I’m absolutely loving Pope Benedict. He’s the George W. Bush of the Catholic Church by constantly putting his foot in his mouth.
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Critics say Pope Benedict, in several recent controversial moves, is turning the Roman Catholic Church’s clock back by half a century and alienating Muslims, Jews and Protestants in the process.
Supporters say that by allowing a wider use of the Latin Mass and reasserting Catholic primacy over other religions, he is trying to revitalize his 1.1 billion-member church and prepare it for an uncertain future.
“Basically, what we are in the grip of at the moment, and Benedict is one of the engineers of this, is what I would call a strong re-assertion of traditional Catholic identity,” said John Allen, author of several books on the church and the Vatican.
Some saw his decision to allow a wider use of the old-style Latin Mass as a blow to the reforms of the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council, which substituted Latin for local languages, modernized the church and encouraged inter-religious dialogue.
Catholics who thought the days of incense and dead languages were behind them were puzzled. Jews voiced concern over the possible use of prayers for their conversion in the old Mass.
Benedict also approved a document which said all other Christian denominations apart from Catholicism were wounded and not full churches of Jesus Christ, drawing the ire of a number of Protestant groups who said it would hurt dialogue.
Comments
23 Comments so far. Leave a comment below.Somehow, I get the feeling that this Protestant preacher is not impressed.
I’ve met several Protestants who felt that Catholics were, to put it mildly, going to hell. And let’s be honest here, Protestants and Catholics can’t both be right. If they were, than what was the point of them killing each other?
Poor, sad little old man…
But oh, so stylish!
http://larvatusprodeo.net/uploads/PopesRedShoes.jpeg
Further proof that organized religion is insane. Absolutely insane.
Okay, the different religious can quibble and kill over who the “real” God is….but it just amuses me overwhelmingly that people who believe in the same God can argue so vehemently over which version of their faith is better.
Don’t they have a better use of their time?
Oh, and for being such an old feller, the Pope sure looks like he’s in great health, eh? Tough life, he’s had.
Uggh, even my practising Catholic family (we’re all Irish and Italian) doesn’t like him, in fact almost all of the Catholics I know don’t like him, they think he’s too backwards and conservative on Homosexuality, contraception and a score of other things.
@ pvc, i like how your link takes us from one extremist to the next.
Pope-the-hater Vs Preacher-virgin-mary-is-queen-of-whores
As any real Christian knows, Catholics are idolators. The Bible strictly forbids (EXO 20:5A) any person of faith from having graven images and says “Thou shalt not bow down thyself before them.”
All Catholics – whether they are actually worshiping these images or not – still bow down before them. No true Christian would tempt the Lord so blatantly and show Him such disrespect.
And there are those who claim il Papa is no longer a Nazi?!? Wigga, please!!!
This is nothing more than a lame attempt to return the Katholik choorch to the iron-fisted rule of the 1960s. I am a recovering katholik (snicker) and this bass-ackwards attitude is what drove me from the flock in da first place!!! Not that I’d return anyways, but believe me, the choorch of the 60s was repressive as hell. Maybe more so.
Hey, maybe he has ambitions of being the Oral Roberts of katholicism??? Next he’ll be seeing 900-ft tall Jesii… sheesh.
The Pope is a dick.
Not a very constructive comment, but it’s concise…
“Wigga”…hmmm…
I really fail to see the problem.
It’s long been a central component of the Catholic faith that salvation comes almost exclusively through the church, the church being part of a singular historical line tracing itself back to the apostles. In this view, alternatives are dangerous fakes. It’s also long been a central component of protestantism that salvation doesn’t need this mediator. They disagree. Duh.
In other news, Jews don’t think Jesus was Christ and Muslims think Mohamed was a prophet.
I was raised catholic and in our catholic world noone cares a bit about protestantism.
But aaaaaall protestants I know seems to have catholicphobia. You can’t imagine how annoying is to hear how wrong the Pope is over and over and over even if you told people a hundred times that you give shit about the Pope (see comments above).
Let alone christian fundies, which are 99′99% protestants.
As for the use of latin mass…so what? it’s really stupid to use a language few people can understand but it’s even more stupid to care about it. It doesn’t change the message, only the language, so if you believe in that you believe it either in english, italian, german or latin.
Besides Pope didn’t encourage Latin Mass, he only lifted the ban on it if the congregation asks for it. So is that actually so wrong?
I’m not a fan of Mr Ratzinger, but I’m less keen on misinformation and anti-Pope propaganda.
crap,
My circle is almost exclusively protestant and atheistic, so I have no personal experience with how rabid catholics can be on the issue, but my nonexistent God have I seen protestants going at it! (In my Baptist home growing up, in public school, at my Phil’o Religion class in college) My favorite has to be “They don’t even read the bible. They follow a different book.”
They are all mutually exclusive, you know… They can’t all be right — that’s inherent to them all.
Ratbastard is just putting his money where his mouth is, that’s all.
I love that picture of the Pope.
“I crush your head!”
He looks like a dirty old man.
The Pope has a great many supporters, even among many atheists. He is a very learned, cultured man who keenly appreciates Western culture and the key role that the Catholic Church has played in the development of the Western world.
Its it a surprise that the leader of the world’s Catholics would maintain that the Catholic Church is the “one, true, holy and apostolic church”? Catholics say that every Sunday when reciting the Apostle’s Creed. What’s he supposed to say? Any religion goes? He’s a Catholic leader, not a Unitarian Universalist.
Maybe try reading what the Pope actually said, not what ill-informed reporters have to say about it:
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20070629_responsa-quaestiones_en.html
And what would that be?
Whom? Richard Dawkins? Christopher Hitchens?
Such charity on this blog. NOT! Look people if it bothers you what the Catholic Church says then YOU have the problem. Your not comfortable where you are at. The poster above who posted a link to a hate filled pastor misses that that pastor evidently thinks the pope is going to hell (not what the docuement that the CDF and not the pope said about protestants in reality). So why are the the CDF remarks any worse than that. Actually they are much more tactful than I see on that website of hate and on many websites throughout the internet.
Why is it that the Catholic websites in general are quite charitable to protestants and protestant websites many times are filled with hate. If they really believe what they teach aren’t they supposed to give reason for the hope that is within them with gentleness and love. Seems like the hope within them is that Catholicism is wrong as the main way they try to convert Catholics to their thinking is by dissing the Catholic Church.
cerebulon said:
As any real Christian knows, Catholics are idolators. The Bible strictly forbids (EXO 20:5A) any person of faith from having graven images and says “Thou shalt not bow down thyself before them.”
Gee that’s funny. 5 chapters later he commands the Jews to have graven images. They even bow down before the ark of the covenant (a graven image of sorts ) in Joshua 7. You actually misstate the purpose of the commandment (which is actually a part of the first). Images that are not seen as god’s are okay.
Pope Benedict is a sincere believer in Christ and of course he has a Catholic perspective! But he doesn’t limit the perspective on the person and work of Jesus Christ in salvation history to his own view. He is a very good scholar and very careful to defer to scholars who do their homework. He is not afraid to state the truth about history or about what the Word of God has to say. I have tremendous respect for him and believe that all Christians should read him with an open mind. I suggest starting with Introduction to CHristianity then moving to Many Religions, One Covenant, Jesus of Nazareth, Principles of Catholic Theology and Essential Writings of Pope Benedict. Of course his Wednesday audiences during the year of Paul are exceptional. I love his interviews published by Peter Seewald. He is my favorite theologian on the planet earth.