The Presbyterian Church was represented on national television in July when Rev. Stephen Kendall, principal clerk, shared his opinion on the Pope's recent comments. Kendall was asked by CTV News to reflect on Protestant church leaders being enraged about Pope Benedict's statement that the Catholic Church is the only true church.
“In Canada, we are very fortunate to have excellent ecumenical relationships with the Catholic Church,” said Kendall on air. “We sit together as full members of the Canadian Council of Churches, we work on justice issues through Kairos, we have worked faithfully together on the Residential Schools Settlement Agreement and we have opportunities for dialogue through our invitation to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. I don't expect the Vatican statement to in any way undo the long-standing and respectful relations we have enjoyed together.”
Benedict approved a document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that reiterates traditional teaching on Christian relations. In addition to reviving Latin mass, he noted that Protestant churches are not true churches because they do not have apostolic succession — the ability to trace their bishops back to Christ's apostles, and therefore did not have the “means of salvation.”
He said Orthodox churches, though they have apostolic succession, are nevertheless “wounded” because they do not recognize the primacy of the pope.
Kendall noted that the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (of which the PCC is a member) has indicated it was puzzled by the statement, but suspected that the Reformed-Catholic dialogue would be the place to discuss it further. Kendall suspects the statement will also come up in meetings with the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops this fall.
“In Canada we have learned to live and work in a context of religious and theological diversity and that is what we will continue to do,” Kendall told the Record. –AM
