The new document — formulated as five questions and answers — restates key sections of a 2000 text the pope wrote when he was prefect of the congregation, "Dominus Iesus," which riled Protestant and other Christian denominations because it said they were not true churches but merely ecclesial communities and therefore did not have the "means of salvation."
(Nicole Winfield-AP)

What?!!!!I am struggling to remain Christlike in my response to this, but if the pope is to be believed, I needn't bother. I am not truly saved because I don't adhere to the Roman Catholic Church. Seriously! My salvation is from God, the Father, from the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Son, and evidenced by the presence of the Holy Spirit working in me. The several branches of the church have come into existence for just the reason Pope Benedict is embodying this week. The Roman Catholic church has placed the Pope's authority before that of scripture and I would question any organization which would give a mere man authority over the word of the Lord.

Thankfully, Pope Benedict doesn't get the final say on my salvation. That rests with the Lord alone. And He and I have already come to terms on that. The Pope is unneccessary to my faith.

I doubt this post hits the humble attitude reccommended in a recent One News Now
article. Adam Hamilton urges Christians to have humility in our responses to this news.

"Somewhere in there, I think, is a call to humility on the part of all of us to say [in essence] we don't like what the pope has said here about the rest of us," says Hamilton. "We need to be careful about how we talk about our brothers and sisters in Christ in other denominations, whether it be Pentecostals, or whoever it may be that isn't necessarily part of our particular church," the pastor continues." We need to remember what it felt like to hear this and then to be careful about how we speak about our brothers and sisters in Christ."

I guess I need to work on this.