Apparently I'm not doing a very good job at expressing myself, so I'll ask it this way:
Does the Catholic Church believe that non-Catholic Christians have a place in Heaven?
If so, why all the fuss about "proper/improper"?
And yes, I read through the posts on the link you gave me. It seems that even Catholics are disagreeing amongst themselves as to the meaning of the Pope's statement.
Not everything is about salvation alone. In Christian theology we will account for our use of the gifts God gave us, our "talents," so Catholics and Protestants can recognize that each has saints and we are one body divided, AND can vehemently disagree on major theological issues AND can feel that we are obligated to do so. Salvation, saving grace, is step one for a Christian, not the whole race.
Alice von Hildebrand wrote recently about this issue: There's entirely too much focus on "salvation" when talking about the Church/churches. Our primary purpose ON EARTH is to glorify God. We do that by knowing, loving, and serving God through the fulfillment of our duties. We can do that only if we know the truth about God and about ourselves.
The Catholic Church has NEVER taught that only registered Catholics are saved. What the Catholic Church DOES teach is that those whose knowledge of God is partial, or whose knowledge of how God wants us to serve Him is partial, or whose knowledge of what is truly good for human nature is distorted, cannot glorify God as He truly deserves.
THIS is sufficient reason to spread the gospel and engage in missionary activity. The Universal Call to Holiness cannot be properly answered by those who have only part of the truth and part of the means of grace--i.e., ALL of the sacraments.
It is NOT true that, if one admits that non-Catholics or even the unbaptized, can be SAVED, then all motivation for spreading the gospel collapses.
That is what the Feeneyites constantly proclaim. It is part of their heresy--this exclusive focus on SALVATION, that makes Feeneyism a form of Protestantism.