“You don’t have to be Catholic to get to Heaven”
That is both misleading and false. Jesus Christ revealed to us that to get to Heaven we must eat His flesh and drink His blood, otherwise we have no life in us. The Catholic Church is absolutely necessary for salvation. While the leading thought of today is that salvation is possible outside of the Catholic Church, it is certainly not a teaching. The Church holds out hope that “maybe” due to God’s justice and mercy, such a thing is possible. But it is very wrong to say that with certainty. If the Catholic Church truly believed that salvation was found outside the Church there’d be no need to send missionaries out to the ends of the Earth and baptizing all nations in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
I’m not advocating for Feeneyism (sp). I’m just wanting to draw an important distinction that the belief in the possibility of salvation outside the Catholic Church is just wishful thinking on the Church’s part. I’m not saying it’s not possible or that it doesn’t happen. God is certainly not limited by the rules He Himself makes. But from what “is” revealed to us, salvation is possibly only through Christ’s One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
Contemporary theologians like to muddy the waters and create as much gray area as possible by arguing what is meant by Catholic? Does this include those who are validly baptized but deny the teachings of the Church, including the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist? They say yes. The Church says no, but we can hope that God’s mercy will make exception.