A couple of weeks ago my Pastor wrote an excellent post about the recent Papal Visit to the United States. He noted that there were several positive thing that he observed during the visit. Among them he noted that the Pope was theologically engaging, showed humility, denounced evil, encouraged young people to follow Christ, and in his final mass ” much of what the pope said there could just as well have been said by Billy Graham.”
Pastor Dieter also noted that the while the Pope spoke of unity, he spoke of it within the bounds of scripture and tradition.
Catholics believe that the declaration of what is truth and what is correct teaching is a privilege reserved to the “Magisterium” i.e. the teaching authority of the church. In other words , individual catholics do not have the right to decide for themselves what is sound doctrine and what is not. And truth is determined not only from Scripture, but Scripture AND tradition, which takes into account the body of teaching of the church, as handed down from generation to generation. So when the pope says that unity can take place only in the context of truth, the question arises, truth by whose standard?
Posted by Eclectic Christian 
Michael Bell
Joshua Hearne
Tim Melton
Joel Black
