I'm going to begin with looking at where Catholic doctrine comes from. In so doing, I believe the answers to the above questions will become obvious. Here is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says.
- Has the Catholic church ever been wrong on doctrine?
- If it were wrong on a doctrine how do you correct it?
God has said everything in his WordSo what that all boils down to is that, because God revealed his plan of salvation to us through the prophets of the Old Testament and then came as Christ to reveal the plan's culmination, we cannot change the deposit of faith. We have to stick with what we were given. We do not have the authority to change it.
65 "In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son." Christ, the Son of God made man, is the Father's one, perfect and unsurpassable Word. In him he has said everything; there will be no other word than this one. St. John of the Cross, among others, commented strikingly on Hebrews 1:1-2:In giving us his Son, his only Word (for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word - and he has no more to say. . . because what he spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who is His Son. Any person questioning God or desiring some vision or revelation would be guilty not only of foolish behaviour but also of offending him, by not fixing his eyes entirely upon Christ and by living with the desire for some other novelty.There will be no further Revelation
66 "The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive Covenant, will never pass away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ." Yet even if Revelation is already complete, it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries
67 Throughout the ages, there have been so-called "private" revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ's definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the Magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church.Christian faith cannot accept "revelations" that claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfilment, as is the case in certain nonChristian religions and also in certain recent sects which base themselves on such "revelations".Catechism of the Catholic Church
This doesn't mean that the faith doesn't change, however. As explanations and interpretations of the original deposit of faith happen over time the faith grows from within, somewhat like a plant. However, every new interpretation must be tested against the original deposit of faith (see this for Cardinal Newman's seven tests of doctrinal development which help illustrate this point).
The interpretation and transmission of the faith is done by the Magisterium.
The Magisterium of the ChurchBased on the fact that I trust Jesus set us on the right road and that the Holy Spirit is working through the Magisterium to maintain the deposit of the faith, my answer to the question of Catholic doctrine ever being wrong is ... no, it has not been wrong.
85 "The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ." This means that the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome.
86 "Yet this Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it. At the divine command and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it listens to this devotedly, guards it with dedication and expounds it faithfully. All that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is drawn from this single deposit of faith."
87 Mindful of Christ's words to his apostles: "He who hears you, hears me", The faithful receive with docility the teachings and directives that their pastors give them in different forms.Catechism of the Catholic Church
This is not to say that people, being the fallible creatures that we are, could not misapply doctrine either through error or for their own purposes. When we look at the 2,000 year history of the Church we can see, sadly, too many examples of such behavior. However, the doctrine itself is divinely revealed and we also can look at that same history and see where the Holy Spirit has put the Church back on the proper course.
The law of God entrusted to the Church is taught to the faithful as the way of life and truth. The faithful therefore have the right to be instructed in the divine saving precepts that purify judgment and, with grace, heal wounded human reason. They have the duty of observing the constitutions and decrees conveyed by the legitimate authority of the Church. Even if they concern disciplinary matters, these determinations call for docility in charity.That leads neatly to the question of what one would do if a doctrine were wrong, which I will look at from the point of view of a doctrine being misused. Church history gives us examples of saints who had various problems with the powers-that-be of the time. I have read time and again of many different types of saints who were trying to found orders, get the pope to move from France to Rome, or other tasks that seemed impossible to effect. In all the cases I can think of, they were first of all obedient to any orders given them, but persisted in prayer, petition, and working toward their goals within the confines of obedience ... and God used them for dramatic reforms in some cases. Just as the saints give us examples of how to grow closer to God, they also are the examples I would use in seeking reform.Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2037
However, before going through all that it would behoove me to thoroughly study the doctrine in question. This is something that I went through on several issues after I converted and so I have very strong feelings about it.
"So I should blindly follow, eh?" Well ... no. We ought to find out why we disagree. If we're really about truth and seeing the whole picture, we'd be concerned about what part we were missing. What does the Church know that we don't? Once you look into all the reasoning behind the Church's stance and understand, it's pretty obvious that it's the truth. I've also found that the more often you do this, the more your conscience conforms to Catholicism and you begin to see that what you believe is the same as the Church's belief. Which is good. So what I'm getting at is that it's logical to believe whatever the Church teaches on faith and morals because if follows from the conclusion in the paragraph above, but we have to force our wills and intellects to do it.If I had not gone through the process that De Fedei Obedientia describes (and done it more than once) only to find that my logic had nothing on that of 2,000 years of Church Fathers, then I would not be Catholic. There would be no point to it because without believing in the Catholic doctrine and the Holy Spirit's guidance of the Church then you are left with nothing.
The only honest reason to be a Christian is because you believe in Christ's claim to be God incarnate. The only honest reason to be a Catholic is because you believe the Church's claim to be the divinely authorized Body of this Christ.Sources: Catechism of the Catholic Church, Catholic Christianity, Why Do Catholics Do That?Peter Kreeft, Catholic Christianity
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