Pope attacked by closed-minded Liberals, again

A document was released recently by the Vatican that has Liberal, pretend Christians in an uproar. The document contains such predictable Roman Catholic assertions such as...

Christ "established here on earth" only one Church and instituted it as a "visible and spiritual community", that from its beginning and throughout the centuries has always existed and will always exist, and in which alone are found all the elements that Christ himself instituted.

Of course, Roman Catholicism teaches that they themselves are that "one church" whereas most Evangelical, Protestant churches teach that the "one Church" consists of all believers who hold specific, over-arching beliefs, fairly well summed up in the Apostle's Creed. The document also says...

It follows that these separated churches and Communities, though we believe they suffer from defects, are deprived neither of significance nor importance in the mystery of salvation. In fact the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as instruments of salvation, whose value derives from that fullness of grace and of truth which has been entrusted to the Catholic Church.

Meaning that while other "churches" may be wrong, they may still go to heaven. However the document goes on to say...

According to Catholic doctrine, these Communities do not enjoy apostolic succession in the sacrament of Orders, and are, therefore, deprived of a constitutive element of the Church. These ecclesial Communities which, specifically because of the absence of the sacramental priesthood, have not preserved the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic Mystery cannot, according to Catholic doctrine, be called "Churches" in the proper sense.

No big news there. This is basically what the Roman Catholic church has always taught, and never really tried to hide it, except for some Liberal Catholics who will try to pretend they are ecumenical so they can criticize other denominations for criticizing Catholicism.

Remember, I'm not Catholic, but I also recognize that people will have differing beliefs. The point should be that we work toward finding the truth, and not use gimmicks and games to side-step reality, like Liberals do.

And speaking of Liberals, here's their reaction to the document...

The statement brought swift criticism from Protestant leaders [sic]. "It makes us question whether we are indeed praying together for Christian unity," said the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, a fellowship of 75 million Protestants in more than 100 countries.

"It makes us question the seriousness with which the Roman Catholic Church takes its dialogues with the reformed family and other families of the church," the group said in a letter charging that the document took ecumenical dialogue back to the era before the Second Vatican Council.

I noted the term "Protestant leaders" as erroneous, because the World Alliance of Reformed Churches is a fairly typical listing of Liberal, pretend denominations, and hardly representative of Protestants, let alone Protestant "leaders". Their whining is to be expected. Liberal theology demands that all teachings, regardless of merit, must be sacrificed on the alter of "ecumenicism" so that eventually there'll be one, unified, (meaningless and useless) "church" totally stripped of any teaching that would offend.

I like the Church of England's response much better...

The Rev David Phillips, General Secretary of the Church Society, said: “Nothing new is said, but it does clarify the way in which the Vatican has torn apart Christianity because of its lust for power. They remind us that in their view that to be a true church one has to accept the ludicrous idea that the Pope is in some special way the successor of the apostle Peter and the supreme earthly leader of the Church.

“These claims cannot be justified, biblically, or historically, yet they have been used not only to divide Christians but to persecute them and put them to death.

“We are grateful that the Vatican has once again been honest in declaring their view that the Church of England is not a proper Church. Too much dialogue proceeds without such honesty. Therefore, we would wish to be equally open; unity will only be possible when the papacy renounces its errors and pretensions.”

Here in the US we call that shooting from the hip. It's actually refreshing to see rather than the typical weaseling double-talk so many people in positions of prominence are prone to.

Posted by Danny Carlton at July 11, 2007 7:53 AM