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Christianity Today, February, 2008 |

Good Works Not Enough

Latest papal document urges Roman Catholics to win souls.

Francis X. Rocca, RNS | posted 1/08/2008 08:20AM

Roman Catholic missionaries should aim to convert people and not restrict themselves to humanitarian good works, the Vatican said on December 14.

A 19-page document, which was personally approved by Pope ...

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Andree St.Pe

Posted: January 17, 2008 9:02 AM

Please explain how the Roman emperors took over the Catholic Church, which was the only church of Jesus Christ? For all Christian churches that recite the creed, do you not say you believe in the communion of saints? What does that mean? Certaintly you ask your mother to pray for you. Certaintly when she dies you believe she is even closer to God. How many of you talk to her and ask her to pray for you now that she is in heaven. The Virgin Mary was Jesus's mother. He is our brother. He shares His mother with us. She was the tabernacle of the Lord. Her obedient "yes" to God's plan brought about our salvation. If God Almighty has elevated her to a position of holines, who are you to question His love and respect for His mother? The Blessed Mother is a gift from God, so is all the dead in Christ. They are very alive and part of His Church. They are in heaven and praying for us all. This is the communion of saints! God is so generous to us. His graces and mercy so deep!

cali	Posted: January 11, 2008 11:54 AM

I am sad to see that Pope Benedict has chosen to focus on the doctrines of his church that excludes other Christians from the Body of Christ. This causes divisiveness as in the example of the comment above. We have come a long way since the 1950's and since those of us who are not papists don't subscribe to what he says anyway...why offend our *catholic brothers and sisters. Remember we're eventually gonna be together....FOREVER!

pete	Posted: January 09, 2008 5:34 AM


5-stars--I grew up catholic but now belong to a christian church, l believe the catholic church was taken over by satan when it became Roman empirors church, but God can still use it for his glory, there are still christian people who are catholic and have Jesus as there savoir, we need to pray for God to empower them to take back the church

eliza

Posted: January 08, 2008 7:43 PM


We all need to read our Bibles and practice what it says, not the Roman Catholic Church. An interesting comment was made on Christian TV last week. Mary is no longer a virgin. She gave birth to Jesus and then other siblings. The "Virgin Mary" should not be worshipped or made to be an idol.

Michel Coron

Posted: January 08, 2008 2:41 PM

I am an eleventh hour worker Catholic. Sometimes, it is worth of living outside the Church. It gives a better understanding on the sense of Christianity.To clearly understand this article, it needs to go deeper into Vatican's Doctrinal Notes and Dupuis, Haight, Sobrino theorical ground on oecumenism. As it is, the article can be interpreted very diversely by readers' personal creed. But thank you to CT. We are not so well served by Catholic sites ! Also I agree with Mariane and I will go farter. Lutheranism for one is following the same ordo for Sunday Mass as the one modified during Vatican II for Catholic Church. To end, I think Unity will come when conversion will be more a question of Salvation and less of statistics or money.

Marianne

Posted: January 08, 2008 12:35 PM

For all its flaws, the Catholic Church does have, does teach, and has carefully preserved for 2,000 years, the Word of God in the Holy Bible. Too often, Protestants and Evangelicals condescend and term all Catholics as pathetic "unsaved" heathens, and by doing so, they forget one of the most critical points of all Christianity: The Word of God is effectual WHEREVER it goes and is read or proclaimed!! Too many non-Catholics refuse to inform themselves that three Scripture readings are proclaimed and reflected upon in every single Mass, every single day of the year: a reading/singing from Psalms, Epistles, and the Gospels. Let's not forget, "So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it." Non-Catholics would do well to spend considerable time at http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/isaiah/isaiah55.htm

tinstar

Posted: January 08, 2008 12:05 PM

As a Catholic who reads and often enjoys CT, I am impressed by most of the authors' and columnists' intelligence, nuance and sense of history, although I am not an evangelical. However, if the comments of -ncb are any indication, sadly, perhaps the same cannot be said of CTs readers. If you are going to sling the same tired old 1950's anti-Catholic garbage every time the Church comes up in an article, perhaps you would be more comfortable reading Jack Chick tracts or Crosswalk.com.

mm	Posted: January 08, 2008 11:30 AM

Catholic theology and doctrine is very poorly understood by many people who bring it up for discussion, most practicing Catholics included (in my experience of 33 years within the Catholic denomination). And those who feel they are qualified to discuss it often quote isolated teachings ("memory verses") as though in doing so they have slapped the final and inarguable evidence for their position down on the table (or across someone's face as it so often symbolically plays out). That said, I do not agree on a deeply spiritual level of conviction with much of what the Catholic church teaches regarding minor doctrine and also with regard to some key orthodox teachings (salvation, baptism) and am no longer a practicing Catholic (much to my mother's objection). I was deeply saddened when I read of Benedict's 2000 declaration that only Catholics have the "fullness of the means of salvation", which I believe to be unscriptural & hardly the ecumenical posture I would hope for. However, ....

-ncb	Posted: January 08, 2008 10:55 AM

"Latest papal document urges Roman Catholics to win souls." How can Catholics possibly win souls if they do not believe on the salvation of Christ (are not saved themselves), are worshippers of Mary and submit to governing entities that embody so many of the practices that the Bible teach against?? Addressing this specific article, scripture speaks directly to the issue of good works with the following: "For it is by free grace (God's unmerited favor) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ's salvation) through [your] faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [of your own doing, it came not through your own striving], but it is the gift of God; Not because of works [not the fulfillment of the Law's demands], lest any man should boast. [It is not the result of what anyone can possibly do, so no one can pride himself in it or take glory to himself.]--Ephesians 2: 8 - 9 (AMP) Sorry, but this article is contradictory on many levels.

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