Bashed by Benedict

Recently, Pope Benedict has made public his feelings toward Protestant communities of faith: they are not Christian. It has long been the stance of the Roman Catholic Church that she and she alone is the true church, the Mother Church. One only needs to view St. Peter's Square (see picture at left) to interpret the Catholic understanding of the Church (take note of the curved colonnades extending from the basilica and opened to the east, the "mother arms of the church"). Benedict has simply made it clear and made it public what the RCC has long held to: salvation comes only by means of the Roman Catholic Church. It is not clear why Benedict made the statement public when he did, as he made similar statements in 2000 while he was prefect, statements claiming that "Protestant and Lutheran denominations were not true churches but merely ecclesial communities" and thus offer no means of salvation (see AP article). What I find interesting is that Benedict claims that Orthodox churches are considered true churches because "they have apostolic succession and that they enjoyed many elements of sanctification and of truth." This gives me cause to wonder: First, is the local church exhibiting a biblical element of "sanctification and truth," and what does this element look like? And second, is the RCC a biblical representation of such?
I asked the first question in a class I took on Roman Catholicism at Dallas Theological Seminary taught by Lanier Burns. I posed the question a bit differently during a discussion on the sacraments. In the class, a comment was made that sacraments have the ability to incarnate or make grace tangible, something the Roman Catholic Church does well during the mass, specifically in the Eucharist. This prompted my question, "How does the non-denominational church (of which I am associated) make grace tangible?" Dr. Burns' response was, "Love." He referred specifically to John 17, that as the Church embodies love leading to unity, the world may believe the mission of Jesus Christ. If this is the element that Benedict was bashing concerning Protestant and non-denominational communities, then perhaps his indictment has some validity. However, if this is the standard which warrants a guilty indictment, then Benedict should take a long look in the mirror (for the record, I do not believe this is what Benedict means in his statement).
This leads to the second question, "Is the RCC a biblical representation of such? I'll be evaluating this question in a later post when I have a bit more time.