Pope Pounds Protestants

In a remarkable nod to the 16th century, Pope Benedict XVI’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which he once led, said of Protestant denominations, 'it is nevertheless difficult to see how the title of 'Church' could possibly be attributed to them." The document restates Benedict's position set forth in 2000 when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger.

The Orthodox Christian churches got off more lightly.  The document describes them as 'true churches," but suffering from a "wound" because they do not recognize the primacy of the Pope.  In 2006 the pope offended Muslims world wide by  quoting a Byzantine emperor who described Islam as "evil and inhuman." (More Orthodox Christianity stories.)