I can hear the fundies shrieking and hissing about this already…
"Whoever seeks peace and the good of the community with a pure conscience, and keeps alive the desire for the transcendent, will be saved even if he lacks biblical faith, says Benedict XVI."
On a side note, can anyone verify that my title is correct Latin? Instead of "Extra ecclesiam nulla salus [est]", i.e., "Outside the Church there is no salvation", I wanted "Might there be salvation outside the Church?".
Last month, various Christian groups, mostly Evangelical, got their burlap undies in a twist over a Budweiser advertising campaign.
"The Anheuser-Busch Company says it is pulling the plug on its promotion of a drinking game called ‘Bud Pong.’ However, a Harvard researcher is predicting the game will continue to wield damaging influence among college students."
"Bud Pong, a game distributed by beer wholesalers to bars in 18 U.S. states, is played by bouncing ping pong balls into cups, with players taking a drink if they lose a point. Anheuser-Busch claims the game is supposed to be played with water — not beer. And now, since the New York Times has reported that many players are filling the cups with beer instead of water, the company has announced that it is ending the promotion."
Both are full of crap. "Bud Pong" is really beer pong and it’s probably been around as long as beer and ping pong have. Budweiser didn’t invent it and isn’t some new social evil that’ll ruin college students for life. Bud knew damn well that folks would put something stronger than water in the cups, and Evangelicals should have visited Google before announcing the Next Big Disaster in Liberal Education™. Oh, and a big "Duh!" goes to the Harvard researcher for predicting that a game that’s been played for several generations will continue to be popular. What a bunch of ass hats.
"While Anglicans — especially Anglican bishops or priests — becoming Roman Catholic after disagreeing with their community’s stands on ordaining women or openly gay men has made news, the movement of Catholic priests and laity to Anglicanism seldom makes headlines."
….
"Anglicans who become Roman Catholic generally become very conservative [orthodox] Roman Catholics, while Roman Catholics who become Anglican tend to become very liberal [cacodox] Anglicans…"
(Fedora Tip: Curt Jester)
Sounds good to me. Both sides get what we want. Better yet, with a constant influx of heretics, the Anglican Communion will continue to destroy itself from within, leading to more their orthodox folks coming to Rome. 🙂
Being ex-ELCA myself, it pleases me greatly to hear of other converts.
" In August, The Layman Online published a story about a warning by Carl E. Braaten, one of the nation’s leading Lutheran theologians, to the president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America."
"In the article, ‘Leading Lutheran scholar: ELCA’s liberal drift causing ‘brain drain’ from denomination,’ Braaten lamented the exodus of Lutheran scholars and ministers from the mainline Lutheran denomination to the Roman Catholic Church. He expressed his dismay over the direction the ELCA in strong words, including ‘heresy,’ ‘pious piffle,’ and ’empty body.’ He warned that the denomination was on a ‘trajectory that leads to rank antinomianism.’"
"Braattan said his departed colleagues were ‘convinced that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has become just another liberal protestant denomination. Hence, they have decided that they can no longer be a part of that. Especially, they say, they are not willing to raise their children in a church that they believe has lost its moorings in the great tradition of evangelical (small e) and catholic (small c) orthodoxy (small o), which was at the heart of Luther’s reformatory teaching and the Lutheran Confessional Writings. They are saying that the Roman Catholic Church is now more hospitable to confessional Lutheran teaching than the church in which they were baptized and confirmed. Can this possibly be true?’"
"On Oct. 9, the Rev. Tom McMichael of Hope Lutheran Church in Lynden, Wash., cited similar reasons for his resignation from the ELCA to enter into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. ‘
"On October 9th, Pastor Tom McMichael resigned his ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, after seventeen years of ordained service. He and his wife will soon enter into full communion with the Catholic Church. Here is the letter he sent to his congregation. Please keep Pastor McMichael, his family, and Hope Lutheran Church in your prayers."
In the old Roman Rite calendar, today would have been the Feast of Christ the King. This solemnity was deliberately placed on the last Sunday of October to coincide with Reformation Sunday. For reasons lost on me, the liturgical calendar was changed in 1970, and Christ the King was moved to the Sunday before Advent. I fail to see why changing the calendar was required to implement the liturgical recommendations (mandates?) of Vatican II. Anyhow, being an ex-Protestant and an increasingly traditional Catholic, I wanted to say something on the Sunday that celebrates heresy and the painful division in the Church. Thus I offer you the lyrics to "The Church’s One Foundation". The highlighted verse is not printed in the hymnals my parish uses. I really wish it was.
The Church’s one foundation
is Jesus Christ her Lord;
she is his new creation,
by water and the word:
from heaven he came and sought her
to be his holy bride;
with his own blood he bought her,
and for her life he died.Elect from every nation,
yet one o’er all the earth,
her charter of salvation,
one Lord, one faith, one birth;
one holy Name she blesses,
partakes one holy food,
and to one hope she presses,
with every grace endued.Though with a scornful wonder
men see her sore oppressed,
by schisms rent asunder,
by heresies distressed;
yet saints their watch are keeping,
their cry goes up, ‘How long?’
and soon the night of weeping
shall be the morn of song.Mid toil and tribulation,
and tumult of her war
she waits the consummation
of peace for evermore;
till with the vision glorious
her longing eyes are blessed,
and the great Church victorious
shall be the Church at rest.Yet she on earth hath union
with God, the Three in one,
and mystic sweet communion
with those whose rest is won.
O happy ones and holy!
Lord, give us grace that we
like them, the meek and lowly,
on high may dwell with thee.Words: Samuel John Stone, 1868