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Philippians – a Problem for “the Church has Always been Catholic” Roman Catholicism
There are two problems, one major and one minor, for a certain stream of Roman Catholicism, in the first verse of Philippians. There are different streams of Roman Catholicism. One popular stream of Roman Catholicism tries to assert that “the Church has always been Roman Catholic.” Typically, they would just use “Catholic” but their meaning…
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Garry Wills on the Title "Holy Father"
Garry Wills (self-identified Catholic, but rejecter of the papacy and transubstantiation), in “Why Priests?” has this interesting comment (p. 12): Jesus is telling his Followers not to be like the Sadducees and Pharisees who seek the “first places”: Everything they do is done to impress people. They enlarge their tefillins and lengthen their tassels. They…
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Benedict XVI to Resign for "Health" Reasons
Benedict XVI is an octogenarian, so it is not in the least surprising if he has serious medical concerns. On the other hand, as many people are pointing out, a pope hasn’t resigned the papacy since 1415, when Pope Gregory XII “resigned” to end the Western Schism (his resignation was basically forced by the Council…
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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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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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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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Footnote to the Perspicuity Discussion – Liberius' Lapse and Athanasius the non-Papist
Roman Catholic David Waltz has chimed in with his two cents on the exceedingly minor issue of whether or not Athanasius might have been mocking Liberius when he (Athanasius) mentioned “the eunuchs of Constantius” (link to Waltz’s piece). I had even stated in my original post, “But that’s an aside.” (link to my original post).…