Pope Benedict

Whoops-Don't Look

“ Protestant churches yesterday reacted with dismay to a new declaration approved by Pope Benedict XVI insisting they were mere "ecclesiastical communities" and their ministers effectively phonies with no right to give communion. Coming just four days after the reinstatement of the Latin mass, yesterday's document left no doubt about the Pope's eagerness to back traditional Roman Catholic practices and attitudes, even at the expense of causing offence. The view that Protestants cannot have churches was first set out by Pope Benedict seven years ago when, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he headed the Vatican "ministry" for doctrine. A commentary attached to the latest text acknowledged that his 2000 document, Dominus Iesus, had caused "no little distress". - Dismay and anger ” Since any real discussion must be steeped in theology, a subject of which I know little, I'm not getting into it.  Except a little.  Evidently Pope Benedict and I were in agreement over Vatican II, Pope John XXIII's ecumenical council that reshaped the face of Catholicism.  While I didn't think of it in these terms then, today I'd call it the "Great Appeasement."  The practical effect of Vatican II was to destroy much of the church's traditions and ceremony, and what is a religion, a nation, or an organization  without them?  Answer:  Something else.  It seems Benedict  is here referring to the line of succession established by Jesus Christ when he chose Peter as the first head of the church.  Every Catholic priest since has that spiritual DNA.  Henry VIII understood the importance of maintaining that line.  When he went about establishing the Church of England, he ordered Catholic Bishops, who hold the power to consecrate new priests, to change teams and start consecrating, or be killed.  Ergo, my Episcopalian friends argue, the line is unbroken.  Most of the screaming that I'm expecting will come, I suspect,  from people who were last in a church to bury their grandmother.  I admire the Catholic Church, not because I am one by conversion, but  because it has been one of the few world bodies to maintain its principles (I do not include Catholic Universities here) in the face of secularism (another word for "Progressivism," and we know what that's another name for, don't we?). Pope Benedict will certainly maintain that tradition, but I  find myself saying WTF?  I mean, all this is an unnecessary distraction.  We should be focusing on  raising a billion man army to destroy Islam, and the Democrat party.