Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Pope’s former point man on ecumenism, writes:
“Likewise, in the ecumenical movement, the Church takes part in an exchange of gifts with the separated Churches (cf. Ut Unum Sint, nn. 28, 57), enriches them and at the same time makes their gifts her own; she brings them to the fullness of their catholicity and thereby fully attains her own catholicity (cf. Unitatis Redintegratio, n. 4).
Mission and ecumenism are two forms of the eschatological journey and the eschatological dynamic of the Church.
The Council was not so ingenuous as to ignore the danger that integrating the ecumenical movement into the Church’s dynamic eschatology could entail. This dynamic, as has happened all too often in the Church’s history, could have been erroneously interpreted as a progressivist movement that saw the heritage of ancient traditions as obsolete, rejecting it in the name of what might be termed a progressivist conception of faith. Wherever this occurs there is a real risk of relativism and indifferentism, of “cheap ecumenism” that ends by becoming superfluous. This has at times meant that the ecumenical movement has fallen prey to movements critical of the Church, and this has been exploited against her.
Dogmatic laxism leads to the refusal to recognize the essence of the Church’s eschatological dimension. The eschaton does not in fact refer to a future reality that is located outside history. With Jesus Christ and with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, it has definitively entered history and is present in the Church.”
http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/PCCUR40Y.HTM
Catholics cannot engage in an “I’m OK, you’re OK” mentality vis-a-vis Protestantism. If Protestants have a problem, then we will just have to agree to disagree, agreeably.
We can’t be relativists.
I believe in Jesus,what religion am i? Who cares which one?
How do you respond to criticisms of top-down Catholic church management? The congregations don’t have a substantial self-governing role. And i’m not talking about on matters of doctrine, but matters of budgeting, management and personnel. So you get the cases of abusive priests being shuffled around, sent to new parishes where the people have no idea about their background.
In most protestant denominations, the congregation has a direct role in choosing who will pastor them, and they can fire, too.
Yes, I agree. But if you believe in something you should be able to defend it in an intelligent way and not resort to name calling or twisting words around. It must be reasonable and worthy. We're not trying to convert each other (or at least I'm not) but hopefully understand WHY you believe something. Catholics believe something because the Church tells them what to believe. Protestants find that unacceptable.