Wednesday 11 July 2007

Pope: Other Churches not True Church

How does one interpret the latest statement by Pope Benedict? Does this mean that we are not making progress in the ecumenical dialogue?

"Pope Benedict has approved a new text asserting that Christian denominations outside Roman Catholicism are not true Churches in the full sense of the word.

The document, issued by a Vatican watchdog, has been criticised as offensive by some Protestants.

The text was written by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, headed by Pope Benedict before his election as Pope.

It states that Christ established only one Church here on earth.

Other Christian denominations, it argues, cannot be called Churches in the proper sense because they cannot trace their bishops back to Christ's original apostles."

Read the rest of the report on bbc.co.uk.

For another perspective, read the report by Nicole Winfield, Associated Press Writer.

2 comments:

Bob K said...

I thought Dr Scot McKnight and some of his commentors had some good thoughts on the Pope's position at Jesus Creed.

Dave said...

I like how McKnight started off "If anyone got their hopes high after Mark Noll’s book, Is the Reformation Over?, the answer is now officially “No!”"