{"id":114201,"date":"2019-11-18T00:22:47","date_gmt":"2019-11-18T07:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=114201"},"modified":"2019-11-13T22:10:24","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T05:10:24","slug":"where-peter-is-has-been-doing-great-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/11\/where-peter-is-has-been-doing-great-work.html","title":{"rendered":"Where Peter Is<\/i> has been doing great work"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Here, for instance, is Paul Fahey, strengthening the faithful against the single greatest enemy the Church faces in this hour<\/a>: right wing Catholics in ceaseless war against the Holy Father and the Magisterium:<\/p>\n

In my spiritual formation as a young adult, the idea of a future schism\u2013refusing to submit to the teaching of the pope\u2013was presented as a \u201cliberal\u201d concept. The idea was that in the name of progress, some Catholics rejected papal teaching on subjects like contraception, same-sex marriage, and women priests. This kind of schismatic believes that Church teaching on these matters hasn\u2019t \u201cdeveloped\u201d far enough, that the truth of their ideas is certain, and that Church teaching needs to catch up.<\/p>\n

In recent years, however, I\u2019ve grown aware of another kind of schism: a \u201cconservative\u201d schism. This occurs when Catholics reject official papal teaching in the name of maintaining tradition. This type of schismatic attitude holds that a when a pope\u2019s teaching has exceeded an acceptable level of development, there has been a rupture with true doctrine. (To be clear, I\u2019m using the word \u201cschism\u201d simply to describe Catholic\u2019s refusal to submit to the Roman Pontiff [see Catechism 2089] and not in the extreme historical sense, as with the the split between Orthodox Christians and Rome in AD 1054.)<\/p>\n

This conservative schism is a rejection of the idea that our faith is alive. Catholic teaching is more like a growing tree than a set of historical texts. Pope Francis is keenly aware of this distinction and has reiterated it multiple times during his papacy, perhaps most explicitly during a meeting with the superior generals of women\u2019s religious orders this past spring. There he said:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Church is not only Denzinger, that is, the collection of dogmatic passages, of historical things. This is true, but the Church develops on her journey in fidelity to Revelation. We cannot change Revelation. It\u2019s true the Revelation develops. The word is \u2018development\u2019 \u2014 it develops with time. And we with time understand the faith better and better. The way to understand the faith today, after Vatican II, is different than the way of understanding the faith before Vatican II. Why? Because there is a development of knowledge. You are right. And this isn\u2019t something new, because the very nature \u2014 the very nature \u2014 of Revelation is in continual movement to clarify itself\u201d (May 10, 2019 meeting of the International Union of Superiors General).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Notice how closely this teaching follows something Pope Saint Paul VI wrote in a 1976 letter to SSPX founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre,\u201cTradition is not a rigid and dead notion, a fact of a certain static sort which at a given moment of history blocks the life of this active organism which is the Church, that is, the mystical body of Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

Revelation is always unfolding, teachings develop as we come to a greater and greater understanding of what God has revealed to us. And it is the role of the Magisterium\u2013the successors of Peter and the other apostles\u2013to be the divinely assisted guides in this dynamic and living process of development. Now, this isn\u2019t some kind of magisterial positivism where the truth is created by papal fiat. Rather, Church teaching proclaims and clarifies the Truth. It\u2019s the difference between the Magisterium writing its own truth and the Magisterium interpreting the Truth.<\/p>\n

This is why,\u00a0in his interview with Ross Douthat<\/a>, the idea expressed by Cardinal Burke\u2013that because his beliefs haven\u2019t changed that he couldn\u2019t possibly be wrong\u2013is problematic. In reference to\u00a0Amoris Laetitia<\/em>, Cardinal Burke said, \u201cI haven\u2019t changed. I\u2019m still teaching the same things I always taught and they\u2019re not my ideas. But now suddenly this is perceived as being contrary to the Roman pontiff.\u201d Then, regarding the Amazonian Synod, the cardinal makes this claim:<\/p>\n

The working document doesn\u2019t have doctrinal value. But what if the pope were to put his stamp on that document? People say if you don\u2019t accept that, you\u2019ll be in schism \u2014 and I maintain that I would not be in schism because the document contains elements that defect from the apostolic tradition. So my point would be the document is schismatic. I\u2019m not.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That a magisterial teaching of the pope could possibly be schismatic (i.e. not submissive to the teaching of the pope) is logically incomprehensible. Isn\u2019t it a blatant contradiction to say that the pope could be disobedient to himself?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why, yes it is. More on this tomorrow.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here, for instance, is Paul Fahey, strengthening the faithful against the single greatest enemy the Church faces in this hour: right wing Catholics in ceaseless war against the Holy Father and the Magisterium: In my spiritual formation as a young adult, the idea of a future schism\u2013refusing to submit to the teaching of the pope\u2013was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-114201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-doings-on-other-blogs"],"yoast_head":"\nWhere Peter Is has been doing great work<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here, for instance, is Paul Fahey, strengthening the faithful against the single greatest enemy the Church faces in this hour: right wing Catholics in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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