I was talking to two seminarians from Africa two days back when I finally said "The saints agree with me.I agree with the saints Don Bosco, St.Francis of Assisi etc'.
St.Robert Bellarmine would agree with Vatican Council II (AG 7) when he affirms the literal interpretation fo the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. He did not mention any exceptions.He knew about implicit desire etc but did not consider these cases visible to us. So they are not exceptions to the defined dogma.
The two seminarians study heology at the Salesian University,Rome and belong to the community of Don Orione.
St.Robert Bellarmine had the same message as Vatican Council II.
For Christ Himself "by stressing in express language the necessity of faith and baptism (cf. Mark 16:16; John 3:5), at the same time confirmed the necessity of the Church, into which men enter by baptism, as by a door.-Ad Gentes 7,Vatican Council II
Therefore, all must be converted to Him,...and all must be incorporated into Him by baptism and into the Church which is His body.-Ad Gentes 7, Vatican Council II
The following passage also from Ad Gentes 7 does not contradict St.Robert Bellarmine since it is referring to invisible-to-us cases.
Therefore though God in ways known to Himself can lead those inculpably ignorant of the Gospel to find that faith without which it is impossible to please Him-Ad Gentes 7,Vatican Council II
Again the follwing passage from Ad Gentes 7 does not contradict St.Robert Bellarmine.Invisible cases!
Therefore those men cannot be saved, who though aware that God, through Jesus Christ founded the Church as something necessary, still do not wish to enter into it, or to persevere in it.-Ad Gentes 7,Vatican Council II
Nor is the following line an exception to St.Robert Bellarmine.
made known by the Church's preaching- Ad Gentes 7, Vatican Council II
'made known by the Church's preaching' as distinguished from 'those who are in invincible ignorance',both cases would be known only to God.They are visible for us.They are possibilities only and not exceptions to St.Robert Bellarmine.If they were known to us personally they would be exceptions.
The Church teaches,after Vatican Council II, like St.Robert Bellarmine, that all non Catholics defacto need to convert in the present times for salvation and that de facto we do not know any case who knows, is made known by the Church's preaching and is saved, who is inculpably ignorant of the Gospel and saved, so, like St.Robert Bellarmine taught,'therefore, all must be converted to Him, made known by the Church's preaching, and all must be incorporated into Him by baptism and into the Church which is His body.'
So as St.Robert Bellarmine and the saints taught traditionally ' Christ Himself "by stressing in express language the necessity of faith and baptism (cf. Mark 16:16; John 3:5), at the same time confirmed the necessity of the Church, into which men enter by baptism, as by a door' and there are no known exceptions. -Lionel Andrades
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