The One and Only Church

I know that I've already posted for today. Actually, I posted one thing from yesterday that I didn't get finished on time and one thing for today, but this article that I just read needed some commentary.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19692094/

In the news today, the Pope has approved publication of a paper stating that other denominations are not true churches and that they do not have a mechanism for salvation because they don't have apostolic succession. Is this guy serious? There's got to be more to this paper and the Pope's statements than what is reported in this article.

First of all, I'm pretty sure that there is no biblical basis for saying that salvation comes through apostolic succession. By the way, that means that you can trace the lineage of your bishops back to the original twelve apostles. Anyway, I thought Christ was pretty clear that He is the one and only mechanism for salvation.

Second of all, does this mean that all of the churches that Paul founded were not real churches? Paul was not one of the original twelve, he was not sent by the original twelve, in fact, he got crossways with the original twelve more than once. So the churches that he founded don't have apostolic succession and therefore are not real churches. If that is the case, then why does Christ speak directly to some of them as churches in Revelation? And why do we include Paul's letters to those non-churches in the church canon? Surely it's not theologically correct for Paul to tell them that they have salvation when they don't have apostolic succession.

I don't really understand how someone as intelligent as the Pope – you know they don't let dummies into that job – could publish something like this. It's completely contrary to my understanding of the history of the church, and regardless of all that it is bound to polarize a large population of both Catholics and Protestants against him. I really wonder if this guy doesn't want to take the Catholic church back to the Dark Ages and pretend that the Reformation didn't really happen.