9.

 One particular aspect of Church life that the textbook often brings out is the contribution which each individual Church center made to theology in ancient times. Each center put forth understandings and approaches to understandings which were often synthesized at the General Councils, guided by the Holy Spirit. What were the two theological focal points which separated Rome from this harmonious system?

            (1) Papal claims of universal jurisdiction and unlimited sovereignty over the Universal Church. Rome's spirit of lust for power and its papal pretenses were contrary to the traditions and customs of the Church, for, as noted earlier, the Church is not and never was monarchical in structure, centered around a single bishop. In spite of that fact, however, the pope became an absolute dictator set up over the Western Church, one who issued orders not only to his ecclesiastical subordinates, but to secular rulers as well. As one writer notes, the medieval Frankish-Teutonic conception of the pope entails the greatest adulteration of Christianity and was the source of further distortion of Christianity in the West.

            The Vatican still maintains that papal primacy is beyond question. On June 9, 2000, the pope approved a so-called “Note” of one Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. This “Note” states that “no Roman pontiff ever recognized... [an]... equalization of sees or accepted that only a primacy of honor be accorded to the see of Rome.” A similar document titled Dominus Iesus was published on September 5, 2000, by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (formerly the Office of the Inquisition). Both statements are an attempt to seduce people into Rome's web of deceit concerning papal primacy and the primacy of the Latin Church.

            (2) The matter of Rome's addition of the word filioque to the Creed. This change of wording in the Creed was introduced in the early medieval Western Church some centuries before the separation of Rome from the Universal Church. Rome took it upon itself to change the Creed without consulting the rest of the Church, and the addition had ruinous effects upon Western theology.