We have demonstrated that “Salvation Outside the Church” is untenable. Such idea comes from the human mind which relied on itself not on God’s truth, for God does not contradict Himself and He doesn’t change His Mind… If you believe that the Catholic Church was divinely instituted then you would readily admit that the infallible dogmas of the Church are truths fallen from Heaven proposed for our belief and that bind our conscience without reservation.
Pope Pius X, Lamentabile, The Errors of the Modernists, July 3, 1907, #22: “The dogmas which the Church professes as revealed are not truths fallen from Heaven, but they are a kind of interpretation of religious facts, which the human mind by a laborious effort prepared for itself.”- Condemned
Pope Pius IV, Council of Trent, Iniunctum nobis, Nov. 13, 1565, ex cathedra: “This true Catholic faith, outside of which no one can be saved… I now profess and truly hold…”
Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, Session 8, Nov. 22, 1439, “The Athanasian Creed”, ex cathedra: “Whoever wishes to be saved, before all things it is necessary that he holds the Catholic faith. Unless a person keeps this faith whole and undefiled, without a doubt he shall perish eternally.”
Going back to the article entitled “Padre Pio on Salvation Outside the Church”, the last time we left off was on the account of Adelaide McAlpin Pyle, a Baptized Protestant and Padre Pio supposedly said “She will be saved because she has faith.” We are assuming that Padre Pio knew what he was saying, perhaps having the foreknowledge that she would be converted to God at the end of her life, then there is no doubt what is meant here is that she has the life of grace, the faith that was bestowed upon her at the moment of her baptism and exercised throughout her life. Now, the faith has to be living to be sanctifying. If it was the case, then she was in the state of grace while erroneously believing in her false Protestant position due to invincible ignorance. Again, Padre Pio had certain gifts, but he could not see everything.
He was liable to be wrong as well.
Going to the case of King George V of England, a Baptized Protestant, there’s nothing wrong with prayers for a conversion of a soul at the end of its life. We are bound to pray for the conversion of everyone to God, whether Catholic or non-Catholic. Why should Padre Pio not pray for George V while he was on his death bed? Would you miss the opportunity to ask the grace of God to save that soul?
Now to the case of Julius Fine, an Unbaptized Devout Jew, the requirement is the same. There has to be faith, and that faith has to be living. How much exposure he had with the Catholic Church, whether he was ignorant of the Catholic Religion is for God to decide. But assuming that he did not know the Talmud, perhaps he himself was not aware of the teachings in it, but lived as an honest and upright Jew and obeying the laws of God, then we can believe he was found to be on God’s good side.
But it doesn’t matter, these accounts do not justify us to deny the Catholic Truth, and unbelief would be the opposite to our salvation. These stories do not save us, why wager your soul on Padre Pio’s remarks and his close associates’ fallible and human accounts.