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naraburns  nihil supernum  2yr ago (text post)   35498 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 6, 2023

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In some non-US news German Catholic has decided to vote against official Catholic doctrine, by supporting the blessing of same-gender relationships. Unlike MLK who advocated a stricter reading of the Bible, present schismatics seem to argue in favour of a "living constitution Bible".

If they hope to bring back believers by adopting left-alligned attitudes, they are probably mistaken. This is because if one looks towards the US, a country with sufficient religous pluralism to make comparisons between various sects of Christianity, one can observe that future only holds failure for such a plan.

More progressive Christian groups, apparently called "mainline" in American discourse, are declining significantly faster then conservative ("evangelical") ones.

I assume that such statistics are known to Catholic leadership, be it in Vatican or Bonn, so it stands to reason it probably isn't maximization of mass attendance that is the motivation. Sincere belief in correctness of their cause is.

If Vaticans persecution of rightist deviations, and German acceptance of leftist ones, hastens the decline of belief in G-d, it would be in-line the usual stance of the Church that Truth (as it interprets it: gay couples deserve to be blessed, bishops need permission to Mass in Latin) is important than popularity.

Better there be A Couple, but Committed, than Common, but Cafeteria.

From the traditionalist Catholic perspective, this problem should be easily solved. Pope Francis will issue an Ex Cathedra document defining the Church's traditional teaching on same-sex relationships, and the offending bishops will be told to repent of their heresy under penalty of excommunication.

If this happens, it would be appropriate to update, if only slightly, towards the Catholic church being the true church of Jesus Christ protected from error by the Holy Spirit. I expect that Francis will instead issue some vague noncommittal statement, possibly not even through official channels, urging caution when speaking on doctrine of faith and morals or whatever.

I was reading Ratzinger last book a couple of months ago and, apparently, the prevaling mainstream opinion in the vatican is that they do not have infallibility on matters of moral theology, so it probably won't be ex cathedra.

the prevaling mainstream opinion in the vatican is that they do not have infallibility on matters of moral theology

That would seem to be a direct contradiction of Pastor Aeternus.

If, then, any shall say that the Roman Pontiff has the office merely of inspection or direction, and not full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the universal Church, not only in things which belong to faith and morals, but also in those which relate to the discipline and government of the Church spread throughout the world; or assert that he possesses merely the principal part, and not all the fullness of this supreme power; or that this power which he enjoys is not ordinary and immediate, both over each and all the churches, and over each and all the pastors and the faithful: let him be anathema.

And later, the more famous part:

Therefore faithfully adhering to the tradition received from the beginning of the Christian faith, for the glory of God our Saviour, the exaltation of the Catholic religion, and the salvation of Christian people, the sacred Council approving, we teach and define that it is a dogma divinely revealed: that the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra, that is, when in discharge of the office of pastor and doctor of all Christians, by virtue of his supreme Apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine regarding faith or morals to be held by the universal Church, by the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, is possessed of that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer willed that his Church should be endowed for defining doctrine regarding faith or morals; and that therefore such definitions of the Roman Pontiff are irreformable of themselves, and not from the consent of the Church.

What some people thought 150 years ago isn't going to influence what a different set of people will do now as much as what that second set of people thinks.

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