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Actually, it is *NOT* Catholic dogma. We've done this on other threads. Vatican 2 explicitly states that Protestants may go to Heaven; that their religious practice is no guarantor of their salvation, but that those who simply have not had the opportunity to believe in the Catholic Church may find salvation through extraordinary grace.

Many traditionalist Catholics have pointed out an apparent conflict with older church teachings. (The implication is that Vatican 2 must not be valid, since infallible doctrines cannot conflict with each other.) But they are not contradictory: When the Council of Trent stated that Protestants go to Hell, a Protestant was understood to be an apostate; one who was brought up in the Catholic Church, supposedly understanding what it meant to be a Catholic, and willfully rejected the faith of his fathers to join a religion which was engaged in actual, hot war with the Catholic church. Today, a "Protestant" may be simply one who has not been evangelized to Catholicism, or whose ability to receive evangelism may be obstructed by false teachings, etc. Such people may be saved if their heart is truly focussed on obeying Christ, and seeking him.

Mel's father broke with the Church over Vatican II.

Mel believes, as does his father that there is no salvation other than through the church (see this link: http://www.catholic.com/library/Salvation_Outside_the_Church.asp ) Here is a relevant quote from the link: "Certain radical traditionalists, going to the other extreme, claim that unless one is a full-fledged, baptized member of the Catholic Church, one will be damned."

Thus - if his father has broken from the Church (because of Vatican II) how can he reconcile his views that all people outside of the Catholic Church be damned to hell with his and his father *not* going to hell?