Suprise- The Pope is Roman Catholic

I read the latest blog entry from The Rev. Dr. Kate which consists of an open letter to Pope Benedict. Dr. Kate is very upset with the Pope’s latest pronouncement in which he says that only The Roman Catholic Church is the Church. All other Christian groups are “ wounded communities”. This upset Dr. Kate. So I felt a need to do some research. First I went and read
the original pronouncement. You can find a significant portion of it HERE . Then I read what others were saying about it. This ranged from reminding people that the Pope was once a Nazi to my favorite “ Surprise –The Pope is Roman Catholic”.
Having done that much reading I can now offer you my opinion on the Pope’s action. I applaud it. Not because it is right. If I thought it was right I would be Roman Catholic. No, I applaud it because it is honest. We live in an age where people have begun to believe that one should lie for the common good. The Ecumenical movement is full of non-speak. Leaders say things designed to irritate no one. This gives an impression that churches are moving closer together when they aren’t. But for us really to come together we have to start with who we really are or who we consider ourselves to be. The Pope see the Roman Catholic Church as the one true church. We need to know that. We need to talk to his church knowing what they really believe and not what we want them to believe.
There are those who say they know Roman Catholics who believe that other Christian communities are also Church. That may be true but the Pope by his pronouncement has reminded us that there is only one voice inside the Catholic Church that counts and that’s the voice of the Pope. He has all the power and we need to know what he believes not what we want him to believe. Truth is better than fiction.
The Ecumenical movement will not die because of this pronouncement. If anything it will grow stronger.
Do I feel insulted by the Pope’s pronouncement. No. He is what he is and I am what I am. But in the Ecumenical world at least he’s honest.

@@@@ News from Pigeon Falls– the little town in my garage where the trains still run, dragons fly, and Last Lutheran waits for an answer.– Pastor Moe is preaching his farewell sermon to Last Lutheran today. He has been named interim Pastor at another parish. So even if Pastor Castle turns Last Lutheran down Pastor Moe is gone. Today he told them that he enjoyed his ministry at Last Lutheran. One has to wonder if that is the truth considering all that happened to him over the year or so he was here. He was turned upside down by a poltergeist that he refuses to admit exists. He was a Catholic Priest in “The Dream”. He got some anonymous letters telling him how much “everyone hated him”. This has not been an easy year for him. But he stood in the pulpit and told them he enjoyed his time with them and that they were a wonderful congregation. Pastors must be very flexible .
After the service they had a going away coffee for Pastor Moe. They gave him some very nice gifts to remember them by. These included the Poltergeist meets the Dragon comic book and a I survived the Dragon sweat shirt. He also got some cards with money in them but not much. It had all the form of celebration but not much of the feel.
The congregation now waits to hear from Pastor Castle. She is on a camping trip with the youth group of her present parish. They have to wait for her to come back to get any indication of what she is thinking. Some are afraid that the fact that she went on the camping trip means she is not going to come to Last Lutheran.
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Today's Link- Dialectic Tension- A good blog about love - Leave a Dr. John in the comment.
We went to Church this morning. We had a guest preacher. I got to have coffee with her after the service. She runs a retreat program. She uses the Catholic Retreat Center and commented on how upset some of the Catholic brothers were at the recent announcement by the Pope. We spent a quiet afternoon with just about everybody napping. We ended it with a canasta game. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA