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Pope urges churches to learn from evangelicals

Sep 23, 2011, 10:46 GMT

Erfurt, Germany - Pope Benedict XVI urged mainstream Christian denominations Friday to learn from hard-working evangelical churches which are more successful in their missionary work.

'Faced with a new form of Christianity, which is spreading with overpowering missionary dynamism, sometimes in frightening ways, the mainstream Christian denominations often seem at a loss,' Benedict said during a meeting in Erfurt, Germany with Lutheran leaders.

'This is a form of Christianity with little institutional depth, little rationality and even less dogmatic content, and with little stability,' he said according to speech notes distributed by the Vatican. The meeting was held behind closed doors.

'This worldwide phenomenon poses a question to us all: what is this new form of Christianity saying to us, for better and for worse?'

The pope was referring to fundamentalist Protestant and pentecostalist groups which not only proselytize in non-Christian regions of the world, but have also converted hundreds of thousands of former Catholics in Asia and Africa.

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