Outside the Church

The incomparable Dale Price wrote a post on his experience with Feeneyites shortly after he was confirmed. For those who don't know, Feeneyites are followers of the late Fr. Feeny who held a rigorous view of the Church's teaching that there is "No salvation outside the Church." They held that people physically had to be members of the Church to be saved.

This Rock covers what the Church Fathers said about it here and the late Fr. Most has a good article on the subject here..

I wrote a parody news story on this subject a couple of years ago.

(Roto Reuters) A group calling themselves the Voice of the Feeneyites (VOTF) have chained themselves to the pews of a Catholic Church in Massachusetts. The spokesman for VOTF, Brother Yul B. Dammed, has stated that they have split from the Saint Benedict Center because of their liberal interpretation of Pope Eugene IV Bull Cantate Domino that outside of the Catholic Church their is no salvation. The group claims that only those who are physically inside of a Catholic Church will be saved and that those who go outside of a Catholic Church have lost their salvation. A statement from their spokesman reads "At the beginning of the Church they held Mass and were buried in the catacombs. The saints and many clerics have been buried in the church, so obviously they knew from apostolic tradition the true meaning of "no salvation outside of the Catholic Church". The new Cathedral in LA allows people to be buried in the Cathedral so obviously Cardinal Mahoney realizes the true meaning of this doctrine. We only want what is our right, to live and die in a church and thus gain our salvation". I contacted Brother Hugh Bris of the Saint Benedict Center for an official statement, he replied "VOTF is a lunatic-fringe group, obviously having such a narrow and rigorous view of this doctrine is ridiculous.