Catholics: isn't the Pope, almost by necessity,and in deed, a fundamentalist?

Question

It occurs to me that if this isn't true, then your church would be adrift.. correct my thinking if you have a more enlightned point of view

Answer 1

Pastor Billy says: it all depends on how you define "fundamental". Being the first Christian Church one might naturally think Catholicism is fundamental Christianity so to answer your question in one sense yes the Pope is a fundamentalist leader.

Today due to our secular atheist media, the word fundamentalist is most readily associated with radicalism hence the reason many Protestants have moved away from calling themselves Fundamentalists and now use the title Evangelical

Answer 2

*Is Catholic*

No. Specificaly no. Ratzinger specificaly had some negative things to say about fundamentalists and fundamentalism. By his own words, Pope Benedict XVI is not a fundamentalist.

To really get into the nitty gritty of this please see the very good but very dense
Principles of Catholic Theology: Building Stones for a Fundamental Theology by Ratzinger.

Ratzinger is interested in fundamental theology (a varient of dogmatic theology) which is very different from fundamentalist theology.

Answer 3

Fundamentalism is a religious movement or point of view characterized by a return to fundamental principles, by rigid adherence to those principles, and often by intolerance of other views and opposition to secularism.

This definition does not fit Catholicism very well. Since we never left our original principles, we do not have to return to them.

The Catholic Church seeks and supports the freedom of religion for all human beings.

In the Vatican II document, Declaration on Religious Freedom, Dignitatis Humanae (Human Dignity), the Church states:

The human person has a right to religious freedom. This freedom means that all men are to be immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of any human power, in such wise that no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, whether alone or in association with others, within due limits.

For the entire document, see: http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651207_dignitatis-humanae_en.html

Because of this stance we support secularism in government which guarantees freedom of religion and we are rather tolerant of other religious views, both Christian and non-Christian.

With love in Christ.

Answer 4

Since the word Fundamental means pertaining to the root, and the roots of all major religions are pagan in nature,
shouldn't all fundamentalists really be pagans?

Answer 5

He adheres to, teaches, and defends the fundamentals of unabridged Christianity, yes. The more accurate term would be "orthodox" (small "o") Christian. Interesting point.

Answer 6

You are correct.

For this and many other good reasons, the Catholic church remains the only fundamentalist, universal, non-denominational, evangelical, full-gospel, bible believing church on the planet.

Answer 7

The Primacy of St. Peter

1. As an Apostolic Church, built upon the foundation fo the Twelve Apostles, Jesus Christ being Himself the chief corner stone, the Church of Christ first appears in history. (Eph. 2,20)- The mark of apostolicity, of historical and real connection with the Twelve, belongs so essentially to it that it cannot be conceived without it. Even the number twelve was to fundamental importance. The Twelve represented the new Israel which was to supersede the old Israel that had rejected the Son of Ma. They were conscious of the real significance fo their number, and immediately after the Ascension of Jesus it was their first care to fill up the vacancy left in their company by the suicide of Judas.

St. Matthew records an event which gives a satisfactory answer to our question.- It was in the neighborhood of Caesarea-Phillippi at the foot of Mount Hermon, in full view of the mighty cliffs from which the waters of the Jordan issue, that Jesus asked His disciples: “Whom do men say that the Son of Man is? But they said: Some John the Baptist, and other some Eilias, and other Jeremais, or one of the prophets. But whom do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. “And Jesus answering, said to him: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar- Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but My Father who is in heaven. And I say to thee: Thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven” Matt. 16, 13-20)

Under a triple metaphor the primacy over the Church is promised to Peter: (a) He is the rock foundation that guarantees permanence to the Christian body; (b) he is the master of the Household of God; the keys symbolize the plenitude of his power over souls; (c) he receives the power to impose obligations on the members of the Church and to relieve them of them, and the exercise of this power is to ratified in advance by God. The power of “binding and loosing” was afterwards conferred on all the Apostles collectively (John 20, 22-23); but to none of them except Peter did Christ say that he was the rock on which His church was built and the power of the keys was given to Peter individually and in a special manner.

If we look at the diction of the great promise of Christ, says Dr. Carl Adam, it is immediately evident that he words were originally spoken in Aramaic. The play on the word Kephas is possible only in Aramaic. The expressions Simon bar-Jona, Gates of Hell, Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, Binding and Loosing the contrast between Heaven and Earth, are purely Semitic imagery. There can be no question of a Greek or Roman falsification. But are the verses genuine? Do they belong to the original Gospel of Matthew? Or are they a later interpolation? The Protestant Theologian Bolliger answer: “The verses fit the context in which they stand as perfectly as a limb fits the body to which it belongs. They bear about them the inimitable perfume of an historically great moment. In form, too, they are such as the great ones of the earth, and they only in the greatest hours of their life, can achieve. An interpolator is simple incapable of such an effect.

The words of Christ concerning peter (the Rock-man) were well known both to the Jewish Christians of Palestine and to the converts from paganism long before St. Matthew wrote his Gospel. For both mar (3,16) and John (1,42) relate that Peter's origanl name was Simon and that Jesus Himself gave him the name Kephas (Peter, Rock). This name became his proper name. St. Paul calls him Kephas and Peter, while the Acts of the Apostles always speaks of him as Peter. Under this name he was known in Jerusalem and Antioch, in Galatia, in Corinth, and in Rome. This fact is all the more remarkable because at the time of Christ neither Kephas nor Peter was a proper name.

I would go into papal infallibility, but I do not know if you are that interested.


Outside the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church headed by Pope Michael 1st, no one can be saved.

Answer 8

yes