“The Necessity of Baptism”

One last thought — and then tomorrow I’ll move back to retirement topics and a book I’m reading:  I’m not sure how the topic came up, but I was talking about baptism with my middle son the other day, and I pulled out the catechism.

From paragraph 1260:

Every man who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can be saved.  It may be supposed that such persons would have desired baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity.

Now, this is not footnoted, nor is this a quote to any other source, but I wanted to highlight this — and ask your opinion.  Thoughts?

UPDATE:  I would be curious as to the evolution of this idea — though perhaps not so curious as to devote substantial time to this.  But, what’s more, what I find myself pondering is this:  what does it mean to be “ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church”?