A Follow Up to "A Crisis of Faith"

In my recent article under that title I talked about the debate taking place in my mind over the last month or two concerning the implications of the traditional Catholic dogma concerning whether or not there is salvation outside the Catholic Church. For the most part it was understood by the majority of readers in the spirit in which I intended it. A few of the responses, however, need to be addressed more fully than a simple reply in the Comments section there.

In a way, this issue also tracks back to another article I wrote some time ago in response to an accusation by a Catholic brother that I was still “Protestant at Heart”. That accusation came about because a certain Cardinal had stated that the Jews are saved by their religion that ignores the Cross of Christ and all that the New Testament and Sacred Tradition tells us about salvation. That position is not the Cardinal’s alone and is echoed by several others in the current Magisterium. I took a traditional stand on the issue and was accused by that brother of still being really a “Protestant in Catholic clothing” so to speak. This same brother made responses to the current article which I will address shortly.

The Three Legged Stool

Sound doctrine in the Catholic Church flows from three sources, sometimes referred to as “The Three Legged Stool”: Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the teaching Magisterium of the Church. This is the method that the Lord, the Apostles and the Church Fathers set up to ensure that we would not be steered into error. If you only have the “Scripture” leg you are a Protestant/Evangelical Christian. If you only have the Tradition leg you are what Dave Armstrong calls a “Radical Traditionalist” (RadTrad for short).

It’s the last of these, the opinion that the Magisterium is supreme over the other two, that the two brothers that responded to “Crisis” seem to hold and which I must address.

Magisterium Uber Alles

The position taken by the two Catholic brothers seems to be that only what the current Magisterium says matters. In fact, they plainly stated that only the Magisterium can properly interpret Scripture and Sacred Tradition and that the two mean whatever the Magisterium tells us they mean. No matter how clearly previous pronouncements by those who God put over the Church in previous centuries may be, we are incapable of reading them in context and grasping them.

There is a serious defect in such thinking. First and foremost is that it basically negates the protection that Scripture and Sacred Tradition affords from a Magisterium potentially gone rogue. If these two can only be interpreted by the Magisterium, they can be made to say anything the Magisterium says that they do. “No salvation outside the Catholic Church”? No matter what has Scripturally taught and supported by Sacred Tradition, the Magisterium says that anyone and everyone is saved without the Eucharist and the other Sacraments…. heck, even without Christ and the Cross… according to the citations from the current Catechism of the Catholic Church provided by one of the commenters on the article.

The comment was also made that only the current Magisterium can determine if a pronouncement made ex cathedra by previous Popes are still considered to truly be “ex cathedra”. I cited three in the article concerning the dogma in question and that was the response to it. Anybody see the flaw in such a concept? If the pronouncement disagrees with current theology…well, that Pope didn’t know what he was talking about or translation from Latin mishandled what he actually said. That means that there really is no such thing as “ex cathedra” because modern theologians can say there isn’t.

As I said to one of the commenters, “I, for one, cannot build my house on such shifting sand!”

Personal Accountability

This headline is from an article on Church Militant’s website and the story it tells is all too common today:

“CATHOLICS FEEL HELPLESS WHILE ‘GUTLESS’ BISHOP EMBRACES LGBT AGENDA”

I could post a hundred such stories. More and more Bishops and Cardinals seem to be getting into bed with the world and its philosophy. The commenters in question seem to feel that if the Magisterium says homosexuality is no longer a sin and same sex marriage is just fine, then that’s what they will have to support since questioning any member of the Magisterium is “un-Catholic” and “Protestant at Heart”.

In the Judgement, we will stand before Almighty God and be held responsible for what we did with the treasure that He entrusted to us… how we “accurately handled the word of Truth” as Saint Paul says. The excuse for teaching doctrine contrary to the Scripture and the Sacred Tradition of the Church for 2,000 years cannot be “Because the Magisterium said so!” They will be held accountable for their actions, but so too will those who blindly followed and gave their allegiance to them more than to God. “I was only following orders” will be even less acceptable at that time than it was in Nuremberg.

I, for one, am not willing to surrender my God given intellect, the God inspired Scriptures nor the God directed Sacred Tradition of the Church to blindly and unthinkingly just follow to be considered “Catholic” by those who are willing to do so. Everything I’ve studied of both shows me I’m in good and holy company in so doing.