The Pope Is Catholic
I know there are a couple folks that don't read any other catholic blogs besides mine (scary thought, I know), so I thought I should post my brief thoughts about a recent document released from Rome:
"RESPONSES TO SOME QUESTIONS REGARDING CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE DOCTRINE ON THE CHURCH".
Now that's a title!
More info here.
And here from my friend and co-blogger at Per Christum, David Bennett.
And a sane, protestant reaction from Stan Guthrie at the ChristianityToday blog.
Like usual, much of the media has totally botched the coverage of this, claiming all sorts of ridiculous things, like the "Pope Says Protestants Not Christian" and "Ecumenical Hopes Destroyed As Crushing Blow to Unity is Dealt". Ok, I made those up. But they are not far off.
Someone on another message board asked for comments on it, and here are mine:
First off, the reporting of the main-stream media on just about anything Catholic is nearly always abysmal. They get basic things completely wrong. So don't trust it.
Second, this is not anything new at all. It is a re-affirmation of what Vatican II Council said and other magisterial documents since then.
Third, Catholics (like all Christians) have a definition of the "true Church". The Catholic definition is one that has all the sacraments, shares all the faith, and is in union with the Pope.
The Orthodox Churches have all that except for union with the Pope, so they are "true, particular Churches" but are lacking an important aspect.
Protestants have a valid baptism and many valid marriages, but they have not maintained apostolic succession through the sacrament of ordination. It is because of this that they are not true Churches in the Catholic sense of ecclesiology (and they don't claim to be!).
"RESPONSES TO SOME QUESTIONS REGARDING CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE DOCTRINE ON THE CHURCH".
Now that's a title!
More info here.
And here from my friend and co-blogger at Per Christum, David Bennett.
And a sane, protestant reaction from Stan Guthrie at the ChristianityToday blog.
Like usual, much of the media has totally botched the coverage of this, claiming all sorts of ridiculous things, like the "Pope Says Protestants Not Christian" and "Ecumenical Hopes Destroyed As Crushing Blow to Unity is Dealt". Ok, I made those up. But they are not far off.
Someone on another message board asked for comments on it, and here are mine:
First off, the reporting of the main-stream media on just about anything Catholic is nearly always abysmal. They get basic things completely wrong. So don't trust it.
Second, this is not anything new at all. It is a re-affirmation of what Vatican II Council said and other magisterial documents since then.
Third, Catholics (like all Christians) have a definition of the "true Church". The Catholic definition is one that has all the sacraments, shares all the faith, and is in union with the Pope.
The Orthodox Churches have all that except for union with the Pope, so they are "true, particular Churches" but are lacking an important aspect.
Protestants have a valid baptism and many valid marriages, but they have not maintained apostolic succession through the sacrament of ordination. It is because of this that they are not true Churches in the Catholic sense of ecclesiology (and they don't claim to be!).
posted by Chad Toney at
5:03 PM
