The 1949 Holy Office letter, so often quoted (and even referenced at Vatican II and the present CCC), states:Toward the end of this same encyclical letter, when most affectionately inviting to unity those who do not belong to the body of the Catholic Church, he mentions those who "are related to the Mystical Body of the Redeemer by a certain unconscious yearning and desire," and these he by no means excludes from eternal salvation, but on the other hand states that they are in a condition "in which they cannot be sure of their salvation" since "they still remain deprived of those many heavenly gifts and helps which can only be enjoyed in the Catholic Church" (AAS, 1. c., p. 243). With these wise words he reproves both those who exclude from eternal salvation all united to the Church only by implicit desire, and those who falsely assert that men can be saved equally well in every religion (cf. Pope Pius IX, Allocution,, in , n. 1641 ff.; also Pope Pius IX in the encyclical letter, , in , n. 1677).
Non-Catholics cannot be sure that they are in a state of grace, which means that we can be even less sure that they are in a state of grace, so any "ecumenism" must first begin with these words:
WE ARE COMPELLED, OUR FAITH URGING us, to believe and to hold—and we do firmly believe and simply confess—that there is one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, outside of which there is neither salvation nor remission of sins...Indeed we declare, say, pronounce, and define that it is altogether necessary to salvation for every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.
The Lateran, November 14, in our eighth year. As a perpetual memorial of this matter.
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