Sorry but no. In fact, this statement is scandalous. We look up to the teachings of the popes as the vicar of Christ and the final arbiters of Catholic doctrine. We look up to bishops as the successors of the Apostles, who have the authority to teach the Church and are part of the living magisterium. We look up to the cardinals, similarly, as princes of the Church who are appointed to that position by the pope for their learning and piety. To put one ex-Jesuit priest ahead of most of those people is not a Catholic attitude at all.

I too salute Fr. Feeney. Before him was Fr. Arnold Damen and Fr. Mueller who fought for No salvation outside the church.  Fr. Arnold Damen was chosen to come to America under Fr. De Smet! 

I read Fr. Mueller's No Salvation outside the Church.  It did not clash at all, it just affirmed for Fr. Feeney that there were communists in the universities 50 years before Fr. Feeney came on the scenes and he saw it as well.

"'out of the Church no one can be saved,' is to be understood of those who are of the Church neither actually nor in desire."

"St. Thomas teaches with regard to these, in case they have faith working by charity, that all they lack is the, reception of the visible sacrament in reality; but, if they are prevented by death from receiving it in reality before the Church is ready to administer it, that God supplies the defect, accepts the will for the deed, and reputes them to be baptized. If the defect is supplied, and God reputes them to be baptized, they are so in effect, have in effect received the visible sacrament, are truly members of the external communion of the Church, and therefore are saved in it, not out of it. (Summa, 3, q. 68, a. 2, corp. ad 2. et ad 3)."

"If a person cannot receive Baptism or Penance in reality, and is aware of the obligation of receiving it, he must have the explicit desire to receive it; but, if he is not aware of this obligation, he must have at least the implicit desire to receive it, and this desire must be joined to divine faith in the Redeemer and to an act of perfect charity or contrition, which includes the sincere desire of the soul to comply with all that God requires of it in order to be saved."

“Any other loss can be made up for, but never that of prayer; if, on account of a delicate constitution, you cannot fast, you may give alms; have you no occasion to confess, you may obtain forgiveness of your sins by making an act of perfect contrition; nay, even the Sacrament of Baptism may be supplied by the real desire of it, and a perfect love of God, but no other means of salvation is left for him who does not love to practise prayer.”

• Vol.I: The Church and Her Enemies, pp.285-286  https://archive.org/details/thechurchandhere00mulluoft
• Vol. V:  Dignity, Authority, and Duties of Parents, Ecclesiastical and Civil Powers – Their Enemy, pp.460-464  https://archive.org/details/godtheteacher05meuluoft
• Vol.VI: Grace and the Sacraments, pp.218-222  https://books.google.com/books?id=KakKAQAAIAAJ
• Vol.VIII: The Sacraments of The Holy Eucharist and Penance, pp.336 & 351  https://books.google.com/books?id=hLwKAQAAIAAJ

• Vol.IX: Sacramentals, Prayer, Vices and Virtues; Christian Perfection, Etc., p.62  https://archive.org/details/GodTheTeacherOfMankindV9

8. Can the baptism of water be ever supplied?

When a person cannot receive the baptism of water, it may be supplied by the baptism of desire, or by the baptism of blood.

Almighty God is goodness itself.  Hence he wishes that all men should be saved.  But, in order to be saved, it is necessary to pass, by means of baptism, from the state of sin to the state of grace.  Infants, therefore, who die unbaptized, can never enter the kingdom of heaven.  The case of grown persons is somewhat different; for, when grown persons cannot be actually baptized before death, then the baptism of water may be supplied by what is called the baptism of desire.

There is an infidel.  He has become acquainted with the true faith.  He most earnestly desires baptism. But he cannot have any one to baptize him before he dies.  Now, is such a person lost because he dies without the baptism of water?  No; in this case, the person is said to be baptized in desire.

9. What is the baptism of desire?

An earnest wish to receive baptism, or to do all that God requires of us for our salvation, together with a perfect contrition, or a perfect love of God.

An ardent desire of baptism, accompanied with faith in Jesus Christ and true repentance, is, with God, like the baptism of water.  In this case, the words of the Blessed Virgin are verified: “The Lord has filled the hungry with good things.” (Luke i, 35.) He bestows the good things of heaven upon those who die with the desire of baptism.  We read of a very interesting instance, in confirmation of this truth, in the Annals of the Propagation of the Faith:  It is related by M. Odin, missionary apostolic, and, subsequently, Archbishop of New Orleans, Louisiana:  “At some distance from our establishment at Barrens,” he says, “in Missouri, United States of America, there was a district inhabited by Protestants or infidels, with the exception of three or four Catholic families.  In 1834 we had the consolation of baptizing several persons there:  thus it was that the Lord was pleased to reward the kindness with which one of the most respectable inhabitants gave us hospitality every time we journeyed that way.  This worthy man, who was not a Catholic, had three little children, who received with eagerness the instructions we never failed to give them.  The tallest of the sons, only eight years old, especially showed such a particular relish for the word of God, that he learned by heart the entire catechism.  Evening and morning he addressed his little prayer to the good God; and if ever his little sister missed that holy exercise, he reproached her very seriously.  Things were at this point when the cholera broke out in the neighborhood.  Then this good little boy said simply to his mother:  ‘Mamma, the cholera is coming here:  oh! how glad I should be if the priests from the seminary came to baptize me!  That cruel disease will attack me, I am sure it will, and I shall die without baptism; then you will be sorry.'  Alas! the poor child predicted truly:  he was one of the first victims of the dreadful plague.  During the short moments of his cruel sufferings he incessantly asked for baptism, and even with his last sigh he kept repeating:  “Oh if any one would baptize me!  My God!  must I die without being baptized?'  The mother, thinking that she could not herself administer that sacrament, although there was evident necessity, was in the greatest trouble; neither would the child consent to receive it from the hands of a Protestant minister.  At last he died without having obtained his ardent wish.  As soon as I heard of the cholera being in that part of the country, I hastened thither; but I only reached there some hours after the child's funeral.  The family was plunged in the greatest affliction.  I consoled them as much as I could, and especially in relation to the eternal destiny of their poor little one, by explaining to them what the Church teaches us on the baptism of desire.  This consoling doctrine much assuaged their grief; after giving the other necessary instructions, I baptized the mother and the two young children, and, some days after, the father failed not to follow the example of his family.” (“Catholic Anecdotes,” p. 547.)

Although it be true that the fathers of the Church have believed and taught that the baptism of desire may supply the baptism of water, yet this doctrine, as St. Augustine observes, should not make any one delay ordinary baptism when he is able to receive it; for, such a delay of baptism is always attended with great danger of salvation.


10. What is the baptism of blood?

Martyrdom for the sake of Christ.

There is still another case in which a person may be justified and saved without having actually received the sacrament of baptism, viz.:  the case of a person suffering martyrdom for the faith before he has been able to receive baptism.  Martyrdom for the true faith has always been held by the Church to supply the sacrament of baptism.  Hence, in the case of martyrdom, a person has always been said to be baptized in his own blood.  Our divine Saviour assures us that “whosoever shall lose his life for his sake and the gospel, shall save it.” (Mark viii, 35.)  He, therefore, who dies for Jesus Christ, and for the sake of his religion, obtains a full remission of all his sins, and is immediately after death admitted into heaven.

St. Emerentiana, while preparing to receive baptism, went to pray at the tomb of St. Agnes.  While praying there, she was stoned to death by the heathens.  Her parents were greatly afflicted, and almost inconsolable, when they learned that their daughter had died without having received baptism.  To console her parents, God permitted Emerentiana to appear to them in her heavenly glory, and to tell them not to be any longer afflicted on account of her salvation, “for,” said she, “I am in heaven with Jesus, my dear Saviour, whom I loved with my whole heart, when living on earth.” (Her Life, 23d Jan.)

St. Genesius of Arles is also honored as a saint, because, for refusing to subscribe to a persecuting edict of Maximilian, he was put to death, though, at that time, he had not been baptized.