[Alex Murphy]

I often tell people that if you lose your way in Reformed Tradition (read Presbyterian) theology, you can always go back to square one, which says, in essence, this: God is sovereign. Or -- in wording I prefer now because most of us have no experience living under a sovereign -- God is gloriously free....It is up to God to determine who will have eternal life. It is not up to us. Even if you go to Reformed Tradition founder John Calvin's hard-to-follow concepts about predestination (to say nothing of double predestination), you discover that no human being can know for certain who is saved and who is condemned....Even if you buy Calvinism's some-get-saved, some-get-damned-and-there's-nothing-you-can-do-about-it scheme, you don't know who is who, so you have to be nice to everyone on the theory that you may spend eternity with that person. Which is pretty much what [Pope Francis] was saying in On Heaven and Earth, co-written with Rabbi Abraham Skorka. When I read what Bergoglio said on this subject, I had a provocative thought that I was tempted to throw into the lede of this column. Something like this: "Hey, Catholics: Do you know what you've done? You've chosen a Protestant pope"....

....Those of us in mainline Protestant churches (Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, etc.) have been long on social justice concerns and short on respect for hierarchical governance structures and fancy ritual. We pay a price for this emphasis, but it's one we've been willing to pay. And it now appears to many of us that the new pope is intent on moving the Catholic church a bit closer to this Protestant approach.

In the interest of full disclosure, the article is written by a current PC(USA) church elder, whose writings are regularly published in the National Catholic Fishwrap.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

So this idiot accurately states that theories on predestination can be quite complicated requiring extensive explication, but then goes on to label the Pope's beliefs based on one sentence from one book.

Sheesh.

[muawiyah]

Interesting ~ BTW, having met many Catholics in charitable works and institutions, and in my own family, I’m pretty sure they are not in league with the devil. But, anyway, the first non-Eastern European Protestants were all Roman Catholics ~ of course they have the same qualities of thought. Bet we all pray for the safety and well being of the underground church in China too.

[A.A. Cunningham]

[knarf]

Pope Francis And His Protestant .. NON CATHOLIC Views

Fixed

[ArrogantBustard]

A Protestant who is interested in becoming Catholic would do well to find better sources of information than the “Orthodox” “Presbyterian” “Church” or the notoriously non-Catholic National “Catholic” Reporter.

[Linda Frances]

I belong to an Evangelcial Free church and really think highly of Pope Francis. I grew up in Catholic grade and high school and taught CCD. Pope Francis’s life; actions and outreach to other Christian faiths, is something I had never seen before. I’ve always said we are not in Ireland, Catholics and Christians need to stand up for one another. I look at the Catholic Church as I do other denomination; Luthern, Baptist.....We all have the same God; God the Father, God the Son & God the Holy Spirit. We do have some differences, but more thing in common than not. In this world, we are stronger when we call one another brother and sister.

[Sun]

Did you know that The Catholic Reporter is NOT Catholic?

I wouldn’t give them the time of day.

[TradicalRC]

That’s funny, I’ve heard LOTS of protestants tell me that they KNOW that they’re saved.