First of all, Fr. Feeney died reconciled with the Catholic Church. Secondly, I believe the Church's constant teaching of Baptism by Water, by Blood or by Desire. Prior to the last 200 years, Baptism by Desire had alway been always been defined as applying only to those who have died without being baptized with water, but who had the desire and the intention of being Baptized with water before death. But now, Baptism by Desire can also apply to any jew, muslim, pagan, buddhist, etc. who just has to "think" he is doing good works, even though he is fully aware of the teachings of Catholic religion of EENS. And the latter position of this view is heresy.
And it's Catholics like Pope Francis and some Catholics on this forum who perpetuate and teach that false, modernist view of Baptism by Desire.
The fact that Feeney died in union with the Church implies nothing about his teaching.
Fr. Feeney was excommunicated for disobeying his superiors. He was expelled from the Society of Jesus for the same reason.
He was not excommunicated because of his teaching, and the excommunication was lifted as he approached death as an act of mercy, without reference to his teaching. He was not required to retract anything. And he was no longer competent to think about any theological issues.
The important point is: The fact that his excommunication was lifted DOES NOT IMPLY THAT HIS TEACHING WAS NOT HERETICAL, because his teaching was never the reason for the excommunication in the first place.
Fr. Feeney’s teaching was a heretical interpretation of EENS. It always was, during his life and after his death.
The Church has never taught, as Feeney did, that all people who are not formally, officially, registered in a parish as a baptized member of the Catholic Church, are damned.
I agree with you that Popes and the rest of the hierarchy have slipped into indifferentism, taking a cavalier attitude about the spiritual danger in which non-Catholics live as a result of being deprived of the ordinary means of salvation. By many scandalous gestures, such as kissing the Koran, they have promoted this indifferentism.
The Church has never formally taught any doctrine but the correct doctrine on this subject.