The very reason that "Or the desire thereof" was transformed into a BOD, is because instead of simply reading it as it is written, they HAVE GOT TO [mis]interpret it or they cannot possibly EVER get a BOD out of it, because what Trent is actually teaching, is condemning those who say justification is obtained without the sacrament or without the desire thereof. That is it, no interpretation, no added exceptions, just what it actually teaches.
So how is it even remotely possible that they take that clear decree, and insist it must be flipped into a BOD, where salvation is obtained without the sacrament, but with the desire thereof? It boggles the mind.
I've been trying to figure this stuff out for months since I first heard about it. The idea that Muslims and Jews and atheists can go to heaven is obviously nonsense. I don't really understand Feeny's position, but now that I've found this site and this section, I hope to when I dig through older threads.
When reading "or the desire thereof", my initial thought was that it was a reference to forced baptism and that it was clarifying that a person baptized against his will just got wet rather than entered the Church, not a reference to BOD.
I had some young Catholic woman recently telling me atheists could go to heaven and was extremely upset that I kept insisting that only Catholics could go to heaven.
I don't know what people here would say (well, those who allow for some kind of BOD, anyway), and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I told her that although an atheist cannot go to heaven, we cannot know he didn't convert at the final moments with perfect contrition by a special grace of God (sort of placing him in the state of a catechumen, though obviously informally). This does kind of bother me though, because I thought it was fine, or rather we should assume that a pagan, apostate, formal heretic or atheist didn't make it even if there is a possibility that they might receive some special grace we don't know about. What bothers me though is that seems right to make the assumption they were damned and it shouldn't be ambiguous.