08077
February 1, 2008

Pope defends statement on uniqueness of Catholic Church

by Francis X. Rocca
Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday (Jan. 31) defended a controversial Vatican statement on the uniqueness of the Catholic church, saying that it would enhance, not derail, ecumenical dialogue.

Benedict made his remarks in a meeting with members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the church’s highest doctrinal body.

The pope commended the Congregation on a document it published last July, which reaffirms the teaching that the “one Church of Christ ... subsists in the Catholic Church” alone.

The document describes non-Catholic Christian churches as defective, and says that Protestant denominations are not even churches “in the proper sense.”

Although some Protestant leaders criticized the Congregation’s statement upon its release, the pope on Thursday insisted that it would facilitate dialogue between Catholics and other Christians.

“Far from impeding authentic ecumenism, it will help ensure that discussion of doctrinal questions be undertaken always with realism and full awareness of the aspects that still separate Christian confessions,” Benedict said.

The Pope also praised another Congregation document, published last Dec. 14, which said that Catholic missionaries should aim to win souls and not restrict themselves to humanitarian good works.

Respect for other religions and a “spirit of collaboration” with their adherents “must not be understood as a limitation on the missionary task of the church, which requires it incessantly to announce Christ as the way, the truth and the life,” the pope said.

Looking ahead to a document still in preparation, Benedict encouraged the Congregation in its current focus on issues of bioethics, including research on embryonic stem cells and the possibility of human cloning.