ENDTIME ISSUES NEWSLETTER No. 199

“REFLECTIONS ON BENEDICT XVI's VISIT TO THE USA”

Samuele Bacchiocchi, Ph. D.,

Retired Professor of Theology and Church History,

Andrews University

INDEX OF TOPICS OF THIS NEWSLETTER

* EXCITING NEWS!!! Popular Beliefs: Are they Biblical?

is out!!! We are processing all your orders this week

* “REFLECTIONS ON BENEDICT XVI's VISIT TO THE USA”

* SPEAKING IN TONGUES by William Richardson, Ph. D.,

is out and is ready for shipping

* CRISTINA PICCARDI’S NEW DVD RECORDING done

at Loma Linda. Special Package Offer on three albums.

* UPCOMING SEMINARS for the Month of April

* HOW TO CONTACT THE CENTER FOR CANCER CARE

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* NEW DVD REVELATION SEMINAR by Prof. Jon Paulien’s.

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EXCITING NEWS: POPULAR BELIEFS: ARE THEY BIBLICAL? 

IS OUT!!! WE ARE PROCESSING YOUR ORDERS!!!

On Friday, April 25, my long-awaited baby (book) Popular Beliefs: Are They Biblical? was born. On the same evening we had a special dedication service attended by about 30 persons, including three medical doctors, a few faculty members, and our immediate family members. It was a simple but moving ceremony. I shared the story behind the book and Cristina Piccardi, the outstanding soprano who joined my ministry 6 months ago, blessed us with two sacred songs. Then each of us invoked God’s blessings on this book, asking the Lord to use it in a mighty way to lead many sincere persons to understand why some of their popular beliefs are unbiblical and why some of the less popular Adventist beliefs are biblical.

The printed page played a most important role in the origin of our Adventist Church. James White published in 1849 the first eight-pages paper Present Truth at great personal sacrifices. It was folded by hand and addressed to potential readers. From that humble beginning the Advent message went out, people responded, and eventually our Adventist church was established.

Over the years I have seen tangible evidences of the power of the printed page. For example, the circulation of my book The Sabbath Under Crossfire has led over 200 scholars, pastors, and churches to accept the Sabbath. In recent months I have been invited by former Sundaykeeping congregations that have moved their religious services from Sunday to Saturday after reading this book.

The new book Popular Beliefs: Are They Biblical? should prove to be a most effective witnessing publication, because it examines not just Sunday sacredness, but ten popular beliefs such as the immortality of the soul, life after death, hell as eternal torment, purgatory, the veneration of Mary, Sunday sacredness, speaking in tongues, once saved always saved, and infant baptism.

If you have ever wished that our Seventh-day Adventist Church had a compelling witnessing book that could help your Christian friends understand why some of their popular beliefs are biblically wrong, while the Adventist beliefs are biblically correct, you will be pleased to know that such book just came off the press.

During the past few months I posted excerpts of several chapters from Popular Beliefs: Are They Biblical? in our Endtime Issues Newsletter. The response has been most encouraging. Readers have expressed their appreciation by ordering over 6,000 copies, long before the book came off the press. Never before I received so many pre-publication orders. We will spend the rest of this week processing all these orders.

The book consists of 384 pages with a very attractive, laminated colorful cover, with pictures representing seven of the ten popular beliefs examined in the book. Take a look at the cover of Popular Beliefs: Are They Biblical? by clicking at this link: http://www.biblicalperspectives.com/pbcover.htm

Words fail to express my heartfelt gratitude to God and to fellow believers who have contributed to the realization of this project. Without the encouragement and the editorial help I have received from many, the publication of this book would have been delayed for months or even years.

More than once I felt like shelving this manuscript, because I felt overwhelmed by the amount of research still needed to write the ten chapters. But several subscribers to this newsletter, have urged me not to give up, because our Adventist church urgently needs a book to help truth seekers to understand why their popular beliefs are biblical wrong, while our Adventist beliefs are biblically correct.

The Story Behind Popular Beliefs: Are They Biblical?

Sometimes the story behind a book is as interesting as the book itself. Let me share with you what compelled me to write Popular Beliefs: Are They Biblical? Three major factors stand out in my mind.

The first factor is the frequent discussions I have with Christians of different denominations about their beliefs. Participants at my weekend seminars, as well as subscribers to my Endtime Issues Newsletter, often ask me: Why are some of my beliefs biblically wrong? How can they be unbiblical, when they are held by the vast majority of Christians?

To answer these questions, I have devoted the past thirty years of my life researching and writing 18 books which examine some of today’s popular beliefs from a biblical perspective. Furthermore, a large number of the 200 Endtime Issues Newsletters which I have emailed during the past 10 years to over 35,000 subscribers, examine popular beliefs historically and biblically. This book represents an expansion of several studies I posted in my newsletters. These are readily accessible at www.biblicalperspectives.com/endtimeissues/

My Passion for Biblical and Historical Accuracy

The second factor is my passion for biblical and historical accuracy. An example is the five years I spent at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy, investigating for my doctoral dissertation the popular belief that the change from Sabbath to Sunday worship came about by the authority of Christ and the apostles to commemorate the Lord’s Resurrection. Incidentally, Pope Benedict XVI made this categorical statement at the 2007 international Eucharist congress.

The findings of my dissertation From Sabbath to Sunday are summarized in chapter 6 of this book, entitled “Sunday Sacredness.” My study shows that the popular belief of Sunday sacredness lacks both biblical and historical support. Historically, I found that the origin of Sunday observance began approximately one century after Christ’s death, during the reign of Emperor Hadrian (117-138), as a result of an interplay of political, social, pagan, and religious factors.

The conclusions of my investigation were well-accepted by the examining commission made up of five distinguished Jesuit scholars. An indication is the gold medal of Pope Paul VI awarded to me for earning the summa cum laude distinction in my school work and dissertation From Sabbath to Sunday. This experience has greatly encouraged me to re-examine the biblical validity and historical accuracy of other popular beliefs, such as those examined in this book.

The Demand for a Biblical Re-examination of Popular Beliefs

The third factor that has motivated me to write this book is the increasing demand for a study that can help sincere and open-minded Christians to test the validity of their beliefs on the basis of the normative authority of the Bible. More and more Christians today are questioning the biblical validity of some of their denominational beliefs. This is partly due to the new climate of intellectual freedom that encourages people to take a fresh look at social, political, and religious issues. In Western countries most people no longer feel bound to blindly accept the beliefs of their churches. They want to find out for themselves if what they have been taught is based on biblical teachings or on church traditions.

Importance of Popular Beliefs: Are They Biblical?

This research project has been very expensive in time and money. During this past year I have invested an average of 15 hours a day on this manuscript, because I believe it is desperately needed to call out of Babylon many sincere people who are sincerely seeking to know and to do the revealed will of God.

There are million of sincere Christians who do not realize that most of their popular beliefs are biblically wrong, while our Adventist beliefs are biblically right. This book Popular Beliefs: Are they Biblical? is designed to help these sincere Christians to re-examine their beliefs in the light of the normative authority of Scripture.

At this time our Adventist Church has no compelling witnessing book that can help sincere people understand why their popular beliefs are biblically wrong, and our Adventist beliefs are biblically correct. This is what makes Popular Beliefs: Are they Biblical? so urgently needed. Adventists who have been looking for a book to give their friends with questions about our Adventist beliefs, will be glad to know that finally such book is available. They will be glad to give to their friends this book, because it exposes false teachings and affirms biblical truths in a calm, dispassionate, and objective way.

My Sincere Hope

I have written this book with the earnest desire to help Christians of all persuasions to re-examine their popular beliefs in the light of the normative authority of the Bible. At a time when most Christians still hold to popular beliefs that derive from human traditions rather than from biblical revelation, it is imperative to recover those biblical truths that God has revealed for our eternal salvation.

It is my fervent hope that this book, fruit of many months of dedicated research, will help Christians of all persuasions to “come out” of the Babylonian confusion of popular but unbiblical beliefs, and accept God’s glorious plan for our present life and our future destiny.

Your Help is Needed!

Your help is needed to introduce Popular Beliefs: Are they Biblical? to your pastor or church leaders. On my part I am offering a free review copy to all our Conference, Union, and General Conference leaders. The problem is that only some of their names are on my mailing list. This means that I need your help.

Would you be so gracious to show and possibly loan your personal copy to your pastor? If he is impressed and wished to own a copy, please email us his postal address and we will mail him a free review copy. After your pastor has read the book, most likely he will encourage his church members to purchase a copy.

To facilitate a massive distribution of Popular Beliefs: Are they Biblical? we offer the book until May 31, 2008 by the case of 30 copies for only $5.00 per copy, postage paid for the USA, instead of the regular price of $30.00. See below for details.

SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY OFFER ON POPULAR BELIEFS: ARE THEY BIBLICAL?

Until May 31, 2008, we offer Popular Beliefs: Are they Biblical? at the following introductory prices:

1 copy of Popular Beliefs: Are they Biblical? at $30.00 per copy. Mailing expenses are included for the USA. Add $10.00 for AIRMAIL postage to any overseas destination.

10 copies of Popular Beliefs: Are they Biblical? at $10.00 per copy, postage paid, instead of the regular price of $30.00. ($100.00 for 10 copies). Mailing expenses are included for the USA. Add $40.00 for AIRMAIL postage to any overseas destination.

30 copies (one case) of Popular Beliefs: Are they Biblical? at $5.00 per copy ($150.00 for 30 copies). Mailing expenses are included for the USA. Add $80.00 for AIRMAIL postage to any overseas destination.

100 copies of Popular Beliefs: Are they Biblical? at $4.00 per copy, postage paid. ($400.00 for 100 copies). Mailing expenses are included for the USA. Add $160.00 for AIRMAIL postage to any overseas destination.

HOW TO ORDER POPULAR BELIEFS: ARE THEY BIBLICAL?

You can order Popular Beliefs: Are they Biblical? at the introductory prices given above, in four different ways:

(1) ONLINE: By clicking here: http://www.biblicalperspectives.com/cart/catalog/index.php?cPath=26_35

(2) PHONE:  By calling us at (269) 471-2915 to give us your credit card number and postal address.

(3) EMAIL:  By emailing your order to <sbacchiocchi@biblicalperspectives.com>. Be sure to provide your postal address, credit card number, and expiration date. 

(4) REGULAR MAIL: By mailing a check to BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVES, 4990 Appian Way, Berrien Springs, Michigan 49103, USA. We guarantee to process your order as soon as we receive it.

WOULD YOU LIKE US TO PRESENT AT YOUR CHURCH OUR POPULAR SEMINARS WITH WORDS AND SONGS ?

Would you like us to present at your church one of our popular seminars on the SABBATH or SECOND ADVENT or CHRISTIAN LIFE with Words and Songs? These seminars have been greatly enhanced by the participation of Cristina Piccardi, an outstanding soprano from Brazil who joined my ministry seven months ago. She sings several times before and after each of my lectures. She also gives a sacred concert on Sabbath afternoon. Her powerful and passionate singing touches the hearts of people everywhere. Her singing has almost double the attendance at the seminars.

Our 2008 calendar is already filled for the next few months, but we still have a few openings in the latter part of the year. We will be glad to email you the list of the open weekends so that you can choose the weekend that best suits your church.

To make it possible for many churches to benefit from our seminars, we keep the cost of the seminar down by asking only for the refund of two airline tickets and two nights for two rooms in a reasonable hotel. We do not ask for any honorarium. Instead, we trust in the Lord to meet our financial obligations through the sale of our publications and recordings on Saturday night.

Who is Cristina Piccardi?

Cristina was born in Brazil 26 years ago and came to Andrews University two years ago to accompany her husband who is studying at the seminary. She has earned degrees in voice performance both in Brazil and at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA, where she received full scholarship during the two years of her studies, graduating in December of 2005 with a Master in Voice Performance. In the same year she performed in a leading role with symphonic orchestras in the USA and overseas. At the annual 2005 International Competition for Opera Singers she won the first prize as the best soprano singer of the year.

Cristina left the opera world to dedicate her singing talents to sing sacred music. She is far the best soprano I have ever during the past 30 years of itinerant ministry around the world. You can enjoy a preview of Cristina’s outstanding singing by clicking at this link:  http://www.biblicalperspectives.com/cristina/ You can see and hear her singing the first stanza of The Holy City.

If your church board wishes to preview one of our seminars, we will gladly mail you free of charge the DVD album with our SABBATH SEMINARS with Words and Songs, that was recorded in Loma Linda. The album contains 3 DVDs with 6 hours of live recording of my lectures and Cristina’s singing.

Feel free to call us by email <sbacchiocchi@biblicalperspectives.com> or by phone (269) 471-2915. We will gladly supply you with any additional information and reserve a weekend for your church.

“REFLECTIONS ON BENEDICT XVI's VISIT TO THE USA”

Samuele Bacchiocchi, Ph. D.,

Retired Professor of Theology and Church History,

Andrews University

Several readers of our Endtime Issues Newsletter have urged me to comment on the significance of the recent visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United States. After reading most of the speeches the Pope delivered during the six days visit from April 15 to 20, I became aware of the complexity of the task.

During his visit Benedict XVI addressed a varied of issues as a pastor, rather than as a stern and rigid theologians who enforced Catholic dogma for nearly quarter-century, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Though less charismatic than his predecessor John Paul II, he also wanted to win the American people with his warm, smiling face.

Prior to his visit, Benedict XVI was an enigma for most Americans. A poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life showed that 80 percent of Americans, including two-thirds of the country’s 70 million Catholics, knew “nothing or next to nothing” about the pope. The six days swing afforded an opportunity to the Pope to introduce himself to the American people as a kind man, genuinely concerned about the issues facing the Catholic Church and the world at large.

On Sunday evening, April 20, at 8:30 p. m., Benedict XVI boarded the Alitalia jet Shepherd One returning safely to the Vatican. Most reporters describe the trip as an “enormous success.”

Newsweek notes that Benedict XVI “successfully combined showmanship and quiet spirituality. Leading Masses for more than 100,000 people and offering blessings to faithful crowds that lined street routes for a glimpse of the pontiff and his Popemobile clearly had an invigorating effect on both the man and the crowds” (Newsweek, April 21, 2008). I would add, his visit revitalized especially the Catholic Church in America, which has been badly shaken financially and morally by the sexual abuse scandal, that erupted in 2002 when the then archibishop of Boston admitted to have shielded a priest who had sexually abused youngsters.

For the sake of brevity, I will limit my comments to three major accomplishments of Benedict XVI’s visit. My ultimate intent is to reflect on what his visit means from the Adventist understanding of the endtime prophetic role of the papacy.

First, the pope brought some closure to the priestly sex abuse scandal that has badly shaken the Catholic church for more than six years.

Second, he promoted religious unity both in the Catholic church and among Christians in general. Such unity, as we shall see, is to be achieved under the moral and spiritual leadership of the papacy.

Third, he sounded the alarm about the danger of the secularism that threaten to undermine the moral and religious fabric of our society.

BENEDICT ATTEMPTED TO BRING CLOSURE TO THE PRIESTLY SEX ABUSE SCANDAL

During his trip on five different occasions the pope addressed the sexual abuse scandal. Already aboard his plane from Rome, he spoke from his heart to reporters about the shame, the damage to the church, and the suffering to the victims caused by pedophile priests.

The official numbers put forward by the US Catholic church show there have been 14,000 victims of some 4,000 to 5,000 clerics since the 1960s. Victim support groups and activists believe the actual numbers are 10 times higher than the official figure.

Much of victims’ outrage has been directed at bishops who covered up the crime of the priests, often by simply transferring them from one diocese to another. The US Catholic church has paid out an estimated US$2 billion to settle abuse cases in recent years.

On Wednesday evening, April 16, the Benedict XVI met with US bishops in the lower chapel of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception – which is the largest Catholic Church in the United States, located in Washington, D. C. He addressed the bishops about sexual abuse by the clergy, which he said made him “deeply ashamed.”

The Pope told the gathered bishops that the sex abuse scandal had at times been mishandled and urged them to reach out to the victims. “It is your God-given responsibility as pastors to bind up the wounds caused by every breach of trust to foster healing, to promote reconciliation and to reach out with loving concern to those so seriously wronged.”

Some victims had hoped the Pope would rebuke those bishops who transferred pedophile priests from parish to parish. Instead, Benedict XVI praised the training programs established for priests and lay people who deal with children. “In this regard your efforts to heal and protect are bearing great fruit not only for those directly under your pastoral care, but for all of society.”

As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict headed the doctrinal congregation, which took over the handling of sex abuse cases. At one point, he mentioned that when he read the case histories of the victims, he found it hard to believe how a priest could betray his mission to be an agent of God’s love.

On Thursday, April 17, the Pope held an unprecedented meeting with US victims abused by priests, offering them his support after he acknowledged the pain and damage caused by the Church’s sex scandal as they prayed together in Washington, the first stop on the two-city papal visit.

One can legitimately ask, Why didn’t Benedict speak out five years ago against the scandal that erupted in Boston, though his office in Rome had the responsibility to examine the files and deal the crisis? One wonder if his expressions of pain and regret reflect the urgent need to do some damage control and restore credibility to the battered American Catholic Church!

At any rate Benedict must be credited from departing from the old stereotyped method of denying or minimizing problems and of reacting defensively. He set a worthy example to Catholic officials on how to deal with future crises by openly admitting the mistakes and dealing with their problems. Many see the Pope’s dealing with the sexual scandal as the defining moment of his trip.

Sexual scandals that have plagued the Catholic church, including notorious immoral popes like Alexander VI, underlines the problems the Catholic church has created by imposing the vow of celibacy on priests, monks, and nuns, in order to ensure their exclusive commitment to the church.

POPE BENEDICT’S EFFORTS TO PROMOTE CHURCH UNITY

A second significant goal of Benedict’s visit to the United States, has been to promote unity, both in the Catholic Church and in the Christian community at large. He is deeply concerned about the division and fragmentation that exists in Christian churches. In his address to leaders of various Christian Churches and communities delivered in New York on April 18, 2008, at St. Joseph Church, he lamented that while on the one hand humanity is experiencing today a growing sense of globalization and interdependence, on the other hand, Christian churches are experiencing “fragmentation and a retreat into individualism.”

The pope said that the unity of the early Christian community and the cohesion of its members “was based on the sound integrity of their doctrinal confession.” But now some Christians are taking the same “relativistic approach” to doctrine that many modern people take to moral and ethical values in general. Christians pretend that there is no such a thing as revealed truth. They treat the Christian faith as a matter of picking and choosing what they want to believe, instead of being faithful to the apostolic faith and church traditions.

The problem is, as we shall see, that for the Pope doctrinal integrity is based, not on the normative authority of the Bible, but on the apostolic faith allegedly transmitted through the apostolic succession to the present pope. He expects Catholics and non-Catholics to accept and live by Catholic teachings, which, as I have shown in my newly released book Popular Beliefs: Are They Biblical? mostly derive from pagan influences, rather than from the normative authority of the Bible.

Benedict notes that when Christians think they only need to follow their own consciences and find a church that suits their individual tastes, the result is a “continual proliferation of communities which often eschew institutional structures and minimize the importance of doctrinal content for Christian living.” The Pope is correct in pointing out the danger of choosing beliefs and churches in a cafeteria style, but he is incorrect in assuming that the “doctrinal content for Christian living” is to be found in Catholic traditional teachings.

Benedict’s Struggle to Maintain Doctrinal Unity in the Catholic Church

The problem of doctrinal divisions is not only a Protestant problem, but also a Catholic one. For the past 30 years Benedict has struggled to maintain doctrinal unity in the Catholic Church, through The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which he directed for 25 years as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, before he was elected pope. This institution was born in 1542 with the name Sacred Congregation of the Universal Inquisition. For centuries this institution has operated as an extremely conservative force within the Roman Catholic Church, opposing innovation, suppressing dissents, and persecuting those who believed differently.

During his tenure, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger influenced John Paul II to press charges against such theologians as Edward Schillebeeckx of Holland, Jack Pohier of France, Bernard Hasler of Switzerland. Hans Kung was stripped of his post as teacher of Catholic theology at the University of Tubingen for questioning papal infallibility.  Prof.  Charles Curran was suspended from his teaching post at the Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C., for advocating that sterilization and contraception were not always wrong.  Jesuit priest Terrance Sweeney was forced to resign from his order, because he refused to destroy the results of a survey of American Bishops about celibacy and the ordination of women. A quarter of those surveyed reportedly approved optional celibacy. Examples such as these show that Benedict has attempted to maintain church unity by suppressing any dissenting voice.

When John Paul II was elected pope, the issue that defined the mission of the Catholic church at that time came from the East, namely, the struggle against Soviet dictatorship. John Paul understood that there was a fault line in the Soviet empire that would eventually cause its collapse. The fault line was the clash of values between the concern for social justice and the suppression of personal freedom in order to attain that goal.

Twenty nine years later, when Benedict XVI was elected pope, the issue that defined the mission of the Catholic church came from the West, namely, the threat of the “dictatorship of relativism,” that is, the tendency to question the existence of absolute moral and religious truths and to think that everyone has the right to live according to his own values and beliefs. The Pope believes that there is a fault line in the moral and religious relativism of our society, which is found in the tension between personal freedom and the abandonment of objective truth. Such a tension cannot be sustained for a long time. Ultimately, according to the Pope, moral relativism and secularism can only be conquered by reaffirming the objective truths entrusted to the Catholic church.

Address of Pope Benedict to American Catholic Educators

During his brief visit to the United States, the pope did not press charges against liberal Catholic theologians, as he did in the past. Instead, he warned Catholic educators against the danger of promoting positions that contradict Catholic teachings. In his address to Catholic educators delivered on Thursday, April 17, at the Catholic University of America, Benedict challenged presidents to consider their colleges’ distinctive roles in the face of moral relativism, the fragmentation of knowledge, and the pursuit of scientific knowledge without any spiritual consideration.

The Pope said: “I wish to reaffirm the great value of academic freedom. In virtue of this freedom you are called to search for the truth wherever careful analysis of evidence leads you. Yet it is also the case that any appeal to the principle of academic freedom in order to justify positions that contradict the faith and the teaching of the Church would obstruct or even betray the university’s identity and mission.” It is evident that for the Pope the touchstone of Catholic unity and orthodoxy, is not the authority of the Bible, but the faith and teachings of the Catholic church.

Benedict appealed to Catholic teachers and administrators “to ensure that students receive instruction in Catholic doctrine and practice. This requires that public witness to the way of Christ, as found in the Gospel and upheld by the Church’s Magisterium, shapes all aspects of an institution’s life, both inside and outside the classroom. Divergence from this vision weakens Catholic identity and, far from advancing freedom, inevitably leads to confusion, whether moral, intellectual or spiritual.”

For Benedict the unifying center of the Catholic is not the authority of the Bible, but the magisterium ecclesia, that is, the teaching authority of the church, which is visible in the person of the pope, the bishops, and the priests. They represent the visible links of what is claimed to be the Apostolic Succession.

At the papal Mass attended by sixty thousand people at Yankee Stadium on April 20, 2008, the Pope pointed to the visible unity of the Church, present there around the altar. He said: “The presence around this altar of the Successor of Peter, his brother bishops and priests, and deacons, men and women religious, and lay faithful from throughout the fifty states of the Union, eloquently manifests our communion in the Catholic faith which comes to us from the Apostles.” He stressed that the unity of the Catholic Church is “apostolic,” a “visible unity” grounded in the authority Christ bestowed upon Peter and the Apostles – an authority which was transmitted to their successors.

Origin of the Apostolic Succession Theory

The notion that Christ invested Peter with the authority to govern the church and that such an authority has been transmitted in an unbroken succession to his successors, is a pure Catholic fabrication devoid of biblical and historical support. It first appears in the writing of Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon (A. 175-195), who used the argument of the apostolic succession to refute gnostic heretics. He argues that the gnostic teachings were heretical because they are rejected by those churches which traced their pedigree to the apostles (Against the Heresies book 3).

The argument of the apostolic succession served a useful purpose in the early church when the formation of the New Testament was still in a progress. Church leaders needed an objective authority to refute heretics, and they found it in churches like Antioch, Ephesus, and Alexandria, which could trace their origin to an Apostle. These churches could serve as the touchstone of orthodoxy. But to extend the concept of the apostolic succession to the whole course of Christian history is unwarranted, because of the interruption and apostasy that these churches have experienced. The Moslem invasion of the seventh and eight centuries wiped out completely most of the ancient Eastern churches.

Unity is to Be Maintained by Complying with the Teaching Authority of the Catholic Church

The foundation of Catholic unity rests not on adherence to biblical truths, but on the teaching authority of the Church, governed by the Roman Pontif, as the successor of Peter. Benedict XVI clearly reaffirmed this belief in his document Dominus Iesus, first released on September 5, 2000: “Just as there is one Christ, so there exists a single body of Christ, a single bride of Christ: a single Catholic and apostolic Church. . . . There exists a single Church of Christ, which subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the Successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him.”

The same position was reiterated in document released by the Vatican on July 10, 2007, entitled: “Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church.” For the sake of brevity we shall refer to this document as Responses. The document was written by William Cardinal Levada, head of the Roman Catholic’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, at the request of Pope Benedict XVI himself, who fully endorsed it.

Responses is essentially a reiteration of the Declaration Dominus Iesus, issued in 2000 by Cardinal Ratzinger, while he was serving as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Benedict XVI sensed the urgent need to restate and clarify what he had already declared in Dominus Iesu.

Responses is formulated in five questions and answers. The first three restate that the Catholic Church “governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him” is the only true church on earth instituted by Jesus Christ.

The fourth and fifth answers explain why the Eastern Orthodox and the Protestant churches are “ecclesial communities,” rather than true churches. The reason is that they lack the apostolic succession, and therefore they “have not preserved the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic Mystery.”

The origin of this traditional Catholic view is traced back to Pope Boniface VIII. In his Bull, Unam Sanctam (A. D. 1302) Boniface declared: “There is one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, and that outside this Church there is neither salvation nor remission of sins.” This traditional Catholic view was substantially modified at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) which formulated the concept, especially in the Constitution of the Church, that salvation is found not only inside the Catholic Church but also outside its fold, by all who live according to their conscience.

This broader view of various avenues to salvation fostered a policy of benign tolerance toward non-Catholics. Protestants, for example, were rehabilitated from heretics, to “separate brethren,” and to brothers and sisters in Christ. Similarly, members of world religions have been treated with more openness and respect.

In the thinking of Vatican conservatives like Benedict XVI, the policy of benign tolerance toward non-Catholics inaugurated by Vatican II, may have gone too far. It may have weakened the alleged unicity and primacy of the Catholic Church. This concern is expressed in the new document Responses which affirms that “Christian denominations outside the Roman Catholic Church are not full churches of Jesus Christ,” though they may have some elements of truth. The actual text posted on the official Vatican Web site in several languages, says that Protestant Churches are really “ecclesial communities” rather than Churches, because they lack apostolic succession, and therefore they “have not preserved the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic Mystery.”

Salvation Derives Only From the Catholic Church

In other words, for Benedict XVI it is a fundamental Roman Catholic belief that there is only one true church that possesses the means of salvation and such church is the Roman Catholic church. Any salvation obtainable through other churches, ultimately derives from “the fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Catholic Church.”

Benedict XVI is concerned about the rapid spread of the relativistic and pluralistic mentality among liberal Catholic theologians, who believe that “one religion is as good as another.” He expressed his concern in his fiery speech to the cardinals before they withdrew to the Sistine Chapel to elect the new pope. He warned them that the Catholic Church must not become prey to a modern “dictatorship of relativism.”

To remedy this problem, Benedict XVI reiterates that “there is only a single Church of Christ, which subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the Successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him.” We noted earlier that at the papal Mass celebrated at Yankee Stadium, the Pope explained that the unity of the Catholic Church was visible in “the presence around the this altar of the successor of Peter, his brother bishops and priests, and deacons . . . [they] eloquently manifest our communion in the Catholic faith which comes to us from the Apostles.”

Benedict’s Misconception of the Nature of the Church

By linking the hierarchical structure of the Catholic church with the church that Christ established by calling Peter and the Apostles, Benedict makes salvation a monopoly of the Catholic church. This means, as stated in the Responses, that the Catholic Church herself is a “sacrament,” that is, a channel of grace to the world. “The Church is a ‘sacrament’. . . she is the sign and instrument of the kingdom.”

Such a preposterous, presumptuous, and exclusivistic claim, represents an insult to Protestants and Orthodox, and are an embarrassment to open-minded Catholic theologians who have long recognized that the Catholic Church does not have the monopoly of salvation.

Benedict ignores that the New Testament views the church, not as a visible hierarchical organization run by the “Successor of Peter, his brother bishops and priests, and deacons,” but as an invisible community of believers who are united by the same faith in Christ. In the Bible “the church” is not a hierarchical structure, governed by one man,  but the “people of God,” united by the common bond of faith and love.  Both the Hebrew qahal and the Greek ekklesia, translated “church,” actually refer to the “congregation” of believers, who have been called out from the world (Deut 7:6; Hos 11:1; 1 Peter 2:9) in order to be a light in the world (Deut 28:10; 1 Pet 2:9).

This means that when Jesus spoke about building His church, He meant, not the establishment of a hierarchical religious organization, but the bu