Quite please, they think they are the only ones here

It is an old joke about a stroll through heaven and the guide makes the statement as he pass the area where the Catholics are meeting. Wesley Pruden takes on the Pope's latest statement which seems to reinforce the guides statement.

Nothing stirs the blood like talking about religion. That's why it's taboo to talk about it in casual social conversations. Better to ask the boss's wife whether she ever considered a face-lift.

But Pope Benedict XVI is a man of firm conviction and blunt talk. Not for this pontiff the Vatican II tradition of warm and fuzzy, as the message of Vatican II, which put a friendly expression on the stern countenance of the church of Rome, has been widely interpreted in the circles of those addicted to warm and fuzzy. This week he authorized a statement of "clarification" of Vatican II, and to the consternation of some Roman Catholics here, the secular press interpreted the message to Protestants as no more Mr. Nice Guy.

When Rome speaks, even infidels listen, and theological insights often become political perceptions. The pope's sermons are often more than messages to his faithful, advice to secular policy-makers. His observations last year on certain violent admonitions of the Koran, for example, reverberated quickly through the Islamic world loud enough that the pontiff had to retreat a step or two in the interests of making nice with imams. Retreat or not, the message was heard.

This week he took on the Eastern Orthodox prelates and the Protestants of the West, for a purpose not yet altogether clear. Christians feel embattled in much of the world, and Christian unity, prized any time, has rarely been more important than now. The remarks, not directly attributed to the pope himself, were couched in language that falls on untutored ears as close to argle-bargle, laced with dogma and contention, expressed in Latin and the arcane of lesser languages. The Associated Press, Reuters and other wire services translated this into language as blunt as certain of Pope Benedict's remarks on other occasions. The pope, the Associated Press said, "reasserted the universal primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, approving a document that says Orthodox churches were defective and that other Christian denominations were not true churches ... and Catholicism provides the only true path to salvation." Reuters reported that "the Vatican said Christian denominations outside Roman Catholicism were not full churches of Christ."

The targets of the pope's condescension reacted with outrage. "[The pope's statement] makes us question whether we are indeed praying together for Christian unity," a spokesman for the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, a fellowship of 75 million Protestants in more than a hundred nations, said in quick response. "It makes us question the seriousness with which the Roman Catholic Church takes its dialogues with the reformed family and other families of the church."

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This is not a blog about religion, but it is one about things that interest me.

The reason there are a lot of Christian churches not affiliated with the Catholic church is that the printing press killed the churches monopoly on access to the text of the Bible and men started reading it and finding differences with the interpretations handed down by Catholic rulers. This should not be surprising because the Catholic church still changes interpretations from time to time as it did in "Vatican II" iteration.

It should not be surprising that they all think they have found the truth in their study. The loss of the monopoly on saying what the truth is was a wrenching experience for the Catholic church, but it help populate this country with people who were looking for a place where they could seek that truth without oppression and it liberated the states of Europe from the domination of the clergy. All of that created progress beyond anyones imagination at the time.

God will ultimately decide who has found the truth and many may be disappointed in his decision.