24 Wednesday Dec 2008
Posted in Ecclesiology, Mariology
On this vigil of the Our Lord’s Nativity, my thoughts are on two perfect women. The promise of another installment on Father Arnold Damen is not forgotten. It is being kept, but the piece I began to write grew to feature article length, so I would rather not dump it in your in-box as an Ad Rem. Instead, I will write about these two perfect women I keep thinking of – and yes, they really are perfect.
Who are my perfect women? Continue reading
14 Thursday Feb 2008
Posted in Christology, Ecclesiology
The assignment: Write a three page paper responding to the following questions. How can the finite man Jesus be the fullness of divine revelation? How can the finite Roman Catholic Church transmit the fullness of divine revelation? Include reference to the way in which Dominus Iesus shows the interdependence of claims for the uniqueness of Christ and claims for the uniqueness of the Church.
Certain neo-modernist theologians of our day deny the complete character of Our Lord Jesus Christ’s revelation. Their argument is as follows: “Being finite, limited, and conditioned historically, linguistically, and culturally are part of what it means to be human. Jesus was fully human. Therefore, Jesus’ humanity must also be finite, limited and conditioned historically, linguistically, and culturally. One further step is required: since Jesus’ humanity is thus limited, it can only communicate a limited truth about God.” Continue reading
03 Thursday Jan 2008
Posted in Ecclesiology, Magisterium, Vatican II
A much more in depth treatment of this subject is found in our “The Three Levels of Magisterial Teaching.” The discrepancy in numbering the levels (three vs. four) is explained by the fact that some theologians, apparently following Cardinal Avery Dulles (The Craft of Theology: from Symbol to System), have created a fourth category that is not in the magisterial documents which outline these different categories. Toward the end of this paper, I explain where I think they get this.
The four kinds of magisterial statement are (1) infallible dogma, (2) definitive statements on matters closely connected with revealed truth, (3) ordinary teaching on faith and morals, and (4) ordinary prudential teaching on disciplinary matters. Continue reading
20 Thursday Dec 2007
Father asks: “Can an ‘implicit faith in Christ’ be sufficient for salvation?” He answers “No.” And he does so in over thirty pages of serious scholarship, with copious references to Fathers, Doctors, approved theologians, and magisterial pronouncements.
Father Brian Harrison, O.S., M.A., S.T.D., is Professor Emeritus of Theology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico in Ponce, P.R. In 1997 he gained his doctorate in Systematic Theology, summa cum laude, from the Pontifical Athenæum of the Holy Cross in Rome. Father is a priest in good standing of the Diocese of Ponce. (Read more about him here.)
Father Harrison’s 33-page paper is online here as a PDF file: http://www.catholicism.org/downloads/FrHarrison_Implicit-Faith.pdf
20 Tuesday Nov 2007
Posted in Ecclesiology, Magisterium, Vatican II
This is another offering from the larger work from which I earlier excerpted “The Three Levels of Magisterial Teaching.” As I said concerning that entry, this is a work in progress, being a section of a larger study on the various levels of magisterial teaching, the assent due to each, and where Vatican II fits into these categories.
Further explanations are needed here. The larger work focuses on ecumenism, specifically, the contents of Vatican II’s Unitatis Redintegratio (UR). Also, at the end of this piece I have put my complete bibliography, for one reason mainly, viz., some of the footnotes may not be entirely useful without the missing parts of the study. Those trying to figure out a reference may find the bibliography helpful. Please keep in mind that this is an academic paper. Many of the books referenced are not works I would recommend. In fact some of them are rubbish worthy of a good, old-fashioned book burning.
I could add to the collection of quotations on the authority of Vatican II the recent statement of Cardinal Biffi: ““John XXIII yearned for a Council that would achieve the renewal of the Church not through condemnations, but using the ‘medicine of mercy.’ By abstaining from reproving error, the Council would by this very means avoid formulating definite teachings that would be binding for all. And in fact, it held consistently to this initial direction.” (See “Before the Last Conclave: What I Told the Future Pope” by Sandro Magister.)
“…the magisterium ordinarium, is liable to be somewhat indefinite in its pronouncements and, as a consequence, practically ineffective as an organ.”
– P.J. Toner, “Infallibility” in the 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia Continue reading
10 Saturday Nov 2007
Posted in Ecclesiology, Magisterium, Vatican II
Introduction: This is a work in progress. It is a section of a larger work on the various levels of magisterial teaching, the assent due to each, and where Vatican II fits into these categories.
According to standards presently employed by the Holy See and codified in Canon Law, there are three kinds of magisterial statement, three levels of authoritative teaching which establish the “the order of the truths to which the believer adheres.” Continue reading
19 Friday Oct 2007
Posted in Ecclesiology, Magisterium
Archbishop Albert Malcolm Ranjith Patabendige Don is the Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
The full text of the Archbishop’s address, “Faith, Obedience, and Theology, Challenges to the Mission of the Church Today,” can be found here. I would like to point out some interesting highlights from this speech, which was permeated throughout with a very supernatural outlook. (I am emboldening passages I think worthy of particular attention.)
First are his Excellency’s comments on the nature of the Church, which shows that he does not distinguish falsely between what is juridical and what is spiritual:
The Church is not an association or federation or a democracy made up of the faithful. It is the mystical body of Christ with its own inner life that comes from Christ, who is its supreme and invisible head. It has its visible structure which is not to be separated from the mystical. The Council states “but the society furnished with hierarchical agencies and the mystical body of Christ are not to be considered two realities, nor are the visible assembly and the spiritual community, nor the earthly Church and the Church enriched with heavenly things. Rather they form one inter-locked reality which is comprised of a divine and a human element” [LG 8]. The Council then goes on to compare this mystical divine – human interlocking with the mystery of the incarnation itself [cfr LG 8]. It is, as the Council further confirms, the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church referring thus to its uniqueness, its singular vocation, its universal nature and its missionary dimension.