The Saga Continues

I was flooded with email weeks back in the wake of a document released by the Vatican. The document declares that the Roman Catholic Church is the only true church. The only institutional form in which the Church of Christ subsists.

I've seen commentaries from Roman Catholic clergy who decry a giant leap backwards made by the pope and the Vatican. The problem is almost all of the reactions were based on emotion and not theology. It pains me to see that Catholic clergy in many cases don't understand this. No one familiar with the statements of the Roman Catholic Magisterium should be surprised by this development. This is not news in any genuine sense. It is news only in the current context of Vatican statements and ecumenical relations.

The Vatican document is very brief. Its official title is "Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church," and it was released by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on June 29. Though many media sources have identified the document as a papal statement from Pope Benedict XVI, it is actually a statement from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that was later approved for release by the Pope (who, as Cardinal Ratzinger, headed this Congregation prior to assuming the papacy).

The document claims a unique legitimacy for the Roman Catholic Church as the church established by Christ and stakes this identity on apostolic succession, centered in the papacy itself. As the document states, "This Church, constituted and organised in this world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the successor of Peter and the Bishops in communion with him."

The document then goes on to acknowledge that the churches of Eastern Orthodoxy also stake a claim to apostolic succession, and thus they are referred to as "Churches" by the Vatican. As for the churches born in out of the Reformation -- they are not true churches at all, only "ecclesial communities."

"According to Catholic doctrine, these Communities do not enjoy apostolic succession in the sacrament of Orders, and are, therefore, deprived of a constitutive element of the Church. These ecclesial Communities which, specifically because of the absence of the sacramental priesthood, have not preserved the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic Mystery cannot, according to Catholic doctrine, be called "Churches" in the proper sense."

Pope Benedict was already in hot water over his recent decision related to the reinstitution of the Latin mass, complete with a call for the conversion of the Jews. This latest controversy just adds to the media impression of big changes at the Vatican under the current papacy. To me it's laughable. These are anything but changes. In fact it's anti-change.

Personally I stand up and cheer for PB16! Benedict is truly a doctrinal theologian, whereas Pope John Paul II, was more a philosopher by academic training. Those familiar with the current pope know of his frustration with the tendency of liberal Catholic theologians and laypersons to insist that the Second Vatican Council represented a massive shift (to the left) in Catholic doctrine. Not so, insisted Cardinal Ratzinger as head of the Congregation for the Defense of the Faith. Now, as Pope, Benedict is in a position to shape his argument into a universal policy for his church. Vatican II, he insists, represented only a deepening and reapplication of unchanging Catholic doctrine. Those that refuse to believe it are in for a miserable set of disappointments.

Evangelicals should appreciate the candor reflected in this document. There is no effort here to confuse the issues. To the contrary, the document is an obvious attempt to set the record straight. The Roman Catholic Church does not deny that Christ is working redemptively through Protestant and evangelical churches, but it does deny that these churches which deny the authority of the papacy are true churches in the most important sense. The true church, in other words, is that church identified through the recognition of the papacy. Those churches that deny or fail to recognize the papacy are "ecclesial Communities," not churches "in the proper sense."

It all comes down to this -- the claim of the Roman Catholic Church to the primacy of the Bishop of Rome and the Pope as the universal monarch of the church is the defining issue. Roman Catholics and Evangelicals should together recognize the importance of that claim. This is not a theological game of I'm better then you. It's the basis of the basis and belief of the Church.

In this era of confusion and theological laxity we often forget that this was one of the defining issues of the Reformation itself. Both the Reformers and the Roman Catholic Church staked their claim to be the true church -- and both revealed their most essential convictions in making their argument. Those claims have not changed.

The modern game of ecumenical confusion has obscured issues. Pope Benedict and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith are not only concerned for Catholics but also evangelicals their congregations. He, along with the Magisterium of the church, believe that Protestant churches are gravely defective and that those souls are in danger. His sacramental theology plays a large role in this concern, for he believes and teaches that a church without submission to the papacy has no guaranteed efficacy for its sacraments.

The Roman Catholic Church believes many are in spiritual danger for obstinately and disobediently excluding themselves from submission to the universal claims and the papacy. Evangelicals are concerned that Catholics are in spiritual danger for their submission to these very claims. We both understand what is at stake.

I appreciate the Roman Catholic Church's willingness to speak what they believe, and I believe that Evangelical Christians, with equal respect and clarity, should respond in kind. This is a time to be respectfully candid.