Channeling Robertson

Allow me for a moment and for the sake of argument to channel my inner Catholic; this because it seems that various heretics are about these days, and they have television shows to boot.

Pat Robertson, for example, is such a heretic. From the point of view of the One True Church - that would be the Catholic Church and not some anathemized bunch of schismatics - there's no real difference between Robertson and, say, a Muslim. There are no gradations of error; there is the Church, and there is everything else. Sorry, Pat. And Pat, since you're so concerned about 'Muslims seeking world domination', perhaps you'd care to read this.

The same is true of Jerry Falwell; in fact, Falwell is in a slightly worse position than the Jews whom he excoriates, theologically speaking. This because, from the point of view of the Throne of Saint Peter - "Thou art Peter, and on this rock I shall build my church" - Jews can claim exculpatory ignorance of the New Testament, and thus have a greater chance at redemption than does Falwell, who is building a house of heresy in open defiance of the Apostolic Succession.

And don't even get me started on the Mormon apostates and their 19th-century apocrypha. The Church counts Mormons among the 'gentes', the peoples of idolatry, and not among the Vatican II-era 'estranged brothers'. The same applies to various other cults, such as Scientology, Christian Scientists, New Age, Wicca, and the like. Viewed from Rome and the Church established by Jesus and His Apostles, it's all one big sinful hash of heresy. Sorry, but that's just the way it is.

That phrasing of 'estranged brothers', by the way, is a pleasant sop meant to render less harsh the Church dogma that there is no salvation outside of the embrace of Rome. While the language has become softer - under the influence of do-gooder liberals, of course - the substance has not.

So, perhaps, we can move on past the point where various 'Protestants' get on TV and pretend they can decree who will be saved and who won't. From where the Church stands, they're in no position to make such judgments.