COMMENTARY: The Vatican’s Sad Statement on Salvation

c. 2000 Religion News Service (Tom Ehrich is a writer and computer consultant, managing large-scale database implementations. An Episcopal priest, he lives in Durham, N.C.) (UNDATED) The Vatican’s pronouncement last week that Roman Catholicism is the only “instrument for the salvation of all humanity,” that all other Christians are “deficient,” and Anglican and Protestant churches […]

c. 2000 Religion News Service

(Tom Ehrich is a writer and computer consultant, managing large-scale database implementations. An Episcopal priest, he lives in Durham, N.C.)

(UNDATED) The Vatican’s pronouncement last week that Roman Catholicism is the only “instrument for the salvation of all humanity,” that all other Christians are “deficient,” and Anglican and Protestant churches “are not churches in the proper sense” is so pathetic it seems cruel even to notice it.


Better to let the belligerent words of Vatican conservatives pass unheard through the sands of reality.

Better to ignore the sad spectacle of John Paul II closing out his papacy by beatifying a 19th century pope who declared his own words “infallible,” curbed religious freedom and herded Rome’s Jews into a ghetto, and thereby blessing a renewed locking of the doors brave John XXIII later tried to swing open.

Better perhaps to wince but ignore, as parents do when a frustrated child slams the door in a stormy, look-at-me exit.

I find the Vatican’s self-serving pronouncement sad on two levels.

First, this puffery by a Vatican inner circle _ small-minded institutionalists who find derivative life in milling about a throne _ embarrasses millions of hard-working Catholics who are struggling on the front line to follow the commandments of Jesus.

While the Vatican constructs a grand claim on one verse in Matthew _ a reference to giving “keys” to Peter that no other Gospel supports _ these much humbler clergy and laity are obeying the many words Jesus spoke about feeding the poor, binding up the wounded, caring for widows and orphans, standing against evil and loving other people.

Second, and sadder, is this glimpse into a dark side of Christianity: the tendency to live for show, the desire for worldly wealth and power, the tendency to value noise over substance, right opinion over servanthood, the past over the present, comfort over danger, and the illusion of order over the reality of chaos.

This dark side isn’t restricted to Roman Catholicism. Southern Baptists are self-destructing, Anglicans are bitterly divided, Methodists and Presbyterians are trapped in strife. Every week a new congregation with pews to fill and bills to pay shouts the battle cry: “We are right! Everyone else is wrong!”


Non-Catholics might consider Matthew 16:18 a slim foundation for supremacist boasting. But then they build equally delusional castles on scattered scriptures about baptism, eucharistic bread, musical instruments in church, women staying quiet and sexuality.

All Christians should remember that one of the few times Jesus engaged in public spectacle, it was to hang on a cross and die, not to parade around a marble throne room wearing brocade and white gloves, or to shout at the non-conforming while waving a Bible or a torch.

All Christians should remember that Jesus took the deaf man off to a private place, healed him far from a spotlight, and begged the healed man to “tell no one.” Time and again, Jesus urged his followers to turn their hearts to the broken, not to thoughts of personal glory. Let theirs be a zeal for justice, not for acclaim.

All Christians should remember the full story of Peter. For this man born Simon was marked more by obtuseness than by his performance as a rock for all the ages. He showed a narrow comprehension of Jesus and an over-estimation of his own role.

Until the Holy Spirit gave him backbone, Peter was a coward. That Jesus loved him and trusted him says more about Jesus’ forgiving nature than about any institutional claims that could be made in Peter’s name.

Jesus himself issued no laws, established no hierarchies of power, openly refused to proclaim doctrines or to erect barriers against this group or that. He did none of what later Christians claimed was essential.


A doctrine of “papal infallibility” would sound absurd to a gentle man who wanted to be called “teacher” or “friend,” not “Master.” Furious scouring of Scripture for verses to throw against gays or women or Africans or Aztecs would horrify a rabbi who told self-serving hypocrites to be silent.

I dare say even Peter _ whose progeny bishops claim to be, whose keys they lust to hold _ would turn from his cowardly denial of Jesus and say, through bitter tears, “Don’t be like me. Be like Jesus.”

DEA END EHRICH

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