MY PERSONAL THOUGHTS

The fallout from Benedict's reassertion of the Church being the one true Faith continues and in a most personal way. Today a friend came by and told me of his possible cancer diagnosis. Still many tests to pursue and I pray that he does not have cancer. In the course of the conversation, a radical turn was taken when he asked if I had heard about the Pope's most recent statement. As a Baptist Protestant, he was quite upset by it. I cautioned him that even though Benedict had approved the statement, it really takes a deep understanding of Christian history to fully understand the impact of his words. He also asked me about the doctrine of infallibility which of course is very misunderstood. I gave him the short explanation and then sent him a link that explains it more fully.

I also pointed out to him that since the Pope was speaking from the point of view of continuity of Christ's own teaching regarding His Church, we have to believe that with Martin Luther's break from the Church and the Protestant Reformation, that what the Pope was saying was true. We are talking history here.

Protestants, of course, regard the proliferation of the various Christian religions as man's effort to get back to the Truth. It is my understanding that they would consider the Roman Catholic Church as the first breaks from Christianity. Since we consider Peter our first Pope, we trace an unbreakable lineage to him. Others would disagree with that. And so it goes.

I expect that the fallout from this will be long and damaging. Not nearly as noisy as what happened with the Muslims but no doubt will have very far reaching consequences.