If that is what you believe, then fine, just tell me. But don't dodge questions because you are ashamed of the response or because you feel it might offend my sensibilites or someone else's sensibilities. Dodging the questions and referring people to outside sources in lieu of answering direct questions wastes both of our times and it wastes bandwidth and wastes the time of the lurkers.
I have asked you politely twice for a direct answer to my question. You have politely refused on two occasions to directly answer the question. I will therefore assume that you have no intention of directly answering the question, so I will not ask again.
Thanks.
Marlowe
I believe the problem here, marlowe, is that you are asking for a simple "yes" or "no" answer to a question which does not lend itself to a simple answer. Specifically, you are asking a complex question and demanding a simple answer. Moreover, you have already indicated why you are doing this.
It seems you wish to set up a straw man and then knock it down. If polemikos answers, "no, it is not possible to be saved outside the Church" you will come back with, "ah, then you believe all we Protestants will be going to hell." Certainly, a straw man you would love to use to knock the Church.
If polemikos says "yes, it is possible to be saved outside the Church," then you have already indicated you will use this to argue it really doesn't matter to which church one belongs.
Hence, your frustration when he doesn't grab the bait and, hence, your bluster about an 'unwillingness' to answer a direct question when polemikos directs you to a website offering the Catholic position supported with the writings of the Early Church Fathers on this subject.
Basically, the Catholic position is that 'yes' it is possible to be saved outside the Church provided one is invincibly ignorant. To wit: they have not been brought to a saving knowledge of the necessity of belief in Christ and, hence, the Body of Christ.
The situation becomes even more complex when discussing this with our Protestant brothers and sisters. We believe your baptism brings you into the Mystical Body of Christ which is the Church. Due to historical circumstances, we recognize you are not in full communion with the Church. Moreover, we recognize, again through historical circumstances, that many of our Protestant brethren -through no fault of their own- remain ignorant about the necessity of coming to know Jesus in the Sacrament of the Eucharist and coming to experience the healing power found in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Thus, we hold out the hope, the possibility, that Our Lord, in His Infinite Mercy, will spare you come the Day of Judgement and, that, you will, therefore, be saved.