Let's All Become Catholic, Or Else...

When the present Pope made his seemingly anti-Muslim remarks some months ago, one might have thought that they were made out of naivete, or without proper input from advisors, or perhaps we all misinterpreted them. But now we know for sure his almost-kinda apology, and his comments about wanting better dialogue with other Christians and other religions, were simply not true. This Pope truly believes that only Catholics are truly Christian, and that only Catholics, and only the Catholics that belong to His Church -- not the Church of Pope John Paul II or Pope John XXIII or other Popes -- but those who belong to this Pope's Church, will be saved.

Just when it seemed that maybe, just maybe, the judgment by others (whether Protestants or Catholics) about who decides who belongs to the One True Church would be put to rest -- at least a little bit -- this Pope has now caused another stir. Whether this one will end up with loss of life, or just anger, furor, and more separation between churches that seemed to be starting to get along, we're back to Square One again -- good old religious intolerance!

Of course, if this Pope, or any other Pope, had good Scriptural evidence that the Catholic Church was the One True Church, perhaps we might give him a bit of slack. But the idea of the One True Church is based on Catholic tradition, and not based on anything in Scripture. To take one verse, "Upon this rock (the word "petros - stone/rock" which became the name "Peter") I will build my Church" (sometimes translated "community" rather than "church" -- Matthew 16:18) and decide that this Church that was talked about by Jesus is only the Catholic Church, is a far stretch of the imagination. If the Pope read the Scripture a bit more closely, he would see the context of that verse. When Jesus asked "Who do people say the Son of man is?" Simon Peter was the first to go beyond saying Jesus was a prophet, or implying that he was simply a great man. Instead, he said "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" His answer was the Rock of Christianity. To decide that the One True Church is based on the primacy of the Pope, not the primacy of Jesus Christ, is a truly strange reading of Scripture -- for some, even heretical.

When I was in seminary, some of my fellow students who were studying for the priesthood sometimes sang to us Protestants, just for fun, a little ditty that said "There is no salvation outside The Church, da de da de da!" We would all laugh, since we all felt that we had gotten beyond that. Catholics were now speaking to Protestants, and vice versa, after the many years when they were kept apart -- in marriage, in church-going, in theology. Occasionally many of us Protestants went to Catholic Churches, and vice versa, and didn't feel that we were going to Hell for doing so. Occasionally we read each other's theology books, and found richness in each other's spirituality. We shared the same Bible, although the Protestants seemed to know it better than the Catholics, and sometimes Catholics and Protestants married each other, and had loving relationships and loving families.

One might say, "Does this really matter?" Unfortunately, it does. The Pope and other Church leaders, both Catholic and Protestant, are the interpreters of the Christian religion for both those inside and outside. They are the public spokespeople, whether we like it or not. They keep defining our religion, and their definitions have caused great harm to other people, as well as other Christians. No longer is Christianity seen, by many, as a religion of Love, Compassion, Care, Good Works, and Charity, but it's seen as a religion of judgment, intolerance, and nastiness. Ask a few non-Christians what they think of Christianity, and they will often talk about this public face of the religion, not the public face that reveals the Spirit of Christ and the Love of God.

I wonder how Jesus would feel about this all -- now that he isn't allowed to accept anyone but card-carrying Catholic members into those rooms he has prepared for us in those heavenly mansions. Or now that we might even be asked not to speak to Him, unless we're Catholics, since it seems, from this pronouncement, that He probably isn't listening to the rest of us. Or might he just say something like a paraphrase of Matthew 21:31, "Verily I say unto you. Even Protestants will enter heaven before some of you!"