Neither did the USCCB statement say that every non Catholic without exception needs to de facto enter the Catholic Church to go to Heaven.
Hence there was ambiguity in their clarification.
For the USCCB is Lumen Gentium 16 a reference to de jure or de facto salvation?
If it was a reference to de facto salvation it would contradict the ex cathedra dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.
Here is the ex cathedra dogma.
1. “There is but one universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved.” (Pope Innocent III, Fourth Lateran Council, 1215).To reject an ex cathedra dogma is a mortal sin.
2. “We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.” (Pope Boniface VIII, the Bull Unam Sanctam, 302.).
3.“The most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go into the eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless before death they are joined with Her; and that so important is the unity of this ecclesiastical body that only those remaining within this unity can profit by the sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and they alone can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, their almsgivings, their other works of Christian piety and the duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ, can be saved, unless he remain within the bosom and the unity of the Catholic Church.” (Pope Eugene IV, the Bull Cantate Domino, 1441.) – from the website Catholicism.org and “No Salvation outside the Church”: Link List, the Three Dogmatic Statements Regarding EENS: http://nosalvationoutsideofthecatholicchurch.blogspot.com/ )
Father Peter Phan continues to teach at Catholic Universities in Washington and the USA. He is also still permitted to offer Mass by Archbishop Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington.
Peter Phan - Writings on the Internet__________________________________________________________________________________
• Proclamation of the Reign of God as Mission in the Church delivered at the 2001 Conference and Annual Meeting of the United States Catholic Mission Association in Memphis, Tennessee, October 26-28, 2001.
• Christianity and Other Religions: From Confrontation to Encounter [Rich Text Format]. Sedos.org:
"In the last four decades, many if not most missiologists have rejected the long-held view that the purpose of mission is “soul-saving” and “church- planting”. “Soul-saving” tends to individualize salvation, belittling the other aspects of the Church’s mission such as inculturation, interreligious dialogue, and liberation. “Church-planting” tends to ecclesiasticize salvation, identifying the Church with the Kingdom of God and fomenting rivalries among Christian denominations.
Instead of this church-centred approach to mission, a kingdom-of-God-centred view has been proposed in which the Church is made subservient to, though not separate from, the reign of God.5 It is the reign of God that determines the Church and its mission, and not the other way round. In terms of priority and intrinsic importance, the reign of God stands at the top, followed by mission, proclamation, and church. This is the order in which these four realities of the Christian faith should be understood and related to each other.6 In this perspective, conversion in the sense of renouncing one religious tradition and joining the Christian Church still is a desirable outcome of mission, but it is not its main goal, let alone its sole purpose.
[and]
Conversion then can mean, in its Latin etymology, “turning with” rather than simply toward something else. Christians and non-Christians can turn together, with one another, toward not a particular religious organization or church but toward the Kingdom of God, and they can and must help each other in doing so. Just as in ecumenism, the model of “returning” of the so-called “separated brethren” to the Catholic Church is no longer adopted as the goal of Church unity, so in mission in the future, especially in Asia where religious pluralism is the fact of life, conversion is not sought as the joining of the Christian Church by, e.g., ex-Buddhists or ex-Hindus or ex-Muslims (though that may happen from time to time, just as the other way round is also possible) but as the “turning” of all humans, together and with reciprocal assistance and encouragement, toward Christ, that is, to the way of life and the values that he embodied in his own person, and the “taking up of his mission” in the service of the Kingdom of God.
USCCB Doctrine Committee Faults Book by Father Peter Phan
WASHINGTON (December 10, 2007)—The U.S. Bishops' Doctrine Committee issued clarifications concerning several aspects of Father Peter C. Phan's book, Being Religious Interreligiously: Asian Perspectives on Interfaith Dialogue.
Father Phan's book uses "certain terms in an equivocal manner" that "opens the text up to significant ambiguity," the Committee said. It added that "a fair reading of the book could leave readers in considerable confusion as to the proper understanding of the uniqueness of Christ."
The Committee, which represents the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) on doctrinal matters, outlined its concerns in a statement, "Clarifications Required by the Book Being Religious Interreligiously: Asian Perspectives on Interfaith Dialogue." The Committee made the statement public December 10. It is available at www.usccb.org/dpp/StatementonBeingReligiousInterreligiously.pdf.
The Committee stressed the importance of understanding religious pluralism, but said the way the book addresses some theological issues "raises serious concerns." The Committee said the statement outlines some "problematic aspects of the book" and offers "a positive restatement of Catholic teaching on the relevant points."
Several aspects of the book concern the Committee, but it limited comments to three areas:
1. Jesus Christ as the unique and universal Savior of all humankind
2. The salvific significance of non-Christian religions
3. The Church as the unique and universal instrument of salvation.
The Doctrine Committee took action after the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith asked it to evaluate the book by Father Phan, a priest of the Diocese of Dallas, Texas, who holds the Ellacuria Chair of Catholic Social Thought in Georgetown's Department of Theology. Over a period of two years, the Committee asked Father Phan to clarify points of concern.
On the first point, the Committee objected to Father Phan's qualifying the uniqueness of Christ and saying that terms referring to Christ as "unique" "absolute" and "universal" "should be jettisoned and replaced by other, theologically more adequate equivalents."
"It has always been the faith of the Church that Jesus is the eternal Son of God incarnate as man. The union of humanity and divinity that takes place in Jesus Christ is by its very nature unique and unrepeatable," the Committee said.
"Because humanity and divinity are united in the person of the Son of God, He brings together humanity and divinity in a way that can have no parallel in any other figure in history," it said.
On the second point, the salvific significance of non-Christian religions, the Committee states that Father Phan's book questions the Church's mission to spread the Gospel to all. He states that "non-Christian religions possess an autonomous function in the history of salvation, different from that of Christianity," and that "they cannot be reduced to Christianity in terms of preparation and fulfillment."
The Committee said that "[s]ince the book as a whole is based on the idea that religious pluralism is indeed a positively-willed part of the divine plan, the reader is led to conclude that there is some kind of moral obligation for the Church to refrain from calling people to conversion to Christ and to membership in his Church. According to the book religious pluralism 'may not and must not be abolished' by conversion to Christianity."
The Committee notes that "[t]his call for an end to Christian mission is in conflict with the Church's commission, given to her by Christ Himself: 'Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations �."'
"Moreover," the Committee said, "if one accepts that Jesus Christ is in fact the one affirmed by Christian faith as the eternal Son of God made man, through whom the universe was created and by whose death and resurrection the human race has the possibility of attaining eternal life, then it is incoherent to argue that it would somehow be better if certain people were not told this truth."
"The Church's evangelizing mission is not an imposition of power but an expression of love," the Committee said also.
Regarding the Church as the unique and universal instrument of salvation, the Committee criticizes the book for saying that the Church's claim for uniqueness and universality "should be abandoned altogether" given the Church's human failings and historical entanglement with sin and injustice.
The Committee acknowledged that members of the Church have failed, but said that "the holiness of the Church is not simply defined by the holiness (or sinfulness) of her members but by the holiness of her head, the Lord Jesus Christ."
The Committee said that "because the Church is the universal sacrament of salvation, whatever grace is offered to individuals in whatever various circumstances, including non-Christians, must be seen in relationship to the Church, for she is always united to Jesus Christ, the source of all grace and holiness."
The Committee said that because all grace flows through Jesus, one cannot consider the Church as just one way of salvation "alongside those constituted by the other religions, seen as complementary to the Church or substantially equivalent to her."
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