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but my understanding is that there have been changes, tweaks, reforms of the Church, based on the decisions of men who claimed to be learned and scholars of the Church, ecumenical councils since the early days of the church, the Church today is not the Church of 200 AD, nor the Church of 1000 AD or the Church of 1500 AD etc

so are all those reforms and changes open to question?

married priests were banned in 1139 AD, was that wrong? this was after several centuries of discussion and debate

do you go back to post Vatican II or do you go back right to the Nicene Creed of 300 ADish

the reality is religions are not static nor will they ever be....there will be certain core principles but there will always be discussion and debate on more procedural notions and perhaps even doctrinial notions because even doctrine is based on scriptures which can be open to interpretation

the finding of the Dead Sea scrolls was quite a revelation, I'm reading a book now, called The Bible as History, which is charting all the major archaoelogy finds that relate to the Bible, either as confirming parts of the Bible like they have excavated the Tower of Babel which was/is as tall as the Statue of Liberty apparently]or providing more details to certain sections of the Bible, I don't know if there are any tidbits that might disagree with the Bible however - who is to say some document or artifact might not pop up whose authenticity can be verified, aye there's the rub, but something like the Dead Sea scrolls which might shake up a portion of the church's doctrine

now Pope Benedict might be right, maybe the changes to the liturgy have taken the mystery, the fun if you will out of the liturgy, but my understanding is that the reasoning behind most of the Vatican II councils was to reach out to a broader audience and not exclude people by virtue of the Latin mass etc, I am presuming that is what the Pope is referring to in the liturgy having lost its magic....... given the Catholic Church has exploded in other areas of the world, was not Vatican II right in their decision, the reasons the Church has failed in North America has less to do with Latin masses but as we've all discussed, the Me generation wants a Me church and the church, even under Vatican II, cannot provide that or it ceases to be, however as someone else on the forum noted, Catholics are so ingrained with a sense they will go to hell if they leave the Church, almost as effective as Islam's hold on its adherents, that this is why we have all these Catholics wanting the church to liberalize, they still want to stay within the Church and not feel guilty

if you are Protestant, it's no big whoop, you can find the Protestant denomination that meets your needs and can still feel comfortable about your salvation.....and in fact most Protestants believe when you get right down to it, you don't need an intermediary, if you pray to God and believe in Jesus as your saviour you have a relationship with God wherever you pray.....you ask God directly for forgiveness and guidance....