I know many people will be upset at this news, and say that it is a sin and horrible and so on. However, do they not just follow their consciences? And doesn’t that save them just as it does the atheist? And are we not, as Catholics, called to encourage them to seek what they see as the Good, which is just what they are doing? Or are we at this forum more Catholic than the pope?
The same is true for any individual or group that chooses to separate itself from the Catholic Church. The same argument applies here.