Originally Posted by Reformation Monk
via_dolorosa,
But the pre Vat2 Catholic would have said, "only Catholics are Christians."
Perhaps so, yet at the same time, Protestants were and are usually not required to be re-baptised. It seems to me that this was/is an explicit (or at the very least implicit) acknowledgment that Protestants are indeed Christians.

Originally Posted by Reformation Monk
But now the Post Vat2 Catholics say that there is still the possibility of true saving faith outside of the Catholic Church.

This new language of course is more "inclusive" and less offensive language.
That is partially true. It's true that this is certainly a conciliar teaching, and very much a part of the post-conciliar Church. Its false though, to imagine that this all began with V2. The V2 documents on salvation for non-Catholics was very much a continuation of pre-Conciliar teaching in the previous 100 years...really continuing the work of Vatican I that was interrupted 100 years earlier. The 1910 Catechism of Pius X for example stated:

Quote
“If he is outside the Church through no fault of his, that is, if he is in good faith, and if he has received Baptism, or at least has the implicit desire of Baptism; and if, moreover, he sincerely seeks the truth and does God’s will as best he can, such a man is indeed separated from the body of the Church, but is united to the soul of the Church and consequently is on the way of salvation.”

Last edited by Newman; Mon Jun 06, 2011 3:08 PM.