DID CARDINAL ALFREDO OTTAVIANI KNOW THAT THE BAPTISM OF DESIRE AND INVINCIBLE IGNORANCE WERE NOT RELEVANT TO THE LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF THE DOGMA EXTRA ECCLESIAM NULLA SALUS ?

There was a lot of confusion among the Jesuits and the Boston Archdiocese clergy when restrictions were placed on Fr.Leonard Feeney.The Archbishop assumed that the baptism of desire and invincible ignorance were explicit exceptions to every one needing to enter the Church for salvation.So he placed restrictions on the priestly faculties of Fr.Leonard Feeney.

 It is said that the Letter of the Holy Office 1949 did not carry the signature of the then Secretary.It could have been a memo from one bishop to another.

Though the Letter of the Holy Office mentions ' the dogma' , the 'infallible statement'  and so supports Fr.Leonard Feeney on doctrine there are passages in the Letter critical of the priest and the St.Benedict Center.If they assumed that the baptism of desire and invincible ignorance was an explicit exception to the dogma they made a mistake. We know that this was not the fault of Pope Pius XII. Since in Mystici Corporis the pope mentions that a person can have a genuine desire and be saved. He does not state that these cases are known to us or that they are explicit exceptions to the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

Cardinal Ottaviani was the Secretary of the Holy Office in the Roman Curia from 1959 to 1966 according to Wikipedia when that dicastery was reorganised as the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, of which he was Pro-Prefect until 1968. During this period the excommunication against Fr.Leonard Feeney was not lifted.

Fr. Leonard Feeney was excommunicated on 13 February 1953  for disobedience to Church authority i.e the bishop. He was reconciled to the  Church in 1972, but was not required to retract or recant his interpretation of the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.
.- Lionel Andrades

IF THEY EXCOMMUNICATED FR.LEONARD FEENEY FOR SAYING THAT THERE WAS NO BAPTISM OF DESIRE THEN THEY MADE A MISTAKE.THERE ARE NO KNOWN EXCEPTIONS TO THE DOGMA.

http://eucharistandmission.blogspot.it/2012/05/if-they-excommunicated-frleonard-feeney.html