The pope is Catholic!
Kudos to Pastor Scott Steigemeyer on his post about Pope Benedict's latest pronouncement on historic Roman Catholic ecclesiology, in which he repeated the fundamental conviction of his church that ecclesial groups lacking apostolic succession are not churches in the full sense of the word.
The pope is wrong, of course; the pure Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments according to their biblical institution, and not a human invention like apostolic succession, constitute the Church (especially since during the first centuries of the Christian era the office of bishop and the office of presbyter were one and the same- and neither Rome nor Constantinople have a monopoly on presbyterial succession!).
But still,it's amazing that we live at a time in which it's actually considered remarkable that the Pope is Catholic.
The pope is wrong, of course; the pure Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments according to their biblical institution, and not a human invention like apostolic succession, constitute the Church (especially since during the first centuries of the Christian era the office of bishop and the office of presbyter were one and the same- and neither Rome nor Constantinople have a monopoly on presbyterial succession!).
But still,it's amazing that we live at a time in which it's actually considered remarkable that the Pope is Catholic.
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