All Non-Roman Catholics are Heathens

[rivercrow]

Well, it's settled. If you're not RC, you're doomed to hell.

Pope: Other Christians not true churches

LORENZAGO DI CADORE, Italy - Pope Benedict XVI reasserted the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, approving a document released Tuesday that says other Christian communities are either defective or not true churches and Catholicism provides the only true path to salvation.

The statement brought swift criticism from Protestant leaders. "It makes us question whether we are indeed praying together for Christian unity," said the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, a fellowship of 75 million Protestants in more than 100 countries.

"It makes us question the seriousness with which the Roman Catholic Church takes its dialogues with the reformed family and other families of the church," the group said in a letter charging that the document took ecumenical dialogue back to the era before the Second Vatican Council.

 

[raincrow007]

Well, it's settled. If you're not RC, you're doomed to hell.

Does that mean you're safe by default, RC?

 

[Totenkindly]

"But it's important always to point out that there's the official position and there's the huge amount of friendship and fellowship and worshipping together that goes on at all levels, certainly between Anglicans and Catholics and all the other groups and Catholics," she said.

Oh, good!

So if I'm a member of a white supremacy group but I still smile and chat up black people when I'm out at MacDonalds, it means "no hard feelings?"

I'm sorry, but what a crock. And the apostolic succession thing just... reeks. ("My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather knew Jesus personally, so that means everything we've believed for 2000 years is correct!")

 

[rivercrow]

Does that mean you're safe by default, RC?

Why yes, it does.

I'm sorry, but what a crock. And the apostolic succession thing just... reeks. ("My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather knew Jesus personally, so that means everything we've believed for 2000 years is correct!")

And the gnostics are even more right, as we're bypassing the demi-urge altogether.

 

[Siúil a Rúin]

The new pope scares me - even more than hell.

 

[rivercrow]

The new pope scares me - even more than hell.

A lot of people thought that at the time of his selection. John Paul II was so liberal tho, I guess we shouldn't be surprised.

I liked the Wikipedia vandal who replaced his pic with one of Sauroman.

Wonder where this leaves the Eastern Orthodox Churches? The Roman church was only one of equals, not "the ruler of all."

 

[Totenkindly]

The new pope scares me - even more than hell.

Well, at least he won't be there when we show up.

 

[cafe]

The new pope scares me - even more than hell.

He's sure creepy looking as all get out, no doubt about it. John Paul seemed like such a sweet old man.

To the OP, I didn't know they had ever thought otherwise about non-Catholics.

 

[rivercrow]

He's sure creepy looking as all get out, no doubt about it. John Paul seemed like such a sweet old man.

To the OP, I didn't know they had ever thought otherwise about non-Catholics.

Yeah, there's been a ecumenical effort going on for years, but I reckon this is the nail in that coffin.

 

[cafe]

Yeah, there's been a ecumenical effort going on for years, but I reckon this is the nail in that coffin.

I guess I've had my head up my Protestant rear all that time and missed it.

 

[Il Morto Qui Parla]

Yeah, there's been a ecumenical effort going on for years, but I reckon this is the nail in that coffin.

I don't know, you'd be surprised the extent to which many parts of the catholic church can just ignore the bits they don't like without ever condemning them...and the whole catholic line of "forgiveness" means it's effectively endorsed as long as you pay lip service to the church. I know of catholic groups who have preached for years that non-catholics can go to heaven by being good people, and people who call themselves catholics will not go to heaven if they do not live morally (eg "it's easier for a camel to pas through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven"...nowhere does it say that rich catholics are exempt)...so I thinkt here's a lot of room for subtle disobedience in the Catholic church, because they always want to incorporate *some* liberal elements whilst excluding the most radical...the one thing the Catholic church can't be expected to offer is consistency...Papal infallibility is fine, but as long as you just quietly ignore what he says without directly criticising the old Nazi bastard then you'll be fine.

 

[darlets]

A brief history of human kind.


"My God is the only true God and you're going to hell/hades/not nice place/"

"No way! My God is tougher than your God Naah naah nahnah naah."

"No his not"

"Yes he is!"

"Want a fight!"

"Bring it B@#$%!!!!"



Wash, Rinse, Repeat.

 

[anii]

Thanks for reminding me why I left RC.

 

[Siúil a Rúin]

Hasn't the Roman Catholic church historically absorbed many of the regional beliefs it encounters, but placed new labels on them? Regional deities are renamed as saints and so forth? Isn't that where most of the rituals come from that are not expressed in the Bible? I understood that their philosophy of conversion is not unlike the Roman philosophy of the double-edged sword which absorbed cultures that accepted them and eliminated the ones that did not.

 

[htb]

Well, it's settled. If you're not RC, you're doomed to hell.

Said as a Protestant: In the sport that is misconstruing Benedict XVI, you just scored a point.

 

[darlets]

Hasn't the Roman Catholic church historically absorbed many of the regional beliefs it encounters, but placed new labels on them? Regional deities are renamed as saints and so forth? Isn't that where most of the rituals come from that are not expressed in the Bible? I understood that their philosophy of conversion is not unlike the Roman philosophy of the double-edged sword which absorbed cultures that accepted them and eliminated the ones that did not.

All religions have. That's how they spread. Just look at the flood myths. Someone is ripping someone else off. Most religions that take off are being used as a vehicle for something. Henry V couldn't become protestant quick enough, he got rid of the power struggle between the state (him) and the church (in rome) by making himself the head of the "new church". He also got to divorce his wife.

The other leaders in europe where just lining up to cut ties with an constant external challenge to their power, and bring it into the country at least and preferably someone they had more control over.

Look how Constantine used Christianity to break the power base of the Hellanic temples when he came to power. Christianity was the major religion of the army and it didn't take much to encourage them to loot and pillage all the non Christian Temples. He then got to appoint all the heads of the new church and make cash off the looting. Strangly enough two emperors later when it became illegal not to be Christian, things really took off.

 

[rivercrow]

Said as a Protestant: In the sport that is misconstruing Benedict XVI, you just scored a point.

Maybe so, but it made for a great quote.

Okay--maybe I have misconstrued him. I think most people who read this article will get a similar impression. "Catholicism provides the only true path to salvation" seems pretty clear to me.

How about clarifying the issue for us, HTB?

 

[Zhash]

I heard they're bringing back the Latin Mass, too. They will do anything to get people back. I fasted with no-meat on Friday for 35 years thinking if I ate it, I'd go to hell. Then, they did away with that rule. I'm still recovering from Catholicism.

 

[Totenkindly]

All religions have. That's how they spread. Just look at the flood myths. Someone is ripping someone else off.

In general, I do agree with this, but I would add a few nuances:

• Sometimes there is "parallel evolution" of a concept, if it's basic enough. (For example, in a religion, just because someone claims their god died and then lived again doesn't mean it was stolen from another tradition. Especially in spiritual matters resurrection is a very broad and generic concept.)
  
• Sometimes an idea isn't "ripped off" in a line of descent, sometimes a faith will purposefully frame itself in terms of what is already widely known in order that it can distinguish itself. This is a style of communication, not an intellectual line of descent. (For example, there seems to be much of Genesis that was purposefully phrased in terms of and contrasted with the pagan cultures of Canaan... so that the points of difference between Judaism and the Ba'al religion -- or whatever -- would be even more clearly noted.) It does not mean that the Canaanite religions were the ancestors of Judaism, it means that Judaism was framing itself against them purposefully in how it represented itself.

I heard they're bringing back the Latin Mass, too. They will do anything to get people back. I fasted with no-meat on Friday for 35 years thinking if I ate it, I'd go to hell. Then, they did away with that rule. I'm still recovering from Catholicism.

It's too bad you don't live closer, dear, or I would take you out for a cheeseburger (with lots of juicy bacon) on Friday.

 

[darlets]

How the Roman Catholic Institution gets to make statement regarding morals is beyond me. (how they get to exist tax free is beyond me too!)

"The evidence speaks for itself: Last spring, Law admitted in a deposition that he was aware that John Geoghan had reportedly raped at least seven young boys in 1984 yet nevertheless approved the transfer of Geoghan to another parish, working with other boys. Other documents revealed that Law similarly knew of and ignored decades of reported child abuse by Paul Shanley, placing Shanley in ministries with access to other children. Shanley is currently facing trial on 10 charges of child rape and six counts of indecent assault and battery. Law is jetting back and forth to Rome.

Throughout his tenure, Law seemed to reserve his warmest sympathy for the abusers, not the victims. He lied to a West Coast bishop about Shanley's history. He signed a document attesting that another known child-molesting priest, Redmond Raux, had "nothing in his background" to make him "unsuitable to work with children." Last week, more court documents revealed that the archdiocese gave new jobs to two priests, one of whom was known to have molested boys while the other had supplied cocaine to a teenage lover. Law's responses to these and earlier disclosures? The molesters had been cleared by physicians; the church kept bad records; his subordinates vetted the transfers; he forgot; he never knew; he's sorry. "
But why isn't Bernard Law in jail? (Part 2) - By Dahlia Lithwick - Slate Magazine

Of course you should promote people for such behaviour?!?!?!?!
"In December of 2002, Cardinal Law decided to resign for the good of the Church. He moved out of the $20 million three story church –owned house in which he had humbly lived in a manner befitting a man of the cloth. He moved to Clinton, Md. where he brought comfort to the Sisters of Mercy of Alma by serving as their chaplain. For a man of his stature that was a modest post and in 2004 it was reported that he was being rewarded for his years of faithful service by being made the archpriest of St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome, one of the four most important basilicas in that city. A Vatican spokesman said he would “be in charge of the administration of the priests and anything related to the basilica.”
Cardinal Bernard Law: From Glory to Glory