The Catholic Pope officially called Protestant Churches "Useless for Salvation" ?

Question

Pope Benedict XVI reasserted the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, approving a document released Tuesday that says other Christian communities are either defective or not true churches and Catholicism provides the only true path to salvation.


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Protestants cannot be saved outside of the Catholic Church !!

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/World/Papacy_and_the_Vatican
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Answer 1

Not exactly.

Here is the full text of the new document that states nothing new: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20070629_responsa-quaestiones_en.html

Most Christian denominations believe that each of them is the fullest version of the Church of Christ.

While the Catholic Church also believes that she is "the highest exemplar" of the mystery that is the Church of Christ, she does not claim that non-Catholic Churches are not truly Christian. The Catholic Church teaches:

Furthermore, many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside the visible confines of the Catholic Church: the written Word of God; the life of grace; faith, hope, and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, as well as visible elements.

Christ's Spirit uses these Churches and ecclesial communities as means of salvation, whose power derives from the fullness of grace and truth that Christ has entrusted to the Catholic Church.

All these blessings come from Christ and lead to him.

For more information, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, section 819: http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt3art9p3.htm#819

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

magnificent answer Fr. Joseph . What did Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformer, state concerning the Bible? In his "remark On St. John," he reported here: "we are forced to deliberate to the Papists that they have the notice of God, that we've won It from them, and that without them we could continually have not have been given any expertise of It in any respect." regardless of what non-Catholic Christians might think of or say, in accordance to secular, purpose historians, the Catholic Church on my own preserved Sacred Scripture for the period of the persecution of the Roman Empire and by using the dark a while. All non-Catholic Christian denominations owe the existence of the Bible to the Catholic Church on my own. Why did God choose for the Catholic Church to maintain Scripture whether that's not His Church? The Catholic Church substitute into the 1st Christian denomination to correctly worth a mass printing of the Bible by asking Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press, to take action in 1447. Non-Catholic Christians might accuse the Catholic Church of no longer permitting the consumer-friendly human beings to study the Bible before the Reformation, yet what good might it have completed for the Catholic Church to substantially distribute the Bible to the lots while over ninety% of the consumer-friendly human beings have been illiterate and could no longer study besides? The Catholic Mass has continually secure Scriptural readings from the two the previous and New Testaments and Catholic clergymen have continually "preached" the notice of God to the consumer-friendly human beings in the time of history. Love your enemies

Answer 3

Could you please provide information as to where you got this from? I'm not arguing but I'd like to read it for myself and verify it's origin.

Additional details:
Okay, here's the segment that I think that you're referring to from the article that the link routed me to:

"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."

I don't see anything about salvation but it does seem to me that he questions the legitimacy of protestant churches. Apparently, this is reference back to a text from the year 2000.

All this aside, no church can grant anyone salvation. As Christians, I am a Catholic, our belief is supposed to be that we can only be saved by divine grace. I don't believe that it was ever written anywhere (legitimately) that we can be saved based on the particular religion that we subscribe to. If this were possible, then we could pretty much do as we please (commit crimes against God and man) and not suffer any consequences. This is wrong. We are supposed to lead Christ life lives, but few of us do. We sin on a daily basis. This is why his divine grace is our only salvation. We have free will to do as we please but we're not to squander it because, we believe, there will be consequences. I'm a Catholic and have many Protestant friends that I have great respect for. I don't believe that they are less than me nor that their practice of faith is any less legitimate than mine.

I'd like to add that I don't believe "the one true church" to be any particular religion. It is those who follow Christ. The LDS church (Mormons), from what I've learned, don't call themselves Christians because they consider it an offense to refer to themselves by the same term than those who opposed Jesus Christ while he was on this earth. Yet they are followers of Christ and, therefore, part of his church.

Answer 4

Im a protestant, but I love this pope! I love him because he doesnt change Catholic doctrine to suit whats currently going on. Sure, I disagree with a bunch of Catholic dogma if not 90% of it (was raised Catholic) However, I have much more respect for one who belongs to a religion and actually "walks their talk" and follows what their dogma is rather than one who labels themselves with somw title and has no understanding nor real interest about what they profess to believe.

Answer 5

Anybody who claims to be the exclusively on the inside with God, and your salvation depends on roll call at a paticular church, you know that THEY are on the outside of Gods kingdom looking in. The church is NOT one with the world but separate.

Answer 6

The catholic pope is really nothing more than a mindless muppet and not to be taken any notice of.

Answer 7

i guess if you're a follower of pope ben, then stuff like this coming from the vatican has some significance...i'm a follower of Christ, so it doesn't matter to me in the least what the pope says about pretty much anything

Answer 8

Hmm. Sounds like what Osama had said about wanting Americans to convert to Islam. What difference does it make. Religion just plain bites. They want everyone to convert to theirs and disses others. Why can't they accept and learn to live together. I'm glad I don't subscribe to any religion.

Answer 9

Man, I should keep up with this Pope stuff. It's really starting to ...well, when does the book-burning start?

Answer 10

Where did you hear that? Is there a link? Is this another holy war? lol We were Catholic and changed to Evangelical. It is embarrassing to me to belong to a church who has child predators as priests, force having children on a man and wife even though they cannot adequately provide for them, and teach other people are not saved unless you belong to the church, and have one of the richest religious dominions who do nothing for the poverty of their own people. But then most religions condemn one another, which to me doesn't represent following God's teachings.