For certain (invincibly?) ignorant persons here:
De virtute fidei divinae, 1646 (C2-D1)Title: De virtuto fidei divinæ Author: His Eminence Cardinal John de Lugo. Pub.: Lyons, 1646
“Those who do not believe with the Catholic Church can be divided into several categories. There are some who, while they do not believe all the dogmas of the Catholic religion, do acknowledge the one true God; such are the Turks and all Moslems, as well as the Jews. Others acknowledge the triune God and Christ, as most heretics do… Now if these people are excused from the sin of infidelity by reason of invincible ignorance, they can be saved. For those who are in invincible ignorance about some articles of faith but believe others, are not formally heretics, but they have supernatural faith, by which they believe true articles, and on this basis there can follow acts of perfect contrition, by which they can be justified and saved. The same must be said about the Jews, if there are any who are invincibly mistaken about the Christian religion; for they can still have a true supernatural faith in God, and about other articles, based on Sacred Scripture, which they accept, and so, with this faith, they can have contrition, by which they can be justified and saved, provided that explicit faith in Christ is not required with a necessity of means, as will be explained later on. Finally, if any Turks and Moslems were invincibly in error about Christ and his divinity, there is no reason why they could not have a true supernatural faith about God as the supernatural rewarder, since their
15 The Salvation of the Unbeliever, by Riccardo Lombardi, S.J. Translation from the Italian original La Salvezza di chi non ha fede (Edizione “La Civilta Cattolica”, Rome) by Dorothy M. White. Nihil Obstat: Daniel Dvivesteijn, S.T.D., Censor Depvtatvs. Imprimatur: E. Morrogh Bernard, Vicarivs Generalis, Westmonasterii, die XIX Decembris MCMLV. The Newman Press. First published 1956 in Great Britain. Disputatio. 20, sect. 23, n. 122.
16 SOC, Chap. 7, p. 110.
15
belief about God is not based on arguments drawn from natural creation, but they have this belief from tradition, and this tradition derives from the church of the faithful, and has come down to them, even though it is mixed up with errors in their sect. Since they have relatively sufficient motives for belief with regard to the true doctrines, one does not see why they could not have a supernatural faith about them, provided that in other respects they are not guilty of sinning against the faith. Consequently, with the faith that they have, they can arrive at an act of perfect contrition.”17
“…One should note, with Suarez, that there is a certain intermediate state of those people to whom the faith has not been proposed sufficiently so that they are obliged to embrace it, but who have heard enough about it to be obliged to inquire further and to examine the motives for belief in the teaching of the faith. Thus, while a first preaching of the faith might not suffice to impose a proximate obligation of believing, it could suffice for a remote obligation. People in this situation, of whom there are a great many nowadays, among the heretics, the pagans, and especially among the Turks and other Moslems, if they do not exercise the required diligence [in inquiring further], will no longer have an ignorance that is invincible and inculpable. However, if they do exercise the required diligence, but still are not able to find sufficient knowledge for a prudent decision to embrace the Christian faith, their ignorance will still remain invincible."
Second Council of Orange, 529 A.D.: "According to the Catholic Faith we also believe that after grace has been received through baptism, all baptized persons have the ability and responsibility, if they desire to labor faithfully, to perform with the aid and cooperation of Christ what is of essential importance in regard to the salvation of their soul. We not only do not believe that any are foreordained to evil by the power of God, but even state with utter abhorrence that if there are those who want to believe so evil a thing, they are anathema. We also believe and confess to our benefit that in every good work it is not we who take the initiative and are then assisted through the mercy of God, but God himself first inspires in us both faith in him and love for him without any previous good works of our own that deserve reward, so that we may both faithfully seek the sacrament of baptism, and after baptism be able by his help to do what is pleasing to him. We must therefore most evidently believe that the praiseworthy faith of the thief whom the Lord called to his home in paradise, and of Cornelius the centurion, to whom the angel of the Lord was sent, and ofZacchaeus, who was worthy to receive the Lord himself, was not a natural endowment but a gift of God's kindness."