Tuesday, April 08, 2008



Peter in da house?

I guess these sorts of breathless, completely irrational comments shouldn't surprise me but this one made me kind of do a double-take. From USA Today on Joseph Ratzinger (aka Pope Benedict) visiting the U.S....


The pope will meet with President Bush at the White House, pray at the World Trade Center site and celebrate Mass in Washington's new Nationals Park and New York's Yankee Stadium. About 100,000 seats were available for the baseball stadium events; more than 200,000 applied for the free tickets.

"When he steps off the plane, we will see Peter," the apostle whom Jesus told to "build my church, feed my sheep," says Archbishop of Washington Donald Wuerl. "He's coming to inspire, to affirm and to teach. He's not coming to scold us."


Keep in mind that this is not some crackpot Opus Dei member, but a man who styles himself as an archbishop. It is a glimpse into a world that so many Protestants find bewildering, the exaltation of men whether Peter or the latest pope, the lifting up of the church hierarchy over and above the Word of God. I doubt that Peter would have styled himself as the rock of the church, nor would he approve of a man labelling himself as his successor and the sole infallible authority of the church.

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