In case you missed it, last week Pope Benedict XVI released a series of documents which outline what some people feel may be the future of the Catholic Church. What does this “future” hold? Acceptance? Forgiveness? Progression? According to some commentators, quite the opposite. These documents represent a return to some traditional Catholic doctrines, many of which were updated during the Second Vatican Council in the 1960’s. For example, Vatican II authorized the usage of local languages in Mass, while Benedict’s articles encourage a return to the traditional Latin Mass.

The documents also endorsed restating what is called Catholic Primacy. In a nutshell, Catholic Primacy means that the only true Christian church is the Catholic Church. Now, this has been the official doctrine of the Catholic Church for hundreds of years, but it was downplayed by the aforementioned Vatican Council. This return to a strong interpretation of Catholic Primacy was predicated by Benedict’s recent recitation of a quote from a Byzantine Emperor which stated that Islam was a violent religion. Predictably, many protestant leaders are up in arms with the proclamation. What does this mean for the church universal, which ironically is the definition of catholic? Who knows. There are some very interesting commentaries on the documents that I’ll take a look at in the coming week.