Read The First American Pope Page 8

CHAPTER 8

  “POPE JOHN XXIV SEEKS OUT CHRISTIAN, PROTESTANT, JEWISH AND OTHER DENOMINATIONS”

  Londoners read the headlines. The new Pope John XXIV is in London to meet with the Bishop of Canterbury, the Head of the Church of England, in what appears as his first attempt at reconciliation with various Christian and Protestant denominations throughout the world. It has been reported, that this week alone that the new Pontiff has scheduled meetings with every major church group willing to meet with him on their own turf. This appears to be an unprecedented approach at flaming the embers for unification.

  It has also been reported by the Vatican newspaper and radio that the Pontiff has called upon all the five Catholic sects, i.e. the Greek, and Slavic Catholic Orthodox Churches, to meet in Rome for major talks on unification efforts in formulating a singular set of doctrines and liturgies that will be universal to the entire church membership, although vernacular to their own countries, but also with an English text translation subscript.

  Pope John XXIV, is leaving no rock unturned, and undaunted in his efforts to open the Catholic Church to all Christian believers. A few grumblings have been heard all over the world with the inclusions of the word Catholic in the Church name, and his efforts at unification that would disrupt the status quo. The Pope appears to be welcomed by major groups of Churches in the possibility of a Universal Catholic Church.

  It is understood that within the context of these talks that the Pope is having with these religious leaders, he is not only inviting them to Rome for unification talks, but also to aggressively approach their own church governing bodies to address the issues that would prevent unification of a single church. This would seem an impossible task considering the various splinter groups that have developed over the centuries and particularly these last few years, within those churches with issues dealing with sexual orientation membership, gay clergy, pro-life, etc. With so many divisive issues it will certainly take a miracle to get any of these polarized factions to enter into a mutually inclusive united church.

  It would seem impossible for one man to attempt such an enormous undertaking, but he certainly appears energized with heavenly powers for the tasks. He reminds us of the heroic attempts by his predecessor Pope John XXIII, who masterly called for the Conclave to modernize the Catholic Church back in the 1960’s. But in comparison, this is not like building a single house, but that of building the tallest skyscraper in the world.