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Defining "Church"
John Bugay’s recent post, “Whatever else the “definition of the word church” contains, it must be purged of Roman conceptions of Rome ” led me to consider this question: Suppose you were to ask one of the apostles to define the term “the church.” Would that definition have any reference to Rome or her bishop?…
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Some Interesting Papacy-Related Quotations
John Bugay has lifted two interesting quotations from a recent book entitled, “The Petrine Ministry in the Early Patristic Tradition” (Eerdmans, Nov. 2010). The first quotation includes “the monepiscopacy replaced presbyterial governance in Rome only in the mid-or late second century” from a Lutheran scholar. The second quotation includes “The East never shared the Petrine…
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Challenging Your Rome-Colored Glasses – Set Aside Your Anachronism
Suppose you are reading through the writings of Gregory of Nazianzus and you hear him say that either the apostle Peter or the bishop of Rome is “entrusted with the chief rule over the people, in other words, the charge of the whole world.” Would you think that he was affirming the universal jurisdiction and…
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Rome’s Meaningless Claim to "Unbroken Chain" Of Succession
The following is an example of Rome’s claim of “unbroken succession” – provided by pope John Paul II: Nevertheless, the Roman Pontiffs have exercised their authority in Rome and, according to the conditions and opportunities of the times, have done so in wider and even universal areas, by virtue of their succeeding Peter. Written documents…
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>Innocent III vs. Benedict XVI — Use Scripture as Your Standard Instead
>”Here I wish to affirm once more that religion can never justify intolerance or war. We cannot kill in God’s name!” (Benedict XVI, Verbum Domini, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, September 30, 2010, Part 3) Desiring with an ardent desire to liberate the Holy Land from the hands of the ungodly, we decree with the advice of…
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Can Religions Justify War?
“Religions can never justify intolerance and war.” – Benedict XVI (according to this article) UPDATE Citation/Quotation from Authoritative Source: “Here I wish to affirm once more that religion can never justify intolerance or war. We cannot kill in God’s name!” (Benedict XVI, Verbum Domini, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, September 30, 2010, Part 3) Compare to the…
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Bellisario vs. Strawman – A Response of Sorts to Bellisario
Over at his blog, the Catholic Champion, Matthew Bellisario has decided to characterize his latest assault on a straw man as a response to one of my recent posts (link to Bellisario)(link to my recent post). Bellisario’s headline reads: “Vatican II and the Papacy- No Redefinition.” Well, no kidding. Formally speaking, Vatican II didn’t define…
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Rescuing Roman Catholicism from Papalism?
James Carroll has an interesting article in the Boston Globe, in which he argues that Roman Catholicism needs to be rescued from what he perceives as Roman Catholic fundamentalism (link to article). Carroll views Joseph Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI, as a sort of ringleaders of excessive emphasis on the papacy. Carroll makes some often-overlooked observations.…
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Ratzinger "Led Cover-Up of Child Abuse by Priests"?
That’s the claim leveled in this article (link). Take the claim with a grain of salt – the article itself identifies the man who is now known as Benedict XVI as “Thomas Ratzinger” rather than “Joseph Ratzinger.” This, coming hard on the heels of the revelation that John Paul II practiced the pagan practice of…
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Literature on the Early Roman Church
The early Roman church was a remarkable church. It was not, however, much like the Roman Catholic church. In an interesting post, John Bugay at Reformation 500 has explored some of the scholarly literature relating to the issue of the development of the papacy (link to post). To God be the Glory!