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More on Apologetics from Bob Stanley’s
“The Catholic Treasure Chest”
What’s gravely wrong with this picture?
…the motu proprio “Apostolos Suos” strongly limits that “authentic doctrinal authority” which Pope Francis says he wants to grant to the episcopal conferences. It prescribes that if doctrinal declarations really need to be issued, this must be done with unanimous approval and in communion with the pope and the whole Church, or at least “by a substantial majority” after review and authorization by the Holy See.
One danger warned against in the motu proprio “Apostolos Suos” is that the episcopal conferences might release doctrinal declarations in contrast with each other and with the universal magisterium of the Church.
Another risk that it intends to prevent is the creation of separation and antagonism between individual national Churches and Rome, as happened in the past in France with “Gallicanism” and as takes place among the Orthodox with some of the autocephalous national Churches.
That motu proprio bears the signature of John Paul II, but it owes its framework to the one who was his highly trusted prefect of doctrine, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
And Ratzinger – as was known – had long been very critical of the superpowers that some episcopal conferences had attributed to themselves, especially in certain countries, including his native Germany.
In his bombshell interview of 1985, published with the title “The Ratzinger Report,” he had resolutely opposed the idea that the Catholic Church should become “a kind of federation of national Churches.”
Instead of a “decisive new emphasis on the role of the bishops” as desired by Vatican Council II, the national episcopal conferences – he accused – have “smothered” the bishops with their weighty bureaucratic structures.
Far from a human race that is presumed innocent or essentially saved, the Council Fathers see a world in which salvation is neither assured nor easy. It is a world in which, “very often,” rejection of Christ has been a reality, is still possible, and is a main reason for Christian missions. Indeed, the Council also warned about the severe judgment falling on Catholics who do not persist in charity and faithfulness.
The Council’s “optimism,” Martin rightly notes, is about the possibility of salvation outside of the Church, not the probability that everybody inside or outside it will be saved.
The Council doesn’t give odds on this question or tell us whether Hell is densely populated or not, nor does Martin attempt to do so. But he notes that the “very often” is attached to the negative possibility. In a chapter examining the scriptural references in LG 16 he demonstrates that this bad news is indeed biblical.
Editor’s note: It’s also due to the fact that since the end of Vatican II – priests, bishops – and even popes – have no longer been at all certain about the validity or applicability of the settled teachings of the Catholic Church – nor have they been unified and consistent in their efforts to pass along the full, complete and traditional Catholic faith to others. In fact, just the opposite has been true!
We speak to each other as fellow journalists: We discuss the classic case of a non-message.
Here are two baptized Catholics who have heard for months what the Pope says and for months experienced discomfort, while that’s obviously what they hear are very large steps away from what the doctrine says.
At the end, after all, it is their job to write and comment, write and comment on them. Thus, it provides not only a basic rule of information, but also the Church law.
The letter to Scalfari, the interview with Scalfari, the interview with the Civilta Cattolica , are only the most recent, glaring examples. They went around the world, they led to calls for revolution, they amazed thousands upon thousands of Catholics, and thus souls, and no one has something to say?
Editor’s note: The U.S. Secret Service trains its agents to identify counterfeit money by making absolutely certain that those agents are able to successfully identify, describe and enumerate all the various characteristics of genuine U.S. currency, because when you know the real thing, even the best of the counterfeits is relatively simple to identify.
Similarly, a Catholic who knows God and thoroughly knows all the authentic teachings and precepts of the Catholic faith instantly “alerts” when anyone – even a pope – proposes something which fails to pass the “smell test”.
The modernists and liberals who have been running the Catholic Church for the last half century have done their best to dumb-down the Body of Christ through incomplete, incompetent, ineffective and otherwise, exquisitely poor catechesis, so it’s no wonder that so many of today’s Catholics seem to be thrilled with what Pope Francis has been saying and how he has been saying it.
Alessandro Gnocchi is nothing less than a modern day martyr (witness) and true defender of the Catholic faith. Where are all the others?
There are 5 types of councils, Diocesan, National, Ecumenical, Plenary, and Provincial. No council has ever changed Church dogma, nor can it, since dogma was proclaimed by Jesus Christ Himself, Acts 6:12,15,15:6,*Gal 2:2.
An Ecumenical Council is where all the Bishops in the world that are entitled to vote, gather under the presidency of the Pope or his representative. There have been 21 Ecumenical councils in the history of the Church, other important councils called ‘synods’ are marked ‘*‘.
The very first council or meeting of the Apostles and presbyters is recorded in Acts 15, and is called the Council of Jerusalem. Tradition speaks of St. James as being the Bishop of Jerusalem at that time of about 50 AD.
A Church council is usually a reaction as opposed to an action. They are held to define a truth after someone has denied it.
Jesus Christ gave His authority in several verses of Holy Scripture. One example is in Luke 10:16, “He who hears you hears me“. Armed with this authority, Church teaching has been accepted over the centuries. Then along comes someone who denies a certain teaching and therefore there becomes a need for a Church council to react to the denial.
The Council of Ephesus of 431, one such reaction, defined the Blessed Virgin Mary as the “Theotokos”, meaning GOD bearer or Mother of GOD. This formal teaching was only done after someone had denied it.
Another example is the reaction of the Council of Trent in 1546 which defined again, the canon of Holy Scripture after seven books were denied by the Protestants in their revolt.
Non-Catholics look at these reactive Church councils as teaching something new, when in fact, all they are doing is defining a truth that has been taught for centuries, without denials.
by Doug Lawrence
God’s laws require no man’s permission or acceptance. Divine law is dependent only on the will of God and his perfect system of divine justice, which is universally applicable and totally inescapable … even for non-Christians.
Under the Old Covenant, breaking any of the Ten Commandments, or even the most insignificant of the hundreds of statutes and ordinances that were tacked on, first by Moses, and later, by other designated religious authorities, would result in condemnation … which always … sooner or later … resulted in death.
Agree with it or not … there was absolutely no way around it.
You sin – you die!
That was the extent of things … at least, until the coming of Jesus Christ, the promised messiah, and his all new system of things.
Unlike the ritual animal sacrifices of old, Jesus’ New Covenant sacrifice was perfect, with his holy blood poured out for many, so that sins might actually be forgiven. (Not just ritually covered up.) Jesus was also gracious enough to offer retroactive salvation to all the faithful who had come before.
Jesus defines “the faithful” as those who love God … and who make every effort to keep his commandments … even if they don’t always succeed. Jesus never failed to show mercy to sinners who had a truly contrite heart and a genuinely repentant soul, and he promises to do the same for Catholics today … typically, through the great sacrament of reconciliation.
In light of this, how does our freedom of conscience actually work?
Do we get a “free pass” on all matters to which we conscientiously object? Not exactly!
There are a number of “settled” matters (dogmas and doctrines) essential to the practice of the authentic Catholic faith, which have been universally understood and absolutely accepted since the earliest days of the church, even though some may not have been officially defined or set down in writing until later times.
Regarding settled matters of Catholic doctrine, no privilege of conscientious objection actually exists. You either accept such things as a matter of faith … or … you confess your sin of disbelief in the confessional, tell God you’re sorry, ask his forgiveness, do your penance, and pray for the divine grace necessary to “cure” your unbelief.
For example, what is a person to do about his/her conscientious objection to the Catholic teaching on artificial contraceptives? Here’s a few possibilities:
1) Rely solely on your own understanding and reason, without taking the time to investigate authentic Catholic Church teaching on the matter. Let Jesus Christ personally deal with it (and you) on Judgment Day.
2) Take the time to investigate authentic Catholic Church teaching on the matter, but set all of that aside, since your personal “situation” is obviously “unique” and only you can decide what’s best for you and your family. Of course, you may also have some ‘splainin’ to do, come Judgment Day.
3) Investigate authentic Church teaching on the matter, pray about it, discuss it with other faithful Catholics who are in situations similar to your own, and make a firm decision to always follow Catholic teaching, to the best of your ability. If you occasionally fail in some way, make a good confession and carry on, with a clear conscience and nothing to worry about, come Judgment Day.
A similar approach can be applied to many other “hot button” issues of the day.
Living a thoroughly Catholic life has always been a matter of a properly informed conscience, grace and faith (not necessarily in that order) and it has never been particularly easy. But that’s OK, since God respects and typically rewards our good faith efforts and struggles.
Get to work “curing” any existing unbelief here:
Some Catholics don’t know everything, and if they did, they may have forgotten it.
Which is why we have a catechism to guide us, and explains why the Church instructs the faithful by way of encyclicals and Apostolic exhortations and such – documents conveniently found online at the Vatican website BTW.
For instance, questions about what does the Church really say about same sex marriage can be answered with a Google search for Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith on same sex marriage… voila! You have a clear, concise answer:
Homosexuality is a troubling moral and social phenomenon, even in those countries where it does not present significant legal issues. It gives rise to greater concern in those countries that have granted or intend to grant – legal recognition to homosexual unions, which may include the possibility of adopting children.
- What are the two kinds of sin (original and actual)
- What are the two kinds of actual sin (mortal and venial)? What’s the difference?
- Name the three Persons of the Holy Trinity
- Is there one God or three Gods?
- Name the 7 Sacraments
In releasing the telephone survey of 612 adults, Galante said Wednesday he was particularly dismayed to learn that 57 percent of the Catholics believed Jesus had sinned during his time on Earth and was “no different” from other human beings — in sharp contrast to core church teaching that Jesus was without sin. Only 28 percent of non-Catholic Christians thought Jesus had sinned.
“What does this tell me?” the bishop said at a news conference. “It tells me most [Catholics] know the church’s moral teachings, about things like our objection to abortion and gay marriage … but are woefully deficient” on matters of doctrine.
Galante also deplored the finding that only about 23 percent of Catholics attended Mass weekly and said he intended to “make observing the Lord’s Day a priority.”
To that end, he said, he had instructed all pastors and youth-group leaders to no longer schedule sports games and practices on Sunday mornings, which he said were major diversions.
His conclusion was that he could not, in good conscience before God, remain Orthodox. He told me that he felt “compelled” to return to what Orthodoxy was in the first few centuries when it was in full communion with the barque of Peter. He also said that he expressed these things to his Orthodox priest as well as to the laity, but that they told him “he did not really understand Orthodoxy”. Over time, he realized that he could not escape the fact that what they were telling him appeared to be only a modern and fabricated Orthodoxy that is expounded by the clergy in spite of the historical facts. He struggled not to behave in a rebellious way about things, so it took him many years before he respectfully and humbly asked to be allowed to go home to the Catholic Church.
Here were his particular reasons for his reconciliation with the Catholic Church:
1. No central authority in Orthodoxy means no clear authority at all–He said that the expressed unity of Orthodoxy ignores the essential (and detrimental) divisions that exist within her ecclesiastical authorities. Not having a central papal authority has caused the Eastern Orthodox to develop into a confused and jumbled group of jurisdictions that speak loudly about their unified nature, while it has little to no real substance. Admittedly, there are “Bishops” and “Archbishops” (yes, I know they use different terms), but since only a Pope can call a proper council, there is no means for Orthodoxy to solve its problems until they humble themselves and submit to the successor of Peter. His assessment is that the reason Orthodoxy rejects the recent doctrinal affirmations of the Catholic Church is more because they reject the Pope than because they reject the doctrines themselves. He believes that this is actually one of the things that attracts people to Orthodoxy over Catholicism: rejection of the papacy and its authority.
Read: How apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary have always served the most pressing needs of the Church.
Submitted by Doria2
She’ll answer as many questions as possible,
right here, every Thursday.
Email responses will also be provided, as time permits.
Jola Writes: This site, http://www.gotquestions.org, has some interesting subjects, particularly on Catholic things, like going to confession. It may inspire you, possibly? They seem to have an answer for everything !!!
Alice Answers: “GotQuestions.org” is a Protestant website. Its homepage explains that the statements about Catholicism were written by FORMER Catholics. Consequently, the opinions of these lapsed Catholic volunteers are not consistent with authentic Catholic beliefs, teachings and practices … particularly about the Sacrament of Penance … and they reflect an often subtle, yet consistent, anti-Catholic bias on most other things, as well.
Catholics must confess their sins to a priest because Jesus instituted the sacrament of Penance, which gave His apostles (and their duly ordained successors) the power to forgive sins: “If you forgive men’s sins, they are forgiven them; if you hold them bound, they are held bound.” (John 20:23)
Jesus also gave priests the authority to reconcile sinners with the Church: “All this has been done by God, who has reconciled himself to us through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:18)
The apostles were our first priests. Jesus instituted the sacraments of Holy Orders (the priesthood) and Holy Eucharist on Holy Thursday, at the Last Supper.
Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? Then why does the Protestant website you cited, deny the need to confess one’s sins to a priest?
Most Protestants do not believe in an ordained priesthood, nor do they believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
Our Catholic religion is the oldest and ONLY Christian Church that was ever personally founded by Jesus Christ, while he still walked the earth, some 2000 years ago.
The oldest Protestant denomination was founded 1517 years later by Martin Luther, an excommunicated priest who broke away from the Catholic Church, to start his own religion.
Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians are splinter groups that broke away from the Lutheran religion, while Catholicism is the only religion that maintains an unbroken line all the way back to Jesus Christ. This is known as “apostolic succession”, while the divine truths that have been faithfully handed down to us Catholics from Jesus and the apostles, are known as “the sacred deposit of faith”.
Only Catholics can trace our faith directly to Jesus Christ, who appointed St. Peter as His earthly successor, the Pope. By contrast, Martin Luther, John Wesley, John Smyth and John Knox are founders of modern, novel, Protestant religions, which do not recognize the Catholic hierarchy of the Pope, bishops and priests, and which also deny or misconstrue many other eternal, Christian truths.
Since Protestants do not have ordained priests, they also reject previously mentioned Biblical passages about confessing sins to a priest (as well as a host of other things.) In short, they simply choose to interpret the Scriptures differently than Catholics, based on purely personal beliefs and feelings, a state which is manifest today by many thousands of different denominations.
Meanwhile, in spite of recent difficulties, Catholics continue to confess one creed, and faithfully participate in the one, holy, universal and apostolic church of Jesus Christ. Why? St. Peter probably explained it best: “And Simon Peter answered him: Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)
We are called to love our Protestant brothers and sisters in Christ, with whom we one day hope to be united in Heaven. Until then, we probably shouldn’t waste too much time arguing over doctrinal differences, but instead, spend each day focused on loving one another.
We should also be eternally grateful that our Catholic Church contains the fullest possible measure of all God’s grace and truth.
Jola, you were wise in choosing this authentically Catholic website, “Ask Me About God” to answer your question.
In Christ’s Love,
Alice
Scripture says the Clergy must Speak…..Paul says of the bishop: He must be able to encourage men in sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it (Titus 1:9). For the same reason God tells us through Malachi: The lips of the priest are to preserve knowledge, and men shall look to him for the law, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts (Mal 2:7). …..
Every Priest Must Preach – Anyone ordained a priest undertakes the task of preaching, so that with a loud cry he may go on ahead of the terrible judge who follows. If, then, a priest does not know how to preach, what kind of cry can such a dumb herald utter? It was to bring this home that the Holy Spirit descended in the form of tongues on the first pastors (Acts 2:3), for he causes those whom he has filled, to speak out spontaneously.
The People must pray for the clergy – Beloved brothers, consider what has been said: Pray the Lord of the harvest to send labourers into his harvest (Matt 9:38). Pray for us so that we may have the strength to work on your behalf, that our tongue may not grow weary of exhortation, and that after we have accepted the office of preaching, our silence may not condemn us before the just judge.
…only one religion in the entire history of mankind—Roman Catholicism—possesses both a verifiable public Revelation and an unimpeachable authority for interpreting it. Once he is convinced of these two foundations, everything else follows as day follows night. A convinced Catholic has no need to agonize over the truth or falsehood of each individual element of the Catholic creed, or each individual moral precept. Thus Catholics will “no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles” (Eph 4:14). Confident that truth is not first one thing and then another, the Catholic knows the profound peace of being firmly and unalterably anchored not only in Christ’s grace but also in His truth.
This peace is imparted even more deeply by the Catholic’s realization that the sheer sublimity of Catholic teaching and the incomparable means of holiness offered by the Church are such that nothing better can be found by any person who truly seeks perfection. The nobility and consistency of the Church’s teachings, the supreme blending of the spiritual and the material in her sacramental system which speaks so powerfully to the nature of man, the riches of the Catholic tradition in guiding souls, and the extraordinary spiritual power witnessed in the lives of her saints: These are but so many reminders that it is quite impossible to attain through any other means anything which so perfectly answers the highest aspirations of the human heart….