It's true that Tolkien seemed to struggle with reconciling his religious beliefs with the fact that his Orcs are presented as irredeemable cannon fodder, just bad guys for all the good guys to kill without remorse.
In a draft to a letter, he tosses up the thought that since Eru accepted Orcs into the world, they can't be irredeemable, however he never sends the letter saying he was probably thinking himself too important:
Quote:
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They would be Morgoth’s greatest Sins, abuses of his highest privilege, and would be creatures begotten of Sin, and naturally bad (I nearly wrote ’irredeemably bad’; but that would be going too far. Because by accepting or tolerating their making - necessary to their actual existence - even Orcs would become part of the World, which is God’s and ultimatly good.)~Letter #153
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This Letter was intended for Peter Hastings, one of Tolkien's Catholic friends, and there is a note added that he never sent it. So, yes, in Tolkien's grappling of the subject on his Orcs and redemption, he really muddled it.