Pope Benedict is following Pope Francis in his theology and is ' not rigid'. He has not opposed Amoris Laetitia and he interprets Vatican Council II assuming references to hypothetical cases are non hypothetical and examples of known salvation outside the Church in the present times.

Pope Benedict is following Pope Francis in his theology and is ' not rigid'. He has not opposed Amoris Laetitia and he interprets Vatican Council II assuming references to hypothetical cases are non hypothetical and examples of known salvation outside the Church in the present times.Since invisible non Catholics saved outside the Church are visible exceptions to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus(EENS) he does not have to rigidlly affirm outside the Church no salvation, as did the missionaries and Magisterium in the 16rh century.
In his recent book he did not affirm the Social Reign of Christ the King over all political legislation as did the popes of the past and neither did he support the non separation of Church and State.This would have been Catholic but too rigid.
So he writes theology while interpreting invisible cases of the baptism of desire, baptism of blood and being saved in invincible ignorance are visible exceptions to Feeneyite EENS.He pretends that the references in Lumen Gentium 14( case of the unknown catechumen who seeks the baptism before he dies) and Lumen Gentium 16( the case of the unknown non Catholic saved in ignorance of the Church) are explcit examples of salvation outside the Church and so are objective exceptions to the dogma EENS as it was known over the centuries.-Lionel Andrades