Every religion and sect says that. Live with it. >He leads a large community of faith, but what he, and you are failing to >realize is that saying "my faith is better than your faith, and if you don't >convert to Catholicism you're going to burn" is divisive, it only serves to >alienate and burn bridges. He's not gaining anything by saying it publicly. >
They say it all of the time. I say it every Sunday when praying at Mass. Big deal. >You'd be screaming at the top of your lungs if the head of the Southern >Baptist Church in America, or the head of the Methodist Church, or if the >Dalai Lama said it. Why is it OK, for the Pope to say it? > Yawn! >I'd love to see a time where Jews, Christians, Muslims and Catholics >suddenly realized "Hey we all worship the same god.... what in the heck are >we fighting about" that won't happen as long as statements like Benedict's >are made publicly, regardless of it being some archaic "official" doctrine. > I'll accept that, but his Papacy had a major roll in the final outcome. >John Paul II was a political force within the labor unions of Poland long >before he was pope, he's credited for helping crush communism in Poland >because of that, not singularly because he was pope. Lech Walesa's (sp?) >role was just as large. > Doubtfully. >I do find it interesting that Benedict's statement came a couple weeks >before the announcement of the largest settlement of priestial (sp?) sexual >abuse in history. Could he be trying to stem a tide of people leaving the >Catholic Church ? > When did I say he spoke for God. The Bible and personal prayer does that. The Pope leads us by his example and helps clarify doctrinal points. I will say he acts for God, just as the Apostles and Disciples did, but speak for God, no. That idea is a creation of Martin Luther, Calvin, etc. >I'm not Catholic, I was raised in a liberal Protestant (Calvinist?) church, >(Christian Church, Disciples of Christ), so the pope holds no power over me, >in my heart he doesn't speak for God, only God can do that. Only those who don't realize how Catholics look at him. >But the pope is >a very public figure, with millions who take his words as absolute, >empirical truth, with that amount of power he can create or burn bridges to >other faiths and creeds, he's chosen to burn them. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| ColdFusion 8 beta â Build next generation applications today. Free beta download on Labs http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=labs_adobecf8_beta Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:238501 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
