Whoa! I'm going to step in before this thread gets as out of whack as the other ones.
The document that was released today (you can read it here) mostly echos the document Dominus Iesus which was released with the express permission of Pope John Paul II. It is consistent with previous Catholic teaching.
If you have been misled to believe otherwise, and that this is somehow a change, then I sincerely apologize.
It's awesome. Maybe someday he'll up and reaffirm the Catholic dogma that outside the Catholic Church there is absolutely no salvation. Most people don't know that's defined Catholic dogma. If someone didn't know it was, does their due diligence and finds out that it actually is dogma, and yet obstinately refuses to believe it after working through the matter with eye to sincerely knowing and believing the Catholic truth, they've just lost the Catholic Faith.