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I think that one can be a member of the Church and not even know it.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn became a Christian after his ordeal. He said something to the effect that when you're being tormented for the truth, and you choose the truth instead of the lie, the truth draws closer. The truth is palpable. It's real.

Solzhenitsyn believed in the truth. And he suffered for the truth before he was officially a Christian. Now, I submit that one who believes in the truth like Solzhenitsyn did is already a Christian but doesn't know it. He simply didn't know that Jesus Christ is the Truth with a capital "T". Solzhenitsyn believed in the Truth so he believed in Christ, he just didn't know that the Truth that he suffered for was a divine person named Jesus.

And he was willing to suffer for the truth, so that means he was willing to suffer for Christ, and of course Christ drew nigh unto him.

Solzhenitsyn was later fully received into Eastern Orthodoxy.

There is no salvation outside the Church. Fine. I can buy that. But the trick is to understand that God's grace makes many good people members of the Church who have no idea that they're already inside.

I can't believe that Ann Barnhardt would deny that Alexander Solzhenitsyn was in the Catholic Church even if he was Orthodox.

Indeed, if, as she says, that (1) the 5th century Plains Indian of good will who never heard of the Catholic Church was saved ultimately, and (2) that there is no salvation outside the Church, doesn't it follow that the 5th century Plains Indian of good will must have been a member of the mystical Church, even though he didn't know it?

Ann is all about logic. That would certainly seem to follow.

Also, Christ is the Way - He is the Natural Law. So if the 5th century Plains Indian is judged by the Natural Law, as Ann Barnhardt says, then surely Christ judged him by the same standard he judges baptized Catholics and everybody else for that matter - that is, Himself.

We must ponder with all humility Christ's assertion that he is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is the Logos. He is the mind and the reason of the universe, and no doubt of much more. We certainly can't put his grace in a box, or think that we tiny creatures can presume to know how he will judge all men in reference to Himself.