Posted on 10/31/2014 4:56:55 PM PDT by Gamecock
Full Title: Pope Francis 'called us his brother bishops,' says Protestant pastor from Mobile, who lunched, swapped caps with the pontiff
MOBILE, Alabama - First, the pope does not want his ring kissed. And he prefers to be called Father Francis rather than Your Holiness.
Those were some of the marching orders given to Rev. Henry W. Roberts II of Mobile and other bishops with the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches, who met with Pope Francis at the Vatican Oct. 10. The CEEC is an international ecumenical network that strives for unity among all Christians.
"He looks like one of the fellas. He's so down to earth," said Roberts, describing a photo he took with the pope during the visit. Roberts is founding pastor of Word of Life Community Church, an interdenominational congregation of 1,500 with locations in Chickasaw and Whistler. A graduate of McGill-Toolen Catholic School, he has been a bishop with the CEEC network since 2007.
Roberts said one of the bishops asked the pontiff if he would bless them to go and proclaim the miracle of unity. "He said, 'I can't really bless you, because we're brother bishops.' He actually called us his brother bishops," he said.
Roberts said the group met with Pope Francis for more than an hour and shared lunch in his private dining room at Casa Santa Marta, his Vatican residence. The main topics at the meeting, which occurred during the recent Synod, were family and Christian unity.
"He said, No. 1, that we as believers, as Christians, have to stop talking bad about each other and being condescending," Roberts recalled. "No. 2, we need to find a good Catholic that we can just fellowship with and develop a relationship with."
Roberts also exchanged a skull cap called a zucchetto with the pontiff. He had purchased the white hat made especially for Francis in Rome to make the swap. "I loved his personality, and I could feel his heart and compassion for people and his love for people," he said. "I know he's sincere about seeing people come together."
The meeting with the CEEC bishops, which was videoed and is on YouTube, shows the pope speaking through an interpreter about the need for unity. "We're always concentrating on the differences," the pope told the group. "We all have the same baptism, and the same baptism is more important than our differences. We all believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit."
The CEEC, considered part of the "convergence movement," drew media attention this year because of a longtime friendship between the pope and CEEC Bishop Tony Palmer of South Africa. Palmer, a Protestant who considered Francis his spiritual father, organized the October meeting before he was killed in a motorcycle accident in August.
The pope famously recorded a seven-minute video on Palmer's iPhone for the bishop to present to a conference by U.S. evangelist Rev. Kenneth Copeland. In the video, which went viral on YouTube, the Pope Francis urges "the miracle of unity" between Protestants and Catholics.
Ping
Francis and the NWO
>>”He (Francis) said, ‘I can’t really bless you, because we’re brother bishops.’ He actually called us his brother bishops,” he said.<<
Pope Frankie looks a little senile in this photo.
It’s really pathetic. If he gets his way all the “brother bishops” and every other protestant that wants it will be able to receive communion at any Catholic Church. Mark it down. Francis has utter contempt for Catholicism. The Joel Osteen of the Catholic Church. Can’t we all get along? How much more of this disrespect for his own faith can he show. Stay tuned.
One FReeper posted to me, and then reinforced the notion, that Francis is the pope of all Christians, RC or non-RC. Whatever that may mean.
Oh, this thread should get interesting REAL fast.
Has anyone asked John Hagee’s opinion of this?
That’s my opinion. Everybody has one. I call it like I see it. I was not born yesterday. But the Catholic Church has had bad popes before. This too shall pass.
Settle your heart dude,
They are each bishops in their faiths, they are each bishops in love with Christ - they are brother bishops. He’s focusing on their love of Christ, not their differences. He is not saying they don’t have differences, he’s saying they have so much in common...JESUS CHRIST!!!!!!!!
Why the pope would probably make you feel really good after you talked with him a while - and yet you’re still a sinner going to hell right? I am.
He, and these men, all want a closer relationship with Christ today than yesterday! Do they get it by freaking out in each other’s presence...did you? of course not.
Francis is a liberal whose trying his best to turn the Catholic Church into a bigger version of the liberal Anglican Church.
I must put forth this question. Is the Evangelical Episcopal Church more conservative than ECUSA? Just as there is a difference between LCMS and ELCA? ECUSA and ELCA have gone down the liberal sewer.
I am still concerned about Pope Francis and which road he wants to take the RCC.
This Pope Francis is just so undignified. It’s an embarrassment. Bring back Pope Benedict!
I liked Pope Benedict. He brought in some intellectual and theological “muscle”. I agree with the concerns of some here about Pope Francis going the mushy Joel Osteen route.
BTW, I’m a Southern Baptist. We all have a big fight ahead of us. It will be not by our strength, but His.
Dementia.
If they aren't Catholic, they're not "bishops"; they're laymen.
No.most Catholics haven’t heard that before either.
Is this satire?
Ostentatious humility. Childish homilies. Careless, off-hand, scandalous comments.
Then there’s the dark side: Manipulating the Synod. Elevating the worst of the worst, like Danneels and Kasper, and persecuting the best of the best.
Worst Pope in centuries. Pray for a new conclave, soon.
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