NEW RELIGION MALACHI MARTIN

Father Martin pointed out that the Church that now exists differs radically from the pre-Conciliar Church on four major points:

  1. The Conciliar Church lays no claim to exclusive possession of the means of eternal salvation. All of us--Catholics, non-Catholics, and non-Christians--are pilgrims approaching the same goal by different roads.

  2. In the Conciliar Church, the local "community of faith" is the source of religious enlightenment, guidance, and authority. Correct beliefs and correct moral practice no longer come from a hierarchy of bishops submissive to the central teaching authority of the Bishop of Rome.

  3. The world-wide clusters of "communities of faith" have as their prime function cooperating with "mankind in building and assuring the success of world peace and world reform in the use of the earth's resources so as to eliminate economic oppression and political imperialism."

  4. The rules of the "former" Roman Catholic Church on issues such as contraception, marriage, death, and sexuality must be brought into fraternal alignment with the outlook, desires, and practices of the world at large.