The Vatican recently released a new document entitled Redemptionis Sacramentum which deals with “certain matters to be observed or to be avoided regarding the Most Holy Eucharist.” Matt Hall has commented briefly on this document. As is standard practice for the Roman Catholic Church, the document goes into minute detail, mentioning even standards for the freshness of the wine lest the mass be rendered invalid by sour wine.
James White has written about the document in a substantial article you can read here. You will have to scroll down a little bit to his entry from April 25. Here are some relevant quotes:
There was a day, not too long ago, when you could assume that just about every well-read, theologically concerned “evangelical” would read those words with nothing but utter disdain and deep sadness for anyone who would believe such teaching.
Such terminology has not only become foreign to our post-modern world, but, sadly, has become foreign to many who claim to be “Reformed” as well. “Popish sacrifice,” “abominably injurious,” “repugnant,” “cause of manifold superstitions” and “gross idolatries” are not phrases born of compromise or a spirit that finds anything in the source of such teachings a ground for “getting along” and “dialoguing” about our “perspectives.” Such descriptions assume that the truth about the sacrifice of Christ is knowable and known; that to pervert that truth is to separate oneself from the very gospel of Christ; and that to refuse to speak boldly in defense of the very death of Christ on the cross is to show oneself a friend of the world and an enemy of the faith.
