Spin Dry

Or not. Thanks to a tipoff from tinheart for this, Pope Ratzo was behind a declaration made in 2000 which basically stated that "if you ain't Catholic, you ain't saved." Reversing years of ecumenical effort by the Catholic Church, the declaration says that non-Catholic, Christian denominations are not proper churches.

In the document, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger told the bishops that it was incorrect to refer to Christian churches, ranging from Orthodox to Protestant, as "sister" churches of the Catholic church...

The document repeated Church teachings that non-Christians were in a "gravely deficient situation" regarding salvation and that other Christian churches had "defects," partly because they did not recognise the primacy of the Pope...

Although written by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican body formerly known as the Inquisition, the declaration has the authority of Pope John Paul II.

So, not only does Ratzo believe all those other Christians are damned to hell, it's because they don't believe he's the big cheese, the number one, the Capo di tutti Capos, the Grand Inquisitor...

There's a certain arrogance in this, as well as an ignorance of history. Despite their claims otherwise, Peter was not the first Pope. There was no Pope until about the fourth century, and no Catholic church in its present form. Hell, Christianity started out as a Jewish sect, not a free-standing religion. It took them a while to get together the doctrine, decide what was going to be in the bible in the first place, and then start persecuting the Jews.

One other bit to note:

Churches such as the Church of England, where the apostolic succession of bishops from the time of St Peter is disputed by Rome, and Churches without bishops, are not considered "proper" Churches...

Which makes me wonder -- Mormons, i.e. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, have bishops. Does this make them a proper church in Ratzo's eyes...?