Friday, July 20, 2007
OH REALLY ?
At the Washington Post website, retired Episcopal priest James Anderson offers some comments about Benedict's recent release:
Last weekend I was involved in two conversations – one brief, one extended – touching the reassertion by Pope Benedict XVI of the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church as the one true church possessing “the fullness of the means of salvation.”
The brief conversation was the recounting to me of an exchange between a Roman Catholic priest from the Vatican and an American nun in which the two were reported to have agreed that the Pope might best be described as an “ass.”
The second extended conversation was with a Buddhist friend who shared her decision to become a Roman Catholic. She was staying with us for the weekend and she wanted us to know that she had completed a year long period of study, that she was now a full fledged communicant in the Catholic Church and she would be going to Mass Sunday morning. In our lengthy discussion of the motivations for this fairly momentous change in her life, it was inevitable that Pope Benedict’s recent pronouncement became a topic to be explored. Our friend and recent convert said she saw no reason to pay attention to what the Pope had to say and that she thought most people did not like him. She elaborated by describing the attempt of her parish priest to disagree with the Pope, while also backpedaling, making excuses for the Pope’s pronouncement.
