Pope Says There is Only One True Church

[Ahimsa]

Well, the Pope is earning his pay-check.

 

[Goth_Catholic]

And what came before the manmade Nicene creed?

Same person who came before the man made bible

 

[steve_green_2]

First the moto, now this ?

What a great time to be Catholic !!!



Keep up the good work BXVI !!! Next, sainthood for His Excellency Marcel Lefebvre !!!

 

[papalheart]

Most Protestants really pay little attention to the Catholic churches claims. The Protestant understanding of what the church is differs from the Catholics understanding…it’s approached from different angles.

After centuries of the RCC making the claim, most Protestants are not too concerned…only on this forum is it ever discussed, Catholics seem more concerned of the claim than Protestants.

Actually, I just left a forum at topix.net/forum/religion/catholic
There are a huge number of so called Catholics and protestants all freaking out about what they THINK the Pope has said.
It is very unsettling to realize how much these posters seem to hate the Catholic Church, of course even those claiming to BE Catholic don’t seem to have much of an understanding of what it means to be Catholic. Let alone understand the teachings of the Catholic Church.
God Bless,
Theresa

 

[Ahimsa]

Next, sainthood for His Excellency Marcel Lefebvre !!!

:bigyikes:

 

[Verisimilitude]

And what came before the manmade Nicene creed?

The divine human experience of Christ.

Doesn’t it seem likely a group of inspired men would form a unified statement of what that experience was-briefly? Those men were the Church. The first 300 years were pretty hectic coming out of Judea to find itself the religion of the known world. It is a lot to agree upon.

Is the Creed unreasonable?

 

[jabelltulsa]

Isn’t it true that we believe that non-Catholics can go to heaven? All that I have said does not go against the Catholic church.

We share the same beliefs. Anti-abortion, strong moral values, faith in Jesus and the Trinity. You don’t have to ram, “we are the true church” down their throats.

And yes, I do think we should sugar coat it. That is the problem with life today - Not enough sugar coating.

How about, we could show them we are Christians by our love.

First off, I really love this thread, and I would like to participate more. I have been searching for a mature thread were fellow children of God can share their thoughts on these subjects.

I would like to respond to this post. In fact, I am feeling compelled to. You are right to expect love from Catholics to Protestants and vice versa. But, what is love, in this sense?

Would it be love to let someone remain ignorant of something? Christ commands us to teach the ignorant.

I am thinking of a situation where my son or daughter was under the impression that it was o.k. to listen to music that wasn’t good for him/her. Now, to keep the peace, I could very well say that it is o.k. for them to listen to the music, as long as they didn’t take it to heart. In that scenario, I remain the “cool” parent, and everyone seems happy. I know better, though.

I should not let my child go under the misconception that it would be dangerous to listen to music that is bad, and I should give them the truth of the matter. THAT is love. THAT is what Christ was talking about.

It is our duty as parents, and his as pope, to profess the truth in all things. It would not be love (read Charity) to do otherwise.

This is what the pope, and the Church have always done.

To digress for a minute, let me say this: I believe that under most conditions, if you are baptized outside the Catholic Church, you are really baptized. But, what if you sin afterwards, who doesn’t from time to time? How will you be forgiven?

“Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I send you. . . Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; whose sins you do not forgive, they are not forgiven.” (John 20:22-23)

We NEED confession. Christ indicates that this is a must. He puts his apostles and those that follow in a special place to do this.

So, back to my question. Sure, you can be baptized outside the Church, but what if you sin afterwards? How will you take part in this Sacrament (Confession) without a true descendant of the apostles?

This is just one of the reasons that this statement by the pope is truly Love (again, read Charity).

One more thing … there is plenty of sugar coating going on in the world today. It has been going on for decades, now. What has it brought us, besides escalation of immorality. Immodesty of dress and music, acceptance of pornography by most men, crippling divorce rates, rampant drug use, etc. These are all from the “acceptance” or “sugar coating” philosophy of our troubled world. We need some clarity and avoidance of these things. THAT would be, in my opinion, the most loving (charitable) move on our part.

One more ramble … a common theme in my post is “Charity” … a little pet peeve of mine … it’s “Faith, Hope, and Charity” rather than “Faith, Hope, and Love”.

Ok, I’m done.

 

[guanophore]

He protested against the Pharisees. The Pharisees sat in Moses seat and claimed all authority much like the RCC. The only difference is the RCC claims to be of Peter.

This is true. Jesus transferred the Seat of Moses to Peter.

 

[jabelltulsa]

First the moto, now this ?

What a great time to be Catholic !!!



Keep up the good work BXVI !!! Next, sainthood for His Excellency Marcel Lefebvre !!!

Wow … one can only hope. Even though I have moved over to FOSP, I will always love SSPX. I can only get a SSPX Mass twice a month here in Tulsa. I had to move to the daily Mass @ FOSP, so as to facilitate the possible conversion of my fiancee.

I would like to say that SSPX was key, in my opinion, to keeping the traditional Mass alive. Praise be to God.

 

[guanophore]

So the Pope says the RCC is the one true Church… the authority in all matters of faith. Well… there is a similarity between that claim and the Pharisees. We learned from the Word not to go around making such claims to authority. The Word is the authority as Jesus demonstrated. The RCC has strayed from that teaching.

Where did you find that?

 

[Veritas41]

Hooray for Pope Benedict! I think CATHOLICS need to hear that the Catholic Church is the one true Church more than anyone else – most of the ones I have met in the nine years I’ve been in the Church seem unsure or just don’t believe it.

 

[guanophore]

Vatican II brought about the teachings that there are other churches with similar histories that you can also receive salvation through (e.g. Lutheran, Epispoical, Methodist, and a couple others…). That was based on a similarity of history and teachings. By just stating the RCC is the “only true church”, while he focuses back on the RCC, he does not overturn that Vatican II teaching. The RCC still recognizes salvation by some outside the church.

I don’t think this entirely accurate. what the church teaches is that these other ecclesial communities have sufficient catholic belief to obtain salvation. It is not that they can be saved outslde the church, but rather, that they are part of the Catholic church by virtue of their beliefs.

 

[SORROWS]

I LOVE our dear Pope Benedict! I’m sooooo proud of him :clapping:

I’m proud of him for not shying away from speaking the truth. I’m proud of the Catholic Church for always remaining firm especially with tradition. The Holy Spirit is clearly working within him.

May God Bless our beautiful Pope and keep him safe and always in Our Lords loving embrace.

 

[Semper_Fi_1]

He was, but then He became Catholic!

I don’t think He became Catholic just as our Father Abraham was never Jewish, Christian or Moslem but the founder of Monotheism.

Catholics need to be baptized in the Triune formula and Jesus was never baptized in this way… only His Apostles and Disciples were.

 

[forthefaith77]

It is very good that this was stated in an public way. Just becasue it is not new news does not mean that it did not need to be said. My view is that this statement should adress all protestants but mostly the growing number of people who will do an plege to give themselfs to christ, not join a church, not be baptised an not recive the sacrements and believe they are saved. Most mainline Protestants churches are shrinking and the so called christian movements are growing. We are blessed to have a Pope who is willing to defend the faith to the letter. It seems that even though their are more Catholics than protestants we get less attention as Christians. Even since the time that JPII became Pope the way to define what an Christian is has become so diverse and split with so many so called churches that it takes away some ability to witness to nonchristans.

 

[guanophore]

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.

It accomplishes the procolamation of the truth, which is direly needed in these times. If you are offended by the teaching of Jesus Christ, that is regrettable.

Eph 4:4-7
4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

Jesus did not create “a lot of denominations”. He created One Church. There is only one, so everyone who belongs to Christ must somehow belong to it.

 

[SyCarl]

I agree that there is one Church. That is the body of true believers in whatever church/denimination they are in. I know that the Roman Catholic Church does not accept the invisible church but as long as any church contains people who are not true believers, then that institution cannot be the defined as the body of Christ as the body of Christ does not and will not contain those who don’t believe.

 

[StacieAdy]

It accomplishes the procolamation of the truth, which is direly needed in these times. If you are offended by the teaching of Jesus Christ, that is regrettable.

Eph 4:4-7
4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

Jesus did not create “a lot of denominations”. He created One Church. There is only one, so everyone who belongs to Christ must somehow belong to it.

Ummmm, did I say I was offended at Christ’s teachings?? I just said we shouldn’t argue.

 

[estesbob]

So the Pope says the RCC is the one true Church… the authority in all matters of faith. Well… there is a similarity between that claim and the Pharisees. We learned from the Word not to go around making such claims to authority. The Word is the authority as Jesus demonstrated. The RCC has strayed from that teaching.

Then it sould be easy for you to show us where anybody taught Sola Scriptura until 16th Century.

 

[estesbob]

I agree that there is one Church. That is the body of true believers in whatever church/denimination they are in. I know that the Roman Catholic Church does not accept the invisible church but as long as any church contains people who are not true believers, then that institution cannot be the defined as the body of Christ as the body of Christ does not and will not contain those who don’t believe.

And you base this on what?