From Life Site News
OPINION
Is there ‘universal peaceful acceptance’ of Francis as pope?
In a recent article I summarized a number of
arguments that lead to the conclusion that Francis does not hold the office of
pope.
Lionel : John Henry Westen
has not dealt with the issue of Vatican Council II, irrational and rational,
inspite of so many reminders.Pope Francis justifies his actions with Vatican
Council II, ir-rational which obviously creates a break with Tradition. It makes
the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus, the Athanasius Creed and the Syllabus of
Errors obsolete. So if the exclusivist ecclesiology can be changed by Vatican
Council II, then Pope Francis reasons, this is the action of the Holy
Spirit. It is a new revelation in the Church. So faith and morals are open to change, for him.
So there is a new moral theology, new ecumenism, new evangelization, new
ecclesiology etc.The conservatives support this reasoning, though
un-popular.Here lies the problem. No one is asking Pope Francis to interpret
Vatican Council II rationally and morally. Why ?
In a second article, I outlined the argument from
public heresy and membership of the Church in more detail.
Lionel. Vatican Council II irrational produces heresy and schism. The conservatives are interpreting the Council irrationally like Pope Francis.
In a third article, I responded to the claim
that we can attain certainty that Francis is the pope because he possesses the
“universal and peaceful adherence” of the Church.
Lionel. With Vatican Council
II irrational neither is John Henry Westen able to claim with certainty that
he is a member of the Church. The same accusation he makes against the pope can
be made against him.
In this fourth article I wish to expand further on
subject touched on in third article, namely the Catholic rule of
faith.
Jesus Christ, hanging on the Cross, opened up to His
Church the fountain of those divine gifts, which prevent her from ever teaching false doctrine
and enable her to rule them for the salvation of their souls through divinely
enlightened pastors and to bestow on them an abundance of heavenly
graces.
Lionel: John Henry Westen and Life Site
correspondents, it has been pointed out numerous times, interpret Vatican
Council II and the Catechism of the Catholic Church irrationally. So now there
are two versions of all the Creeds, theirs and mine. There are so many reports
on social media which Life Site News ignores. Their new theology is the same as
that of Pope Francis and the Society of St.Pius X. This is why Archbishop Carlo
Maria Vigano cannot appeal against the schism-charge. They are all stuck with
Vatican Council II irrational, which is being called ‘ a new Magisterium’
making the ecclesiology of the Latin Mass obsolete. No one objects on this
point except for me.
Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis Christi, No. 31
(LifeSiteNews) — Our Lord Jesus Christ
established the Catholic Church to teach the fullness of Divine Revelation
until the His Second Coming. He endowed His Church with the attributes of indefectibility and infallibility to
ensure that she will not fail in her mission. Every generation of Catholics,
from the time of the Apostles until Our Lord’s return, will receive exactly the
same doctrine from the teaching authority which He has
established.
Truths beyond the grasp of unaided human reason have
been gradually revealed to humanity since the beginning of the human race, but
public revelation was brought to completion with Christ’s Apostles, to whom the
fullness of the Divine Revelation was entrusted. Our Lord commissioned these
Apostles to proclaim it to the entire world:
Jesus came near and spoke to them; All authority in
heaven and on earth, he said, has been given to me; you, therefore,
must go out, making disciples of all nations, and baptizing them in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to
observe all the commandments which I have given you. And behold I am with you
all through the days that are coming, until the consummation of the world. (Mt
28:19-20)
The apostles faithfully fulfilled this great
commission and were martyred in turn. Around the year 100AD, St John died a
natural death, the only apostle to do so, and with his death public revelation
ended. But the “consummation of the world” was yet to come, and therefore the
mission of the Church continued. The Successors of the Apostles, led by the
Successor of St. Peter, continued the apostolic mission of teaching the
fullness of Divine Revelation to each new generation, and to them to the
promise also has been made “I am with you all through the days that are coming,
until the consummation of the world’”.
The Sacred Magisterium of the Catholic Church is
divinely protected. It will never fail to transmit the entirety of Divine
Revelation. And with its authority to teach, comes the obligation of the
faithful to receive its teaching. As Our Lord said when he sent out his
disciples:
He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth
you, despiseth me; and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me. (Lk
10:16)
Lionel: The objective mistake
in the 1949 Letter of the Holy Office is not part of the Deposit of the Faith.
It has an objective error which cannot be Magisterial. It says not everyone
needs to be a member of the Catholic Church for salvation since it assumes
there are objectively known exceptions. The dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus
and the Athanasius Creed says everyone needs to enter the Church and does not
mention any exceptions. It was common sense over the centuries that the baptism
of desire referred to an invisible person in our human reality.
Sources of Divine Revelation
The ultimate source of Divine Revelation is God. The
source from which we receive it is the Sacred Magisterium, that is, the
teaching of the Successors of the Apostles, and, pre-eminently, the pope, the
Successor of St Peter.
However, the pope and bishops in each generation must
have sources in which they find the doctrine that they are to teach for,
as Monsignor Van Noort remarks, “it
is obvious on the one hand that they never personally heard Christ Himself or
the apostles teaching through the Holy Spirit, and equally obvious on the other
hand that they do not get the doctrine of Christ by way of fresh, direct
revelation.”[1]
Therefore:
[T]he only possible answer is that this doctrine comes
to them from preceding generations by way of tradition.[2]
Tradition means handing down. The
Successors of the Apostles have received the content of the Divine Revelation
from their predecessors, and they hand on it to those who follow them. This
transmission from one generation to the next is protected by the charism of
infallibility to ensure that nothing is lost, and that nothing is
added.
St. Paul, in his Second Letter to the Thessalonians,
spoke of these traditions, exhorting:
Stand firm, then, brethren, and hold by the traditions
you have learned, in word or in writing, from us. (2 Thess 2:15)
Divine Revelation is contained both in written
documents and in oral preaching. The written revelation consists of the
inspired writings of the Old and New Testaments. This is called Sacred
Scripture.
The oral preaching is called Sacred Tradition. Sacred
Tradition is the handing down of the gospel by the teaching of the
Successors of the Apostles. However, it is not only found in their oral
preaching but in the written monuments of this
preaching.
The primary monuments of Sacred
Tradition are the acts of the magisterium: the official acts of the Apostles,
of the Successors of St. Peter, and of the other Successors of the Apostles,
whether as individual heads of local churches, or gathered together in
councils. The Sacred Liturgy is also a primary monument of Sacred Tradition,
because it is established and regulated by the authority of the Successors of
the Apostles.
The secondary monuments of Sacred
Tradition are writings such as those of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church,
of theologians, and of other ecclesiastical writers, all of which are witnesses
to the doctrine preached by the Successors of the Apostles. Christian art and
architecture are also secondary monuments of Sacred Tradition, because they too
witness to the faith preached by the Sacred Magisterium.
Therefore, we can speak of two sources of divine
revelation from which the Sacred Magisterium finds its doctrine: Sacred
Scripture and Sacred Tradition
Twentieth century Spanish theologian Joachim Salaverri
S.J. summarized them as follows:
Holy Scripture, or the written word of God,
is the deposit of revealed truths inspired by God, which are
contained in the holy books of the Old and New Testament.
Divine Tradition, or the handed on word of
God, is the deposit of revealed truths attested by God, which
in the continuing preaching and faith of the Church are perennially
preserved by God.[3]
These sources taken together are called the
deposit of faith, for as Salaverri explains:
A source or fount of revelation, like a fountain of
water, in general is said to be a deposit or place in which divine revelation
is contained or from which it can be drawn.[4]
Lionel. Vatican Council II, irrational
is common in the Catholic Church. It is not part of the Deposit of the Faith.
Vatican Council II interpreted irrationally would be traditional, Magisterial
and in harmony with Tradition.-Lionel Andrades
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