Pope: Other Christian Denominations Not True Churches

Fox News ^ | Tuesday, July 10, 2007 | Associated Press

[Ancient Drive]

LORENZAGO DI CADORE, Italy — For the second time in a week, Pope Benedict XVI has corrected what he says are erroneous interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, reasserting the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church and saying other Christian communities were either defective or not true churches.

Benedict approved a document released Tuesday from his old office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which repeated church teaching on Catholic relations with other Christians.

[Ancient Drive]

watch out for those Catholic Jihadists!lol :p

[Incorrigible]

Previous Thread:

Pope: Other Christians not true churches

 

[Dixie Yooper]

OK, it’s official. This Benedict guy is no Pope John-Paul. I guess he feels more comfortable making snidely comments against religions that don’t use suicide bombers to carry out assassinations.

[stuartcr]

Can one man really determine if a church is defective or not an actual church?

[muawiyah]

Fundamentally speaking, AP ain't the Vatican, and even if FOX News reports what AP is peddling, that doesn't make the story any more valid.

Ratzinger is liable to say any number of things that people outside of the Catholic Church's "nomenklatura" probably can't understand.

None of this is surprising.

[big'ol_freeper]

Nothing new here. If you believe the Catholic Church contains the fullness of truth then anything less than that is defective. Doesn’t take a genius to figure that out.

[GCC Catholic]

OK, it’s official. This Benedict guy is no Pope John-Paul.OK, it’s official.

Whoa! I'm going to step in before this thread gets as out of whack as the other ones.

The document that was released today (you can read it here) mostly echos the document Dominus Iesus which was released with the express permission of Pope John Paul II. It is consistent with previous Catholic teaching.

If you have been misled to believe otherwise, and that this is somehow a change, then I sincerely apologize.

[theFIRMbss]

>AP ain't the Vatican, and even if FOX News reports what AP is peddling, that doesn't make the story any more valid. Ratzinger is liable to say any number of things that people outside of the Catholic Church's "nomenklatura" probably can't understand

Is it possible
everything AP reports
is absolute truth

but you are too much
a bumpkin to understand?
Maybe the AP

should create layers
of intermediaries
to explain their truth...

[chesley]

And if you don’t, the Pope’s words still do you no harm. It is Christ Jesus that will be making these decisions, not any pope or priest or preacher.

[muawiyah]

AP should have its corporate charter pulled. Its assets should be put on public auction and its staff dispersed to minimize the harm they can do.

[stm]

Wow, it really sucks to be the rest of you guys!

I can’t believe our Holy Father really said this.

[theFIRMbss]

>I can’t believe our Holy Father really said this

No, no, no! It all
makes sense, it is really nice,
and it doesn't mean

anything you think!
Wait for Catholic Freepers
to explain it all.

[dangus]

The Religion For’m
Has turned to haiku again
How Fun! Can I play?

[theFIRMbss]

>The Religion For’m/Has turned to haiku again/How Fun! Can I play?

Don't be a porcus
ex grege diaboli!
This stuff takes training!!

[kawaii]

The document said Orthodox churches were indeed "churches" because they have apostolic succession and that they enjoyed "many elements of sanctification and of truth." But it said they lack something because they do not recognize the primacy of the pope -- a defect, or a "wound" that harmed them, it said.

"This is obviously not compatible with the doctrine of Primacy which, according to the Catholic faith, is an 'internal constitutive principle' of the very existence of a particular Church," said a commentary from the congregation which accompanied the text.

Not sure if it's Fox or the document but it's misleading to say the Orthodox don't beleive in the primacy of the Bishop of Rome. Methinks it's Fox given Benedict has acknowledged before that the Orthodox acknowledge the primacy to a large extent.

[dangus]

No, think about it:

If Catholicism ISN’T the only TRUE church, then:

Confession doesn’t matter,
Valid reception of the Eucharist doesn’t matter,
Submitting your marriage to the pre-Cana process doesn’t matter,
All those Catholic morals (no divorce, no birth control, no abortion, no masturbation, no pornography) don’t matter,
The holy orders don’t matter.

What the Holy Father said picks up a harsh demeanor as filtered through the press, but if anyone doesn’t believe the substance of what the Holy Father said, they have no reason not to join an “easier” or more entertaining church. Furthermore, while his statements may annoy the Gene Robison-style Episcopalians, the ECLA Lutherans, and the PCUSA Presbyterians, I’m quite sure that the orthodox Anglicans, the Orthodox (Eastern) Catholics, the Missouri and Wisconsin Synods of the Lutheran churches, and the PCA or OCP Presbyterians will respect the Catholic Church’s stand far more; they, too, understand, that if all denominations were equally valid, than their doctrines are also worthless in turn.

[dangus]

Traning you may have
and knowledge of some Latin
to impress us all.

At least I’d never
mix Latin and English, too
in but one sentence.

[dangus]

Yes, it’s quite likely that Fox has translated words misleadingly.

[BipolarBob]

“Yes, it’s quite likely that Fox has translated words misleadingly.”

Read the official document and spin away. It’s pretty much the way Fox has put it.

[wolfcreek]

Are they going to send out the Knights to strike down all nonbelievers?