Pope Benedict XVI Blog

Pope points out the universality of the Church

Daily World
By The Rev. Mitchell Guidry
Special to the Daily World

Earlier this month, Pope Benedict XVI promulgated a document called Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine of the Church, which was compiled by the congregation for the doctrine of the faith. This document came out the same time as another of the Pope's letters, Summum Pontificum, which normalized the use of the Latin Mass throughout the Catholic church.

This is important because a large group of Catholics, led by French Archbishop Marcel Lefevbre, broke from the church refusing to celebrate the Mass as it is presently and continued to celebrate the sacraments, etc. according to the old Latin rites. Pope Benedict has as a major point of his papacy the intention of Christ, that Christians would all be one as Christ and the Father are one. The document in question was aimed at fostering unity with those "traditionalist" Catholics who broke with the church following Vatican II, and asked, are these people still part of the church?

The answers coming from that document describe what it means to be Catholic, what Jesus instituted and where the fullness of what the Lord demanded is to be found. Just as Pope Benedict began a firestorm in the Muslim world for pointing out the white elephant everyone wanted to ignore for fear of admitting the truth about Islam, he has pointed out the white elephant in Christianity and has again sparked outrage. We must be honest, if there is only one Christ, why are there so many different kinds of Christians? What does it mean to have the fullness of the Christian faith? The document reiterates the teaching of Vatican II that while other Christian denominations do possess elements of truth and grace, the fullness of what Christ intended subsists in the Catholic Church as it is the Church of the Apostles, the Church of Christ.

Catholics are condemned so many times because we supposedly "nullify the word of God in favor of the traditions of men" yet history records that every Protestant denomination was founded 1,500 years after the Catholic church was by mere men, men who said they didn't need a pope or anybody else to teach them; they would stand alone on the truth of the Bible. So now, whose "truth" is right? Aren't there presently hundreds of Protestant denominations all differing in teaching and in practice?

We must remember long before the New Testament was written, there was a church instituted by Jesus in stages during his earthly ministry and brought into fruition on Pentecost. Jesus died, rose, and ascended into Heaven in 33 A.D. and sent the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, the birthday of the Church; 50 days later.
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posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 7:27 PM