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An otherwise brilliant Jesuit priest, the late Leonard Feeney, SJ, made the mistake of reading and interpreting Scripture on his own and without adequate submission to the Teaching Magisterium of the Catholic Church. He took the Scriptural passage that "outside the Church there is no salvation" a tad too seriously and then some. Feeney concluded for several decade that all non-Catholics were, as you suggest, lost (regarding their salvation). The Church answered Fr. Feeney on this point by severely punishing him and IIRC separating him from the Church by excommunication (which does pose an interesting dilemma for the exclusivist crowd, doesn't it?). Fr. Feeney eventually repented his sinful preachings in that respect (whatever his unreconciled followers may claim) and was restored to full communion with Rome.

I was a Catholic child in New Haven, Connecticut, when Feeneyism (which emanated from Boston) was at its height. Feeney had people dressed as nuns and religious brothers going door to door to sell books and raise money. My pastor and many others advised the faithful in the pews to respond to Feeney's disciples by politely telling them that we were Catholics and were uninterested in Leonard Feeney's eccentric theories.

While Catholics would certainly welcome you too if you were to convert to Catholicism, I have no question that Evangelicals (and many other Protestants) are Christians and I hope to meet many of them (including you, and many former clients in pro-life activity and many dear friends) in heaven when the time comes. I have more reason to worry about my own salvation than I do about that of many of my non-Catholic Christian brothers and sisters.

You and I would, no doubt, disagree in our respective beliefs as to a very important 5% of faith matters. We would likely agree on the rest. The differences are quite important but so are the similarities.

May God bless you and yours.

Thanks so much for this post, BlackElk.

BlackElk, you are like a Queen in a chess match: sparingly used, but ever so effective.

He took the Scriptural passage that "outside the Church there is no salvation"

reference please, thanks

An otherwise brilliant Jesuit priest, the late Leonard Feeney, SJ, made the mistake of reading and interpreting Scripture on his own and without adequate submission to the Teaching Magisterium of the Catholic Church. He took the Scriptural passage that "outside the Church there is no salvation" a tad too seriously and then some. Feeney concluded for several decade that all non-Catholics were, as you suggest, lost (regarding their salvation). The Church answered Fr. Feeney on this point by severely punishing him and IIRC separating him from the Church by excommunication (which does pose an interesting dilemma for the exclusivist crowd, doesn't it?). Fr. Feeney eventually repented his sinful preachings in that respect (whatever his unreconciled followers may claim) and was restored to full communion with Rome.

Do you remember Father Feeney and the controversy that boiled around him. I do. I lived in a Boston suburb and was very interested in the proceedings.

As I remember, and I could be wrong, he did not base his "no salvation" teaching on Scripture but, rather, on the "infallible" Unum Sanctum - Pope Boniface VIII. which concludes with "Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff."

Further, it seems odd that Father Feeney could be "excommunicated" and "un-excommunicated". But that's just my thinking.