Pope: Other denominations not true churches

[apnu]

Source: MSNBC News Services

Pope: Other denominations not true churches
Benedict issues statement asserting that Jesus established ‘only one church’

MSNBC News Services
Updated: 1 hour, 44 minutes ago

LORENZAGO DI CADORE, Italy - Pope Benedict XVI has reasserted the universal primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, approving a document released Tuesday that says Orthodox churches were defective and that other Christian denominations were not true churches.

Benedict approved a document from his old offices at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that restates church teaching on relations with other Christians. It was the second time in a week the pope has corrected what he says are erroneous interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meetings that modernized the church.

On Saturday, Benedict revisited another key aspect of Vatican II by reviving the old Latin Mass. Traditional Catholics cheered the move, but more liberal ones called it a step back from Vatican II.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19692094/

---

Ah Pope Benedict... winning hearts and minds, bringing a kinder, gentler Jesus to the masses.

[Warpy]

1. I predicted two things when this man was announced as the new pope

I predicted his reign would be acrimonious. I was right.

I also predicted it would be relatively short. I hope I am right.

Catholics are nice folks. They don't deserve this jerk.

[Ian David]

3. Never met one who voted for him. n/t

[roguevalley]

61. If you dig back far enough, the papacy is a heresy. this pope is a

nazi. correct me if I'm wrong. :)

RV, who apparently isn't a real christian. I don't mind. neither, apparently, was Jesus, my hero and my rabbi.

[Demeter]

113. Jesus Didn't Establish a Church, Anyway

He taught a way of life. He wasn't in it for power or money.

[roguevalley]

120. if anything, Jesus was against the establishment. all his actions

went against orthodox Jewish behavior and teaching and against establishment practices. the pope is an ass.

[AndyTiedye]

100. Something Went Terribly Wrong In That (s)Election…

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2911249&mesg_id=2911393

[apnu]

5. yeah, he is a real scumbag

I'm still stunned that he was picked. That gave me zero confidence in church leadership, its almost as if the Catholic Church could get a Bush, Ratz is their man.

Still, I wonder what impact this will have with the Mega-Churches here in the US. What does the SBC think when the Pope says they aren't Christians? That's got to be annoying.

[rmgarrette64]

17. No effect at all

What? Did you think Baptists don't already know that the Catholic Church considers itself the one, true church? They've only been saying that for the last 2,000 years, after all. All the protestant denominations are well aware of the Catholic Church's teachings on this matter. Heck, some protestant denominations are less than entirely friendly towards each other.

This is all pretty much acceptable, at least to the majority of Christians. As long as things stay at the level of sermons and encyclicals, we're pretty much fine with the whole thing. (OK, I exaggerate. I'm sure a sufficiently ill-tempered proclamation could be read as incitement, but that is, I'm afraid, absolutely NOT the case here.)

Sorry, but I have no problems at all with a Pope who acts, well, Catholic.

R. Garrett

[Ian David]

33. The truth is, than anyone who refuses to Obey Our Noodly Master will be doomed

[FloridaJudy]

49. Bring on the beer volcano and the stripper factory!

I want my stripper to be a Chippendale.

[undergroundpanther]

107. Is the beer volcano

Killians Red or those 19 or so flavors of Samuel Adams? Changing on the hour?
Does that volcano ever spew Long Island Iced Tea?
Does the noodley master have a belly button?

[YOY]

48. And the Baptists don't consider Catholics Christians in return

It's a two way street.

Nobody seems to mention the Orthodox as well...

[NaturalHigh]

128. That's a very broad statement...

and not correct at all. As a Southern Baptist who is married to a Catholic, I have never heard any such thing from anyone in my church. Yes, we Baptists have many doctrinal differences with Catholics, but I personally know of no Baptists who do not consider Catholics to be Christians.

[RamboLiberal]

28. Well a lot of Born Agains think only they will go to heaven

and not Catholics.

Now as a lapsed Catholic who went to 12 years of parochial school education - what a mistake for the cardinals to elect this guy! He's taking the church back to the 50's and before. This is the crap they were teaching us before Vatican II. What a setback!

[AngryOldDem]

13. So did I.

This man is setting back Catholicism by centuries.

Next, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that he will reopen the case against Galileo.

When stuff like this comes out of Rome, I have to say I am truly ashamed that I EVER considered myself Catholic.

Now, I'll sit back and wait for the apologists' spin on this, much like the spin that has been put on wording in the now-revived Tridentine Mass: "But, what Benny ACTUALLY meant WAS..."

We all know what this Pope means.

[leftchick]

15. Catholics don't deserve a Pope.

at least that is the way I feel. As a Catholic. :)

[Ian David]

2. I know none of our Catholic friends here voted for this guy...

so I don't hold him against any of you, personally.

But I really hate Der Popenfuhrer Ratso.

I think Diebold rigged the Magic Chimney and cheated God out of his vote.

[AndyTiedye]

14. Unless Your Friends are Cardinals, They Wouldn't Have a Vote

[Ian David]

19. I know. That was my point. n/t

[AndyTiedye]

30. I Have a Theory About This

[Ian David]

32. ROFL!!!! THANKS! I needed that!! n/t

[goclark]

47. ROTFL ~ Didn't I read that he met with GW

right before he was "voted On."

I read it at DU I believe.

[Ex Lion Tamer]

80. That is absolutely brilliant!!!!!

Well done.

[villager]

4. No one expects the Spanish Inquisition! Or at least didn't, until now.

n/t

[Itchinjim]

6. As a lapsed Catholic please allow me to say this to Benny;

Shut. The. Hell. Up. You aren't helping the cause.

[calimary]

64. Lifelong Catholic (and lapsed, I suppose, would also be accurate) here - I second this!

When I first read up on him, and then watched him become the new Pope, all I could think of was "Benny the Backward."

Sigh... he IS just making it worse...

[Grandrose]

7. Oh oh...and here we go!!!

Bush's friend at it again, wonder how Falwell and crowd will like the Pope...now?
It was okay when Democrats were being castigated for votes on right to choose.:evilgrin: :kick:

[Fresh_Start]

8. Maybe it will split the evangelical Catholic

voting bloc. Now that the evangelicals realize that catholics are more their enemy than Muslims 6000 mile away.

[yardwork]

9. That would require rational thinking. I don't see it happening anytime soon.

[bemildred]

10. Me! Me! Only me! I'm real, all the others are fake!

:rofl::rofl:

[ChairmanAgnostic]

50. doesn't every single christian sect say the same thing?

We and only we are right - everyone else is WRONG WRONG WRONG!

[YOY]

52. Just about every religion says that

There are exceptions though...

[bemildred]

79. Well, some are not exclusionary about it.

The pagan romans were pretty open minded about theology, for example. But Occam's Razor would suggest that the best answer is that all "organized" religions are more or less full of shit when it comes to theology, it's by far the simplest hypothesis. And it's certainly clear that all the organized ones are about money.

[johncoby2]

11. Catholics RULE!!!!!!!!!

When we bring back prayer in school, everyone will have to learn the Hail Mary.

:sarcasm:

[stellanoir]

12. How godly and tolerant and accepting and inclusive of him.

When he was installed someone posted a photo of him emerging from the red curtain next to an image of the Emporer from Star Wars taking power in the Senate in the third Star Wars Movie.

The resemblence was utterly uncanny. Yikes.

[Harry Monroe]

16. All Catholics Unite and Impeach the Pope!!!!

Crap like this is why I haven't been to mass in 25 years.

[Ian David]

37. I stand by my prediction that Voice of The Faithful will form its own church within 10 years. n/t

[jwirr]

18. As a non-Catholic I could care less what he thinks. We stopped

listening in 1500s.

[krabigirl]

20. Ugh, I am so tired of the Catholic church. Soo glad I left!!

it's so irrelevant. No offense to any Catholics here. My parents shoved that crap down my throat all my life, so I am pretty bitter.

[Maribelle]

21. It seems the radical right wing that hoped to turn this nation into a Theocracy ...

are receiving a huge put down.

For this I am thankful to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.

[mitchum]

22. As a godless heathen, I welcome this announcement...

let those who just make up shit feud with the other cults who just make up shit...and leave me alone

[jazzjunkysue]

86. As a heathen pagan, I second that. Someone else's turn to get kicked around.

My ass hurts.
:hi:

[TechBear_Seattle]

23. Ancient Church doctrine; nothing new

Until 1969 and the promulgation of the canons from the Second Vatican Council, non-Catholics were all either heathens, heretics or apostates, with especial antipathy aimed at Protestants and Jews. After Vatican II, these doctrines remained but references were dropped from the revised Mass and non-Catholics were described as being "in error" (but still either heathens, heretics or apostates.)

All that Maladict is doing is rolling back recent "modernist" revisions.

[kskiska]

60. Sure. As kids we were warned about "mixed marriages"

meaning marriages between Catholics and Protestants. A Catholic wasn't supposed to attend services at any Protestant church, much less participate in a wedding there. By the same token, in a Catholic wedding, a Protestant member of the wedding party was frowned upon. That person was not allowed beyond the altar rail during the ceremony. A Protestant who married a Catholic was pressured to convert, and also had to sign away their future children into Catholicism.

We were encouraged as children to bring Protestant friends to the Catholic Church, though, presumably for conversion purposes.

[eridani]

90. Jeez--in my town a "mixed marriage" was one between--

--somebody from St. Patrick's and somebody from St. James. Back then there was quite a bit of discord between Irish Catholics and those from other ethnic minorities. The Germans, Poles and Italians all went to St. James.

[LibDemAlways]

105. My dad grew up in a small town in PA in which there

were four Catholic churches within about 6 blocks of each other - one Polish, one Italian, one Irish, and one Slavic. And this back when the Mass was said in Latin.

Dad's sister brought great shame on the family when she married a (gasp) Protestant. The priest insisted that the ceremony be performed at night in a dark corner of the church and that the bride not wear a white wedding gown.

Also remember when my parents, newly arrived in California in 1961, were invited to the wedding of a neighbor to be held at a non-denominational chapel overlooking the ocean. They went but stood outside, explaining it would have been a sin to go in. Years later I was a bridesmaid at a friend's wedding there.

Looks like Ratzinger is trying to drag the Church back into the bad old days.

[MaineDem]

127. I grew up learning that non-Catholics were all going to hell

Unless they converted to Catholicism. I never set foot inside a Protestant Church until I was an adult and went to my cousin's wedding. Let me clarify that, my Girl Scout troop met int he basement of the Congregational Church but I could only look through the doors at the main church. It was lovely and I would have liked to see it but it was against the rules and the nuns in school would not have approved.

My husband grew up with the nuns telling him his father was no better than a pagan for being a Protestant. He would never go to heaven. And this man was the best Christian these nuns had ever seen. He was also best buddies with the Catholic Bishop which pissed the nuns off all the more. :D

Benedict is rolling back all the Vatican Councils' good work. That annoys me greatly.

There's a reason I'm a "non-practicing" Catholic and Bennie isn't doing anything to lure me back.

[Delphinus]

24. I'm sitting here ...

simply incredulous at what he's saying! O.M.G.!!

This ought to stir some shit.

[formercia]

25. The Benedictines ran the torture chambers during the Inquisition

a fitting name he took.

[JerseygirlCT]

31. I do think the Inquisition was brought to you thanks to the Dominicans

But I could be remembering wrong.

[pschoeb]

38. No that was the mendicant orders, Dominicans and Franciscans

and later the new militant order of Jesuits. Benedictines are a monastic order, following the Rule of St. Benedict, they were initially largely local and autonomous monasteries, that didn't coordinate with one another in any complete way, forming various general chapters and such, Benedictines have always been a diverse crowd compared with Dominicans or Franciscans or Jesuits.

Maybe your thinking of Pope Benedict XIV, who was an inquisitor before he became Pope or Pope Benedict XII(a Cistercian Monk) who rooted out the last of the Cathars before becoming Pope.

[formercia]

51. Here's how my thinking was derived

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/cienciareal/cienciareal11.htm

Although the Benedictine Order’s name appears in many documents relating to the witch trials, this was only because of their historical and omnipresent role in bringing Judeo-Christianity to all of western Europe. Their main opposition had come from the Priestess (Akela) and male clergy (Druids) of the Goddess religion and to a lesser degree from the Gnostic Irish evangelists, but certainly not from the witches, who had not been invented yet. To their eternal credit, the Benedictines decided to have nothing to do with the later witch-craze; that task was assigned to the Dominicans and Franciscans.


http://www.ianpaisley.org/article.asp?ArtKey=ratzinger2


Cardinal Ratzinger The Chief Inquisitor – a man not quite what he seems
Putting the smackdown on heresy Part II:
Dr Clive Gillis

The latest biography of Cardinal Ratzinger, the Chief Inquisitor, by John Allen Jr., is entitled The Vatican’s Enforcer of Faith Cardinal Ratzinger. The cover shows a man in his early seventies, looking rather older than he does in many of the current media images.

The book’s copyright belongs to Editzione San Paolo, the powerful publishing arm of the international Society of St Paul whose founder is due for beatification this month. Allen’s publishers have chosen their picture well. The lighting removes any blemishes from the all knowing, all wise features, set off by gold framed half glasses slipping slightly down the nose of this saintly looking man. Rome may be in disarray but surely in Ratzinger she fields a solid conservative to steer St Peter’s barque through rough waters.

However looks can be deceptive. In Edward Stoughton’s interview with Ratzinger, when the BBC got inside the Inquisition for the Absolute Truth series, we could just glimpse a portrait of one of Cardinal Ratzinger’s predecessors at the head of the Inquisition, Cardinal Bellarmine, the scourge of Protestantism in the Counter Reformation.

[Aanya]

58. Pope Benedict Arnold

I was raised in the Catholic Church, and went to Catholic Schools. I was taught early by nuns, that all Christians believed God was born, lived, and died on the cross, etc. All Christian Churches worship the same God. I don't understand how this Pope can make that statement. In the Apostles Creed, there is the line about the Catholic Church, but it refers to all Christian Churches.

Don't forget Pope Rattzy is a personal friend of the Bush family. Don't also forget that he ran the secret voting for the new Pope. There are many of us who believe that the vote was just as fair as the Bush vote was in 2000! Personally, I can't feel that this Pope is the true Pope. I've felt that he would die very soon, and we'd correct this terrible mistake, or crime!

[formercia]

62. Votes for silence

http://www.americablog.com/2005/04/ratzinger-accused-of-cover-up-in.html

--snip--

The accusers say Vatican-based Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who heads the Vatican office to safeguard the faith and the morals of the church, quietly made the lawsuit go away and shelved it. There was no investigation and the accusers weren't asked a single question or asked for a statement.

He was appointed by the pope to investigate the entire sex abuse scandal in the church in recent days. But when approached by ABCNEWS in Rome last week with questions of allegations against Maciel, Ratzinger became visibly upset and actually slapped this reporter's hand.

"Come to me when the moment is given," Ratzinger told ABCNEWS, "not yet."

"Cardinal Ratzinger is sheltering Maciel, protecting him," said Berry, who expressed concerns that no response was being given to the allegations against the man charged with sex abuse. "These men knelt and kissed the ring of Cardinal Ratzinger when they filed the case in Rome. And a year-and-a-half later, he takes those accusations and aborts them, just stuffs them."

--snip--

[LiberalFighter]

65. Voting for pope was rigged throughout history

Corrupt popes were far and many throughout history

[rexcat]

102. It's easy...

His popeness is not getting a cut from the Protestants. Religion, like every other man made institution is about money and power.

[pschoeb]

70. So you failed to read your sources?

Nowhere in either does it say Benedictines were actually very involved with the Inquisition or the torturers.


Also as far as the first source, just because the Benedictine name shows up in records of the Inquisition, is hardly meaningful(which the source hints at, but not clearly why), since the Inquisition was used to solve other disputes besides heresy and witchcraft, one does have to look at the context of name appearances not just number. In Spain, For example, in 1499 a Benedictine monastery complained that they had pledged a cross to a certain person but could not recover it, because the man had placed himself under the Dominicans, who claimed exemption from legal proceedings, they complained to King Ferdinand, and he ordered the local Inquisitors to settle the dispute, and this appears in the records of the Inquisitor. It was not unusual for the Inquisitors to solve inter order disputes, and since the Benedictines are the oldest monastic order, it's not unusual for it to show up a lot because of these disputes, though dramatically less than Dominicans, Franciscans and Jesuits(like Cardinal Bellarmine) who were the main Inquisitors.

I also wouldn't take Ian Paisley's site as of any value.

[formercia]

71. Paisley didn't write the book

and the copyright is owned by a Catholic order.


We're splitting hairs.

[pschoeb]

76. Your second source complaining about Ratzinger being an Inquisitor

It's on Ian Paisley's site.

Your first source is Edo Nyland, who is a complete idiot(believes Benedictines created all Western Indo-European Languages in Europe), but I don't think he's Catholic, he is probably making some passing reference to a Catholic scholars work on the Inquisition, which also has it's own problems.

[formercia]

77. What has that to do with the price of onions?

He was the Grand Inquisitor.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/apr2005/pope-a21.shtml

--snip--

The 78-year-old cardinal, who took the name Pope Benedict XVI, served for 23 years as Pope John Paul II’s arbiter of doctrinal orthodoxy, disciplining clerics and theologians who questioned Catholic dogma on such issues a birth control, abortion, divorce, homosexuality and papal infallibility. As prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the successor institution to the Inquisition, Ratzinger persecuted and suppressed the so-called “liberation theology” in Latin America, and banned, censored or excommunicated liberal clerics in Europe and North America, earning himself such nicknames as “grand inquisitor” and, among his fellow Germans, “Der Panzerkardinal.”

--snip--

[pschoeb]

82. Because Ian Paisley is as bad or worse than Pope Benedict

And would hate any Pope even if they were completely above contempt. It's like finding an argument against Pope Benedict at Jack Chick's site, pretty meaningless and only makes someone look bad. Or finding arguments against Wolfowitz at a Stormfront site, again meaningless and makes someone look bad.

I'm not saying I like Pope Benedict, or that he isn't an asshole, but you probably should know a bit about your sources, as both Edo Nyland and Ian Paisley's Organization are totally crazed.

[formercia]

88. Paisley is a reactionary.

I was just referencing the book, not promoting the site.

[AndyTiedye]

26. This is My Theory of How Pope Maledict Got Selected

I knew that something was going horribly wrong when they said yellow smoke was coming out of the chimney.

Then I got a closer look:

[Fire Walk With Me]

27. MMMmmmmm... Theocracy.....

(Homer Simpson drool effect)

[LisaM]

29. I complained about the new Pope when he was elected, too

and I had my thread LOCKED for referring to him as the Fuehrer. I guess he (or she) who laughs last laughs best, though it's not really a laughing matter.

[Ian David]

39. I call him Der Popenfuehrer. n/t

[AndyTiedye]

93. Pope Maledict

[RestoreGore]

34. Well, they do have the prettiest party hats and robes...

And the biggest ornate cathedrals and lavish homes that show how much they care for the poor.:puke:
And of course their tolerance for equality for women is unparalelled... so since he is going back to the time of the Crusades, how long will it be before the Witch's Hammer is instituted again? No offense to any Catholics here, but your hierarchy sucks and this Pope looks more like Chancellor Palpotine from Star Wars than a holy man.

[JVS]

35. JVS: Duhhh, that's what the leader of the apostate roman church always claims

[Ian David]

36. As the world rips itself apart in bloody religious conflicts, Pope Ratso has the vision & courage...

to declare that all religions...

everywhere...

... and people of all faiths....

can stand united, as equals...

... and all be damned to Hell together if they're not Catholic.

Thank you, Pope Ratso.

Now, the world can be United as One again.

Now I know why god chose you.

You have healed us.

[Burma Jones]

40. So What?

Like this is any different than the crap they ever believed. I was reading Gibbons' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and remember his assertion, certainly true, that the Christians have killed each other off with far more glee than the Pagan Roman Emperors ever did. The Pope sits at the head of an organization that, until very recently, hid and protected Child Molesters, a lot of pomp and wealth and a corrupt and rotten core.

[CANDO]

41. Just what the world needs! A Christian jihad. This is just plain sick.

And exactly why I don't profess to be of any religion. I'll rely on my "god-given" sense of reasoning and critical analysis.

[Seabiscuit]

116. Let the Catholics, Protestants, KKKristians and Jesus Freaks all eat each other.

Maybe if they all just self-destruct there'll be no one around to elect another George Bush.

If Jesus had a grave, he'd surely be rolling over in it.

Time for another Great Flood. Humanity sucks.

[dysfunctional press]

42. i think i know what's going on here...

in the face of rising oil prices, the vatican has installed a new power system, including a revolutionary new generator that utilizes the crypt of johnpaul the 2nd, laden with magnets inside a giant coil of copper wire- the faster they can get the jp2 spinning, the more amps they can generate.

either that, or ratso is just a nazi fuckwad.

[Dragonbreathp9d]

43. Hope I dont go to hell for this but: "Fuck off, Pope!"

[IndianaGreen]

44. I thought the Gnostics were the original Xtians, while the Catholic Church was an aberration

created by Emperor Constantine.

Anyhoo, nice to see Pope Ratzo join Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden in the pantheon of "one true faiths."

[undergroundpanther]

108. Ratzinger and the magic chair

Makes him infalliable..Excuse me while I laugh.
Gnostic's were the original movement,it was inclusive mixing of many cultures spiritual wisdom and ideas,it was acceptable of pagan ideas,very individualized and spiritual a threat to the roman empire..and to crush gnosis Constantine fucked it all up and the bible telling only half the story,came out of it..

[hvn_nbr_2]

45. Benedict is not a true pope. Hail Eris!

Only Discordian Popes are true popes. So you wanna be a Discordian Pope?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discordianism
http://www.aracnet.com/~kbuxton/discordia/
http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/syltguides/fullview/R2PHV8QJBI26NF
Hail Eris!

[damntexdem]

46. My favorite denomination: the twenty.

But tens are fine, too. Fifties and hundreds are too hard to change, but useful nowadays at the gas pump.

[MiserableFailure]

53. Shut up little pope

Most people don't care what you think anyway

[FloridaJudy]

54. This is news?

Doesn't every religious denomination think it has the monopoly on the truth? Well, maybe except for the Unitarians, and I've met some really intolerant Humanists there. Don't Shiia's, Sunni's and Sufi's each think they're the real disciples of Mohammad? Don't Theravada, Mahayana and Pure Land worshipers each claim to be carrying the authentic Buddhist message? As for the Jews, when not railing at the Palestinians, the Ultra-orthodox, Orthodox, Conservative and Reformed branches seem to have a lot of energy left to attack each other's notions about how to use the dinnerware. The Christians have broken into so many sects they resemble a Balkan republic, with each claiming exclusive ability to read God's mind. I used to be a Pagan, and believe me, when it comes to quarrelsome we can sling dirt at other Pagan groups better than anyone else.

What's appalling is Benedict's use of the word "defective" to describe other beliefs. That's gone beyond mere arrogance to real hostility, and we need only look at what the Moslems in Iraq are doing to each other to recognize this is not a path that anyone should be pursuing.

[brooklynite]

55. A sober response from our FRiends

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1863645/posts

And everyone is entitled to his opinion.

As a Protestant, this doesn’t bother me one bit. The Pope holds no sway over me. Although various groups of Christians have whupped on each other in the distant past, it would seem that we have learned to stop trying to force our views on each other.

How refreshing! A calm, sentitive response to a controversial comment.

Muslims are another story.

[MissMillie]

56. This is nothing new

although I thought this tenet went out in the 50s.

I remember my mother telling me that her priest would tell her that she'd go to hell for just walking into another church.

Recently the Southern Baptists have gotten into deciding who is a "real" or a "true" Christian and who isn't.

No one or nothing is allowed to exist in this world on its own. It's all about what's truer, what's better, what's stronger, what's more important.

While I do understand that very little in this world exists in a vacuum, I can't help but think that it's sad that this is the way things are.

[kskiska]

57. This was stated in my old blue Baltimore Catechism (circa 1954)

We learned it by rote.

"The Catholic Church is the only true church because it was founded by Jesus Christ himself."

Why the surprise?

[jazzjunkysue]

87. Wow. So, all the saints and prayers and incense, that was all Jesus's

idea?
Not to mention the gold churches, the marble altars, the priceless art, the fantastic real estate holding and molesting little boys. Jesus gets the wrap for all that?

I thought crucifying the guy was bad enough....Geesh.

[AngryOldDem]

95. I don't care what anyone says

<<"The Catholic Church is the only true church because it was founded by Jesus Christ himself."<<

That has to be the most arrogant statement ever uttered in the history of the entire universe. And I have YET to hear/read ANY convincing argument for this.

[Alexander]

59. "My beliefs are paramount, and everyone else is WRONG"

When this kind of thinking becomes extinct in this world, there will finally be peace.

Which is why there will probably never be peace.

[supernova]

63. What's Latin for "Hey Benedict, Kiss My Ass!"

[Voltaire99]

66. Mr. Pope Daddy is a religious bigot. Surprised?

The man's long career anticipated this sordid, farcical fundamentalism.

Civilization should shun his misrule as a pre-modern embarrassment--a relic of a dark past. I feel sorry for enlightened Catholics.

[LiberalFighter]

67. Roman Catholic Church was not founded by Jesus -- Paul did

[Maribelle]

69. "upon this rock I will found my church"

It is a Catholic Church dogma that Peter was the first bishop of Rome, where he was crucified in 67 AD by Nero.

[formercia]

74. The Roman church was one of many 'Christian' sects

They had the advantage of a powerful military to eliminate their competitors, otherwise we might all be Orthodox, coptic or some other sect if Christian at all.

We might all be 'Pagans'.


We would have probably been better off.

[Karenina]

84. Jesus was a Jew.

Where and when did the word "church" come into play?

[formercia]

89. Good question.

and Jesus didn't write or dictate any of the New Testament.

These 'Christian' sects were essentially cults and had little or any resemblance to modern 'churches.'

[IndianaGreen]

103. The Book of Acts has neither churces, nor a male priesthood

Instead, Christian communities were more like self-directed teams with women sharing leadership positions with men. It also showed early Christians living in collective communities.

There is no hint of what became the Roman Catholic Church, a construct that came centuries later after there were no witnesses left.

[Alexander]

104. So early Christian communities were like communism???

But what about supply-side Jesus?

:shrug:

[formercia]

117. Religion has turned into a racket

lots of money involved.

[IndianaGreen]

118. They were more like a kibbutz or a Shaker community

There was nothing in Jesus that smacked of capitalism. Were Jesus alive today, he would be listed on our terrorist list, or he would have ended up as the victim of a CIA-trained death squad.

The radical view of Jesus was that we didn't need a temple, a church if you please. He held the view that each of us had a measure of the divine. This is what the Gnostics believed, and this is why the Roman Church murdered and persecuted them.

BTW, if one were to go back to our Jewish Tenach, it is David that is always telling God that he will build a temple, and it is God that resisted the idea for the longest time.

At the time of the Roman occupation, the temple and the priesthood had become fat and rich at the expense of the people. They have also become appeasers of the occupation. Sounds familiar?

As to the Catholic Church, look at how they dealt with Francis of Assisi. Francis was a reformer that wanted the Church to return to its humble origins and to concentrate on helping the poor and fighting injustice. The Church made Francis a saint, and then persecuted his followers as heretics.

[ProudDad]

68. Another nail in the coffin

of that tired old cult -- the Catholic Church...

[knitter4democracy]

72. Pope Maladict has odd timing.

Here he's been working on the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchs about joining our churches into one again, and now he's saying that we're defective because we refuse to believe in the primacy of the Pope, the very issue that started the Great Schism in the first place. I seriously doubt our patriarchs will talk to him now. There was a chance through Vatican II, but there probably won't be now.

[hatrack]

73. What did you think he was going to say? He's the Pope, fer Chrissakes!

:eyes:

[treestar]

75. This is late breaking news?

The Catholic Church has taken this position for many centuries. As have many other churches.

We are doing a good job of not letting them get away with it any more, though. I doubt the average Catholic is really onto this program in any violent or even evangelizing way. Only the few, the extreme.

[kitty1]

78. As one true church, it sure has had it's fill of major problems....

over the centuries. I don't think Christ would have sanctioned a lot of what was goint on there.
However, other denominations have equally sold out in other ways too over the years. No one church is perfect.
Anyway, it's people who are the true church, and we all have our foibles. None of us is perfect by any stretch.

[lovuian]

81. Ratzinger sending the Catholic Church into the Dark Ages again

its obvious he feels that Vatican II saw the church lose its power

But have you heard of St Malachi's Prophecy
the Prophecy of the Popes
111 De Gloria Olivae
(The glory of the olive or "to the olive")
thus Ratzinger chose Benedict as his name
he knew of the prophecy and yet picked Benedict its like he knows he will be one of the Church's last popes

He is definitely not a Liberal

[Ex Lion Tamer]

83. Much ado about nothing?

I'm no fan of his, but what he's stating is really not at all novel: that the "one holy, catholic, and apostolic church" stated in the Nicene Creed is the Catholic church. Of course, there was ONLY the Catholic church at the time of the First Council of Nicea.

Nor is he stating that salvation can only come from the Catholic church. From the document:

"It follows that these separated churches <Orthodox> and Communities <Protestants>, though we believe they suffer from defects, are deprived neither of significance nor importance in the mystery of salvation. In fact the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as instruments of salvation, whose value derives from that fullness of grace and of truth which has been entrusted to the Catholic Church." (quoting a Vatican II document)

The Catholic church is kind of big on the "mystery of salvation" thing. The Catechism of the Catholic Church expressly recognizes that salvation is possible outside of the Catholic church. Thus, in some respects, it is more open minded than other denominations.

Still nowhere near the Unitarians though!

[jazzjunkysue]

85. "Absolute power!"

[arewenotdemo]

91. All you Protestants know he's right.

Come back to the One True Church and receive your Father's blessing that you've been missing all these lost years.

But stop by the confessional first. ;-)

[SocratesInSpirit]

92. Another day...

Another announcement that sets the church back a few hundred years. This is exactly why I left; I just couldn't take any more of the arrogance and intolerance displayed by the leadership.

The next thing you know, the pope will be reauthorizing the burning of heretics, and the Malleus Maleficarum will be taught as part of the catechism.

[Chovexani]

94. Chovexani: Pope is a Nazi jackass

Also wonders why every time the Pope farts it's considered news.

[tom_paine]

96. He really IS the Bush Pope

Perhaps he worships Bush Jesus, as depicted below.

[arendt]

97. I'm jealous. A week ago I posted the fact that Bendict was a HY, and the post got disappeared...

for being "anti-Catholic". I was told that I was being "inflammatory" by stating a
historical fact.

But, this thread uses every nazi reference imaginable and doesn't get banned.

The level of moderator tolerance is very uneven on this board.

But, you go guy. Tell the truth about this rotten, reactionary, pedarast-loving bum.

arendt

[arewenotdemo]

98. Cheers.

:toast:

[dEMOK]

111. Good luck in criticizing the mods...

...let me know how this works for you,

[Bonobo]

99. That's nothing compared with telling us we're going to burn for eternity!

Which they have said since time immemorial...

[Occulus]

101. Former Hitler Youth member John Ratzinger can go fuck himself with a treble hook.

You can take the man out of the Nazis, but you cannot take the Nazi out of the man.

Former Hitler Youth member John Ratzinger very adequately and honestly represents the judeochrislamic god.

[sakabatou]

106. For the love of the FSM

Is this all because they're not "saved?" Or because of some other piece of crap?

[Phrogman]

109. Pope needs go go shit in his funny looking hat

and cover it up with his funny looking cape.

[dEMOK]

110. The only reason I'm not still a Catholic is because of this nature of arrogance...

When I was a kid, I didn't want my non-Catholic friends to go to hell -- so I rejected the church.

[Endangered Specie]

112. I get a little scared when an old rightwing German starts calling groups of people

"defective".

[Hekate]

114. He don't need no stinkin' ecumenicism.Apparently the Cardinals wanted a Medieval throwback...

...because they sure got one.It's really too bad.

Hekate

[silverojo]

115. Hilariously ironic

Considering how fundies view the Catholics as not being true Christians.

I'm proud to say I'm a recovering Catholic. ;)

BTW, love your sig file. If more people switched to Linux, Micro$haft would have to come up with an OS that *didn't* screw up every aspect of computing. :mad:

[Javaman]

119. Leeeeet's get ready to RUUUUUUMBLLLLLLE!!!! NT

[CreekDog]

121. Do you expect the next Pope to be different?

Got news for you, if the next pope is different, it will be that he's more conservative than Benedict XVI. 26 years of Cardinal appointments by John Paul II mean that no pope is going to be liberal and probably none are going to be even moderately conservative.

So, um, might want to get used to it.

[MisterP]

122. he's not a very good Pope, is he? I mean, he's like the Hulk: "Pope smash!!!"

I'm just waiting for the Curia to tranq him and administer a rabies shot

[kitty1]

123. First he pisses off the muslims, now it's other Christians.....

I say we should nominate Benedict for a nobel peace prize.

[daleo]

124. What this world really needs is more religious division

It's nice to see the Christian world getting in on the action. There's no point in letting Muslims have all the fun.

[Joey Liberal]

125. The Pope is a prick in a pointed hat

Glad that I'm no longer a Catholic.

[ecstatic]

126. I don't get the outrage

If you believe the Pope has the final word on everything, then why aren't you Catholic? Otherwise, why should anyone besides a Catholic be concerned with what the Pope says? Every religion touts its inerrancy.

[chknltl]

129. Breaking: POPE CLAIMS BUSH NOT CHRISTIAN!

(bush: United Methodist). NOW can we impeach him?