Posted on 07/13/2007 11:13:07 AM PDT by JZelle
Nothing stirs the blood like talking about religion. That's why it's taboo to talk about it in casual social conversations. Better to ask the boss's wife whether she ever considered a face-lift.
But Pope Benedict XVI is a man of firm conviction and blunt talk. Not for this pontiff the Vatican II tradition of warm and fuzzy, as the message of Vatican II, which put a friendly expression on the stern countenance of the church of Rome, has been widely interpreted in the circles of those addicted to warm and fuzzy. This week he authorized a statement of "clarification" of Vatican II, and to the consternation of some Roman Catholics here, the secular press interpreted the message to Protestants as no more Mr. Nice Guy.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Benedict has chosen a poor route to take in attempting to reconcile Protestants with the Church in Rome.
And yeah, Benedict was probably not being diplomatic. I normally give Catholics a pass on being Christmas and Easter Christians, but I’ll bring it up in response to Benedict’s new “dialogue.”
Well, I guess not everyone is welling with as much Spirit-filled Christian charity as you clearly are.
Yeah, repeating Catholic doctrine. Imagine that!
That’s quite the wide brush you ignorantly paint with.
Reconciliation on your terms isn’t his motivation.
and that is the thing of all this, the only way that this will turn out is a mutual trading of slights and veiled insults among Christians in America at least.
Granted, that will make people “choose a side” and know where they stand one way or another, but the cost seems to me to be very high indeed.
Who wants to be called “Mackeral Snapper”
Who wants to called “Not a true church”
And that is the folly of this.
True. I'm reminded of the Catholic attitude toward us Prods every time I attend a Catholic service and am denied communion, but he didn't need to rub our noses in it.
(BTW, all my Catholic friends are quite welcome to take communion with me at my church.)
That is not what he said! When are you going to realize that the mainstream media does not present Christianity in an honest light? Laura Ingraham interviewed Raymond Arroyo from EWTN and also a Southern Baptist (I’ve been both Baptist and Catholic) and neither one thought the Pope had been insulting of the Protestant Churches.
Like I say, I live in New England. Catholicis are the majority and they don't go to church like the Protestant south. I'm not delving into obscure data here. South = devout protestant. New England = lapsed Catholics and atheists.
Then why bother? We can sling accurate charges all day long, end up angering each other, and end any dialog between supposedly “estranged” Christians.
I am surprised by your position, because if Catholic doctrine is true, then Protestants really aren't a true church. If you really believe in Catholic doctrine, you shouldn't run from the truth, you need to trumpet it widely.
Yeah, us Knights don’t do any charity compared to the Masons!
Can’t you take communion anyway? They don’t ask when you go up there, do they?
Hang on. I'm a Catholic-basher but I have to defend them here. They believe that the Eucharist is the actual body of Christ, not a symbol. It would be disrespectful to take the Eucharist under those terms.
Why is it a "poor route"? Should Benedict continue the apostate 'protestantization' of the Catholic Church to appease them back into the fold? Is mediating and negotiating the Truth the way of Christ? This false ecumenism has been a ridiculous and disastrous position by the Church. Since Vatican II the Church has been devastated by shocking changes, a horrendous drop off in attendance, scandal after scandal. Church doors continue to be closed from coast to coast. The Church in Europe is almost non-existant, and the Church in America is not much better off. "By their fruits you will know them"; and the 'fruits' of Vat II and false ecumenism are rotting the Church to her foundation. The Truth needs to kiss nobody's feet to bring them to the Light, and Benedict knows this. The Church doors are not only open to Protestants who wish to convert, the Church pleads with them to do so. If they don't want the Truth, if they reject the Church founded by Jesus Christ on Peter, that's their problem, not ours.
Just as in John 6:66, when many of Jesus' followers were scandalized by his doctrine of literally eating and drinking of his flesh, and left Him, so go the Protestants. In my opinion, Pope Benedict is trying to bring them back by telling them the hard, cold facts.
*sigh*
“That is not what he said..”
I just reread the story (for the 4th time) and it was said
“Orthodox Churches are wounded, and Protestant (sic) are not real Churches”
It just seems a shame to start such a dialog, res ipsa loquitur....
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