The Pope Is Wrong!

I have debated about writing this post because I am afraid that it might offend someone, however, I must defend my faith even when attacked by someone of the statue of Benedict XVI. Those of you who know me well will tell you that the quickest way to "light my fuse" is for someone other than Jesus Christ to assert in essence that his or her church is the one and only church and salvation comes through it. (Paragraph 3) "I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except by Me." John 14:6.

I would also say that I have the highest regard for the Catholic Church and those who truly profess the Catholic faith. Being Methodist I realize that my church is only two steps away from being Catholic. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was an Anglican priest and the Anglican Church came about as a result of a split from the Catholic Church in England in the sixth century under the papal reign of Gregory the Great.

For those of you who are unaware of where this is going, for the second time in a week Pope Benedict XVI has reasserted the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church by saying other Christian communities are either "defective or not true churches." The assertion goes on to say that "Protestant, Lutheran and other Christian denominations are not true churches but merely ecclesial communities and therefore did not have the "means of salvation." With all due respect it makes one wonder if Benedict's mitre might be a couple of sizes too small.

The assertion is further explained that other Christian communities "cannot be called 'churches' because they do not have apostolic succession -- the ability to trace their bishops back to Christ's original apostles -- therefore their priestly ordinations are not valid.

His Eminence might be reminded that there were papal successors of Peter who served as Christ's "emissaries" on earth with whom he might not want association, namely: Damascus I, Symmachus, Vigilius, Stephen VII, Julius III and even Pius XII. There are a number of other out of the over 260 who have served in the papacy whose characters have been said to be less than pure. A reading of the history of their services is quite an eye opener.

Great church leaders like Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, John Wycliffe and others saw the wrongs committed within the Catholic Church and tried to right those wrongs to no avail. Luther was excommunicated by Leo X on January 3, 1521, and thence began the Protestant Reformation.

Church officials of varying Christian denominations have questioned the document and why the reassertion at this particular time. Despite the tone of the document it is said that Benedict remains committed to an ecumenical dialogue -- a rather strange method of encouraging an ecumenical movement within Christendom.