We're Not Number One, We're the ONLY One!

Yes, it's going to be pretty hard for the pope to show his face in public after the Vatican issued a statement today to clarify just who is and isn't a church as far as the Holy Roman Catholic Church is concerned. To wit, a document released today by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith states that the Catholic Church is "the one true Church of Christ," and that other Christian churches (i.e., Protestant and Orthodox), are not actually churches since they "lack elements considered essential to the Catholic Church."

Wow. For a German pontiff, Benedict is really getting his braggadocio on. But it all seems to be in keeping with his strategy of completely offending as many people of faith as possible. His reinstatement of the Latin Mass has upset both progressive Catholics as well as Jews who are not eager for the Church to resume praying for their conversion every Good Friday. Obviously this move had limited offensive impact, affecting only those Catholics who are still paying attention and those Jews who can still bring themselves to dialogue with the Church, which, until 1959, referred to them as "perfidious Jews" during each Good Friday liturgy. Today's move, however, is more far-reaching and guarantees that long-simmering tensions between Catholicism and the rest of the Christian world will boil over and erode any amount of rapprochement that has been achieved over the years. Seriously, why would any member of any non-Catholic Christian church have any interest in engaging with the Church which clearly considers all other faiths to be "less than"? This all reminds me of an Onion article that ran about ten years ago with the following headline: "Pope Calls For Greater Understanding Between Catholics, Hellbound."

I guess that His Holiness did not give a great deal of thought to the impact his pronouncement would have in places like Northern Ireland, where a fragile coalition government of shared power between Protestants and Catholics has, at very long last, begun governing this war-weary land. Ian Paisley, the divisive hate monger and leader of the extremist elements within Ulster's Loyalist movement, has opposed all attempts on the part of the English government to extend any semblance of civil rights protections to Irish Catholics unfortunate enough to live in Ireland's six northern counties. The pope's comments can only serve to enflame the hatred that Paisley and his supporters hold toward Catholics, and further endanger the already precarious position that the fledgling coalition government now occupies. What a thoughtful way for the pope to say "Thank You!" to some of the most devout Catholics in all of Europe, an embattled minority in British-controlled Ulster that has suffered under Protestant oppression for centuries all because of their Catholic faith. Thank us? No, thank YOU, your Holiness.

It is certainly the prerogative of the Church to hold this view of itself. However, I posed this question recently with regard to the reinstatement of the Latin Mass, and I'll ask it again in this context: what good, constructive purpose is served by making such a declaration?

- Doug L.

FOR FURTHER REFERENCE:

"Vatican reiterates hardline on primacy of Catholic Church." WorldWide Religious News, July 10, 2007.

"Police pay for anti-Catholic bias." BBC News, July 9, 2007.

"Two Former Enemies Are Sworn in to Lead Northern Ireland’s Government." New York Times, May 8, 2007.