Vatican City, Jan 31, 2008 / 12:27 pm
This week as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) holds a plenary session at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI received its members in an audience to reaffirm the beliefs that the Catholic Church is the “one and only Church of Christ” and that no one is exempt from the need to evangelize.
The Pope recalled how last year the congregation published “two important documents presenting ... certain clarifications necessary for the correct functioning of ecumenical dialogue, and of dialogue with the religions and cultures of the world.”
Pope Benedict first spoke about the document titled, “Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church”, which reiterated the constant teaching of the Church on salvation.
He recalled the teaching which says, “the one and only Church of Christ has subsistence, permanence and stability in the Catholic Church and, consequently, that the unity, indivisibility and indestructibility of the Church of Christ is not invalidated by separations and divisions among Christians.”