Tuesday, March 19, AD 2024 4:16am

Cardinal Newman on Papal Infallibility

“It in no way depends upon the caprice of the Pope, or upon his good pleasure, to make such and such a doctrine, the object of a dogmatic definition. He is tied up and limited to the divine revelation, and to the truths which that revelation contains. He is tied up and limited by the Creeds, already in existence, and by the preceding definitions of the Church. He is tied up and limited by the divine law, and by the constitution of the Church. Lastly, he is tied up and limited by that doctrine, divinely revealed, which affirms that alongside religious society there is civil society, that alongside the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy there is the power of temporal Magistrates, invested in their own domain with a full sovereignty, and to whom we owe in conscience obedience and respect in all things morally permitted, and belonging to the domain of civil society.”

Pastoral of the Swiss Bishops on Papal Infallibility cited by John Henry Cardinal Newman

 

One of the shrewdest minds ever placed at the service of the Church was that of the recently beatified John Henry Cardinal Newman.  I have benefited immensely over the years from reading his writings.  Here are his thoughts on the subject of papal infallibility, a subject misunderstood by the World at large and by too many Catholics:

NOW I am to speak of the Vatican definition, by which the doctrine of the Pope’s infallibility has become de fide, that is, a truth necessary to be believed, as being included in the original divine revelation, for those terms, revelation, depositum, dogma, and de fide, are correlatives; and I begin with a remark which suggests the drift of all I have to say about it. It is this:—that so difficult a virtue is faith, even with the special grace of God, in proportion as the reason is exercised, so difficult is it to assent inwardly to propositions, verified to us neither by reason nor experience, but depending for their reception on the word of the Church as God’s oracle, that she has ever shown the utmost care to contract, as far as possible, the range of truths and the sense of propositions, of which she demands this absolute reception. “The Church,” says Pallavicini, “as far as may be, has ever abstained from imposing upon the minds of men that commandment, the most arduous of the Christian Law—viz., to believe obscure matters without doubting.” To co-operate in this charitable duty has been one special work of her theologians, and rules are laid down by herself, by tradition, and by custom, to assist them in the task. She only speaks when it is necessary to speak; but hardly has she spoken out magisterially some great general principle, when she sets her theologians to work to explain her meaning in the concrete, by strict interpretation of its wording, by the illustration of its circumstances, and by the recognition of exceptions, in order to make it as tolerable as possible, and the least of a temptation, to self-willed, independent, or wrongly educated minds. A few years ago it was the fashion among us to call writers, who conformed to this rule of the Church, by the name of “Minimizers;” that day of tyrannous ipse-dixits, I trust, is over: Bishop Fessler, a man of high authority, for he was Secretary General of the Vatican Council, and of higher authority still in his work, for it has the approbation of the Sovereign Pontiff, clearly proves to us that a moderation of doctrine, dictated by charity, is not inconsistent with soundness in the faith. Such a sanction, I suppose, will be considered sufficient for the character of the remarks which I am about to make upon definitions in general, and upon the Vatican in particular.

The Vatican definition, which comes to us in the shape of the Pope’s Encyclical Bull called the Pastor Æternus, declares that “the Pope has that same infallibility which the Church has”: to determine therefore what is meant by the infallibility of the Pope we must turn first to consider the infallibility of the Church. And again, to determine the character of the Church’s infallibility, we must consider what is the characteristic of Christianity, considered as a revelation of God’s will.

Our Divine Master might have communicated to us heavenly truths without telling us that they came from Him, as it is commonly thought He has done in the case of heathen nations; but He willed the Gospel to be a revelation acknowledged and authenticated, to be public, fixed, and permanent; and accordingly, as Catholics hold, He framed a Society of men to be its home, its instrument, and its guarantee. The rulers of that Association are the legal trustees, so to say, of the sacred truths which He spoke to the Apostles by word of mouth. As He was leaving them, He gave them their great commission, and bade them “teach” their converts all over the earth, “to observe all things whatever He had commanded them;” and then He added, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.”

Here, first, He told them to “teach” His revealed Truth; next, “to the consummation of all things;” thirdly, for their encouragement, He said that He would be with them “all days,” all along, on every emergency or occasion, until that consummation. They had a duty put upon them of teaching their Master’s words, a duty which they could not fulfil in the perfection which fidelity required, without His help; therefore came His promise to be with them in their performance of it. Nor did that promise of supernatural help end with the Apostles personally, for He adds, “to the consummation of the world,” implying that the Apostles would have successors, and engaging that He would be with those successors as He had been with them.

The same safeguard of the Revelation—viz. an authoritative, permanent tradition of teaching, is insisted on by an informant of equal authority with St. Matthew, but altogether independent of him, I mean St. Paul. He calls the Church “the pillar and ground of the Truth;” and he bids his convert Timothy, when he had become a ruler in that Church, to “take heed unto his doctrine,” to “keep the deposit” of the faith, and to “commit” the things which he had heard from himself “to faithful men who should be fit to teach others.”

This is how Catholics understand the Scripture record, nor does it appear how it can otherwise be understood; but, when we have got as far as this, and look back, we find that we have by implication made profession of a further doctrine. For, if the Church, initiated in the Apostles and continued in their successors, has been set up for the direct object of protecting, preserving, and declaring the Revelation, and that, by means of the Guardianship and Providence of its Divine Author, we are led on to perceive that, in asserting this, we are in other words asserting, that, so far as the message entrusted to it is concerned, the Church is infallible; for what is meant by infallibility in teaching but that the teacher in his teaching is secured from error? and how can fallible man be thus secured except by a supernatural infallible guidance? And what can have been the object of the words, “I am with you all along to the end,” but to give thereby an answer by anticipation to the spontaneous, silent alarm of the feeble company of fishermen and labourers, to whom they were addressed, on their finding themselves laden with superhuman duties and responsibilities?

Such then being, in its simple outline, the infallibility of the Church, such too will be the Pope’s infallibility, as the Vatican Fathers have defined it. And if we find that by means of this outline we are able to fill out in all important respects the idea of a Council’s infallibility, we shall thereby be ascertaining in detail what has been defined in 1870 about the infallibility of the Pope. With an attempt to do this I shall conclude.

1. The Church has the office of teaching, and the matter of that teaching is the body of doctrine, which the Apostles left behind them as her perpetual possession. If a question arises as to what the Apostolic doctrine is on a particular point, she has infallibility promised to her to enable her to answer correctly. And, as by the teaching of the Church is understood, not the teaching of this or that Bishop, but their united voice, and a Council is the form the Church must take, in order that all men may recognize that in fact she is teaching on any point in dispute, so in like manner the Pope must come before us in some special form or posture, if he is to be understood to be exercising his teaching office, and that form is called ex cathedrâ. This term is most appropriate, as being on one occasion used by our Lord Himself. When the Jewish doctors taught, they placed themselves in Moses’ seat, and spoke ex cathedrâ; and then, as He tells us, they were to be obeyed by their people, and that, whatever were their private lives or characters. “The Scribes and Pharisees,” He says, “are seated on the chair of Moses: all things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do; but according to their works do you not, for they say and do not.”

2. The forms, by which a General Council is identified as representing the Church herself, are too clear to need drawing out; but what is to be that moral cathedrâ, or teaching chair, in which the Pope sits, when he is to be recognized as in the exercise of his infallible teaching? the new definition answers this question. He speaks ex cathedrâ, or infallibly, when he speaks, first, as the Universal Teacher; secondly, in the name and with the authority of the Apostles; thirdly, on a point of faith or morals; fourthly, with the purpose of binding every member of the Church to accept and believe his decision.

3. These conditions of course contract the range of his infallibility most materially. Hence Billuart speaking of the Pope says, “Neither in conversation, nor in discussion, nor in interpreting Scripture or the Fathers, nor in consulting, nor in giving his reasons for the point which he has defined, nor in answering letters, nor in private deliberations, supposing he is setting forth his own opinion, is the Pope infallible,” t. ii. p. 110. And for this simple reason, because on these various occasions of speaking his mind, he is not in the chair of the universal doctor.

4. Nor is this all; the greater part of Billuart’s negatives refer to the Pope’s utterances when he is out of the Cathedra Petri, but even, when he is in it, his words do not necessarily proceed from his infallibility. He has no wider prerogative than a Council, and of a Council Perrone says, “Councils are not infallible in the reasons by which they are led, or on which they rely, in making their definition, nor in matters which relate to persons, nor to physical matters which have no necessary connexion with dogma.” Præl. Theol. t. 2, p. 492. Thus, if a Council has condemned a work of Origen or Theodoret, it did not in so condemning go beyond the work itself; it did not touch the persons of either. Since this holds of a Council, it also holds in the case of the Pope; therefore, supposing a Pope has quoted the so called works of the Areopagite as if really genuine, there is no call on us to believe him; nor again, if he condemned Galileo’s Copernicanism, unless the earth’s immobility has a “necessary connexion with some dogmatic truth,” which the present bearing of the Holy See towards that philosophy virtually denies.

5. Nor is a Council infallible, even in the prefaces and introductions to its definitions. There are theologians of name, as Tournely and Amort, who contend that even those most instructive capitula passed in the Tridentine Council, from which the Canons with anathemas are drawn up, are not portions of the Church’s infallible teaching; and the parallel introductions prefixed to the Vatican anathemas have an authority not greater nor less than that of those capitula.

6. Such passages, however, as these are too closely connected with the definitions themselves, not to be what is sometimes called, by a catachresis, “proximum fidei;” still, on the other hand, it is true also that, in those circumstances and surroundings of formal definitions, which I have been speaking of, whether on the part of a Council or a Pope, there may be not only no exercise of an infallible voice, but actual error. Thus, in the Third Council, a passage of an heretical author was quoted in defence of the doctrine defined, under the belief he was Pope Julius, and narratives, not trustworthy, are introduced into the Seventh.

This remark and several before it will become intelligible if we consider that neither Pope nor Council are on a level with the Apostles. To the Apostles the whole revelation was given, by the Church it is transmitted; no simply new truth has been given to us since St. John’s death; the one office of the Church is to guard “that noble deposit” of truth, as St. Paul speaks to Timothy, which the Apostles bequeathed to her, in its fulness and integrity. Hence the infallibility of the Apostles was of a far more positive and wide character than that needed by and granted to the Church. We call it, in the case of the Apostles, inspiration; in the case of the Church, assistentia.

Of course there is a sense of the word “inspiration” in which it is common to all members of the Church, and therefore especially to its Bishops, and still more directly to those rulers, when solemnly called together in Council, after much prayer throughout Christendom, and in a frame of mind especially serious and earnest by  reason of the work they have in hand. The Paraclete certainly is ever with them, and more effectively in a Council, as being “in Spiritu Sancto congregata;” but I speak of the special and promised aid necessary for their fidelity to Apostolic teaching; and, in order to secure this fidelity, no inward gift of infallibility is needed, such as the Apostles had, no direct suggestion of divine truth, but simply an external guardianship, keeping them off from error (as a man’s good Angel, without at all enabling him to walk, might, on a night journey, keep him from pitfalls in his way), a guardianship, saving them, as far as their ultimate decisions are concerned, from the effects of their inherent infirmities, from any chance of extravagance, of confusion of thought, of collision with former decisions or with Scripture, which in seasons of excitement might reasonably be feared.

“Never,” says Perrone, “have Catholics taught that the gift of infallibility is given by God to the Church after the manner of inspiration.”—t. 2, p. 253. Again: “[Human] media of arriving at the truth are excluded neither by a Council’s nor by a Pope’s infallibility, for God has promised it, not by way of an infused” or habitual “gift, but by the way of assistentia.”—ibid p. 541.

But since the process of defining truth is human, it is open to the chance of error; what Providence has guaranteed is only this, that there should be no error in the final step, in the resulting definition or dogma.

7. Accordingly, all that a Council, and all that the Pope, is infallible in, is the direct answer to the special question which he happens to be considering; his prerogative does not extend beyond a power, when in his Cathedra, of giving that very answer truly. “Nothing,” says Perrone, “but the objects of dogmatic definitions of Councils are immutable, for in these are Councils infallible, not in their reasons,”& c.—ibid.

8. This rule is so strictly to be observed that, though dogmatic statements are found from time to time in a Pope’s Apostolic Letters, &c., yet they are not accounted to be exercises of his infallibility if they are said only obiter—by the way, and without direct intention to define. A striking instance of this sine qua non condition is afforded by Nicholas I., who, in a letter to the Bulgarians, spoke as if baptism were valid, when administered simply in our Lord’s Name, without distinct mention of the Three Persons; but he is not teaching and speaking ex cathedrâ, because no question on this matter was in any sense the occasion of his writing. The question asked of him was concerning the minister of baptism—viz., whether a Jew or Pagan could validly baptize; in answering in the affirmative, he added obiter, as a private doctor, says Bellarmine, “that the baptism was valid, whether administered in the name of the three Persons or in the name of Christ only.” (De Rom. Pont., iv. 12.)

9. Another limitation is given in Pope Pius’s own conditions, set down in the Pastor Æternus, for the exercise of infallibility: viz., the proposition defined will be without any claim to be considered binding on the belief of Catholics, unless it is referable to the Apostolic depositum, through the channel either of Scripture or Tradition; and, though the Pope is the judge whether it is so referable or not, yet the necessity of his professing to abide by this reference is in itself a certain limitation of his dogmatic action. A Protestant will object indeed that, after his distinctly asserting that the Immaculate Conception and the Papal Infallibility are in Scripture and Tradition, this safeguard against erroneous definitions is not worth much, nor do I say that it is one of the most effective: but anyhow, in consequence of it, no Pope any more than a counsel, could, for instance, introduce Ignatius’s Epistles into the Canon of Scripture;—and, as to his dogmatic condemnation of particular books, which, of course, are foreign to the depositum, I would say, that, as to their false doctrine there can be no difficulty in condemning that, by means of that Apostolic deposit; nor surely in his condemning the very wording, in which they convey it, when the subject is carefully considered. For the Pope’s condemning the language, for instance, of Jansenius is a parallel act to the Church’s sanctioning the word “Consubstantial,” and if a Council and the Pope were not infallible so far in their judgment of language, neither Pope nor Council could draw up a dogmatic definition at all, for the right exercise of words is involved in the right exercise of thought.

10. And in like manner, as regards the precepts concerning moral duties, it is not in every such precept that the Pope is infallible. As a definition of faith must be drawn from the Apostolic depositum of doctrine, in order that it may be considered an exercise of infallibility, whether in the Pope or a Council, so too a precept of morals, if it is to be accepted as from an infallible voice, must be drawn from the Moral law, that primary revelation to us from God.

That is, in the first place, it must relate to things in themselves good or evil. If the Pope prescribed lying or revenge, his command would simply go for nothing, as if he had not issued it, because he has no power over the Moral Law. If he forbade his flock to eat any but vegetable food, or to dress in a particular fashion (questions of decency and modesty not coming into the question), he would also be going beyond the province of faith, because such a rule does not relate to a matter in itself good or bad. But if he gave a precept all over the world for the adoption of lotteries instead of tithes or offerings, certainly it would be very hard to prove that he was contradicting the Moral Law, or ruling a practice to be in itself good which was in itself evil; and there are few persons but would allow that it is at least doubtful whether lotteries are abstractedly evil, and in a doubtful matter the Pope is to be believed and obeyed.

However, there are other conditions besides this, necessary for the exercise of Papal infallibility, in moral subjects:—for instance, his definition must relate to things necessary for salvation. No one would so speak of lotteries, nor of a particular dress, nor of a particular kind of food;—such precepts, then, did he make them, would be simply external to the range of his prerogative.

And again, his infallibility in consequence is not called into exercise, unless he speaks to the whole world; for, if his precepts, in order to be dogmatic, must enjoin what is necessary to salvation, they must be necessary for all men. Accordingly orders which issue from him for the observance of particular countries, or political or religious classes, have no claim to be the utterances of his infallibility. If he enjoins upon the hierarchy of Ireland to withstand mixed education, this is no exercise of his infallibility.

It may be added that the field of morals contains so little that is unknown and unexplored, in contrast with revelation and doctrinal fact, which form the domain of faith, that it is difficult to say what portions of moral teaching in the course of 1800 years actually have proceeded from the Pope, or from the Church, or where to look for such. Nearly all that either oracle has done in this respect, has been to condemn such propositions as in a moral point of view are false, or dangerous or rash; and these condemnations, besides being such as in fact will be found to command the assent of most men, as soon as heard, do not necessarily go so far as to present any positive statements for universal acceptance.

11. With the mention of condemned propositions I am brought to another and large consideration, which is one of the best illustrations that I can give of that principle of minimizing so necessary, as I think, for a wise and cautious theology: at the same time I cannot insist upon it in the connexion into which I am going to introduce it, without submitting myself to the correction of divines more learned than I can pretend to be myself.

The infallibility, whether of the Church or of the Pope, acts principally or solely in two channels, in direct statements of truth, and in the condemnation of error. The former takes the shape of doctrinal definitions, the latter stigmatizes propositions as heretical, next to heresy, erroneous, and the like. In each case the Church, as guided by her Divine Master, has made provision for weighing as lightly as possible on the faith and conscience of her children.

As to the condemnation of propositions all she tells us is, that the thesis condemned when taken as a whole, or, again, when viewed in its context, is heretical, or blasphemous, or impious, or whatever like epithet she affixes to it. We have only to trust her so far as to allow ourselves to be warned against the thesis, or the work containing it. Theologians employ themselves in determining what precisely it is that is condemned in that thesis or treatise; and doubtless in most cases they do so with success; but that determination is not de fide; all that is of faith is that there is in that thesis itself, which is noted, heresy or error, or other like peccant matter, as the case may be, such, that the censure is a peremptory command to theologians, preachers, students, and all other whom it concerns, to keep clear of it. But so light is this obligation, that instances frequently occur, when it is successfully maintained by some new writer, that the Pope’s act does not imply what it has seemed to imply, and questions which seemed to be closed, are after a course of years re-opened. In discussions such as these, there is a real exercise of private judgment and an allowable one; the act of faith, which cannot be superseded or trifled with, being, I repeat, the unreserved acceptance that the thesis in question is heretical, or the like, as the Pope or the Church has spoken of it.

In these cases which in a true sense may be called the Pope’s negative enunciations, the opportunity of a legitimate minimizing lies in the intensely concrete character of the matters condemned; in his affirmative enunciations a like opportunity is afforded by their being more or less abstract. Indeed, excepting such as relate to persons, that is, to the Trinity in Unity, the Blessed Virgin, the Saints, and the like, all the dogmas of Pope or of Council are but general, and so far, in consequence, admit of exceptions in their actual application,—these exceptions being determined either by other authoritative utterances, or by the scrutinizing vigilance, acuteness, and subtlety of the Schola Theologorum.

One of the most remarkable instances of what I am insisting on is found in a dogma, which no Catholic can ever think of disputing, viz., that “Out of the Church, and out of the faith, is no salvation.” Not to go to Scripture, it is the doctrine of St. Ignatius, St. Irenæus, St. Cyprian in the first three centuries, as of St. Augustine and his contemporaries in the fourth and fifth. It can never be other than an elementary truth of Christianity; and the present Pope has proclaimed it as all Popes, doctors, and bishops before him. But that truth has two aspects, according as the force of the negative falls upon the “Church” or upon the “salvation.” The main sense is, that there is no other communion or so called Church, but the Catholic, in which are stored the promises, the sacraments, and other means of salvation; the other and derived sense is, that no one can be saved who is not in that one and only Church. But it does not follow, because there is no Church but one, which has the Evangelical gifts and privileges to bestow, that therefore no one can be saved without the intervention of that one Church. Anglicans quite understand this distinction; for, on the one hand, their Article says, “They are to be had accursed (anathematizandi) that presume to say, that every man shall be saved by (in) the law or sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that law and the light of nature;” while on the other hand they speak of and hold the doctrine of the “uncovenanted mercies of God.” The latter doctrine in its Catholic form is the doctrine of invincible ignorance—or, that it is possible to belong to the soul of the Church without belonging to the body; and, at the end of 1800 years, it has been formally and authoritatively put forward by the present Pope (the first Pope, I suppose, who has done so), on the very same occasion on which he has repeated the fundamental principle of exclusive salvation itself. It is to the purpose here to quote his words; they occur in the course of his Encyclical, addressed to the Bishops of Italy, under date of August 10, 1863.

We and you know, that those who lie under invincible ignorance as regards our most Holy Religion, and who, diligently observing the natural law and its precepts, which are engraven by God on the hearts of all, and prepared to obey God, lead a good and upright life, are able, by the operation of the power of divine light and grace, to obtain eternal life.”

Who would at first sight gather from the wording of so forcible a universal, that an exception to its operation, such as this, so distinct, and, for what we know, so very wide, was consistent with holding it?

Another instance of a similar kind is suggested by the general acceptance in the Latin Church, since the time of St. Augustine, of the doctrine of absolute predestination, as instanced in the teaching of other great saints besides him, such as St. Fulgentius, St. Prosper, St. Gregory, St. Thomas, and St. Buonaventure. Yet in the last centuries a great explanation and modification of this doctrine has been effected by the efforts of the Jesuit School, which have issued in the reception of a distinction between predestination to grace and predestination to glory; and a consequent admission of the principle that, though our own works do not avail for bringing us under the action of grace here, that does not hinder their availing, when we are in a state of grace, for our attainment of eternal glory hereafter. Two saints of late centuries, St. Francis de Sales and St. Alfonso, seemed to have professed this less rigid opinion, which is now the more common doctrine of the day.

Another instance is supplied by the Papal decisions concerning Usury. Pope Clement V., in the Council of Vienne, declares, “If any one shall have fallen into the error of pertinaciously presuming to affirm that usury is no sin, we determine that he is to be punished as a heretic.” However, in the year 1831 the Sacred Pœnitentiaria answered an inquiry on the subject, to the effect that the Holy See suspended its decision on the point, and that a confessor who allowed of usury was not to be disturbed, “non esse inquietandum.” Here again a double aspect seems to have been realized of the idea intended by the word usury.

To show how natural this process of partial and gradually developed teaching is, we may refer to the apparent contradiction of Bellarmine, who says “the Pope, whether he can err or not, is to be obeyed by all the faithful” (Rom. Pont. iv. 2), yet, as I have quoted him above, p. 52-53, sets down (ii. 29) cases in which he is not to be obeyed. An illustration may be given in political history from the discussions which took place years ago as to the force of the Sovereign’s Coronation Oath to uphold the Established Church. The words were large and general, and seemed to preclude any act on his part to the prejudice of the Establishment; but lawyers succeeded at length in making a distinction between the legislative and executive action of the Crown, which is now generally accepted.

These instances out of many similar are sufficient to show what caution is to be observed, on the part of private and unauthorized persons, in imposing upon the consciences of others any interpretation of dogmatic enunciations which is beyond the legitimate sense of the words, inconsistent with the principle that all general rules have exceptions, and unrecognized by the Theological Schola.

12. From these various considerations it follows, that Papal and Synodal definitions, obligatory on our faith, are of rare occurrence; and this is confessed by all sober theologians. Father O’Reilly, for instance, of Dublin, one of the first theologians of the day, says:—

“The Papal Infallibility is comparatively seldom brought into action. I am very far from denying that the Vicar of Christ is largely assisted by God in the fulfilment of his sublime office, that he receives great light and strength to do well the great work entrusted to him and imposed on him, that he is continually guided from above in the government of the Catholic Church. But this is not the meaning of Infallibility … What is the use of dragging in the Infallibility in connexion with Papal acts with which it has nothing to do,—papal acts, which are very good and very holy, and entitled to all respect and obedience, acts in which the Pontiff is commonly not mistaken, but in which he could be mistaken and still remain infallible in the only sense in which he has been declared to be so?” (The Irish Monthly, Vol. ii. No. 10, 1874.)

This great authority goes on to disclaim any desire to minimize, but there is, I hope, no real difference between us here. He, I am sure, would sanction me in my repugnance to impose upon the faith of others more than what the Church distinctly claims of them: and I should follow him in thinking it a more scriptural, Christian, dutiful, happy frame of mind, to be easy, than to be difficult, of belief. I have already spoken of that uncatholic spirit, which starts with a grudging faith in the word of the Church, and determines to hold nothing but what it is, as if by demonstration, compelled to believe. To be a true Catholic a man must have a generous loyalty towards ecclesiastical authority, and accept what is taught him with what is called the pietas fidei, and only such a tone of mind has a claim, and it certainly has a claim, to be met and to be handled with a wise and gentle minimism. Still the fact remains, that there has been of late years a fierce and intolerant temper abroad, which scorns and virtually tramples on the little ones of Christ.

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I end with an extract from the Pastoral of the Swiss Bishops, a Pastoral which has received the Pope’s approbation.

“It in no way depends upon the caprice of the Pope, or upon his good pleasure, to make such and such a doctrine, the object of a dogmatic definition. He is tied up and limited to the divine revelation, and to the truths which that revelation contains. He is tied up and limited by the Creeds, already in existence, and by the preceding definitions of the Church. He is tied up and limited by the divine law, and by the constitution of the Church. Lastly, he is tied up and limited by that doctrine, divinely revealed, which affirms that alongside religious society there is civil society, that alongside the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy there is the power of temporal Magistrates, invested in their own domain with a full sovereignty, and to whom we owe in conscience obedience and respect in all things morally permitted, and belonging to the domain of civil society.”

 

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Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Saturday, October 19, AD 2013 6:48am

The whole of Bl John Henry Newman’s Letter to the Duke of Norfolk (of which the above is an extract) repays careful study. Chapters 6 on the Encyclical of 1864 and Chapter 7 on the notorious Syllabus of Errors (which he shows to be destitute of any dogmatic authority whatsoever) reminds one that Newman was also the author of Tract 90, in which he demonstrated, to the horror of Protestant Oxford, that the Thirty-Nine Articles could be harmonized with the teaching of Trent.

The reference in paragraph 11 above to the great mystery of predestination should serve to remind us that on many matters, such as grace and free will, the Church has contented herself with condemning certain errors, Calvinist, Jansenist, or Pelagian, whilst leaving theologians free to hold various conflicting opinions and the faithful to adopt a reverent agnosticism towards any and all of them.

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Sunday, October 20, AD 2013 12:02am

[…] FMC, Ignitum Today Reform & Renewal: Legion of Christ General Ch. Set for January – CNA Cardinal Newman on Papal Infallibility – Donald R. McClarey JD, TACthlc The Jonah Experience: Prophets of Life – Sr. Lisa […]

Jay
Jay
Wednesday, October 23, AD 2013 10:11am

Major problems with the papacy to begin with. There is no office of pope in the NT nor a supreme leader of the entire church for at least 500 years. Also, popes were not always considered infallible.

Jay
Jay
Wednesday, October 23, AD 2013 7:40pm

Peter was not a “pope” i.e. supreme leader of the church. He never refers to himself in this way nor do the other apostles. There is no one in the early centuries who has the supreme power over the entire church. No on is referred to as some kind of supreme leader of the entire church for centuries. Not even I Clement makes such a claim nor does Clement himself claim to be the supreme leader of the entire. Read i Clement and you will find that he never refers to himself as such.

Jay
Jay
Wednesday, October 23, AD 2013 9:05pm

Those passages in the gospels do not support the idea that Jesus was making Peter the supreme leader of the church. Rather they do show he was one of the leaders and he did play an important part. However, he was not the supreme ultimate leader of the entire church. Even in Acts 15 we do not see him acting as the supreme leader that we would expect a modern pope to have. It was James, and not Peter who made the final decision in Acts 15:19. We also know by studying the NT that no apostle ever attests to Peter being the supreme leader of the entire church.

In regards to Clement, he does not make any claim to being the supreme leader of the entire. One church helping out another church does not make a papacy. The first time a bishop appealed to Peter for authority was not until around 250 by Stephen.

Roman Catholic historian von Dollinger on papal succession:

“Of all the Fathers who interpret these passages (Matthew 16:18; John 21:17), not a single one applies them to the Roman bishops as Peter’s successors. How many Fathers have busied themselves with these three texts, yet not one of them who commentaries we possess–Origen, Chrysostom, Hilary, Augustine, Cyril, Theodoret, and those whose interpretations are collected in catenas–has dropped the faintest hint that the primacy of Rome is the consequence of the commission and promise to Peter!

Not one of them has explained the rock or foundation on which Christ would build His Church as the office given to Peter to be transmitted to his successors, but they understood by it either Christ Himself, or Peter’s confession of faith in Christ; often both together (Cited in Hunt D. A Women Rides the Beast. Harvest House Publishers, Eugene (OR) p. 146).”

“ALTHOUGH CATHOLIC TRADITION, BEGINNING IN the late second and early third centuries, regards St. Peter as the first bishop of Rome and, therefore, as the first pope, there is no evidence that Peter was involved in the initial establishment of the Christian community in Rome (indeed, what evidence there is would seem to point in the opposite direction) or that he served as Rome’s first bishop…He often shared his position of prominence with James and John…However, there is no evidence that before his death Peter actually served the church of Rome as its first bishop, even though the “fact” is regularly taken for granted by a wide spectrum of Catholics and others (McBrien, Richard P. Lives of the Popes: The Pontiffs from St. Peter to Benedict XVI. Harper, San Francisco, 2005 updated ed., pp. 25,29).

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Thursday, October 24, AD 2013 12:41am

Those passages in the gospels do not support the idea that Jesus was making Peter the supreme leader of the church. Rather they do show he was one of the leaders and he did play an important part. However, he was not the supreme ultimate leader of the entire church. Even in Acts 15 we do not see him acting as the supreme leader that we would expect a modern pope to have.

And why would we expect him to?

In regards to Clement, he does not make any claim to being the supreme leader of the entire. One church helping out another church does not make a papacy.

The church in Corinth could have sought counsel from Antioch or Alexandria. But they didn’t.

You’ve cited Hunt citing Dollinger. Just out of curiousity, have you checked Dollinger for yourself?

At the risk of sounding persnickity, I’m not sure I’d trust the author of a book subtitled The Roman Catholic Church and the Last Days to have presented & sourced the evidence for his argument completely and fairly. At least not without doing some verification first.

And certainly not after glancing at Amazon’s most helpful review of the book.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Thursday, October 24, AD 2013 7:16am

I’m working on my rant covering the post-modern cesspool they call, “scholarship.”

Jay
Jay
Thursday, October 24, AD 2013 10:05am

Donald,
You claim that “Von Dollinger broke with the Church over Vatican I. He was writing these words in the heat of controversy and not as a scholar” is irrelevant to what he wrote. Either its true or not that ““Of all the Fathers who interpret these passages (Matthew 16:18; John 21:17), not a single one applies them to the Roman bishops as Peter’s successors”.

All you need to do is to show is a church father interpreting Matthew 16:18; John 21:17 as being applied to the “Roman bishops as Peter’s successors”. If you can do that then it would appear he was lying. If not, then we have no reason to doubt him.

Same principle applies to McBrien. Is it true or not that “there is no evidence that before his death Peter actually served the church of Rome as its first bishop”? What is the evidence that he did?

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Thursday, October 24, AD 2013 11:34am

In the first three centuries, when Christian communities were widely scattered, mostly poor and sometimes persecuted, the opportunities for the exercise of papal power, be it what it may, would be necessarily limited. That Anicetus should show a measure of deference to Polycarp, a man “who had spoken with John and with others who had seen the Lord,” over the Pascal controversy is less important than that Polycarp consulted him. That Irenaeus, the pupil of Polycarp, should urge Pope Victor to conciliate the churches of Asia over the same question is an argument in favour of the bishop of Rome’s authority, rather than detracting from it.

That the Fathers should have no developed teaching on an authority still nascent is not at all surprising.

Jay
Jay
Thursday, October 24, AD 2013 12:42pm

There is no papal power in the first century after the apostles being exercised. No one man had supreme power over the entire church at the time. What did Linus do that showed him to be the supreme leader of the entire church? Do other churches in this period acknowledge him as the supreme leader of the church?

Jay
Jay
Thursday, October 24, AD 2013 1:23pm

I Clement does not prove the papacy. Clement never refers to himself as the supreme leader of the church. If you read the letter carefully you will find he uses phrases such as “we” and “us”. To prove a papacy you need to show at least the following:
1) One individual claims to be the supreme leader of the entire church
2) Other churches acknowledging this claim
3) Some kind of letter that demands it to be obeyed by the entire church.

We don’t see this kind of thing in the first few centuries.

Jay
Jay
Thursday, October 24, AD 2013 1:58pm

There is no way for Paul or Peter to have founded the church at Rome. Rome was 1500 miles away and they were recorded in Acts to have been close to Jerusalem.

Where in the NT does Peter refer to himself as the “chief of the apostles”? Where do the other apostles say this?

Talking about one person succeeding another person does not make a papacy. That kind of thing went on in many churches in the early centuries. It still goes on today. To have a papacy you must have at least the 3 requirements that I mentioned. Those principles we do not see in the early centuries.

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Thursday, October 24, AD 2013 2:11pm

You know what else you won’t find any evidence for, either in the Bible or in the Fathers of the Early Church?

Sola Scriptura

Jay
Jay
Thursday, October 24, AD 2013 2:24pm

What Ireanaeus is claiming that Peter and Paul “founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles”. There is no historical support for this claim.

Peter was one of the leaders of the ancient church but not the supreme leader. No human being was because they knew the supreme leader of the church was the Lord Christ.

When Paul wanted to confirm his message that he received directly Christ he did not go to Peter alone but to the pillars of the church who were James, Cephas and John (Gal 2:9). This shows that Paul did not think of one man being the supreme leader of the entire church.

Peter was given the keys of the kingdom. How did he use these keys?

Jay
Jay
Thursday, October 24, AD 2013 2:50pm

Ernst,
What is Sola Scriptura? How would you define it?

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Thursday, October 24, AD 2013 4:41pm

I would characterize Sola Scriptura freely as the idea that the Bible is the only authority a Christian need recognize as the source of what he believes.

When Paul wanted to confirm his message that he received directly Christ he did not go to Peter alone but to the pillars of the church who were James, Cephas and John (Gal 2:9). This shows that Paul did not think of one man being the supreme leader of the entire church.

Peter was given the keys of the kingdom. How did he use these keys?

To found Christ’s Church, of course. What happened to James and John, the churches they founded, and their apostolic successors What happened to Cephas’s?

(Sorry for the late reply –kids and their homework. Also apologies in advance for the delayed reply to your response, if any –kids and their supper.)

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Thursday, October 24, AD 2013 5:01pm

Quickly though, since we’re playing “Let’s Define the Terms!” We might want to get back to this for a sec:

There is no office of pope in the NT nor a supreme leader of the entire church for at least 500 years. Also, popes were not always considered infallible.

How are you using “office” institutionally or vocationally? What is it that you think the Catholic Curch teaches about Papal Infallibility?

I’m going to guess you think that Catholics think the Pope can never be wrong about anything, right?

Jay
Jay
Thursday, October 24, AD 2013 5:48pm

Ernst,
No problems with replies. Its amazing people can have discussion across the planet on this kind of format.

Sola Scriptura rests on the fact that the Scriptures alone are the inspired-inerrant Word of God and what follows from this is the Scripture alone has the ultimate-final authority for what is to be believed and practiced. There is no higher authority for the Christian.

Peter used the keys-authority on his preaching on Pentecost by preaching the gospel of Christ. Other apostles also preached this gospel that saves.

There is no office of a pope like there is an office of a bishop or elder in the NT.
Papal infalliblity means “Infallibility belongs in a special way to the pope as head of the bishops (Matt. 16:17–19; John 21:15–17). As Vatican II remarked, it is a charism the pope “enjoys in virtue of his office, when, as the supreme shepherd and teacher of all the faithful, who confirms his brethren in their faith (Luke 22:32), he proclaims by a definitive act some doctrine of faith or morals.”
http://www.catholic.com/tracts/papal-infallibility

There are many problems with this. Matt. 16:17–19; John 21:15–17 says nothing about being the head of bishops.

Mary De Voe
Thursday, October 24, AD 2013 7:02pm

“But who do you say that I AM?” Simon Peter answered and said,”Thou are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Then Jesus answered and said, “Blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to thee, but my Father in heaven. And I say to thee, thou art Peter and upon this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever thou shalt loose of earth shalt be loosed in heaven.” Matt 16: 16-20
The Holy Spirit is God. God is infallible. The Holy Spirit calls men to the priesthood to act “in Persona Christi.” The Holy Spirit calls priests to the office of Bishops to act “in Persona Christi”. The Holy Spirit calls bishops to the office of Vicar of Christ on earth, Pope, Head of the Catholic Church to act “in Persona Christi”. The Pope, the Bishops and the priests are the Magisterial Body of Christ Who is the Truth. Truth is infallible or it is a lie.

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Thursday, October 24, AD 2013 7:28pm

Sola Scriptura rests on the fact that the Scriptures alone are the inspired-inerrant Word of God and what follows from this is the Scripture alone has the ultimate-final authority for what is to be believed and practiced. There is no higher authority for the Christian.

And you know this because the Bible told you so?

There is no office of a pope like there is an office of a bishop or elder in the NT

And yet the opinion of the Bishop of Rome was something worth having when there was a disagreement within the church.

Jay
Jay
Thursday, October 24, AD 2013 7:59pm

Mary,
Are the popes, the Bishops and the priests infallible?

Jay
Jay
Thursday, October 24, AD 2013 8:01pm

Ernst,
Yes. The Scripture does claim to be the inspired Word of God (2 Tim 3:16).

Actually the papacy has caused divisions in the church. Just look at church history.

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Thursday, October 24, AD 2013 11:02pm

I was referring more to the second half of your explaination of Sola Scriptura, the part about how “[it] alone has the ultimate-final authority for what is to be believed and practiced.”

I see in 2 Tim 3:16 that Scripture is “useful for teaching, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work. But, to use your own words, there seems to be a problem here for the idea that scripture is “alone … the ultimate-final authority.”

We see in 1 Tim 3:15, for example, that the church itself is “the pillar and foundation of truth[,]” not Scripture.

We also see Paul in 2 Thes say “stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours.” (2:15)

What we don’t see is anything in the Bible saying the Bible itelf is ultimately and finally authoriative.

Kind of like with your argument about the office of Supreme Pontiff, don’t you think?

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Friday, October 25, AD 2013 3:55am

In his History of Latin Christianity, Henry Hart Milman notes what he considers the remarkably ability of the early pontiffs to “anticipate the mind of the Church.” The Church fixes the date of Easter, the Church decides that heretics need not be rebaptized, the Church decides that the Incarnate combined two Natures in one Person; but each time Rome is in the lead and often appears isolated at first.

To take one striking example, Pope Stephen (254-257) appeals to the tradition of his predecessors in upholding the validity of heretical baptism. He appears as a lone voice: the Apostolic Canons, the Synods of Iconium and Synnada, Clement of Alexandria, Firmilian, St. Basil, Tertullian, St. Cyprian, St. Cyril, St. Athanasius, Optatus and St. Ambrose, all teach that the baptism of heretics “does not heal, does not cleanse, but defiles.” Nevertheless, the Roman view prevails and, 150 years later St Augustine and the North African bishops embrace it and the Novatians and Donatists are declared heretics for denying it.

Now, Milman can only speak of the foresight and astuteness of the early popes, which is really no explanation at all. The simple answer is that to be orthodox and to be in communion with Rome was one and the same; the “Catholic party,” a phrase he frequently uses without defining it, is the party that includes the bishop of Rome. Any attempt to define the Church by her teaching or Christians by their tenets can only end in a vicious circle; the faithful were those in visible communion with the see of Rome and heretics were those separated from her communion.

Mary De Voe
Friday, October 25, AD 2013 6:43am

“Are the popes, the Bishops and the priests infallible?”
The Popes, the Bishops and the priests are infallible when they speak the TRUTH. The TRUTH is the Word of God, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is infallible. Infallibility rests when the Bishop of Rome , the Vicar of Christ on earth for “thou art Peter” speaks in concert with the Magisterium, a necessary step because of heresy. When the sola scriptura is translated or interpreted badly or when there is isogesis, a reading into the Holy Scripture some fact that is not in Holy Scripture, only somebody’s opinion, only the infallibility of the Pope speaking with the Magisterium through the Holy Spirit can ascertain the validity of the fact. We have as proof the “IMPRIMATUR”(go ahead and print) and the”NIHIL OBSTAT” ( no objection found), the working of the Holy Spirit in the Catholic Church.
Every person who is brought into existence must submit his imperfect knowledge to some Divine Authority, because man is imperfect. Every person needs the Spiritual and Corporal works of mercy, to be counseled, to be admonished, to be nourished in the Faith. Without infallibility both shall fall into the pit.

“Actually the papacy has caused divisions in the church. Just look at church history.”
Error and the pride that goes with error has caused divisions in the Church, in the families and in the world. Divine Authority speaking through the Magisterium is God’s gift of WISDOM to heal and guide. Infallibility, the inability to fall into the pit, is an absolute necessity.

Jay
Jay
Saturday, October 26, AD 2013 10:43am

Ernst,
You wrote-“What we don’t see is anything in the Bible saying the Bible itelf is ultimately and finally authoritative.”
Since we agree that the Bible is inspired-inerrant and is the only thing in the world that is, then it follows it alone is “ultimately and finally authoritative”.

Jay
Jay
Saturday, October 26, AD 2013 10:47am

Mary,
When you speak the truth are you infallible?

No man or institution is infallible because men are fallen and can err. The only one who has ever lived that was infallible was the Lord Christ. He alone of all humanity was infallible.

History shows your church has erred not just once but many times. One does not need to be infallible to teach and know the truth.

trackback
Saturday, October 26, AD 2013 4:32pm

[…] Cardinal Newman on Papal Infallibility“It in no way depends upon the caprice of the Pope, or upon his good pleasure, to make such and such a doctrine, the object of a dogmatic definition. He is tied up and limited to the divine revelation, and to the truths which that revelation contains. He is tied up and limited by the Creeds, already in existence, and by the preceding definitions of the Church. He is tied up and limited by the divine law, and by the constitution of the Church.…more […]

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Monday, October 28, AD 2013 1:26am

Since we agree that the Bible is inspired-inerrant and is the only thing in the world that is, then it follows it alone is “ultimately and finally authoritative”.

No it doesn’t follow. Partly because the Church and Tradition are older than the Bible.

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Monday, October 28, AD 2013 4:11am

Mgr Ronald Knox made a rather obvious point, when he said, “For three centuries the true issue between the two parties was obscured, owing to the preposterous action of the Protestants in admiring Biblical inspiration. The Bible, it appeared, was common ground between the combatants, the Bible, therefore, was the arena of the struggle; from it the controversialist, like David at the brook, must pick up texts to sling at hus adversary. In fact, of course, the Protestant had no conceivable right to base any arguments on the inspiration of the Bible, for the inspiration of the Bible was a doctrine which had been believed, before the Reformation, on the mere authority of the Church; it rested on exactly the same basis as the doctrine of Transubstantiation. Protestantism repudiated Transubstantiation, and in doing so repudiated the authority of the Church; and then, without a shred of logic, calmly went on believing in the inspiration of the Bible, as if nothing had happenedl Did they suppose that Biblical inspiration was a self-evident fact, like the axioms of EuclidP Or did they derive it from some words of our Lord? If so, what words? What authority have we, apart from that of the Church, to say that the Epistles of Paul are inspired, and the Epistle of Bamabas is not? It is, perhaps, the most amazing and the most tragic spectacle in the history of thought, the picture of blood flowing, fires blazing, and kingdoms changing hands for a century and a half, all in defence of a vicious circle.”

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Monday, October 28, AD 2013 11:09am

[T]he inspiration of the Bible was a doctrine which had been believed, before the Reformation, on the mere authority of the Church[.] … What authority have we, apart from that of the Church, to say that the Epistles of Paul are inspired, and the Epistle of Bamabas is not?

I like that quote (the rest of too, of course).

Jay
Jay
Monday, October 28, AD 2013 7:32pm

Ernst,
Is the church and its traditions inspired-inerrant?

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Monday, October 28, AD 2013 10:33pm

You’d better hope so, Jay, or how else are you going to trust your Bible?

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Tuesday, October 29, AD 2013 3:16am

Jay
Newman explains the notion of tradition very well, “If again it be objected that, upon the notion of an unwritten transmission of doctrine, there is nothing to show that the faith of today was the faith of yesterday, nothing to connect this age and the Apostolic, the theologians of Rome maintain, on the contrary, that over and above the corroborative though indirect testimony of ecclesiastical writers, no error could have arisen in the Church without its being protested against and put down on its first appearance; that from all parts of the Church a cry would have been raised against the novelty, and a declaration put forth, as we know in fact was the practice of the early Church, denouncing it. And thus they would account for the indeterminateness on the one hand, yet on the other the accuracy and availableness of their existing Tradition or unwritten Creed. It is latent, but it lives. It is silent, like the rapids of a river, before the rocks intercept it. It is the Church’s unconscious habit of opinion and sentiment; which she reflects upon, masters, and expresses, according to the emergency. We see then the mistake of asking for a complete collection of the Roman Traditions; as well might we ask for a full catalogue of a man’s tastes and thoughts on a given subject. Tradition in its fulness is necessarily unwritten; it is the mode in which a society has felt or acted during a certain period, and it cannot be circumscribed any more than a man’s countenance and manner can be conveyed to strangers in any set of propositions.”
I should contend that it simply another name for the promised guidance of the Holy Spirit in the Church.

Jay
Jay
Tuesday, October 29, AD 2013 10:15am

Ernst,
How can your church be inspired-inerrant given all the problems it has? The fact is that Jesus never made the church inspired-inerrant nor protected it from error. Just read the 1st 3 chapters of Revelation to see the Lord Jesus rebuking churches for error.

I trust the Bible because of the power of God.

Jay
Jay
Tuesday, October 29, AD 2013 10:19am

Michael,
If “Tradition in its fulness is necessarily unwritten;” then there is no way for any RC to know what it was and is. Anyone can make up something and claim its a “Tradition” since some Traditions were not written down. Anyone can also claim to be guided by the Holy Spirit and justify anything. This is what happens to a church that goes beyond Scripture.

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Tuesday, October 29, AD 2013 12:06pm

How can your church be inspired-inerrant given all the problems it has?

How can the Bible be inspired then, since it was people like the people in the Seven Churches of Asia whom Jesus rebuked who actually wrote down the gospels and the NT letters, and many other letters besides (to say nothing of other “gospels’), before yet other people like those people in the Seven Churches of Asia decided what counted as scripture and what didn’t count?

It seems to me that you’re conflating church, a community of believers, so to speak, with Church, the body of beliefs about God, man and man’s redemption through the Covenant of the Gospel (again colloquially speaking); beliefs lived out in practice.

I trust the Bible because of the power of God.

I trust the Bible and the Tradition which precedes it (at least the New Testament part of the canon) for the same reason.

Ernst Schreiber
Ernst Schreiber
Tuesday, October 29, AD 2013 12:37pm

Anyone can make up something and claim its a “Tradition” since some Traditions were not written down

Out of curiousity, how does one go about making something up, and then claim “we’ve been doing that (believing this) forever,” and not find oneself called out on account of the fact that nobody remembers doing (hearing of) it before?

Jay
Jay
Tuesday, October 29, AD 2013 2:32pm

Ernst,
The inspiration of the Bible does not depend on men but God.
What RC “Tradition” is inspired-inerrant? Is the “Tradition” that Mary was assumed into heaven inspired-inerrant?

One can easily make stuff up. Take the doctrine indulgences. Its not in Scripture but something that your church came up with. There are many doctrines and practices in your church like this.

Jay
Jay
Tuesday, October 29, AD 2013 2:54pm

The church does not make the Bible inspired or inerrant. The church does have authority but not ultimate authority especially when it teaches doctrines not in Scripture.
Catholic does not equal Roman Catholic. Roman Catholicism has unique characteristics that set it apart. Many of these features are not found in the Scripture such as the papacy, papal infallibility, office of priest, celibacy as requirement to lead, the Marian dogmas and indulgences to name a few things that separate it from what the apostles taught.

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