MS August 2007 World Watch - What is Behind The Current News?

Headlines around the world from leading newspapers carried the story on July 10, 2007 that “Pope Benedict XVI has reasserted the universal primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, approving a document released Tuesday that says Orthodox churches were defective and that other Christian denominations were not true churches.”

“It restates key sections of a 2000 document the pope wrote when he was prefect of the congregation, "Dominus Iesus," which set off a firestorm of criticism among Protestant and other Christian denominations because it said they were not true churches but merely ecclesial communities and therefore did not have the ‘means of salvation.’”

Looking at the document, Dominus Iesus IV,17, it quotes: “Therefore, there exists a single Church of Christ, which subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him. The Churches which, while not existing in perfect communion with the Catholic Church, remain united to her by means of the closest bonds, that is, by apostolic succession and a valid Eucharist, are true particular Churches. Therefore, the Church of Christ [Catholic Church] is present and operative also in these Churches, even though they lack full communion with the Catholic Church, since they do not accept the Catholic doctrine of the Primacy, which, according to the will of God, the Bishop of Rome objectively has and exercises over the entire Church.”

When you look at the structure and beliefs of most Sunday keeping churches you will see that they meet the requirements that the Catholic church places on her daughter churches. They must hold mass or church services on Sunday, offer communion, believe in the trinity and believe in the incarnation. The only difference, she (Catholic Church) believes, is that these daughter churches do not recognize the primacy she holds. To define this primacy, she believes that the Catholic church is the one true church because she holds apostolic succession from Peter and “The title pope, once used with far greater latitude, is at present employed solely to denote the Bishop of Rome, who, in virtue of his position as successor of St. Peter, is the chief pastor of the whole Church, the Vicar of Christ upon earth.”

The goal of the Catholic church is to reunite her protestant daughters with her again and to heal the wound that resulted from the split during the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century.

In the document, “Rome’s Challenge, Why do Protestants Keep Sunday?”, the Catholic Church protests that: Most Christians assume that Sunday is the biblically approved day of worship. The Roman Catholic Church protests that, indeed, it is not. The Roman Catholic Church itself without any Scriptural authority from God transferred Christian worship from the Biblical Sabbath (Saturday) to Sunday, and to try to argue that the change was made in the Bible is both dishonest and a denial of Catholic authority. If Protestantism wants to base its teachings only on the Bible, it should worship on Saturday.

Over one hundred years ago the Catholic Mirror ran a series of articles discussing the right of the Protestant churches to worship on Sunday - exposing their claim that the New Testament taught Sunday keeping to be false. The articles stressed that unless one was willing to accept the authority of the Catholic Church to designate the day of worship, the Christian should observe Saturday, the true Christian Sabbath, as the both the Old and New Testaments teach.

At the root of these articles (Rome’s Challenge) the Catholics demand that the Protestants either keep the true Sabbath (seventh day of the week) or acknowledge the primacy of the Catholic Church and submit to her authority. At the root of Pope Benedict XVI writings is the same demand on the daughters of the Catholic Church: acknowledge the primacy of the Catholic Church, unite with her and heal the lack of unity that has certainly wounded the Catholic Church.

Note: you may read or download the entire article: “Rome’s Challenge to the Protestants - Why do Protestants Keep Sunday?” on our web site at: www.cognm.org. From our home page go to Links.

- - Ed Costanza