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Originally Posted by Takeda Shingen
It seems to have blown away the past decade of ecumenical dialogue that had passed between Catholics and non-Catholics.
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Not really. His predecessor John Paul II. also have made statement like this, and confronted the German protestant church some years ago in preparation of a super-confessional conference. Like now, it caused quite an uproar when John Paul claimed the leading and dominant role of the the chatholic church and said something like catholicism being the true home of all other confessions as well. The Protestant representatives back then nevertheless travelled to Rome - explicitly saying that they do that not in acceptance of the vatican's demand for being the only and final authority in Christian religions, but in spite of this - as they necessarily must have seen it - affront. In fact, the demand of the Vatican to be the only true church there is, never was gone away, only became a little bit more silent for reasons of sheer pragmatism.
And my occasional sympathy for this or that detail of the churches is for pragmatic reasons only as well, and acceptance of what many people seek in when "doing" a religion. And that is not so much about experiencing the Divine themselves, but getting confirmed in what they believe is the divine essence of their life. In other words: not God is wanted, but confirmation of what one believes God is. Saying that with quite some years of daily experience in teaching meditation.
Who was it who said something like "The church is all that Jesus has taught - not."