Rome

As the saying goes, "The more things change the more things stay the same." Here's an article from Zenit, a Catholic website, on how to obtain new relics that are available from Pope John Paul II or, as an alternative, a special Pope card that includes an ecclesiastically sanctioned prayer you can pray to receive grace because of the deceased Pope's intercession on your behalf.

Here's the text of a prayer:

O Blessed Trinity

We thank You for having graced the Church with Pope John Paul II and for allowing the tenderness of your Fatherly care, the glory of the cross of Christ, and the splendor of the Holy Spirit, to shine through him.

Trusting fully in Your infinite mercy and in the maternal intercession of Mary, he has given us a living image of Jesus the Good Shepherd, and has shown us that holiness is the necessary measure of ordinary Christian life and is the way of achieving eternal communion with you.

Grant us, by his intercession, and according to Your will, the graces we implore, hoping that he will soon be numbered among your saints.

Amen.

So, what are the things that strike me as "most wrong" about this? First off, in the second section of the prayer, we have Christ not being enough because John Paul II also trusted fully "in the maternal intercession of Mary." Then, this is followed by discounting the work of Christ on our behalf by identifying a holy life as "the way of achieving eternal communion with you." Finally, the prayer closes with a request that John Paul II would intercede for us because, once again, apparently Christ isn't good enough.

Now, having spent time with Catholics I've picked up that, unlike Lutherans who have a collection of books that say, "Here's our doctrine.", Catholics don't really have a set doctrine outside of a church structure that starts with the Pope and works it's way down, but still, that's some mighty jacked up, anti-biblical teaching that is no different than what Luther dealt with in his day.