Ya know, JP II worked to try and improve relations between religions, while his success at this is certainly debatable, you, dickhead, have singlehandedly pissed all of that away! Even better, you’ve effectively given deluded souls the same kind of twisted thinking that encourages people to strap on explosives and blow someone else up because they’re a Big Endian and the folks across the street are Little Endians. I hope someone reminds you of that the next time you decry the clusterfuck that’s going on in Iraq and I hope this inspires the Catholic masses to give you the bitchslap you so richly deserve.
(for those not in the know, Church of Christ is a small fundamentalist sect that is notorious for claiming loudly that they are the one true church and that everybody else is going to hell. Kudos to the Sith Pope for out-fundamentalizing the fundamentalest fundamentalists!)
He’s just stating what all the others are thinking…their way is the *right * way. Does it really matter? You either believe it or you don’t. I doubt anyone will bail from their current church just because he dissed them. And belonging to a protestant church is already dissing the catholics anyway, right?
I’m a Protestant and I don’t. There’s nothing new in this. I’ve heard at least as much over the years to the effect that it’s the RCs who aren’t true Christians.
Not all the others. Several of the Eastern religions, including Hinduism, say “All ways are the right way”.
I rather wish Judaism, Islam, and Christianity/Catholicism had this in their doctrines. I mean, it hasn’t stopped religious wars in India but it has kept a lot of minds open.
I was tempted to start a pit thread called “Fuck You, Benedict” for that statement of his, but I guess you beat me to the punch while I was still thinking about it. I mean, this isn’t really news, the RCC has considered itself the “one true church” and therefore the “one true path to salvation” for, I don’t know, millennia now. But by coming out with such a public, combative, and uncompromising statement, he’s basically issued a giant “fuck you” to most of the planet. So yeah, I’d like to issue a giant “fuck you” right back atcha, Benny.
I mean, he strengthened within the Catholic Church adoration of the Blessed Mother and the traditional belief of the Eucharist and its transubstantiation. He also powerfully asserted papal authority on numerous occasions. I don’t need to point out to you that Protestants look at all of these things with great suspicion, and Orthodox Christians don’t look kindly on the last.
Ecumenism is typically limited to pursuing of shared social goals and nice kind words when the Pope dies.
Pope Benedict limited his remarks to narrow matters of theology, on which points Protestants and Orthodox and other Christians would likely agree if they consider the Catholic point of view fairly.
Consider the Nicene Creed, and the belief in “one holy catholic and apostolic Church.” The Catholics take this literally - one church, Catholic, and with apostolic succession. Other churches interpret the statement much more liberally, and some do not use the Nicene creed at all.
So again, nothing new. And not much to get riled over. Things were tougher some decades ago, and my Catholic mom and Baptist dad still managed to meet, marry, and raise some very religiously mixed up kids.
Quite rightly, but as long as neither side of the divide is in any condition to point fingers, why worry? It’s not like the Pope’s calling for suicide bombing against the infidels.
But the Catholic Church doesn’t recognize such as legitimate. Nor does the Anglican Communion recognize the authority of the Pope. There are also some significant theological differences between the churches as well.
