Since St.John is quoted, it is well to remember that both the beloved disciple and Christ Himself confirm the Catholic doctrine of perfect contrition.
1 Jn 4:7,16 Dearly beloved, let us love one another, for charity is of God. And every one that loveth, is born of God, and knoweth God ... and he that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him.
Jn 14:23 Jesus answered, and said to him: If any one love Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make Our abode with him.
These words show that justifying grace is conferred on account of pure love of God, which is the first and greatest commandment. This is why even St.Paul ranks charity (1 Cor 13:13) as the most excellent among the virtues.
It appears to me that most of those who agree with Fr.Feeney do so out of some concern, understandable but in my opinion, misguided, that if we accept BOD than we won't proclaim the necessity of the sacrament to the unbaptized. But nothing could be further from the truth, as the lives of the Saints who accepted the doctrine show.
Also, it can be disproved by analogy with the other sacraments and their corresponding extraordinary means. No Catholic who makes frequent acts of love for God will ever, ever, find himself disparaging the sacrament of penance as a result when it becomes possible for him to reach a priest. Likewise, those who communicate spiritually will never find scorn the Holy Eucharist when they are able to receive it. Similarly, only if approach to baptism is morally or physically impossible, will the desire to receive it suffice. Otherwise, that same desire will manifest itself in actual approach to the sacrament.
I believe, on the authority of both St.Augustine and St.Thomas, by the way, that the like incident happened to Cornelius. He received the Holy Ghost before baptism, as the text says, and as the Doctors comment on the passage, but was impelled to receive the sacrament nonetheless since this was possible to him.