Quick question for you Ladislaus; this seemed the appropriate place. You've outlined a formulation of BOD with which you wouldn't generally take exception (or at least would "leave alone" as it were), though you've mentioned that you personally still wouldn't accept it. With your fantastic defense of canonizations, General Councils, and universal disciplinary laws in mind, how do you square the 1917 Code with your own framework vis-a-vis ecclesiastical burial for Catechumens?
Again, notice that the 1917 Code speaks very specifically of Catechumens, which is perfectly in line with a Catholic understanding of BoD.
I've dealt with the 1917 Code before. As such, a code of law, it's disciplinary and not doctrinal. It's not defining anything. So, in the context of burials, for pastoral reasons, it allows for the possibility that a catechumen might be saved via BoD; it's contrary to the earlier discipline of the Church. So I have taken exception to the Dimonds who believe that even the limited, properly understood BoD, is heretical ... since the Church has always allowed the opinion. In fact, I consider that view to be schismatic. But, as per my previous post, the BoDer crusade isn't about the occasional catechumen who MIGHT be saved, but about undermining EENS. Just as there's no guaranteed that ANYONE who's being buried by the Church is ACTUALLY saved, so there's no guarantee that any catechumen who's being buried by the Church is ACTUALLY saved, just that the Church leave it open as a possibility in the pastoral context. There's no proof that anyone has ever been saved by BoD or that God would will any of His elect to be saved by this means when it's easily possible for Him to bring the Sacrament to any of His elect. I see BoD as speculative theology for which there's no actual or practical need and for which there's no actual proof.
So, if you want to believe that some catechumen or other who died without Baptism (which probably happens once in a blue moon) MIGHT be saved via BoD, then more power to you. But when people start talking about Great Thumb worshippers being saved via some distorted "BoD", that's when I have problems with you, and the Doctors of the Church are all ON MY SIDE on this matter, as is the Magisterium of the Church. In fact, once you start extending salvation to non-Catholics, you've got all of Vatican II in a nutshell, and LoT and Ambrose, who hold the same ecclesiology as Vatican II, are schismatic for rejecting Vatican II, since they have nothing to stand on.