And the response.
Moderate fortunately, because it's the Latin American Pentacostals taking exception to the pope's comments who are being interviewed here. They don't respond anywhere near as scarily as their N American pentecostal terrorist counterparts (who tend to scream and hiss at the catholic church whenever possible - see bottom of post).
http://au.news.yahoo.com/070513/19/13fza.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Sunday May 13, 12:10 PM
<b>Pentecostals stung by pope's charge of 'aggressive' tactics</b>
Photo : AFPÂ
BRASILIA (AFP) - Representatives of pentecostal churches say they are stung by Pope Benedict XVI's charge that they are building membership through "aggressive" attempts to recruit people to their faith.
In Sao Paulo on Friday during his first-ever trip to Brazil, Benedict said people who are "insufficiently evangelized (are) most vulnerable to the aggressive proselytizing of (evangelical) sects -- a just cause for concern."
The pope said such people "are easily influenced because their faith is weak, confused, easily shaken and naive, despite their innate religiosity."
<b>Afonso Soares, a professor of theology at the Catholic Pontifical University of Sao Paulo, said the pope was sending mixed messages.
The confusing signals are apparent with "ecumenical gestures on the one hand, such as when he meets with representatives of other religions, and on the other hand this faux pas when he talks about sects," Soares told AFP by telephone.</b>
"This shows a certain misunderstanding of the ecclesiastical realities of Brazil, where theoretical sticking points are resolved in practice, in joint eucharistic celebrations or in the common struggle against injustice and poverty."
Robson Rodovalho, a deputy of the right-wing opposition Democratic Party, said the pope's characterization made common ground tougher to find.
"This opinion makes dialogue difficult, especially when we must make a big effort to build a Christian faith in order to fight together for values and the defense of the family."
But Rodovalho, who is a bishop in the neo-pentecostal church Sara Notre Terre, which claims a million members across Brazil with 650 houses of worship, added: "We're already used to this Vatican monolith."
"We are not sects," he told AFP. "The basis of our faith is Christian, even if we have different liturgical practices, just as in the Catholic Church where charismatics have a different liturgy without being labeled sects."
The Catholic bishop of Engativa, Colombia, the spokesman of a Latin American bishops conference that the pope is to open on Sunday, however denied that the pope's remarks were offensive.
"The term 'sect' cannot be considered offensive," Bishop Hector Gutierrez told AFP. "It's a word that has designated a wide variety of religious choices.
(Yes, just like catholicism is a sect too.)
"The doors of the Catholic Church are always open to dialogue and conversation with them (the pentecostals), <b>keeping in mind that like with everything there are things that are non-negotiable</b>," he added.
(Translation: Of course we can dialogue, keeping in mind that we are right and you are wrong. In other words: you're going to hell!)
Brazil, with a population of nearly 190 million, has the world's largest concentration of Catholics, but their numbers have fallen in the past decade, from 74 to 64 percent of the population, while the ranks of the evangelists have swelled from 11 to 17 percent, according to a recent survey.
The Catholic Church has especially lost ground in Brazil's megacities where an influx of people from the countryside to low-income suburbs and slums have been drawn to the alternative offered by sects that are highly active there.
A Lutheran who is a social democratic deputy, Julio Rodecker, said he understood that the Catholic Church wanted to recover lost ground, but was concerned over the pope's intransigeance on issues such as abortion and premarital sex.
"Today religion should help improve human life, and for that you need responsible fatherhood and motherhood. You can't have children that you are incapable of raising afterward," Rodecker said.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Somewhere at IF it said the communists in India were offended by President Kalam's (or someone else's) reference to christianity as sects. Well, the catholic church - including their pope - has admitted that christianity is a bunch of sects, so there.
<b>ADDED:</b>
And this is how the transaction between the two generally tends to take place (note also the equally-'benign' reaction of N American pentecostals/evangelicals):
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Catholic Crossroads: Latin America - Fight of its life - Philadelphia Inquirer, June 06, 2006
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Pentecostalism did not exactly sneak up on Catholicism. In 1989, the Rev. Andrew Greeley described its growth among Latins as "an ecclesiastic failure of unprecedented proportions" for the Vatican. <b>During the 1990s, John Paul II warned of the spreading "oil stain" of competitors that "threaten the structure of faith," and referred to Pentecostal churches as "rapacious wolves" devouring Latin American Catholics.</b>
<b>Pentecostals gave as good as they got, calling the pope "the antichrist" and the Catholic Church "the whore of Babylon."</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->[...]
<i>The Christian Expositor</i>, an evangelical site, in their article Rome - the 'Whore of Babylon?':<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The Pope calls evangelicals 'sheep-stealing rapacious wolves' and 'dangerous sects'
...
<b>We are called to 'offend' Catholics with the truth that they are lost and on their way to Hell</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->( http://freetruth.50webs.org/C6.htm )
Moderate fortunately, because it's the Latin American Pentacostals taking exception to the pope's comments who are being interviewed here. They don't respond anywhere near as scarily as their N American pentecostal terrorist counterparts (who tend to scream and hiss at the catholic church whenever possible - see bottom of post).
http://au.news.yahoo.com/070513/19/13fza.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Sunday May 13, 12:10 PM
<b>Pentecostals stung by pope's charge of 'aggressive' tactics</b>
Photo : AFPÂ
BRASILIA (AFP) - Representatives of pentecostal churches say they are stung by Pope Benedict XVI's charge that they are building membership through "aggressive" attempts to recruit people to their faith.
In Sao Paulo on Friday during his first-ever trip to Brazil, Benedict said people who are "insufficiently evangelized (are) most vulnerable to the aggressive proselytizing of (evangelical) sects -- a just cause for concern."
The pope said such people "are easily influenced because their faith is weak, confused, easily shaken and naive, despite their innate religiosity."
<b>Afonso Soares, a professor of theology at the Catholic Pontifical University of Sao Paulo, said the pope was sending mixed messages.
The confusing signals are apparent with "ecumenical gestures on the one hand, such as when he meets with representatives of other religions, and on the other hand this faux pas when he talks about sects," Soares told AFP by telephone.</b>
"This shows a certain misunderstanding of the ecclesiastical realities of Brazil, where theoretical sticking points are resolved in practice, in joint eucharistic celebrations or in the common struggle against injustice and poverty."
Robson Rodovalho, a deputy of the right-wing opposition Democratic Party, said the pope's characterization made common ground tougher to find.
"This opinion makes dialogue difficult, especially when we must make a big effort to build a Christian faith in order to fight together for values and the defense of the family."
But Rodovalho, who is a bishop in the neo-pentecostal church Sara Notre Terre, which claims a million members across Brazil with 650 houses of worship, added: "We're already used to this Vatican monolith."
"We are not sects," he told AFP. "The basis of our faith is Christian, even if we have different liturgical practices, just as in the Catholic Church where charismatics have a different liturgy without being labeled sects."
The Catholic bishop of Engativa, Colombia, the spokesman of a Latin American bishops conference that the pope is to open on Sunday, however denied that the pope's remarks were offensive.
"The term 'sect' cannot be considered offensive," Bishop Hector Gutierrez told AFP. "It's a word that has designated a wide variety of religious choices.
(Yes, just like catholicism is a sect too.)
"The doors of the Catholic Church are always open to dialogue and conversation with them (the pentecostals), <b>keeping in mind that like with everything there are things that are non-negotiable</b>," he added.
(Translation: Of course we can dialogue, keeping in mind that we are right and you are wrong. In other words: you're going to hell!)
Brazil, with a population of nearly 190 million, has the world's largest concentration of Catholics, but their numbers have fallen in the past decade, from 74 to 64 percent of the population, while the ranks of the evangelists have swelled from 11 to 17 percent, according to a recent survey.
The Catholic Church has especially lost ground in Brazil's megacities where an influx of people from the countryside to low-income suburbs and slums have been drawn to the alternative offered by sects that are highly active there.
A Lutheran who is a social democratic deputy, Julio Rodecker, said he understood that the Catholic Church wanted to recover lost ground, but was concerned over the pope's intransigeance on issues such as abortion and premarital sex.
"Today religion should help improve human life, and for that you need responsible fatherhood and motherhood. You can't have children that you are incapable of raising afterward," Rodecker said.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Somewhere at IF it said the communists in India were offended by President Kalam's (or someone else's) reference to christianity as sects. Well, the catholic church - including their pope - has admitted that christianity is a bunch of sects, so there.
<b>ADDED:</b>
And this is how the transaction between the two generally tends to take place (note also the equally-'benign' reaction of N American pentecostals/evangelicals):
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Catholic Crossroads: Latin America - Fight of its life - Philadelphia Inquirer, June 06, 2006
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Pentecostalism did not exactly sneak up on Catholicism. In 1989, the Rev. Andrew Greeley described its growth among Latins as "an ecclesiastic failure of unprecedented proportions" for the Vatican. <b>During the 1990s, John Paul II warned of the spreading "oil stain" of competitors that "threaten the structure of faith," and referred to Pentecostal churches as "rapacious wolves" devouring Latin American Catholics.</b>
<b>Pentecostals gave as good as they got, calling the pope "the antichrist" and the Catholic Church "the whore of Babylon."</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->[...]
<i>The Christian Expositor</i>, an evangelical site, in their article Rome - the 'Whore of Babylon?':<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The Pope calls evangelicals 'sheep-stealing rapacious wolves' and 'dangerous sects'
...
<b>We are called to 'offend' Catholics with the truth that they are lost and on their way to Hell</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->( http://freetruth.50webs.org/C6.htm )