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Perhaps the Roman Catholic Church may someday find a good way to resolve the "separated" status of Protestants, as the RCC has found a way to heal its own relationship and origins with the Jewish people (now seen by the RCC as being in an irrevocable salvaic Covenant with God while comprising, with the Church, the People of G=d, etc.)... Some of the leading Protestant denominations have done likewise, so perhaps (for He does indeed work in strange ways!) this area of agreement within today's Christiandom may blossom some flowers of harmony between and amongst the Roman Catholic Church and Protestantism? One good thing, certainly much of the most heated invective and antagonistic preaching has been, well, toned down in recent times. When the heated shouting is turned down, we all may better hear the quiet voice of God. Best regards, ps: as a quick summary of much of the progress (for any reader that may be interested) that has been made by the Roman Catholic Church in its understanding of its origins and character, here are a few paragraphs from the US Catholic Bishops Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, 2002, which explains this far better than anything (or at least, anything short) I could write (all that follows is quoted directly from the Bishops statement): Christianity has an utterly unique relationship with Judaism because “our two religious communities are connected and closely related at the very level of their respective religious identities.” The history of salvation makes clear our special relationship with the Jewish people. Jesus belongs to the Jewish people, and he inaugurated his church within the Jewish nation. A great part of the Holy Scriptures, which we Christians read as the word of God, constitute a spiritual patrimony which we share with Jews. Consequently, any negative attitude in their regard must be avoided, since “in order to be a blessing for the world, Jews and Christians need first to be a blessing for each other.” In the wake of Nostra Aetate, there has been a deepening Catholic appreciation of many aspects of our unique spiritual linkage with Jews. Specifically, the Catholic Church has come to recognize that its mission of preparing for the coming of the kingdom of God is one that is shared with the Jewish people, even if Jews do not conceive of this task christologically as the Church does. Thus, the 1985 Vatican Notes observed: Attentive to the same God who has spoken, hanging on the same Word, we have to witness to one same memory and one common hope in Him who is the master of history. We must also accept our responsibility to prepare the world for the coming of the Messiah by working together for social justice, respect for the rights of persons and nations and for social and international reconciliation. To this we are driven, Jews and Christians, by the command to love our neighbor, by a common hope for the Kingdom of God and by the great heritage of the Prophets. If the Church, therefore, shares a central and defining task with the Jewish people, what are the implications for the Christian proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ? Ought Christians to invite Jews to baptism? This is a complex question not only in terms of Christian theological self-definition, but also because of the history of Christians forcibly baptizing Jews. In a remarkable and still most pertinent study paper presented at the sixth meeting of the International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee in Venice twenty-five years ago, Prof. Tommaso Federici examined the missiological implications of Nostra Aetate. He argued on historical and theological grounds that there should be in the Church no organizations of any kind dedicated to the conversion of Jews. This has over the ensuing years been the de facto practice of the Catholic Church. More recently, Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Commission for the Religious Relations with the Jews, explained this practice. In a formal statement made first at the seventeenth meeting of the International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee in May 2001, and repeated later in the year in Jerusalem, Cardinal Kasper spoke of “mission” in a narrow sense to mean “proclamation” or the invitation to baptism and catechesis. He showed why such initiatives are not appropriately directed at Jews: The term mission, in its proper sense, refers to conversion from false gods and idols to the true and one God, who revealed himself in the salvation history with His elected people. Thus mission, in this strict sense, cannot be used with regard to Jews, who believe in the true and one God. Therefore, and this is characteristic, there exists dialogue but there does not exist any Catholic missionary organization for Jews. As we said previously, dialogue is not mere objective information; dialogue involves the whole person. So in dialogue Jews give witness of their faith, witness of what supported them in the dark periods of their history and their life, and Christians give account of the hope they have in Jesus Christ. In doing so, both are far away from any kind of proselytism, but both can learn from each other and enrich each other. We both want to share our deepest concerns to an often disoriented world that needs such witness and searches for it. From the point of view of the Catholic Church, Judaism is a religion that springs from divine revelation. As Cardinal Kasper noted, “God’s grace, which is the grace of Jesus Christ according to our faith, is available to all. Therefore, the Church believes that Judaism, i.e. the faithful response of the Jewish people to God’s irrevocable covenant, is salvific for them, because God is faithful to his promises.” This statement about God’s saving covenant is quite specific to Judaism. Though the Catholic Church respects all religious traditions and through dialogue with them can discern the workings of the Holy Spirit, and though we believe God's infinite grace is surely available to believers of other faiths, it is only about Israel’s covenant that the Church can speak with the certainty of the biblical witness. This is because Israel’s scriptures form part of our own biblical canon and they have a “perpetual value . . . that has not been canceled by the later interpretation of the New Testament.” According to Roman Catholic teaching, both the Church and the Jewish people abide in covenant with God. We both therefore have missions before God to undertake in the world. The Church believes that the mission of the Jewish people is not restricted to their historical role as the people of whom Jesus was born “according to the flesh” (Rom 9:5) and from whom the Church’s apostles came. As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger recently wrote, “God’s providence … has obviously given Israel a particular mission in this ‘time of the Gentiles.’” However, only the Jewish people themselves can articulate their mission “in the light of their own religious experience.” Nonetheless, the Church does perceive that the Jewish people’s mission ad gentes (to the nations) continues. This is a mission that the Church also pursues in her own way according to her understanding of covenant. The command of the Resurrected Jesus in Matthew 28:19 to make disciples “of all nations” (Greek = ethnē, the cognate of the Hebrew = goyim; i.e., the nations other than Israel) means that the Church must bear witness in the world to the Good News of Christ so as to prepare the world for the fullness of the kingdom of God. However, this evangelizing task no longer includes the wish to absorb the Jewish faith into Christianity and so end the distinctive witness of Jews to God in human history. Thus, while the Catholic Church regards the saving act of Christ as central to the process of human salvation for all, it also acknowledges that Jews already dwell in a saving covenant with God. The Catholic Church must always evangelize and will always witness to its faith in the presence of God’s kingdom in Jesus Christ to Jews and to all other people. In so doing, the Catholic Church respects fully the principles of religious freedom and freedom of conscience, so that sincere individual converts from any tradition or people, including the Jewish people, will be welcomed and accepted. However, it now recognizes that Jews are also called by God to prepare the world for God’s kingdom. Their witness to the kingdom, which did not originate with the Church’s experience of Christ crucified and raised, must not be curtailed by seeking the conversion of the Jewish people to Christianity. The distinctive Jewish witness must be sustained if Catholics and Jews are truly to be, as Pope John Paul II has envisioned, “a blessing to one another.” This is in accord with the divine promise expressed in the New Testament that Jews are called to “serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness before God all [their] days” (Luke 1:74-75). With the Jewish people, the Catholic Church, in the words of Nostra Aetate, “awaits the day, known to God alone, when all peoples will call on God with one voice and serve him shoulder to shoulder (Soph 3:9; see Is 66:23; Ps 65:4; Rom 11:11-32).” ________________________________________

Perhaps the Roman Catholic Church may someday find a good way to resolve the "separated" status of Protestants [...]

Alas, I think it an unlikely possibility- I believe the Reformation has formed an irreparable rift between our two confessions. One that cannot be healed without certain instruction from the mouth of our Master. I take it, by good estimation, that we will have to be content to pester each other until the end of the age- Not an insufferable length of time, by any account.

Not that our time cannot be well spent... For there are many things that we agree upon, and we can, and do go forward together in that respect.

[...] as the RCC has found a way to heal its own relationship and origins with the Jewish people (now seen by the RCC as being in an irrevocable salvaic Covenant with God while comprising, with the Church, the People of G=d, etc.)...

My position mirrors your own. Jehovah says He has two witnesses on this earth, that one is Judah, and the other Ephraim. One cannot see, and one cannot hear. I think that Judah worships in a synagogue, and Ephraim (by some near miraculous contrivance) worships in a church. The people of Israel have much to do even yet, before we see the coming of the Messiah.

Some of the leading Protestant denominations have done likewise, so perhaps (for He does indeed work in strange ways!) this area of agreement within today's Christiandom may blossom some flowers of harmony between and amongst the Roman Catholic Church and Protestantism?

Who can say? But I think that such a condition is afar off as long as Rome supposes the Protestants will ever submit. Our paths have long wandered apart, and those things which Rome insists upon are the very things which Protestants will never abide.

One good thing, certainly much of the most heated invective and antagonistic preaching has been, well, toned down in recent times. When the heated shouting is turned down, we all may better hear the quiet voice of God.

On that we can agree.

Best regards to you too.