Fr. Feeney was definitely correct that "salvation" is not possible without the Sacrament of Baptism. But he was not saying that "justification" is not possible without the Sacrament of Baptism, which is what I have argued in this thread. In other words, a soul in that state, if there are such souls, would be in a kind of "limbo." And it just so happens that the Bible talks about such a "limbo." It was called the "limbo of the just" aka "the bosom of Abraham. And that situation required at a extraordinary, supernatural act of Jesus descending into Hell to free the "just" from "limbo" and bring them to "salvation."
You act like this is something new, Father Feeney's distinction between justification and salvation. Even if you yourself just figured it out, as it would seem, all the posters who have been arguing against you here are very well aware of Father's distinction. So your condescending attitude of mansplaining things that to other posters who, unlike yourself, are too dense to understand, is rather unwarranted.
In fact, this (or, rather, a variant on it) is my position as well ... I started an entire thread on it ... where a kind of washing "justification" is possible short of salvific Baptism. St. Ambrose wrote of unbaptized martyrs being "washed but not crowned."
What's disputed is whether this washing constitutes merely a removal of sin and the punishment due to it, so that those who are so washed would end up just like the infants who die unbaptized (who have no guilt of sin but no sanctifying grace either) or else like the Fathers in the Limbo Patrum, where they were in a state of grace (St. Joseph, St. John the Baptist, and many others) and yet unable to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I personally believe that there may be a combination of both.
These are different theories and speculations, but at the end of the day we all agree that there can be no entry into the Kingdom of Heaven without having actually received the Sacrament of Baptism. And, no, God does not recognize any such thing as impossibility in His bringing the Sacrament to His elect. And, no, the Church would not be "condemning" countless souls to Hell by refusing to teach BoD. Hell and the punishments of Hell are all due directly or indirectly to one's wilfull actions and sins, and they're the natural ramifications thereof. Nobody will be punished in Hell who doesn't deserve it by having committed actual sin. But, as St. Gregory nαzιanzen taught, there are those who are not so bad as to be punished, but not good enough to be glorified. There's an in-between. Our Lord Himself said that those who believe and are baptized will be saved, but that those who do not believe will be condemned ... leaving a group in between who are neither saved nor condemned.
Topic: The Catechism of the Council of Trent does not teach Baptism of Desire (Read 64308 times)