I have a friend who is pretty much a fundamentalist. She wraps it in intellectual garb but he is a fundamentalist and he knows it. She pretty much believes that the earth is only about 6000 years old. A couple years ago she had a son. She named him John Paul.
It was a bit of a surprise. More of a surprise, for instance, than if I had named my son Bjorn Armando Kuo. Everyone wanted to know why. "Because," she said, "he is my pope and I love him."
It didn't matter to her that he was Catholic, that he venerated the Holy Mother, that he believed in transubstantiation, that he prayed to saints. He was her pope. He was mine too. So too for scores of millions of protestants.
Why? Because we sensed he loved us and in return we loved him. He spoiled us.
That is what makes Pope Benedict's decree today so hard to take. In saying that Orthodox churches were defective and that other Christian denominations are not true churches, the lover has been replaced by the enforcer. It is just so sad.
Does Pope Benedict have every right to clarify church law? Of course. He is the pope. It is his responsibility to clarify mistakes he identifies in his church.
Has he said anything that is fundamentally different from things that have been stated before? No.
My friend Rod Dreher is right - this is not a theological stunner.
It may be worse.
At a time when the Christian church faces extraordinary opportunity and extraordinary peril, it appears the pope has decided to fiddle in matters of minutia.
Why is it necessary to slap protestant demoninations across the face? Why is it necessary to belittle their churches and their history and their love for Christ?
This feels like the equivalent of President Bush commuting v. pardoning Scooter Libby. If the president really believed he was innocent he should have pardoned him. If not, let him serve the sentence justice has delivered.
If the early articles about the decree are accurate - and I have not yet had a chance to read the full text of the decree [I am on a tight deadline and must rely on print reports that I have access to] - it sounds as if the pope believes all non-Catholics are going to hell. If that is true, say so explicitly Make the case that we are bound for the eternal fires. If not, why get bogged down in theological details over something that will simply divide Christians? Why send the world the message that we are more interested in fighting with each other over theological details rather than saving a lost world?
Theology matters of course. Theology matters a lot. But sometimes it matters far less than other times. This, I would suggest, is one of those times. A time when love and grace and mercy and kindness would have been much more powerful than an iron fist. Then again, I've been spoiled by John Paul, my first and maybe my only pope.
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As for the apostolic succession, the Church of Sweden (Lutheran protestant) can prove being in that tradition, thanks to a funny 16th century incident. Does that make us a "true" church? :)
If this is catholicism... I'm not so sure I want to support the view of a world-wide church any longer. I might just prefer being part of a non-church rather than being a perfect Christian looking down on less perfect humans.
Why should it matter if a church is headed by a person of succession or whatever. Apostolic succession? In the Bible it says that where there are 2 or more gathered in His Name he is there! Where in the Bible does it say that decendants of certain men can only head a church?
What the Pope announced really isn't new. I have always known Catholics to believe they are the only way to Heaven. Only recently had I met some who were willing to worship with Protestants.
Do Catholics forget that many times before the leaders of thier "universal" church were corrupt, and lovers of God had no choice but to stand up for truth and HAD to protest?
Anthign that man makes is imperfect.
I'm very disappointed in the Popes statement about the true church; because its only going to cause more bad
feelings between protestants and catholics. The truth
is that, there is no physical church organization
that can be called the one true church. God in His infinate wisdom made the one true church without an earthly building, without an earthly pastor, but it
does have earthly members at the current time. True
christains are saved by Gods grace through faith in the
finish work of Christ's shed blood on the cross. Anything more that grace is an insult to God and amounts to a works gospel. The true church is invisible, the true church is the bride of Christ, the leader of the true church is Jesus Christ not the Catholic Church or protestant church. God has not left the destiny of his church in the hands of one mortal sole. God instituded the preisthood of the believer where every one may approach God through Jesus Christ our advocate; God has a plan for his children and its success does not depend on foulible human soles. Me thinks that church leaders believe if it weren,t for them that the Lords work would never get done. Not so; God uses the common, the simple, the lowly things to confound the world, because they are holy, humble, and obedient, able to yeild to the power of the Holy Spirit. The Catholic(universal)Church is the true Church; not the Roman Catholic Church. Christain don't
take yourself to seriously, be able laugh at yourself
and love your fellow brothers and sisters in christ no matter what church they go to. The bible is Gods Word;
why not study it to find out what it realy says. Don't
except someones else's interpretation or explanation as
gospel. Listen to the Holy Spirit. Whos running this
show God or man? Make your choice, follow a blind man
and wind up in a ditch, follow Christ and live in the light of His truth. Its your choice.
It troubles me that he thought he had to prounounce an aging premise from way-back when. I believe he should have thought it and kept it to himself. Problem is, he is too close to the forest and must address each tree. We need more togetherness rather than chasms between us. Like was said earlier, "when two or more are together"
My apologizes for my Popes stepping on your toes.
We need to stick together like glue!!!!!
To the Vatican Church, if Jesus was on this earth and He was confronted with this issue, I could see the Son of God saying this:
“My sheep know me and love me and will obey my Father’s commandments. If you feel you are my true church then denounce the other major religions and their false prophets (such as Mohammed, who is neither above nor equal to Me) whom you have ‘publicly embraced,’ but yet, hypocritically chastise members of my flock (i.e., the Protestants) through legalism.”
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