Pope Says There is Only One True Church

[Vaclav]

I tend to agree with Stacie. How is this helping ecumenism, something Pope Benedict XVI claimed was a high priority for his papacy?

 

[FCEGM]

New Ulm, again I respectfully ask you to back up your claim that Peter is to be understood metaphorically.

Use citations and give me the works, as I missed this somewhere in my Catholic life.

What?! The Lord Jesus didn’t say “. . .and upon this metaphor I will build my Church. .”??

 

[sadie2723]

Well, sometimes you gotta tell it like it is. The goal is not to make everyone feel good, but rather to make sure everyone hears the truth and with luck…follows it.

 

[fix]

Then fine. Argue away. I for one, am finished with it. It accomplishes absolutely nothing, except making us feel unwelcome here. If God wants a unified body of believers, I’m going to do my part to give it to Him. If we can’t come under the same banner, the least I can do is recognize that my Catholic brothers and sisters love the same God that I do, and that is enough for me.

But, is it enough? Simply agreeing on things in common is not enough. Why stop there? Is unity simply overlooking things to keep things calm?

 

[fix]

I tend to agree with Stacie. How is this helping ecumenism, something Pope Benedict XVI claimed was a high priority for his papacy?

It helps true ecumenism. It hurts false ecumenism.

 

[ALLFORHIM]

I agree about the arguing, however it is understandable as we believe what we believe is the truth and necessary for salvation. We also know that only relatively few people will be in heaven when compared to the number in hell, so I don’t think we should have the attitude that “we’ll all be in heaven together, so don’t argue about who’s right and wrong…” as it could cost someone their salvation.

 

[sadie2723]

E.E.N.S.;2449733:

Hi,
I agree with you about truth and the fact of the matter is that if you(and others here)have given their life to Christ and follow Christ as I do and it seems Stacie does too well then we will be worshipping side by side in heaven.

The truth is Christ is the way to heaven not the CC. Being part of the CC is great but being part of the body of believers is even better:thumbsup: Not all catholics or protestants are part of the B.O.B. The CC even believes this. So, IMHO I think the Pope is specifically talking about the Body of Believers when he is speaking of One True Church–after all catholic means universal–which includes anyone who truly believes and truly follows Christ–right . Maybe I should e-mail him and ask.

You should email him, but based on your post, I think his answer is going to shock the heck out of you.

 

[Philothea53]

Then fine. Argue away. I for one, am finished with it. It accomplishes absolutely nothing, except making us feel unwelcome here. If God wants a unified body of believers, I’m going to do my part to give it to Him. If we can’t come under the same banner, the least I can do is recognize that my Catholic brothers and sisters love the same God that I do, and that is enough for me.

Stacie, how can we be a unified body if our Protestant brothers and sisters do not recognize that they are not under the same banner, that they are not following His all of His precepts? Sugar coating the truth isn’t going to accomplish anything except tear US apart. So much of what makes the Catholic Church great is how She has always stuck to her guns and never changed or wavered from those dogmatic truths that make Her the One True Church. We have to share the truth with them or how else will they know?

In the meantime we need to remain as one body in that Truth. To be Catholic is to believe that our Holy Father and the Magisterium of our Church will not lead us astray. This whole conversation is based on what has come from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and signed off on by Pope Benedict. As Catholics, is it right that we nit pick it to death? The Magisterium said it. I believe it.

 

[fix]

The truth is Christ is the way to heaven not the CC. Being part of the CC is great but being part of the body of believers is even better:thumbsup: Not all catholics or protestants are part of the B.O.B. The CC even believes this. So, IMHO I think the Pope is specifically talking about the Body of Believers when he is speaking of One True Church–after all catholic means universal–which includes anyone who truly believes and truly follows Christ–right . Maybe I should e-mail him and ask.

… The Lord Jesus, the only Saviour, did not only establish a simple community of disciples, but constituted the Church as a salvific mystery: he himself is in the Church and the Church is in him (cf. Jn 15:1ff.; Gal 3:28; Eph 4:15-16; Acts 9:5). Therefore, the fullness of Christ’s salvific mystery belongs also to the Church, inseparably united to her Lord. Indeed, Jesus Christ continues his presence and his work of salvation in the Church and by means of the Church (cf. Col 1:24-27),47 which is his body (cf. 1 Cor 12:12-13, 27; Col 1:18).48 And thus, just as the head and members of a living body, though not identical, are inseparable, so too Christ and the Church can neither be confused nor separated, and constitute a single “whole Christ”.49 This same inseparability is also expressed in the New Testament by the analogy of the Church as the Bride of Christ (cf. 2 Cor 11:2; Eph 5:25-29; Rev 21:2,9).50

Therefore, in connection with the unicity and universality of the salvific mediation of Jesus Christ, the unicity of the Church founded by him must be firmly believed as a truth of Catholic faith. Just as there is one Christ, so there exists a single body of Christ, a single Bride of Christ: “a single Catholic and apostolic Church”.51 Furthermore, the promises of the Lord that he would not abandon his Church (cf. Mt 16:18; 28:20) and that he would guide her by his Spirit (cf. Jn 16:13) mean, according to Catholic faith, that the unicity and the unity of the Church — like everything that belongs to the Church’s integrity — will never be lacking.52

The Catholic faithful are required to profess that there is an historical continuity — rooted in the apostolic succession53 — between the Church founded by Christ and the Catholic Church: “This is the single Church of Christ… which our Saviour, after his resurrection, entrusted to Peter’s pastoral care (cf. Jn 21:17), commissioning him and the other Apostles to extend and rule her (cf. Mt 28:18ff.), erected for all ages as ‘the pillar and mainstay of the truth’ (1 Tim 3:15). This Church, constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in subsistit in] the Catholic Church, governed by the Successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him”.54

 

[Philothea53]

fix:
Oh, fix, you said it so much better than I. Thank you, thank you.

 

[ALLFORHIM]

ALLFORHIM;2449818:

You should email him, but based on your post, I think his answer is going to shock the heck out of you.

Yeah you may be right. But what would shock me more is if I even got a response at all. Do you think the Pope anserws e-mails? That would be cool:thumbsup:

I was angry once because of how I was treated by a priest and I wrote a letter to the Pope about it. But, I never mailed it because 1) I wasnt sure where exactly to mail it to and 2) I was just venting

 

[fix]

Oh, fix, you said it so much better than I. Thank you, thank you.

That was not me, that was Cardinal Ratzinger.

 

[sadie2723]

All hail FIX!!!

 

[E.E.N.S]

Good post FIX, you saved me the trouble!

 

[ALLFORHIM]

fix:
I have no problem with that statement except that you are putting Christ in a box with the very last statement that Christ is only found in the CC(as we know it today)
I(protestants)have a different meaning of church then the CC does. So that is where the difference lies I guess.

 

[believers]

Are you not familiar with Matt 23:1-4?

1 “Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples, 2 Saying: The scribes and the Pharisees have sitten on the chair of Moses. 3 All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do: but according to their works do ye not; for they say, and do not.”

Hmmm it says at the end… “but according to their works DO YE NOT”

Jesus is pointing out how they are hypocrites and don’t do as they do.

 

[Philothea53]

fix:

 

[believers]

I have no problem with that statement except that you are putting Christ in a box with the very last statement that Christ is only found in the CC(as we know it today)
I(protestants)have a different meaning of church then the CC does. So that is where the difference lies I guess.

Hey AllforHim, they do put Jesus in a box… no really.

 

[fix]

I have no problem with that statement except that you are putting Christ in a box with the very last statement that Christ is only found in the CC(as we know it today)
I(protestants)have a different meaning of church then the CC does. So that is where the difference lies I guess.

Just for clarification the rest of the paragraph says:

With the expression subsistit in, the Second Vatican Council sought to harmonize two doctrinal statements: on the one hand, that the Church of Christ, despite the divisions which exist among Christians, continues to exist fully only in the Catholic Church, and on the other hand, that “outside of her structure, many elements can be found of sanctification and truth”,55 that is, in those Churches and ecclesial communities which are not yet in full communion with the Catholic Church.56 But with respect to these, it needs to be stated that “they derive their efficacy from the very fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Catholic Church”.

 

[sadie2723]

Hey AllforHim, they do put Jesus in a box… no really.

:extrahappy: :extrahappy: :extrahappy: :extrahappy: :extrahappy: