Catholic dogma has changed. For example, a longstanding principle of the Church is that, “Outside the Church there is no salvation.” For many years this was expressed as those “not living within the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics cannot become participants in eternal life,” (Council of Florence, 1441). In the most recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church this precept has been softened to, “Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1994). Similarly, for many years Catholic dogma affirmed a Ptolemaic view of the universe, now the church embraces prevailing cosmological models as consistent with Catholic teachings. There are many more examples.
It is quite funny how you use the dogma “extra ecclesiam nulla salus” to support your idea that dogma has changed. Usually those who raise that point are ultra conservatives or sedevantists.
If we take a closer look at history with gards to that dogma, we would see that the alleged change in that dogma is more cosmetic than substantial, and that the position of the Church on that matter has been clarified, rather than fundamentally changed.
Basing on the apostolic teaching on the necessity of Baptism and faith in Christ for salvation, the Church Fathers affirmed that the Church knows of no other alternative means of salvation and that, therefore, the Church has a divine mission to preach the Gospel to all people since the love of God desires all men to come to salvation offered so freely in Christ. At the same time, in the face of heresies and schisms rending the unity of the Church, the Fathers affirmed that those who received Baptism and subsequently deserted the bosom of the Church to join the heretics would not be saved simply because they have been baptised: by abandoning the communion of the Catholic Church, they have cast themselves outside of the Church, the only ark of salvation given by God to all men.
Yet the Church Fathers were careful to highlight that there are others who, though visibly outside the communion of the Church, could be saved. Chief among these groups, and quite uncontroversially, were the Patriarchs, Prophets and holy men and women of the Old Testament. In fact, the Catholic Church continues to observe many of these as saints in her Martryrology. Then there was the fate of pagans who never received Baptism but who lived according to the Christian moral law. St Justin, for example, wrote “those who lived according to the Logos are considered Christians, even if they were considered atheists” and he goes on to count Socrates as a Christian! And there are other examples besides. Clearly, the Church Fathers considered those who lived good lives prior to the coming of Christ can be saved: they are still saved by Christ, whom they desired without fully perceiving him, they are still joined to the Church of Christ, in a mysterious, invisible way.
Now that Christ has come, what of those who do not visibly adhere to the Church? There is greater hesitancy now, even among the Church Fathers, though we still find statements that acknowledge that there can be those who are not within the visible bounds of the Church who are really part of the Church. St Gregory Nazienzen gives us the phrase that has been taken up by Pope Benedict prior to his election to the Chair of Peter: There are many of us, whose life makes them outside of the Church, and many who are outside who belong to the Church by their way of life that already anticipates the Faith. They have the reality (of being part of the Church) even though they lack the name. There are others besides, and none has been censured by the Pontiffs for heresy in this matter!
So the Church has always held to both truths: that there is only one Savior: Christ, and that no one is saved apart from Christ and hence, his Church, which is his Body; at the same time, there are those who, through no fault of their own, have not come to know Christ, but who live according to the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit, can still be saved. The Church knows of no other alternative, so this latter group is always more tentative, entrusting to the mercy of God. The term ‘invincible/inculpable ignorance’ is used to describe this latter group. It is this latter criteria of invincible ignorance where we see the clarifications and refinement of Church teaching.
In the time of the Church Fathers, Catholics who abandoned the Church to join heretical sects do not qualify under invincible ignorance. By the time of the Council of Florence, the Council Fathers had assumed that everyone should have heard (and hence realised the truth of the Gospel) so that they could not feign ignorance. Subsequent development of thought opened the possibility that even those who have heard might remain inculpably unconvinced, perhaps because of the weakness and bad examples of generations of Christians, certainly of the current division and dissent within the Church. So, in some sense, the bar for invincible ignorance has been periodically raised and lowered, but this bar was never part of dogma. Don’t forget that when Fr Feeney was reconciled, who taught that all outside the visible boundary of the Church were condemned to hell and was subsequently excommunicated, , he was not required to recant his extreme position. The bar for invincible ignorance was never fixed and remain open to different interpretations.
So in fact, there is no substantial change in Church teaching over this matter. Dominus Iesus affirmed what has always been central to the faith: there is only one Savior, Jesus Christ, and one mean of salvation: the Catholic Church. The only way we know by which we are clearly incorporated into the Church is through Baptism and remaining in visible communion with her. There may be others who, through no fault of their own, are not visibly joined to the Church but are nonetheless united to her in a mysterious fashion by the work of the Holy Spirit. On this earth, we will never know with certitude who these are. Therefore, the mission that we hear at every Consecration “the Blood of Christ is poured out for many” impels us to be faithful to our mission, so that this “many” is extended to embrace all people visibly. This is part of the legitimate development of doctrine, not a reversal of doctrine.
Ptolemic universe is not part of the Church’s faith, only a commonly held worldview by which people understand the world around them.
