Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Oddly Enough

In the book A Vision of Light, which the RevGalBlogPals are reading at the moment, one of the characters adopts the view that God is absorbed by and adept at instigating irony.

It makes sense, when you think about it.

I myself found it rather ironical yesterday that just as I had been posting about my educational-religious-spiritual past as influenced by the Roman Catholic Church, and feeling expansively ecumenical (as I pretty much always do), the Vatican was apparently feeling quite differently.

Describing Christian Orthodox and Protestant churches as "wounded" by our failure to recognize the Pope and his (yes, always "his") apostolic succession, the Vatican has reiterated its view that "it is . . . difficult to see how the title of 'Church' could possibly be attributed to them."

A slightly different report can be found here.

And thanks to Beyond Assumptions, who raised the topic earlier today, a response can be found here.

As it happens, I dealt with the heat yesterday by staying inside where the fans are and watching Mel Gibson's The Passion of Christ which, thanks to Netflix, had just landed in the mail slot. I had not seen it before and I don't imagine it's going to make my list of movie favorites. However, assuming that the unremitting violence it depicts is accurate, I am again struck by a certain sense of irony: Did all of that anguish and agony occur so that we could argue about how to structure our churches?

Well, I had a few things to say earlier today, but my plan now is to return to my generally ecumenical and open-minded stance of gratitude that there is more than one way. His Holiness has an open invitation to accompany me to church any time at all.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

GG, I was outraged and disgusted when I read the article about the pope's latest edict in this morning's paper. Given the mood in the world right now, these types of comments are what we don't need if we're ever going to come to even a basic acceptance and uderstanding of differences. Stick him up there with the radicals of all the other major world religions. World leader? I don't think so.

steve said...

Would that His Holiness would take you up on that invitation, GG. I believe he would learn a great deal, if his heart would be open to it.

Sadly, this particular Pope's vicious attacks on the progress made by the Second Vatican Council make me afraid that his heart is closed. He seems determined to establish a sort of absolutism -- a kind of inflexible, doctrinal correctness -- that he seems to feel will save the church from "modernity."

Such utter, utter foolishness.

Lisa :-] said...

Perhaps the world's Catholics are fortunate that this pope is an old fart...in fact, was elected in part because of that particular credential, and will probably not have a long rein. Unfortunately, he is precisely not what the world needs right now in a spiritual leader...

Lisa :-] said...

Okay...that would be reign... tsk! It was a typo, I swear.