[trisham]

That is a misstatement of Pope Benedict's words. What he actually said was this:

“Therefore, these separated Churches and communities as such, though we believe they suffer from defects, have by no means been deprived of significance and importance in the mystery of salvation. For the spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as means of salvation which derive their efficacy from the very fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Catholic Church”.66

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to repost this great man's words. He deserves all the attention we can offer him.

[Petronski]

Thank you for further correcting the record.

Refuting anti-Catholic lies is a round-the-clock operation around here.

[big'ol_freeper]

You said: That is a misstatement of Pope Benedict’s words.

Of course it is. In order to justify one’s warped view of the Catholic Church, one has to distort just about everything about the institution one despises.

It is a very sad thing to watch those who think you are doing Christ’s work and all the time they are attacking that which He loves. It is not the physical attacks he suffered at the hands of the Roman Empire, but they continue to crucify Christ by their words and attacks on His Church.

My prayers go out for those who truly wish to love Him, all the while attacking Him. May the Holy Spirit guide them out of their darkness and into the light of the fullness of faith in His One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

LOL. Twist the words however you like. They still say exactly what they said -- all churches but Rome are "defective."

Just once I'd like to see a Catholic debate the merits of the case, and not try to rewrite the question or deny the dictionary definition.

Dissembling can become a hard habit to break.

Ratzinger clearly called Orthodox and Protestant churches "defective" and not true churches.

He will have to answer for "every idle word" he's ever spoken, including the oaths he swore to so long ago.

"But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." -- Matthew 12:36-37

[OLD REGGIE]

That is a misstatement of Pope Benedict's words. What he actually said was this:

“Therefore, these separated Churches and communities as such, though we believe they suffer from defects, have by no means been deprived of significance and importance in the mystery of salvation. For the spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as means of salvation which derive their efficacy from the very fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Catholic Church”.66

(56) The interpretation of those who would derive from the formula subsistit in the thesis that the one Church of Christ could subsist also in non-Catholic Churches and ecclesial communities is therefore contrary to the authentic meaning of Lumen gentium. “The Council instead chose the word subsistit precisely to clarify that there exists only one ‘subsistence' of the true Church, while outside her visible structure there only exist elementa Ecclesiae, which — being elements of that same Church — tend and lead toward the Catholic Church” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Notification on the Book “Church: Charism and Power” by Father Leonardo Boff: AAS 77 [1985], 756-762).

4. The Church's constant missionary proclamation is endangered today by relativistic theories which seek to justify religious pluralism, not only de facto but also de iure (or in principle). As a consequence, it is held that certain truths have been superseded; for example, the definitive and complete character of the revelation of Jesus Christ, the nature of Christian faith as compared with that of belief in other religions, the inspired nature of the books of Sacred Scripture, the personal unity between the Eternal Word and Jesus of Nazareth, the unity of the economy of the Incarnate Word and the Holy Spirit, the unicity and salvific universality of the mystery of Jesus Christ, the universal salvific mediation of the Church, the inseparability — while recognizing the distinction — of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Christ, and the Church, and the subsistence of the one Church of Christ in the Catholic Church.

The roots of these problems are to be found in certain presuppositions of both a philosophical and theological nature, which hinder the understanding and acceptance of the revealed truth. Some of these can be mentioned: the conviction of the elusiveness and inexpressibility of divine truth, even by Christian revelation; relativistic attitudes toward truth itself, according to which what is true for some would not be true for others; the radical opposition posited between the logical mentality of the West and the symbolic mentality of the East; the subjectivism which, by regarding reason as the only source of knowledge, becomes incapable of raising its “gaze to the heights, not daring to rise to the truth of being”;8 the difficulty in understanding and accepting the presence of definitive and eschatological events in history; the metaphysical emptying of the historical incarnation of the Eternal Logos, reduced to a mere appearing of God in history; the eclecticism of those who, in theological research, uncritically absorb ideas from a variety of philosophical and theological contexts without regard for consistency, systematic connection, or compatibility with Christian truth; finally, the tendency to read and to interpret Sacred Scripture outside the Tradition and Magisterium of the Church.

On the basis of such presuppositions, which may evince different nuances, certain theological proposals are developed — at times presented as assertions, and at times as hypotheses — in which Christian revelation and the mystery of Jesus Christ and the Church lose their character of absolute truth and salvific universality, or at least shadows of doubt and uncertainty are cast upon them.

DECLARATION "DOMINUS IESUS"
ON THE UNICITY AND SALVIFIC UNIVERSALITY OF JESUS CHRIST AND THE CHURCH

Sort through the doubletalk and tell what it actually says.