From a reader…
QUAERITUR:
Father Z., I see you include soon-to-be Bl. Fulton Sheen’s comments on your sidebar:
Don’t rely on popes, bishops and priests.
“He [Satan] will set up a counter-Church which will be the ape of the Church because, he the devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the anti-Christ that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ. In desperate need for God, whom he nevertheless refuses to adore, modern man in his loneliness and frustration will hunger more and more for membership in a community that will give him enlargement of purpose, but at the cost of losing himself in some vague collectivity.”
“Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops.”– Fulton Sheen
That makes me think of Galations 1:8-9:
8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again, If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.
My question is… How can we, as lay Catholics with the responsibility to pass on the true faith to our children and grandchildren, and others, properly apply that admonishment, given the evident heterodoxy coming from high places in the Church?
*sigh*
You are right to connect Sheen’s warning with Galatians 1:8–9.
St. Paul places even himself beneath the Gospel he received and preached. An assertion about the Faith does not become true because a particular ecclesiastic teaches it. He is bound to teach what is true and has been entrusted to the Church. Similarly, something doesn’t become true because a change is made to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You see the proper foundations and arguments in the footnotes which preceded the formation of the CCC: no support, no authority… gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.
St. Paul’s words do not make every Catholic his own pope, measuring doctrine by personal judgment, or by the increasingly repeated “lived experience”. The standard is the apostolic Faith handed down in Scripture and Tradition and authoritatively taught by the Church through the centuries (cf. Vincent of Lérins).
When something troubling comes from “high places,” first determine exactly a) what was said, b) in what context, and c) with what authority.
A papal interview, an ambiguous remark, a curial document, a disciplinary decision, and a solemn definition do not have equal magisterial weight.
Confusion, imprudence, ambiguity, and material error must also be distinguished from formal and persistent denial of revealed truth.
The faithful have both rights and duties.
Can. 212 §3 recognizes their right, and sometimes their duty, to make concerns known to their pastors, while preserving reverence and regard for the common good. Parents have a grave obligation to educate their children in the Faith. This requires knowledge of Scripture, the Catechism, and the perennial teaching of the Church rather than dependence upon headlines, edited clips, or social-media personalities.
Catholics should interpret statements as favorably as the words reasonably permit, without pretending that genuinely erroneous or confusing language is sound. Novel claims should be compared with what the Church has consistently taught. Respectful questions, petitions, and corrections can be acts of charity toward pastors and those who might be misled.
Alas, also true is the adage, “Quidquid recipitur ad modum recipientis recipitur … Whatever is received is received according to the mode of the one receiving it.”
Meanwhile, legitimate authority must still be recognized. A bad exercise of authority does not abolish authority. St. Paul “opposed [Peter] to his face” at Antioch when Peter’s conduct endangered the faithful, yet Paul neither denied Peter’s office nor established a rival Church.
Jesus Himself warned against confusing legitimate authority with the personal holiness (and by extension wisdom) of those who exercise it. Of the scribes and Pharisees He said: “The scribes and the Pharisees have sat on the chair of Moses. All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do: but according to their works do ye not” (Matthew 23:2–3). Their hypocrisy did not erase the authority associated with Moses’ seat, although it exposed them to severe judgment. Catholics likewise distinguish an ecclesiastical office from the faults of its holder.
Authority deserves obedience within its proper limits, while corrupt conduct and teaching contrary to the received Faith must never be imitated.
Children should therefore be taught neither clericalism (which treats every utterance of a churchman as infallible), nor ecclesiastical anarchism (which obeys only when authority confirms private conclusions).
The sensus fidei belongs to believers – TA DA! – living within the Church, receiving her sacraments, adhering to her perennial teaching, and cultivating humility, prayer, and moral conversion. To have the “sense of the faithful” you have to first be faithful.
Lay Catholics should know the Faith, hand it on faithfully, ask hard questions when necessary, and refuse assent to propositions demonstrably contrary to revelation.
They must do so without rash judgment.
Sheen’s exhortation should be understood in that light.
The laity help “save the Church” by becoming saints, forming strong Catholic families, supporting faithful priests, insisting respectfully upon sound doctrine and reverent worship, and refusing to cooperate in the corruption of the Faith.
Ultimately, Christ alone can His Church.
Our task is to remain faithful instruments in His hands, especially when those charged with strengthening their brethren leave them confused.
EAW on Daily Rome Shot 1700: “Bishop Mutsaers (his car accident doesn’t seem to keep him from writing, thankfully) and Cardinal Müller are spot on. Both…”
