Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Pope Francis declares a non-Catholic “Doctor of the Universal Church”

Gregory of Narek

Yesterday, on February 23, it was reported that Pope Francis formally declared Gregory of Narek to be a Doctor of the Universal Church. Gregory of Narek was an Armenian priest, monk, and poet who is greatly revered by Armenians but virtually unknown otherwise. So far as I can tell, he is the first and only non-Catholic among only 36 doctors of the Church. He lived and died in the bosom of a schismatic jurisdiction, and he was most likely an adherent of the Miaphysite heresy. Traditionally, a Doctor of the Church is chosen only among recognized Catholic saints.
Is this a problem? Well, the words of the Catholic Encyclopedia are somewhat consoling:
“It is not in any way an ‘ex cathedra’ decision, nor does it even amount to a declaration that no error is to be found in the teaching of the Doctor. It is, indeed, well known that the very greatest of them are not wholly immune from error.”
And yet, and yet …. this is setting a potentially disastrous precedent. Gregory of Narek may have been a man of extraordinary sanctity; he may have been a great teacher; and it may be a laudable thing that his works become known to the larger Christian world outside of the Armenian community. But if a man is declared a “Doctor of the Universal Church”, the faithful have the right to assume that he is, at the very least, a Catholic. Furthermore, as Ann Barnhardt drives home, granting this title to a non-Catholic Armenian priest sends an unmistakable message to all the faithful: heresies that amount to attacks on the First Commandment are no big deal; heresy itself is no big deal; and schism is no big deal.
At this point in this sorry pontificate, given what we know about Pope Francis and his many expressions of religious indifferentism, it is safe to assume that he has an ulterior motive. Bypassing what must be dozens if not hundreds of qualified orthodox Catholics (Dom Prosper Gueranger is already de facto a doctor of this stature), Pope Francis instead chose an obscure mystic who died in schism and presumably held to the heresy of his co-religionists at the time. Why this choice? Let me make a little prediction: By this act, Pope Francis is preparing the faithful for the canonization of the first non-Catholic “Catholic” “saint”. Anyone care to guess who that might be?

1 comment:

George Brenner said...


The most extensive source that I can find for rites in Communion with Rome states the following on the Armenian Church:

Faithful served: ARMENIAN RITE OF SIS (CILICIA)
Separated: 525.
Reunited: 1742.
Located in: Near East, Africa, Parts of Europe, Soviet Union, the Americas.
Liturgical language: Classical Armenian.
Under the: Armenian Patriarch of Cilicia.
Note: While many Armenians returned to the Church during the Crusades, most of the Armenians in the world have sided with the Monophysites and are members of the Orthodox Church. These are NOT in communion with Rome.

Gregory of Narek lived during the time when the Armenians were NOT in union with Rome.

Gregory of Narek is not a Catholic Saint.

The most extensive listing that I can find list October 13 as his sainted Armeian Church status.

Saints of the Catholic Church listed for October 13 as follows.
St. Edward King and Confessor-------October 13
St. Gerald-------October 13
and others but no Gregory of Narek as can be verified with declaration from a Pope.

troubling,

George Brenner