Drawing distinctions

Religion | Benedict ruffles feathers by reasserting Roman Catholic claims | Edward E. Plowman

When the Vatican released a statement on July 10 that the Roman Catholic Church is the only valid church, it made some Protestant ecumenists reach for their antacid tablets, but left many evangelicals yawning. After all, this was nothing new; hadn't the Catholic Church always held this position?

Pope Benedict approved the short document and signed off on its release. It was drawn up by the Vatican's doctrinal watchdog agency, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which he formerly headed as Cardinal Ratzinger. It was billed as "responses to some questions" that grew out of "false interpretations" of the Second Vatican Council's reforms of the 1960s regarding the doctrine of the church. It largely repeated "with clarity" what the same agency had said in 2000.