In the past, the Church seems to have taken an exclusivist position on the validity of other faith traditions. Numerous popes in the Middle Ages seem to have stated clearly that anyone who is "outside" the Church, who is "not subject to the Roman Pontiff" or is "not living within the Catholic Church" cannot be saved and will not attain Heaven.
Numerous statements since the 1960's seem to have stated clearly that the Church has switches to an inclusivist position. They now believe that non-Catholics can have indirect access to salvation, but that their faith may well place serious roadblocks on the path to salvation.
The church tackles this apparent conflict in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Items 846 and 847 attempt to harmonize ancient and recent statements on salvation of non-Christians.
Section 846 by making the following points:
In ancient times, the Church Fathers often said that "Outside the [Catholic] Church there is no salvation."
The church has always taught that: "...all salvation comes from Christ...through the [Catholic] Church..." "...the [Catholic] Church...is necessary for salvation..." "...Christ ...affirmed...the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door."
Those who realize the Church's role and who "refuse either to enter it or to remain in it" cannot achieve salvation or attain Heaven after death.
This is what various popes meant when they said that there was no salvation outside the church.
Section 847 states that:
The above "...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." 9
This attempt at harmonizing leaves many Anglicans, Muslims, Protestants, Wiccans, and followers of other religions in an awkward situation. Many know of the claims of the Roman Catholic Church and reject them. That would seem to eliminate any possibility for them to be saved and attain Heaven, according to the Roman Catholic Church.
9 "Catechism of the Catholic Church," Doubleday (1994).
www.ReligiousTolerance.org
It's true that the Catechism "attempts" to harmonize these incompatible positions, but it cannot be done. The teaching of the Catholic faith is that which has been believed and taught "always and everywhere" by all the faithful of all time, not by one small group of Catholics for one short period of time. What has been always taught and believed by all Catholics is that you must enter the Catholic Church in order to be saved.
Witchcraft is not a path to salvation!