Mr B





Wonderful description of the Pope's role & why people treat him with such honor.



lisa

Thank you Mr. Bunny for a wonderful response. I've just opened my email and see there are a blizzard of responses to my question and I'm really looking forward to reading them. I hope they are equally as genuine.



My father was brought up Catholic after his parents left a very strict sect of the Dutch Reform Church. When he married my mother, he became a member of the Lutheran church for the rest of his life - which was quite a big deal in the early 60's and to my grandparents. With that history to understand, I've had bits & pieces of catholic teachings throughout my life and I did attend a wonderful catholic girls college where I became close to some of the Benedictine professors - who I have oodles of respect for.



But I have questions. Questions wanting to understand how we Christians can be so different and yet worship the same God. I bristle when I hear someone say that if you aren't a particular religion, you won't be saved and granted a place in heaven. I've been publically turned away from receiving communion on more than one occasion for not being catholic and even denied being a Godparent. So these things make me want to understand.



It's difficult to discuss religion and politics in a forum of respect, understanding and with a willingness to listen when you're in a room of people of different faiths. When I've had that experience, people seem to talk over one another and I don't get to really listen and absorb their information.



The only thing I would question in what you said is: "He [the Pope] is tasked with saving all our souls". That is something no man can do - that's God's job.



Thank you again; I appreciate what you've said and I will continue to search with our God's love in my heart.

Thanks for the explanation. I am not Catholic, but I kinda suspected this was the reasoning behind it. lol Thanks for clarifying the situation.