The problem with that is the Pope still says Jesus can’t be found outside the church, whether you are talking big C or little c, it is still an erroneous statement. Jesus can reveal himself to whomever he pleases, inside or outside the confines of any church. That’s what He did for Paul, and I have no doubt He has done so for many others.
We’d do well to remember that Jesus created the church, not the other way around. The church is bound by Jesus, but Jesus is not bound by any church.
A way to approach the question might be like this. Whatever the state of the man to whom Christ shows grace, the working of that grace is to graft the man into Christ’s body, which is ...
However, in another sense, once a person meets and is transformed by Jesus, he is by that bond spiritually related to a whole family, since as St. Paul said, Jesus is the firstborn of many brothers. The new Christian has been given, as Jesus said, a hundred times more brothers and sisters.
Revelation 12:17 says: "Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus."
So the Church is the mother of all believers.
Certainly all who have God as their Father and Jesus as the "firstborn" Brother, have the Church as their Mother. Even Paul, who met Christ independently of Mother Church ---"like one abnormally born" he says--- (1 Corinthians 15:8) teaches that "His will is that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known (Ephesians 3:10).
In Ephesians he writes so insightfully, and extensively, about Christ's inseparable relationship to the Church, His Bride. Nobody who wants to be united to Christ could want to be separated from His Church --- since His intent is that it is through the Church that He wills His manifold wisdom to be made know.
That relationship may be, for some, paradoxical and mysterious (Paul uses the term a "profound mystery" ---"Mysterium tremendum" --- in Ephesians) but its via the Church, Mother and Bride, that we are related to our Divine Bridegroom.
That's beautiful, isn't it, my dear Boogie?