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LilyM
Guest
We force neither conversion nor obedience to the Pope nor Catholic disciplines such as our marriage canons and the canonisation of saints onto non-Catholics, much as we invite them to all of the above.My understanding is that ALL Christians are Catholic by virtue of their Baptism. Or perhaps a better way to put it: all Christians are Christians and owe the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church obediance. The Pope and the Catholic Church IS the Christian Church on Earth. Is this a false understanding?
The Body of Christ extends beyond those who formally embrace Catholicism - eg we number the Old Testament prophets and patriarchs, who formally were Jews (and some of them not even that) among its members. But we do not formally canonise all, in fact we have formally canonised any who were not formally Catholic.