Pope Benedict: Catholic Church Only True Church

Talk about bad news.

This week, Pope Benedict XVI said that any congregation outside the Roman Catholic Church was not really a church at all, and any such congregation calling itself Christian was defective.

Insisting that interpretations since Vatican II (the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s) have become far too liberal, Benedict sought to clarify Jesus Christ's intentions in establishing one church on earth.

This is a dream of a semantic argument. The little "c" word "catholic" means "all-encompassing" or "all-inclusive." It's a good word for Jesus' church on this side of the grave. But do those definitions describe the big "C" Catholic Church?

Benedict likely would say, "Yes. Yes it does." (Or rather, "Si.") He stated this week that the Catholic Church is the only way to salvation, so that should mean this church has everything you need.

Che ti passa per la testa!? (Loosely, that's WTHTMWY in Italian.)

Immediately Protestant groups across the globe did what they do best: protest. It has taken decades for Christians to be in meaningful ecumenical dialog with one another, to say nothing of non-Christian faiths. Ecumenism is not about uniformity but unity.

Fights over apostolic succession are nothing new. Wars have been -- and continue to be -- fought over religious supremacy, across denominational lines. And really, this is the witness to which the Catholic Church has always, always been called: We are the One. This is not news. In many ways, what Benedict has said over the past week (Tuesday's declaration was actually the second recent harping on V-2) isn't scandalous or inflammatory at all. In fact, he already said this stuff in 2000 when he was prefect of Dominus Iesus. S.S.D.D., with that last "D" standing for either "declaration" or "day."

Yet in many other ways, this pendulum swing back to conservatism is as needle sharp as the schism of the Reformation itself and a slap in the face to millions and millions of faithful people who trust their salvation to God alone and not to any representative on earth. It's also detrimental to millions of Catholics who feel connected to their church but also seek relationship with and even affirm believers of other traditions and faiths.

I knew when this particular puff of white smoke came on the scene that I wasn't going to be very thrilled with him. I'm a little leery of any European trotting around and calling for a return to "traditional Christian values." That hasn't gone so well historically. But that's exactly what Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger spent his theological career doing long before he ever became pope. This is a decades-long hangover from V-2, where he was indeed present but from which he's never fully recovered.

Whoa, Nelly. Hold on. I am NOT anti-papist. While Pope John Paul II wasn't any more of a perfect role model than the next human being, I have been scrapbooking almost everything he ever said on poverty, and I bought my son a little book about him. As popes go, I can be for one and against another without decrying the whole office.

I do profess that I believe in the holy catholic Church, and it's not just because I'm an editor that it is EXPRESSLY important to me which C-word gets capitalized. Benedict would say it's heresy (and my own bishop might raise an eyebrow), but we are the church. We -- different, factious, even oppositional -- are the church. The Catholic Church doesn't have any more corner market on this claim than Clowns for Christ does. (Not that there's anything wrong with it ...)

But that's what I think. What do you think about the pope's declaration that the Catholic faith is the only true path to salvation, that the Catholic Church is the only real church?

Comments

[DEBRA]

How terrible for the head of an entire church to make such a claim. I have always felt this was how the catholics felt but now it is all to apparent. This just fuels hate and that isn't what Christ's church is about...Jesus helped the Samaritan woman at the well when it was forbidden for the Jews to speak to them..He didn't tell her to come to the Jews faith this is pretty much what the pope is trying to get ..people to follow his faith as the only way. Well there is only one way to heaven and that is through the blood of Christ..not any specific church.

[Tina]

As a "recovering" Catholic as my dear husband calls me, I was deeply offended and saddened by this statement of faith by the pope. I am a born-again Christian with family still attending mass every week. Having said this, I believe that God is truly larger and bigger than a segment of society. We are all God's children and all have a choice to accept Him in our lives. Jesus said "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Light...No one comes to the Father but through me". Is Catholicism the only way to Jesus? I hardly think so. Jesus died on the cross for all sinners not just a select few.
In reading the Washington Post article, he says that the Catholic Church is the only one with "true apostolic succession _ the ability to trace their bishops back to Christ's original apostles." The Protestant church branched off the Catholic Church starting with Martin Luther so our church leaders have the as much apostoic succession as their own bishops and priests.

[Rebecca]

A friend sent this link to San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll's comments on this papal predicament:

"It sort of boils down to 'Me, me, me, Jesus liked me best,' which may not be in the best interests of a religion struggling to escape numerous sex scandals, financial scandals and its own continuing failure to support the ordination of women."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/13/DDGGGQURK41.DTL

[Dave]

Thank God the leader of the Catholic Church has re-affirmed the teaching that's been bedrock doctrine for centuries. The Catholic Church is the only church with a clear, unbroken tradition of apostolic succession dating back to the beginning of Christianity. Does that mean nothing? If every denomination and every belief system is equally valid, even though they teach diametrically opposite doctrines, they can't all be correct. It's simple logic. I spent decades as a Bible-believing, Evangelical Christian, and I still cheer enthusiastically for these wonderful, truly Christian people. Their emphasis on the primacy of the Word of God, on the need to evangelize others to Christ, on the power of prayer have all been tremendously energizing to me, and have sown light throughout the world. I pray for the day when Cathlics and Evangelicals are re-united. Jesus prayed that we may all be one, and this is a powerful step in that direction. Instead of more polite ecumenical "dialogue" that leads nowhere, this forces the issue of where real authority lies, what the vital truths of the Christian faith really are, and what it will take for all Christians to be reconciled in the one true faith. In an age of political correct-ness where every point of view is mindlessly blessed, this is just the kind of bold, unblinking statement of faith the world desperately needs. Let us pray for the Pope and for Catholic and Evangelical leaders to begin the hard work of examing history to see how we came to the fractious place we are today. Let us pray that we can all "be of the same mind with one another in Christ Jesus." Not a watered-down synthetic "unity" - but unity founded on the un-changing principles of the Word of God.

[Albert]

Jesus said "I am the way the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the father but by me"

It's not about a church or denomination. It's about Jesus Christ.

[Rebecca]

Hard work to "examine the history to see how we came to the fractious place we are today" has been done. There are tomes upon tomes of good research, and there continue to be good current expositions.

Check out "TRUE Religion, TRUE Priesthood," a post on National Catholic Reporter's online forum: http://ncrcafe.org/node/1185

The author explains the difference between belief and bureaucracy and between "sacerdos" (holy giver) and "episcopos" (overseer).

[Mario]

I know I told you, Rebecca, that I would never again post comments in your blog, but I can't sit here and ignore the promptings of my conscience with regards to Pope Benedict's affirmation of the Catholic Faith.

Jesus told Simon, "You are peter and upon this rock I will build my church... I will give you the keys of the Kingdom... Whatever you bind on Earth will be bound in Heaven. Whatever you loose on Earth will be loosed in Heaven." Jesus called "Simon" "Peter" (rock) because it was the rock of his faith that the Church would be built on and also he was to be the leader of Jesus' flock, his Gathering, Ecclessia, "Church". Peter recognized Jesus' divinity after He asked the other apostles what THEY thought who He was.

Jesus founded one Church, which was to be visible on Earth. He did not create a bunch of churches that would contradict each other. Jesus gave full authority ("bind" and "loose") to his apostles, whose leader or "head" was to be Peter, and this authority was passed down to their successors. This is apostolic succession: the ability to trace back bishops to the original 12 apostles. The Church is guided by the Holy Spirit "who teaches all truth." The truth of the Catholic Faith has been unwavering since the time of the apostles.

The Catholic Church does NOT deny that the Spirit of Christ is at work in Protestant communities. They are also used by God as an instrument of salvation, but only the Catholic Church shares all the truth and fullness of the Christian Faith.

Human beings have free will, a gift from our Creator. We have the freedom to accept the truth or reject it. As Christian believers, are we willing to accept the truth? Are you hearing God talking to YOU by this affirmation of the Pope? Or are you allowing your misconceptions about the Catholic Church guide you?

Before anyone draws conclusions from what the media has been saying about the Catholic Church's affirmation of their truth, I ask that you first examine what the Church said, but read it several times, especially if you are not familiar with Church language:

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20070629_responsa-quaestiones_en.html

[Kendra Grant]

I agree with the article from the San Francisco Chronicle... It's all smoke and mirrors, smoke and mirrors. Catholicism is a very big business, and this is PR.

[Zauder]

This planet is inhabited by more than six billion people, divided in dozens of major organized religions, hundreds of minor belief systems, thousands of creeds...

Surely the catholic church, with its less than 2000 years of existence, is the ultimate true about God.

I will never understand how people today, with all the information available out there, still choose to debate about things like what is the right or wrong religion. Beats me

[Peggy]

There was something in Dave's comment that hit me. He said that only the Catholic Church has maintained Apostolic Succession and that this must count for something. (Actually, it isn't true that the Catholic church is the only church maintaining Apostolic Succession. The Anglican church, and, I think, a Lutheran Synod some where --in Finland maybe?--does, too, and there may be others.)

But, what struck me was the implications of a strict hierarchy like the traditional Catholic view of authority for the victims of priest abuse.

For those kids, the priest who victimized them was not "just" a priest, but THE priest of that parish appointed by THE bishop of that diocese, who in turn was consecrated in the ONLY apostolic line of succession going straight back to St. Peter and Jesus. The horror of that just hit me in a way that had not occurred to me before. I understand something I didn't "get" before.