This is very much what happened. It is apostasy to think that people are saved outside the Church.
Baptism is REQUIRED to go to heaven. What is being argued is how far baptism of desire goes. Traditionally, in the latin rite, one had to know of heaven in order to desire it. A child who had not reached the age of reason, was not murdered for the Catholic faith and was not baptised had NO possibility of going to heaven. Why? Original Sin.
If we are subject to original sin (which is debatable between the Orthodox, then surely we would have heaped upon us every sin that has ever been committed from Adam’s time to our own. I must say that I reject Augustine’s view of original sin.
The modern Church MAY still believe this, but what she teaches would lead men to believe that ANYONE can go to heaven if he just lives a good life.
Many people wonder why seminaries and religious orders are dying out due to lack of new members. Why join when they are told it is no longer necessary?
This is just ONE of many many reasons why there is such a strong growth in the traditional Catholic movement. A movement which rejects these fundamental changes to Church teaching.
Take a look at what just a FEW of the pre-conciliar Popes have declared EX CATHEDRA. If the modern Church says salvation outside the Church is possible, then they essentially declare that EX-CATHERDRA proclamations by their predecessors were in error, i.e. the Holy Spirit does NOT prevent error in EX CATHEDRA statements.
“There is but one universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved.” (Pope Innocent III, Fourth Lateran Council, 1215.)
“We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.” (Pope Boniface VIII, the Bull Unam Sanctam, 1302.)
No where, either in cannon law or in the ecclesiastical history has it ever been stated by a Father of the Church that we will be denied salvation if we are not under the authority of the Bishop of Rome. Talk abou over-stepping his jurisdiction.
“The most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go into the eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless before death they are joined with Her; and that so important is the unity of this ecclesiastical body that only those remaining within this unity can profit by the sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and they alone can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, their almsgivings, their other works of Christian piety and the duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ, can be saved, unless he remain within the bosom and the unity of the Catholic Church.” (Pope Eugene IV, the Bull Cantate Domino, 1441.)
God alone is our judge, not even the sucessor of Peter.
13. Now We consider another abundant source of the evils with which the Church is afflicted at present: indifferentism. This perverse opinion is spread on all sides by the fraud of the wicked who claim that it is possible to obtain the eternal salvation of the soul by the profession of any kind of religion, as long as morality is maintained. Surely, in so clear a matter, you will drive this deadly error far from the people committed to your care. With the admonition of the apostle that “there is one God, one faith, one baptism”[16] may those fear who contrive the notion that the safe harbor of salvation is open to persons of any religion whatever. They should consider the testimony of Christ Himself that “those who are not with Christ are against Him,”[17] and that they disperse unhappily who do not gather with Him. Therefore “without a doubt, they will perish forever, unless they hold the Catholic faith whole and inviolate.”[18] Let them hear Jerome who, while the Church was torn into three parts by schism, tells us that whenever someone tried to persuade him to join his group he always exclaimed: “He who is for the See of Peter is for me.”[19] A schismatic flatters himself falsely if he asserts that he, too, has been washed in the waters of regeneration. Indeed Augustine would reply to such a man: “The branch has the same form when it has been cut off from the vine; but of what profit for it is the form, if it does not live from the root?”[20]
- This shameful font of indifferentism gives rise to that absurd and erroneous proposition which claims that liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone. It spreads ruin in sacred and civil affairs, though some repeat over and over again with the greatest impudence that some advantage accrues to religion from it. “But the death of the soul is worse than freedom of error,” as Augustine was wont to say.[21] When all restraints are removed by which men are kept on the narrow path of truth, their nature, which is already inclined to evil, propels them to ruin. Then truly “the bottomless pit”[22] is open from which John saw smoke ascending which obscured the sun, and out of which locusts flew forth to devastate the earth. Thence comes transformation of minds, corruption of youths, contempt of sacred things and holy laws — in other words, a pestilence more deadly to the state than any other. Experience shows, even from earliest times, that cities renowned for wealth, dominion, and glory perished as a result of this single evil, namely immoderate freedom of opinion, license of free speech, and desire for novelty.
— Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos
