http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6289014.stm
Vatican text angers Protestants
By David Willey
BBC News, Rome
Pope Benedict XVI (9 July 2007)
The Pope has just begun his annual three-week break in the Italian
Alps
Pope Benedict has approved a new text asserting that Christian
denominations outside Roman Catholicism are not true Churches in
the full sense of the word.
The document, issued by a Vatican watchdog, has been criticised as
offensive by some Protestants.
The text was written by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith, headed by Pope Benedict before his election as
Pope.
It states that Christ established only one Church here on
earth.
Other Christian denominations, it argues, cannot be called Churches
in the proper sense because they cannot trace their bishops back to
Christ's original apostles.
True to tradition
The new text is basically a re-statement of another document known
as Domine Jesus, published in the year 2000 under the signature of
the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope.
That document set off a storm of criticism from Protestant and
Anglican leaders who felt that the Vatican was failing to take into
account progress made towards re-establishing Christian unity in
talks with Rome over a period of many years.
It remains unclear why Pope Benedict chose to publish this document
just as he begins a three-week holiday in the Italian Alps.
Admittedly, the document does stress that Pope Benedict remains
seriously committed to dialogue with the other Christian Churches,
but first reactions from Protestant Church leaders appear
negative.
This is the second document issued by the Pope in recent days which
re-evaluates the work of the Second Vatican Council, the reforming
council held in Rome during the 1960s.
The Pope's point is that although this was a council of reform, the
Church fathers meeting at that time remained true to Catholic
traditions.
Pope Benedict is, in effect, attacking what he regards as later
erroneous interpretations of what the council actually decided.
