Roman Catholics (RCs) have been basically telling us (often misinterpreting 2 Peter 1:20,21) for centuries that relying on our
judgment of what valid teaching is and what it means is wrong, and that
we need a pope and magisterium to submit to in order to avoid division,
and not only in solemn ex cathedra teachings.
However, then Traditionalist RCs - mainly based upon their own interpretation of selectively chosen pre-modern RC teachings - declare
their own pope (or all modern popes) as wrong and much conciliar teaching (including Vatican 2) as in error, based
upon their judgment of what valid teaching is and means, including as regards what requires assent. Yet which is contrary to many papal teachings of the past.
* Epistola Tua: To the shepherds alone was given all power to teach, to judge, to direct; on the faithful was imposed the duty of following their teaching, of submitting with docility to their judgment , and of allowing themselves to be governed, corrected, and guided by them in the way of salvation.
Thus, it is an absolute necessity for the simple faithful to submit in mind and heart to their own pastors, and for the latter to submit with them to the Head and Supreme Pastor.... Similarly, it is to give proof of a submission which is far from sincere to set up some kind of opposition between one Pontiff and another. Those
who, faced with two differing directives, reject the present one to
hold to the past, are not giving proof of obedience to the authority
which has the right and duty to guide them; and in some ways they
resemble those who, on receiving a condemnation, would wish to appeal to
a future council, or to a Pope who is better informed.
On this point what must be remembered is that in the government of the Church, except for the essential duties imposed on all Pontiffs by their apostolic office, each of them can adopt the attitude which he judges best according to times and circumstances. Of this he alone is the judge.
It is true that for this he has not only special lights, but still more
the knowledge of the needs and conditions of the whole of Christendom,
for which, it is fitting, his apostolic care must provide. - Epistola
Tua (1885), Apostolic Letter of Pope Leo XIII;
http://www.ewtn.com/vexperts/showmessage_print.asp?number=403215&language=en
"It follows that the
Church is essentially an unequal society, that is, a society comprising
two categories of per sons, the Pastors and the flock...the one duty of the multitude is to allow themselves to be led, and, like a docile flock, to follow the Pastors ." - VEHEMENTER NOS, an Encyclical of Pope Pius X promulgated on February 11, 1906.
Nor
can we pass over in silence the audacity of those who, not enduring
sound doctrine, contend that "without sin and without any sacrifice of
the Catholic profession assent and obedience may be refused to those
judgments and decrees of the Apostolic See, whose object is declared to
[only] concern the Church's general good and her rights and discipline,
so only it does not touch the dogmata of faith and morals." But no
one can be found not clearly and distinctly to see and understand how
grievously this is opposed to the Catholic dogma of the full power given
from God by Christ our Lord Himself to the Roman Pontiff of
feeding, ruling and guiding the Universal Church. (Quanta Cura.
Encyclical of Pope Pius IX promulgated on December 8, 1864;
http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius09/p9quanta.htm)
20. Nor must it be thought that what is expounded in Encyclical Letters does not of itself demand consent...
if the Supreme Pontiffs in their official documents purposely pass
judgment on a matter up to that time under dispute, it is obvious that
that matter, according to the mind and will of the Pontiffs, cannot be
any longer considered a question open to discussion among theologians. -
PIUS XII, HUMANI GENERI, August 1950;
http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_12081950_humani-generis.html
The authority (of papal encyclicals) is undoubtedly great". It is, in a sense, sovereign. It is the teaching of the supreme pastor and teacher of the Church. Hence the faithful have a strict obligation to receive this teaching with an infinite respect. A man must not be content simply not to contradict it openly and in a more or less scandalous fashion. An internal mental assent is demanded. It should be received as the teaching sovereignly authorized within the Church." -
Msgr. Joseph Clifford Fenton, esteemed Catholic theologian and
professor of fundamental dogmatic theology at the Catholic University of
America, who served as a peritus for Cardinal Ottaviani at the Second
Vatican Council. Extract from the American Ecclesiastical Review, Vol.
CXXI, August, 1949;
http://www.catholicapologetics.info/thechurch/encyclicals/docauthority.htm
For it is
quite foreign to everyone bearing the name of a Christian to trust his
own mental powers with such pride as to agree only with those things
which he can examine from their inner nature, and to imagine that the
Church, sent by God to teach and guide all nations, is not conversant
with present affairs and circumstances; or even that they must obey only
in those matters which she has decreed by solemn definition as though her other decisions might be presumed to be false or putting forward insufficient motive for truth and honesty.
Quite to the contrary,
a characteristic of all true followers of Christ, lettered or
unlettered, is to suffer themselves to be guided and led in all things
that touch upon faith or morals by the Holy Church of God through its
Supreme Pastor the Roman Pontiff, who is himself guided by Jesus
Christ Our Lord. - CASTI CONNUBII, ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PIUS XI;
https://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19301231_casti-connubii.html
...when we love the Pope, there
are no discussions regarding what he orders or demands, or up to what
point obedience must go, and in what things he is to be obeyed ;
when we love the Pope, we do not say that he has not spoken clearly
enough, almost as if he were forced to repeat to the ear of each one the
will clearly expressed so many times not only in person, but with letters and other public documents ;
we do not place his orders in doubt, adding the facile pretext of those
unwilling to obey – that it is not the Pope who commands, but those who
surround him; we do not limit the field in which he might and must exercise his authority ;
we do not set above the authority of the Pope that of other persons,
however learned, who dissent from the Pope, who, even though learned,
are not holy, because whoever is holy cannot dissent from the Pope.
The
Bishops form the most sacred part of the Church, that which instructs
and governs men by divine right; and so he who resists them and
stubbornly refuses to obey their word places himself outside the Church
[cf. Matt. 18:18]. But obedience must not limit itself to matters
which touch the faith: its sphere is much more vast: it extends to all
matters which the episcopal power embraces. - (Pope Saint Pius X,
Allocution Vi ringrazio to priests on the 50th anniversary of the
Apostolic Union, November 18, 1912, as found at
http://www.christorchaos.com/?q=content/choosing-ignore-pope-leo-xiii-and-pope-saint-pius-x
to scrutinize the actions of a bishop, to criticize them, does not belong to individual Catholics, but concerns only those who, in the sacred hierarchy, have a superior power;
above all, it concerns the Supreme Pontiff, for it is to him that
Christ confided the care of feeding not only all the lambs, but even the
sheep [cf. John 21:17]. - Est Sane Molestum (1888) Apostolic Letter of
Pope Leo XIII;
http://www.novusordowatch.org/est-sane-molestum-leo-xiii.htm
In addition, as concerns social teaching, The "Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church" (2005) states:
80. In the Church’s social doctrine the Magisterium is at work in all its various components and expressions. … Insofar
as it is part of the Church’s moral teaching, the Church’s social
doctrine has the same dignity and authority as her moral teaching. It is
authentic Magisterium, which obligates the faithful to adhere to it .
-
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_compendio-dott-soc_en.html
And it is quite well
evidenced that
the pope's prolix encyclical Laudato si' (http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html)
is intended to teach what the Church's moral teaching demands as
regards ecology and economy. (172 references in this encyclical cite
church teaching and prelates for support).
Thus we
either have Trad. RCs contradicting past papal teaching in dissenting
from modern papal and magisterial teaching, and that Rome's
interpretation of herself is to be trusted. They also disagree on whether a pope can be deposed.
And the fact that the supposed one sure and supreme definer and interpreter of the word of God is herself subject to interpretation testifies that it is not the solution to disunity.
As one
poster wryly stated of V2,
The
last time the church imposed its judgment in an authoritative manner
on "areas of legitimate disagreement," the conservative
Catholics became the Sedevacantists and the Society of St. Pius X,
the moderate Catholics became the conservatives, the liberal
Catholics became the moderates, and the folks who were
excommunicated, silenced, refused Catholic burial, etc. became the
liberals. The event that brought this shift was Vatican II;
conservatives then couldn't handle having to actually obey the church
on matters they were uncomfortable with, so they left. ” Nathan, https://christopherblosser.wordpress.com/2005/05/16/fr-michael-orsi-on-different-levels-of-catholic-teaching (original http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com/blog/2005/05/fr-michael-orsi-on-different-levels-of.html)
Another poster provides a list of notable sects (as of 2019) which traditional Catholics have split themselves into:
1. Church Militant who chastise the Bishops but not the Pope
2. The Wanderer supporters
3. The Remnant led by the brother of the publisher of The Wanderer who now disowns The Wanderer
4. The SSPX
5. Those that believe the SSPX is a valid Catholic organization but aren't members.
6. Those who believe the SSPX is in apostasy
7. Those former members of the SSPX that believe Fellay is too deferential to the Pope
8. Sedevacantists who believe Francis is the first anti-Pope or non-Pope
9. Sedevacantists who believe John XXIII was the first anti-pope or non-Pope and that the Second Vatican Council is invalid
10. Those that believe in various conspiracy theories that the Church
is now completely controlled by: The Vatican Bank, Gays, Masons, Space
Aliens, the Illuminati or some combination of the above
11. Various
groups of reasonable Catholics who either quietly or on record disagree
with the Pope but are unwilling to go all the way and call him a heretic
12. Various groups of reasonable Catholics who are willing to call the
Pope a heretic but are also willing to wait for the process of
replacement to unfold in an orderly manner. - who_would_fardels_bear: https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3755297/posts?page=6#6
The there are confessions such as "Changing My Mind about the Changeable Church," by Richard A. McCormick, S.J.https://www.religion-online.org/article/changing-my-mind-about-the-changeable-church/
However, the real problem is that RC distinctive Catholic teachings are
not manifest in the only wholly inspired substantive authoritative record of what the NT church believed (which is Scripture, especially Acts thru Revelation. which best shows the NT church understood the OT and gospels).
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