The One True Church
Anglican leaders reacted with dismay, accusing the Roman Catholic Church of paradoxical behaviour. They said that the new 16-page document outling the “defects” of non-Catholic churches constituted a major obstacle to ecumenism.
The document said that the Orthodox church suffered from a “wound” because it did not recognise the primacy of the Pope. The wound was “still more profound” in Protestant denominations, it added.
Oh yes, can't you look at Herr Pope and see that he is in some way directly connected to St. Peter?
This is a pretty big deal, but also honest. It does not gloss it over and tells it like it is, or like the Catholic hierarchy wants it to be.
Vatican sources said that the document was an attempt to resolve “confusion” caused by the apparent conflict between the Pope’s assertion on his election two years ago that Christian unity was a priority and his insistence in “Dominus Iesus”, issued in 2000 when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – that Anglican, Protestant and Orthodox Christians did not belong to “proper” churches.
Father Augustine Di Noia, a senior doctrinal official at the Vatican, insisted that the Catholic Church was not “backtracking on ecumenical commitment. But it is fundamental to any kind of dialogue that the participants are clear about their own identity. That is, dialogue cannot be an occasion to accommodate or soften what you understand yourself to be.”
This is just a big "We're number one! We're number one!" Of course this is a lot of number 2. It's just a little business like competition between some really big businesses.
I think that churches are kind of like governments or any other big entities. There are a lot of good people, but not very many good churches. The Catholic Church in recent years has shown a propensity to be more concerned about covering up child abuse than punishing sinners amongst those of the cloth.
The Pope can claim some link to St. Peter, but that's not much more than a fairy tale. Although great things have been done by Catholics and their Church, the history of Roman Catholicism is one of corruption and politics. The church has always stated that it is the one true church. More than that, they have schemed, tortured, murdered and conspired with friendly governments to wage war to force the point.
There are good things about all churches and most of them can be seen walking through the door, worshiping their God and paying the bills.
Jim Martin
Labels: corruption, politics, religion
posted by Libby Spencer at 7:09 PM
5 Comments:
The catholic church has amassed billions in riches by asserting their superiority as the one true church and the Pope as divinity on earth. I find this part kind of creepy; each time communion is celebrated, the catholic church insists that the blood and body of Christ are literally consumed over and over again. If they believe Christ died for the sins of the world once, why would they need to keep bringing pieces of him back?
It will just have to remain one of those mysteries Rock.
It signifies the Last Supper, but it seems almost pagan, doesn't it.
Well, the church took the best of the pagan religions and wove Christianity into them.
Not almost pagan but a continuation of rituals in Mithraism and the Attis cult: religions from which many early Christian converts came and which also contained legends of virgin birth and redemption through drinking blood and eating flesh. The Mithraists ate a wafer with a cross on it called Misz or Missa and that's now translated from Latin as Mass. Nihil novi sub soli.
I wonder how much of that odd mixture of German paganism and pseudoscience Ratzy acquired, along with his ritual dagger when he was in the Hitlerjugend.
As to being the original, the only true Church, it's a bit hard to get around the fact that the gospels are in Greek and that the Donation of Constantine, the document from the late Dark Ages purporting to make the Church of Rome the throne of and Pope Sylvester the heir to Peter was a forgery.
Dang Lib, I didn't know you blogged about religious stuff over here...I just blogged on the good ol' RCs today over at my blog. I'll have to check in here more often!
Chickie
We blog on most everything over here.
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