Hitting the High (School) Notes

Dear Editor.

I was finally able to complete full edition and changes to this article addressing Pope Benedict conclusions , that were printed in SF Chronicle and other major US newspapers. Hopefully, you'll find it interesting and worthwhile article to be printed in your "Open Forum "section.

When John Paul II was a Pope of the Catholic Church, fell ill , and passed away, I've thought that the Vatican will choose a new Pope, who will continue John Paul II religious, foreign affairs and other deeds to bring peace, friendship, mutual respect and cooperation between Christians, Moslems and Jews.

Unfortunatelly ,he started his role as a leader of Catholic Church and the Vatican coming to conclusion that non-catholic denominations are "fake and not true churches", because they don't have roots leading to Jesus Christ and the Apostles. According to Pope, Jesus created only one Church on Earth, which is a Catholic church.( According to theology and history, the first Church /religion was named after Jesus Christ, and that is Christianity) .Therefore, the "non- Catholic denominations do not qualify to receive Salvation “. That applies to 1.6 billion people of other Christian denominations. They were founded by other religious leaders, who being accepted as just that - a leaders.. Being representative of God to Catholics of the World , who number one billion people, is a great honor and it also carries a great responsibility to be one. Other Christian denominations pray to the same God - Jesus Christ, believe in Trinity – the Father, the Son and the Holly Spirit and recognize the Immaculate conception of St.Mary, mother of Jesus.

On the Moslem side, In his speech in Germany, Benedict XVI quoted a Byzantine Emperor that stated "show me just what Muhammad brought, that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached ".Islam is by no means an " evil and inhuman" religion. There are terrorist organizations that use Islam as a reason for their actions. They don't represent the majority of Muslim countries, such as Turkey, Egypt, and Morocco... etc.

The Pope later apologized for this quote.

Benedict XVI also called for conversion of "deluded "Jews to Catholicism, since they are "blind" and "insensitive" to Christian faith” ? Quite interesting assertion, since people of Jewish faith were never blind and insensitive towards their Christianity, were the early Christians themselves, and not "deluded" by any means.. On the contrary, there are fairly large number of interfaith marriages between Catholics and Jews alike, who celebrate Christian holidays , such as Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Christian New Year.

If Pope Benedict XVI quoted Byzantine Emperor regarding Moslems, and later issued an apology after all Moslem countries demanded it, the apology to non - catholic Christian denominations and the people of Jewish faith

Josef Anisimov of CA 4:41PM January 03, 2009