taught. Feeneyism is based on a severe narrowing of the definition of the Church and Her members, so that only Christians, or in the case of the original version of Feeneyism, only Catholics, would be said to be saved.

Neo-Feeneyites

A resurgence of Feeneyism has occurred in recent years. Michael Voris at Church Militant openly taught Feeneyism, going so far as to explicitly take up Fr. Leonard Feeney’s position. Voris also did videos defending the community of Feeneyites at the Saint Benedict Center in New Hampshire against the decision of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, attempting to correct their errors. Voris called the position of the CDF, approved by the Pope, “heresy” and he called the position of the Feeneyites “dogma”.

Bishop Athanasius Schneider has proposed a version of Feeneyism, in which he claims that only persons who worship God as Trinity can have supernatural faith. As well-catechized Catholics know, if you do not have the infused supernatural virtue of faith, then you are not in the state of grace, and then too you would not go to Heaven if you die without love, faith, and hope given when the state of grace is received. So Schneider’s claim that only Christians who worship the Trinity have supernatural faith excludes ALL non-Christians from salvation. This is absolutely incompatible with Catholic dogma. It is a mitigated form of Feeneyism, as Fr. Feeney thought that only Catholics were saved, and Schneider is proposing that only Christians can be saved. However, both versions still reject Catholic dogma, such as the implicit baptism of desire — which is implicit because the person does not explicitly believe in Christ and does not explicitly desire to enter the Church.

This narrowing of salvation has become popular on the Catholic far right, perhaps in reaction to a more liberal theology that proposes an overly broad version of salvation, which rejects different dogmas of the Catholic Faith. Regardless of the reason, it is not Catholic to claim that only Catholics can be saved, or that only Christians can be saved.

Ronald L Conte Jr