Make peace with yourselves so that you may bring peace to others

For those who have read some of my other blogs, you might have noticed that I have little patience for doctrinal dissent among those who claim to be Catholic. Perhaps I lack such patience because for many years, decades in fact, I was a dissenting Catholic. We tend to dislike in others the things that remind us of our own faults. I figure St. Paul's impatience when writing "O, foolish Galatians" (Gal 3:1) had much to do with Saul's own past reliance upon "works of the Law."

I remember writing a paper in college which dissented with the teachings of Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae. I wish I still had that paper, as it would be interesting to note how ill-formed I had been in my teens.

Suffice it to say that I have in my later years, by the mercy of God, been given the gift of metanoia, which has indeed changed my heart and mind.

In this blog I wanted to share a wonderful 1974 exhortation from Paul VI called Paterna cum benevolentia, on reconciliation within the Church. It describes the problem of doctrinal dissent and how contrary it is to the integrity of the faith.

God bless,

Dave

-------------------------------------------

APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION

POPE PAUL VI

ON RECONCILIATION WITHIN THE CHURCH

VENERABLE BROTHERS AND DEAR SONS AND DAUGHTERS: HEALTH AND THE APOSTOLIC BLESSING

With affection, confidence and hope we turn to all of you, our brothers in the Episcopate, the beloved members of the clergy and Religious Families and the Catholic laity. We do so just before the celebration of the Holy Year in Rome at the Basilicas of the Apostles, now that you have already celebrated the Jubilee in the local Churches with piety and with harmony of sentiments and resolves.

It is a moment of great importance for the entire world, which is looking to the Church, but principally so for the sons and daughters of the Church herself-those who are aware of the riches of her mystery of holiness and grace, which the recent Council has opportunely shed light upon. And therefore we address ourself to them with a cordial invitation to charity and to mutual union in the spirit of reconciliation proper to the Holy Year, in the bond of the one love of Christ.

In fact, from the moment in which on 9 May 1973 we manifested our decision to celebrate the Holy Year in 1975, we likewise manifested the primary goal of this spiritual and penitential celebration. This goal was to be reconciliation, founded on conversion to God and the interior renewal of man, and which would heal the rifts and disorders which mankind and the very ecclesial community are suffering from today (1).

Since the beginning of the jubilee celebrations which began by our decision in the local Churches at Pentecost 1973, we have neglected no opportunity of accompanying those celebrations with our doctrinal and pastoral interventions and with pressing reminders of the goal to be reached-a goal which we consider to be in perfect harmony with the most authentic spirit of the Gospel and with the guidelines of renewal formulated by the Second Vatican Council for the entire Church. This Church, established by Christ as a permanent sign of the reconciliation accomplished by him in accordance with the will of the Father (2), has the task "under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who renews and purifies her ceaselessly, to make God the Father and his Incarnate Son present and in a sense visible"(3). In order that this task may be even better fulfilled, it has therefore seemed to us necessary to underline the urgency for everyone in the Church to promote "the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph 4:3).

With the Solemnity of Christmas imminent-the date which we established for the opening of the universal Jubilee in Rome (4)-- we present this Exhortation to the Pastors and faithful of the Church, that they may all become agents and promoters of reconciliation with God and with their brethren, and that this coming Christmas of the Holy Year may truly be for the world the "Birth of Peace" (5), as was the birth of the Saviour.

1. THE CHURCH: A RECONCILED AND RECONCILING WORLD

From the very beginning of the transformation wrought by Christ's redeeming action the Church has been aware and has joyfully proclaimed that through that action the world has become a radically new reality (cf. 2 Cor 5:17) a reality in which men have rediscovered God and hope (cf. Eph 2:12) and even here and now have been made sharers in the glory of God "through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have already gained our reconciliation" (Rom 5:11).

This newness is owed exclusively to the merciful initiative of God (cf. 2 Cor 5: 18-20; Col 1: 20-22)--an initiative that comes to meet man who, having withdrawn from God by his own fault, was no longer able to find peace once more with his Creator.

This initiative of God was then actualized through a direct divine intervention. God in fact has not simply pardoned us, nor has he made use of a mere man as an intermediary between us and himself: he has established his "only begotten Son an intercessor of peace " (6) "For our sake God made the sinless one into sin so that in him we might become the goodness of God" (2 Cor 5:21). In reality, Christ, by dying for us, has cancelled out "every record of the debt that we had to pay; he has done away with it by nailing it to the Cross" (Col 2:14). And by means of the Cross he has reconciled us with God: "In his own person he has killed the hostility" (Eph 2:16).

Reconciliation, effected by God in Christ crucified, is inscribed in the history of the world. That history now includes among its irreversible elements the event of God having become man and having died to save man. But reconciliation finds a permanent historical expression in the Body of Christ, which is the Church, in which the Son of God calls together "his brethren from all peoples" (7) and, as her Head (cf. Col 1: 18), is her principle of authority and of action that constitutes her on earth as a "reconciled world" (8).

Since the Church is the Body of Christ and Christ is the "Saviour of his body" (Eph 5:23), in order to be worthy members of this Body all must in fidelity to the Christian commitment contribute to preserving it in its original nature as the community of those who have been reconciled a community having its origin in Christ, who is our peace (cf. Eph 2:14) and who "makes us reconciled" (9).

In fact, once reconciliation has been received, it is, like grace and like life, an impulse and a current that transform their beneficiaries into agents and transmitters of the same reconciliation. For every Christian the credential of his authenticity in the Church and in the world is this: "First make peace with yourself, so that when you have become peaceful you may bring peace to others" (10).

The duty of making peace extends personally to each and every member of the faithful. If it is not fulfilled, even the sacrifice of worship which they intend to offer (Mt 5:23 ff.) remains ineffective. Mutual reconciliation, in fact, shares in the very value of the sacrifice itself, and together with it constitutes a single offering pleasing to God (11).

In order that this duty may be effectively fulfilled and that reconciliation which takes place in the depths of the heart may have a public character just like the death of Christ that brings it about, the Lord has conferred on the Apostles and on the Church's Pastors, their successors, the "ministry of reconciliation" (2 Cor 5:18). "Taking on as it were the person of Christ" (12), they are permanently deputed "to build up their flock in truth and holiness" (13).

The Church therefore, because she is a "reconciled world", is also a reality that is by nature permanently reconciling. As such she is the presence and the action of God, who "in Christ was reconciling the world to himself" (2 Cor 5:19). This action and presence are expressed primarily in Baptism, in the forgiveness of sins and in the Eucharistic celebration, which is the renewal of the redeeming Sacrifice of Christ and the effective sign of the unity of the People of God (14).

2. THE CHURCH: THE SACRAMENT OF UNITY

Reconciliation, in its double aspect of peace restored between God and men and between man and man, is the first fruit of the Redemption, and like the Redemption has dimensions that are universal both in extent and in intensity. The whole of creation therefore is involved in reconciliation "till the universal restoration comes" (Acts 3:21), when all creatures will again meet Christ, the "first to be born from the dead" (Col 1:18).

And since this reconciliation finds a privileged expression and greater concentration in the Church, the latter is "a kind of sacrament or sign of intimate union with God, and of the unity of all mankind" (15). It is the source from which radiate union of men with God and unity of men among themselves, which, through progressive affirmation in time, will find completion at the end of time.

In order to be able to express fully this sacramentality of hers, with which is bound up the very reason for her existence, the Church must be a meaningful sign, as is demanded of every sacrament. That is, there must be realized and verified in her that harmony and consistency of doctrine, life and worship which marked the first days of her existence (cf. Acts 2:42) and which ever remain her essential element (cf. Eph 4:4-6; 1 Cor 1: 10). This harmony, in contrast to any division that might attack the solidity of her structure, cannot but increase the force of her witness, reveal the reasons for her existence and throw clearer light upon her credibility.

In order to cooperate with God's plans in the world, all the faithful must persevere in fidelity to the Holy Spirit, who unifies the Church in "fellowship and service" and "by the power of the Gospel . . . makes the Church grow, perpetually renews her, and leads her to perfect union with her Spouse" (16). This fidelity cannot fail to have happy ecumenical effects upon the quest for the visible unity of all Christians, in the manner laid down by Christ, in one and the same Church; and this Church will thus be a more effective leaven of fraternal oneness in the community of the peoples.

3. OBSCURING THE SACRAMENTALITY OF THE CHURCH

However, "although by the power of the Holy Spirit the Church has remained the faithful spouse of her Lord and has never ceased to be the sign of salvation on earth, still she is very well aware that among her members, both clerical and lay, some have been unfaithful to the Spirit of God during the course of many centuries" (17). In reality, "from her very beginnings there arose in this one and only Church of God certain rifts, which the Apostle strongly condemns" (18). Therefore when there occurred the well-known breaches that no one knew how to heal, the Church overcame the situation of internal dissension by clearly reaffirming as the irreplaceable condition of communion the principles that make it possible to preserve intact her constitutive unity and to manifest that unity "in the confession of one faith, in the common celebration of divine worship, and in the fraternal harmony of the family of God" (19).

But there appear equally dangerous, and such as to warrant this clarification and call to unity, the ferments of infidelity to the Holy Spirit existing here and there in the Church today and unfortunately attempting to undermine her from within. The promoters and the victims of this process, who are in fact small in number by comparison with the vast majority of the faithful, claim to remain in the Church, with the same rights and opportunities of expression and action as the rest of the faithful, in order to attack ecclesial unity.

Not wishing to recognize in the Church one single reality resulting from a double element both human and divine, analogous to the mystery of the Incarnate Word, which constitutes her "here on earth . . . the community of faith, hope and charity, as a visible structure" through which Christ "communicates truth and grace to all" (20), they set themselves up in opposition to the hierarchy, as though every act of that opposition were a constitutive aspect of the truth of the Church that has to be rediscovered as Christ instituted her.

They question the duty of obedience to the authority willed by Christ; they put on trial the Pastors of the Church, not so much for what they do or how they do it, but simply because, so it is claimed, they are the custodians of an ecclesiastical system or structure that competes with what was instituted by Christ. In this way they cause bewilderment to the whole community, introducing into it the fruits of dialectical theories alien to the spirit of Christ. While making use of the words of the Gospel they change their meaning. We observe this state of things with regret, even though, as we have said, it is very small in comparison with the great mass of the Christian faithful.

But we cannot but inveigh with the same vigour as Saint Paul against this lack of loyalty and justice. We appeal to all Christians of good will not to let themselves be impressed or disorientated by the undue pressures of brethren who are unfortunately misguided, and yet who are always in our prayers and close to our heart.

As for ourself, we reaffirm that the one Church of Christ "constituted and organized in the world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in union with that successor, although many elements of sanctification and truth can be found outside her visible structure" (21).

We likewise reaffirm that these Pastors of the Church, who preside over the People of God in his name, with the humility of servants but also with the frankness of the Apostles (cf. Acts 4:31) of whom they are the successors, have the right and the duty to proclaim: "For as long as . . . we occupy this see, for as long as we preside, we have both authority and power, even though we may be unworthy" (22).

4. SECTORS WHICH OBSCURE THE SACRAMENTALITY OF THE CHURCH

The process that we have described takes the form of doctrinal dissension, which claims the patronage of theological pluralism and is not infrequently taken to the point of dogmatic relativism, which in various ways breaks up the integrity of faith. And even when it is not taken as far as dogmatic relativism, this pluralism is at times regarded as a legitimate theological stand that permits the taking up of positions contrary to the authentic magisterium of the Roman Pontiff himself and of the hierarchy of bishops, who are the sole authoritative interpreters of divine Revelation contained in Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture (23).

We recognize that pluralism of research and thought which in various ways investigates and expounds dogma, but without disintegrating its identical objective meaning, has a legitimate right of citizenship in the Church, as a natural component part of her catholicity, and as a sign of the cultural richness and personal commitment of all who belong to her. We recognize also the inestimable values contributed by pluralism to the sphere of Christian spirituality, to ecclesial and religious institutions and to the spheres liturgical expression and disciplinary norms. These are values which blend together into that "one common aspiration" that "is particularly splendid evidence of the catholicity of the undivided Church" (24).

Indeed we admit that a certain theological pluralism finds its roots in the very mystery of Christ, the inscrutable riches whereof (cf. Eph 3:8) transcend the capacities of expression of all ages and all cultures. Thus the doctrine of the faith which necessarily derives from that mystery-since, in the order of salvation, "the mystery of God is none other than Christ" (25)--calls for constant fresh research.

In reality the dimensions of the Word of God are so many, and so many are the viewpoints of the faithful who explore them (26), that harmony in the same faith is never immune from personal characteristics in the assent of each individual.

Nevertheless, the different emphases in the understanding of the same faith do not prejudice the essential content of that faith, since these emphases are unified in common assent to the Church's magisterium. This magisterium, which is the proximate norm determining the faith of all, is also a guarantee for all against the subjective judgment of every varied interpretation of the faith.

But what is to be said of that pluralism that considers the faith and its expression not as a common and therefore ecclesial heritage but as an individual discovery made by the free criticism and free examination of the word of God? In fact, without the mediation of the Church's magisterium, to which the Apostles entrusted their own magisterium (27) and which therefore teaches "only what has been handed on" (28), the sure union with Christ through the Apostles, who are the ones who hand on "what they themselves had received" (29), is compromised.

And once perseverance in the doctrine transmitted by the Apostles is compromised, what happens is that, perhaps in a desire to avoid the difficulties of mystery, there is a quest for formulas deceptively easy to understand but which dissolve the real content of mystery. Thus there are built up teachings that do not hold fast to the objectivity of the faith or are plainly contrary to it and, what is more, become crystallized side-by-side with concepts that are even mutually contradictory.

Furthermore, we must not shut our eyes to the fact that every concession in the matter of identity of faith also involves a lessening of mutual love.

In fact, those who have lost the joy that derives from the faith (cf. Phil 1:25) are driven, to the detriment of fraternal communion, to seek glory from one another and not to seek that glory which comes only from God (cf. Jn 5:44).

It is impossible to substitute the spirit of faction, which leads to discriminating choices, for the sense of the Church, which recognizes in all the same dignity and freedom of the children of God (30), and in this way also to deprive charity of its natural support, which is justice. It would be vain to try to improve ecclesial communion in accordance with the type shared at the level of factions.

Must not we all, on the contrary, make ourselves perfect through the Gospel? And where does the Gospel manifest fully operative its divinely begotten power if not in the Church, with the contribution of all believers without distinction?

Finally, this spirit of faction reflects negatively also upon the necessary harmony of worship and of prayer, and it manifests itself in an isolation dictated by a spirit of presumption which is certainly not in accordance with the Gospel and which precludes justification before God (cf. Lk 18:10-14).

We try hard to understand the root of this situation, and we compare it to the analogous situation in which contemporary civil society is living, a society which is divided by the splintering up into groups opposed one to another.

Unfortunately, the Church, too, seems to be in some degree experiencing the repercussions of this condition. But she ought not to assimilate what is rather a pathological state. The Church must preserve her original character as a family unified in the diversity of her members. Indeed, she must be the leaven that will help society to react, as was said of the first Christians: "See how much they love one another!" (31). It is with this picture of the first community before our eyes-a picture that is certainly not idyllic, but one that was matured through trials and suffering-that we call upon all to overcome the illicit and dangerous differences and to recognize one another as brethren united by the love of Christ.

5. POLARIZATION OF DISSENT

When the internal oppositions affecting the various sectors of ecclesial life become crystallized into a state of dissension, they reach the point of setting up in opposition to the single institution and community of salvation a plurality of "dissenting institutions of communities." These are not in accordance with the nature of the Church which, with the creation of opposing factions fixed in irreconcilable positions, would lose her very constitutional fabric. There then occurs the "polarization of dissent," by virtue of which all interest is concentrated on the respective groups, in practice autonomous, each one claiming to be giving honor to God. This situation bears within it and, as far as it can, introduces into the ecclesial community the seeds of disintegration.

It is our lively hope that the voice of conscience will lead individuals to a process of reflection which will bring them to a wiser choice. We exhort each and every one of them: "Search out the innermost secrets of your heart and diligently explore all the pathways of your soul" (32). And in each one we would like to reawaken the longing for what he has lost: "Think where you were before you fell: repent, and do as you used to at first" (Rev 2:5). And we should like to exhort each one to reconsider the wonderful things which God has achieved in him and to draw his attention to what this calls for before the Lord: "For there is nothing that a Christian should fear so much as being separated from the body of Christ. For if he is separated from the body of Christ, he is not one of his members; if he is not one of his members, he is not nourished by Christ's spirit. Whosoever does not have the spirit of Christ, says the Apostle, does not belong to Christ" (33).

6. ETHIC AND DYNAMIC OF RECONCILIATION

It is therefore vitally necessary that everyone in the Church-bishops, priests, religious and lay people should take an active share in a common effort for full reconciliation, so that in and between them all there may be reestablished that peace which is "the nursing mother of love and the begetter of unity" (34). Let all then show themselves to be ever more docile disciples of the Lord, who makes reconciliation between us the condition for being forgiven by the Father (cf. Mk 11:26) and mutual charity the condition for being recognized as his disciples (cf. Jn 13: 35). Whoever therefore feels that he is in any way implicated in this state of division, let him return and listen to his own voice irresistibly insisting, even when he is about to pray: "go and be reconciled with your brother first" (Mt. 5:24).

In different degrees and ways according to the position and standing of each individual, and pondering anew God's salvific work for us, let all in unison commit themselves to creating a climate in which reconciliation can become effective. Since we have been reconciled with God through the exclusive initiative of his love, let our conduct be marked by good will and mercy, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven us (cf. Eph 4:31-32).

And since our reconciliation springs from the sacrifice of Christ who freely died for us, may the Cross, set up as a main mast in the Church to guide her in her voyage through the world (35), inspire our mutual relations so that they may all be truly Christian. Let none of these relations ever lack some personal renunciation. From this there will follow a fraternal openness to others such as will allow willing recognition of each one's abilities and will permit all to make their proper contribution to the enrichment of the one ecclesial communion: "Thus through the common sharing of gifts and through the common effort to attain fullness in unity, the whole and each of the parts receive increase" (36). In this sense, one can agree on the fact that unity, properly understood, permits each individual to develop his own personality.

This openness to others, sustained by the willingness to understand and the capacity to make sacrifices, will give stability and order to the performance of that act of charity commanded by the Lord: fraternal correction (cf. Mt 18:15).

Given that this can be done by any one of the faithful to every brother in the faith, it can be the normal means of healing many dissensions or of preventing them from arising (37). In its turn this impels the one who corrects his brother to take the plank out of his own eye (cf. Mt. 7:5), lest the order of correction be perverted (38).

Thus the practice of fraternal correction becomes the beginning of encouragement towards holiness, which alone can confer upon reconciliation its fullness. This fullness consists not in an opportunist making of peace which would conceal the worst of enmities (39) but in interior conversion and in the unifying love in Christ which flows therefrom, such as is effected principally in the sacrament of reconciliation, Penance, whereby the faithful "obtain pardon from the mercy of God for offences committed against him. They are at the same time reconciled with the Church, which they have wounded by their sins" (40), provided that "this sacrament of salvation....is, as it were, rooted in their whole life and is an impulse towards more fervent service of God and fellowman" (41).

It is still the case, however, that "in the building up of the Body of Christ there is a variety of members and functions" (42), and that this diversity provokes inevitable tensions. These can be met with even in the saints, but "not such as would kill harmony, not such as would destroy charity" (43).

How can these tensions be prevented from degenerating into divisions? It is from that very diversity of persons and of functions that there derives the sure principle of ecclesial oneness. In fact the primary and irreplaceable element of that diversity is the Pastors of the Church, constituted by Christ as his ambassadors to the rest of the faithful and for this purpose endowed with an authority which, transcending the individuals' positions and choices, unifies these last in the integrity of the Gospel, which is precisely the "Word of reconciliation" (cf. 2 Cor 5:18-20).

The authority with which the Church's Pastors set forth this word is binding not through acceptance on the part of men but because of its conferral by Christ (cf. Mt 28:18; Mk 16: 15-16; Acts 26:17 ff.). Since therefore whoever hears them or rejects them hears or rejects Christ and him who sent him (cf. Lk 10: 16), the duty of the faithful to obey the authority of the Pastors is an essential requirement of the very nature of Christianity.

The Pastors of the Church, moreover, by nature form a single undivided body with the successor of Peter and in dependence upon him; hence from the harmonious fulfillment and faithful acceptance of their ministry there depend the oneness of faith and communion of all believers, (44), a manifestation to the world of the reconciliation brought about by God in his Church Let a gracious hearing then be granted to the common invocation to the Savior: "Be ever present in the College of Bishops united with our Pope, and grant them the gifts of unity, charity and peace" (45).

Let the sacred Pastors, as they represent Christ himself and take his place in an eminent and visible way (46), thus imitate and infuse into the People of God the love with which he was immolated who "loved the Church and sacrificed himself for her" (Eph 5:25). And may this their renewed love be an effective example to the faithful, in the first place to those priests and religious who may not have lived up to the demands of their own ministry and vocation, so that all in the Church, "united, heart and soul" (cf. Acts 4:32), may return to a commitment "to spread the gospel of peace" (Eph 6:15).

Like a mother, the Church looks with sorrow on the departure of some of her sons on whom the priestly ministry has been conferred or who have been consecrated to the service of God and their brethren by some other special title. Nevertheless she finds consolation and joy in the generous perseverance of all those who have remained faithful to their commitments to Christ and to her. Being supported and comforted by the merits of this great number, she wishes to change also the sorrow which has been visited upon her into a love that can understand everything and in Christ pardon everything.

CONCLUSION

We who, as the successor of Peter, certainly not through our personal merit but in virtue of the apostolic mandate transmitted to us, are, in the Church, the visible principle and foundation of the unity of the sacred Pastors as also of the multitude of the faithful (47), make our appeal for the full reestablishment of that supreme good of reconciliation with God, within us and among us, so that the Church may be an effective sign in the world of union with God and of unity among all his creatures.

This is a demand of our faith in the Church herself, "which in the creed we recognize as one, holy, Catholic and apostolic" (48). To love her, to follow her, to build her up we earnestly exhort all men, making our own the words of Saint Augustine: "Love this Church, remain in such a Church, be such a Church" (49).

This is the invitation that we extend with this Exhortation to all our sons and daughters, especially those who have the responsibility of guiding the brethren. We have wished it to be pastoral and full of confidence, dictated by a spirit of peace. To some perhaps it may seem severe. But it has arisen from a detailed study of the situation of the Church on the one hand, and of the unrenounceable demands of the Gospel on the other. But it has sprung especially from our heart: we have the duty to love the Church with the same spirit of the allegory of the branch that must be pruned in order to bear more fruit (cf. Jn 15:2).

This Exhortation, finally, is backed by a great hope, a hope that the heavy burden of our apostolic mandate has never altered. We are grateful for the fidelity of God. We hope that the Holy Spirit will stir up an irresistible echo to our words: he is already present and working in the inmost heart of each member of the faithful, and he will lead all, in humility and peace, along the paths of truth and love. It is he who is our strength.

We know that the vast majority of the Church's sons and daughters has been awaiting such a call and is prepared to receive it profitably. We trust that the entire People of God-this is our ardent wish-will set out with us, as on the Biblical journey, undertake with us the stages of sanctification of the Jubilee, and be one with us, so that the world may believe. And we trust that they will allow themselves to be guided by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the love of God the Father and by the, fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

We entrust these wishes to the intercession of the Immaculate Virgin "who shines forth to the whole community of the elect as a model of the virtues...and by her profound sharing in the history of salvation unites in a certain way and mirrors within herself the central truths of the faith" (50). And to strengthen the common desire for sanctification and reconciliation we cordially impart our Apostolic Blessing.

Given at Saint Peter's in Rome, on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the eighth day of December in the year 1974, the twelfth of our Pontificate.

Paulus PP. VI ____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________

1. Cf. AAS, p. 323f.

2. Cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 3: AAS 57 (1965), p. 6.

3. Second Vatican Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes,21: AAS 58 (1966), p. 1041.

4. Cf. Bull Apostolorum limina, May 23, 1974: AAS 66 (1974), p. 306.

5. St. Leo the Great, Serm. 26, 5; PL 54, 215.

6. Theodoret of Cyr, interpr. Epist. II ad Cor.: PG 82, 411 A.

7. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 7: AAS 57 (1965), p. 9.

8. St. Augustine, Serm. 96, 7, 8: PL 38, 588.

9. St. Jerome, In Epist. ad Eph. 1, 2: PL 26, 504.

10. St. Ambrose, in Luc. 5, 58: PL 15, 1737.

11. Cf. St. John Chrysostom, in Matth., Homil. 16, 9: PG 57, 250; St. Isidore of Pelusium, Epist. 4, 111: PG 78, 1178; Nicolas Cabasilas, Explic. div. Liturg. 26, 2: Sourc. chr,t. 4 bis, p. 171.

12. St. Cyril of Alexandria, In Epist. II ad Cor.: PG 74, 943 D.

13. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 27: AAS 57 (1965), p. 32.

14. Cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 11: AAS 57 (1965), p. 15.

15. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 1: AAS 57 (1965), p. 5.

16. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 4: AAS 57 (1965), p. 7.

17. Second Vatican Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes, 43: AAS 58 (1966), p. 1064.

18. Second Vatican Council, Decree Unitatis redintegratio, 3: AAS 57 (1965), p. 92.

19. Second Vatican Council, Decree Unitatis redintegratio, 2: AAS 57 (1965), P. 92.

20. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 8: AAS 57 (1965), p. 11.

21. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 8: AAS 57 (1965), p. 12.

22. St. John Chrysostom, In Epist. ad Coloss., Homil. 3,5: PG 62,324.

23. Cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Del Verbum, 10: AAS 58 (1966), P. 822.

24. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 23: AAS 57(1965), p.29.

25. St. Augustine, Epist. 187, 11, 34: PL 33, 845.

26. Cf. St. Ephrem the Syrian, Comnent. Evang. concord. 1, 18. Sourc. chr,t. 121 P. 52.

27. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum, 7: AAS 58 (1966), p. 820.

28. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum, 10: AAS 58(1966), p. 822.

29. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum, 8: AAS 58(1966), p. 820.

30. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 9: AAS 57(1965), p. 13.

31. Tertulllan, Apologeticum, XXIX, 7; Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina I, 1, p. 151.

32. St. Leo the Great, Tract. 84 bis; 2: Corpus Christ. 138 A, p. 53O.

33. St. Augustine, in Jo. Evang., 27, 6: PL 35, 1618.

34. St. Leo the Great, Serm. 26,3: PL 54,214.

35. St. Maximus of Truin, Serm. 37, 2: Corpus Christ. 23,p. 145.

36. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 13: AAS 57(1965), p. 17f.

37. Cf. St. Thomas, Summa Theol. II-II, q. 33, a. 4: Opera Omnia, Leonine ed., t. VIII, P. 266.

38. Cf. St. Bonaventure, in IV Sent., dist. 19, dub. 4: Opera Omnia, ad Claras Aquas, t. IV, p. 512.

39. Cf. St. Jerome, Contra Pelagian., 2, 11: PL 23, 546.

40. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 11: AAS 57(1965), p. 15.

41. Ordo Paenitentiae, Praenotanda, 7, Vatican Polyglot Press, 1974, p. 14.

42. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 7: AAS 57(1965), p. 10.

43. St. Augustine, Enarrat. in Ps. 33, 19: PL 36, 318.

44. Cf. First Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Pastor aeternus, Introduction: DS 3050; Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 18: AAS 57 (1965), p. 22.

45. Liturgia Horarum, IV, Vatican Polyglot Press, 1972, p.513.

46. Cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 21: AAS 57 (1965), p. 25.

47. Cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 23: AAS 57 (1965), p. 27.

48. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 8: AAS 57 (1965), p. 11.

49. Serm. 138, 10: PL 38,769.

50. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 65: AAS 57 (1965), p. 64.

English translation from URL: http://www.cin.org/docs/reconc.html accessed on 30 Dec 2006

Protestant Evangelicals and Catholics...issues that divide and issues that unite

Bible Answer Man is a Protestant radio show presented by the Christian Research Institute. The presentation below is the Bible Answer Man broadcast from June 1990, and features the topic of Roman Catholicism. Their guest speaker on the show is former Prebyterian minister and convert to Catholicism Scott Hahn. Scott Hahn is a professor of Biblical theology at the Franciscan University at Steubenville. He does a wonderful job of explaining some of the similarities and differences between Catholic teaching and Protestant Evangelical Christianity.

Scott Hahn June 1990 Bible Answer Man MP3

[source: Phil Porvaznik's outstanding apologetics website http://www.bringyou.to/apologetics/ ]

God bless,

Dave

Truth and love are the two faces of the same Divine gift

Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, 5 April 2006:

"...from the start, division unfortunately arose. We should not be surprised that it still exists today. "They went out from us, but they were not of us", John says in his First Letter, "for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out, that it might be plain that they are not of us" (I Jn 2: 19).

Thus, in the events of the world but also in the weaknesses of the Church, there is always a risk of losing faith, hence, also love and brotherhood. Consequently, it is a specific duty of those who believe in the Church of love and want to live in her to recognize this danger too and accept that communion is no longer possible with those who have drifted away from the doctrine of salvation (cf. II Jn 9: 11).

That the newborn Church was well aware of the possible tensions in the experience of communion is clearly shown by John's First Letter: no voice is more forcefully raised in the New Testament to highlight the reality and duty of fraternal love among Christians; but the same voice is addressed with drastic severity to adversaries of the Church who used to be members of the community but now no longer belong to it.

The Church of love is also the Church of truth, understood primarily as fidelity to the Gospel entrusted by the Lord Jesus to his followers. It was being made children of the same Father by the Spirit of truth that gave rise to Christian brotherhood: "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God" (Rom 8: 14).

However, if the family of God's children is to live in unity and peace, it needs someone to keep it in the truth and guide it with wise and authoritative discernment: this is what the ministry of the Apostles is required to do.

And here we come to an important point. The Church is wholly of the Spirit but has a structure, the apostolic succession, which is responsible for guaranteeing that the Church endures in the truth given by Christ, from whom the capacity to love also comes.

The first brief description in the Acts sums up very effectively the convergence of these values in the life of the newborn Church: "And they devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching and fellowship (koinonia), to the breaking of bread and the prayers" (Acts 2: 42). Communion is born from faith inspired by apostolic preaching, it is nourished by the Breaking of Bread and prayer, and is expressed in brotherly love and service.

We have before us the description of fellowship in the newborn Church with the riches of its internal dynamism and visible expressions: the gift of communion is safeguarded and promoted in particular by the apostolic ministry, which in turn is a gift for the entire community. The Apostles and their successors are therefore the custodians and authoritative witnesses of the deposit of truth consigned to the Church, and are likewise the ministers of charity. These are two aspects that go together.

They must always be mindful of the inseparable nature of this twofold service which in fact is only one: truth and love, revealed and given by the Lord Jesus. In this regard, their service is first and foremost a service of love: and the charity they live and foster is inseparable from the truth they preserve and pass on.

Truth and love are the two faces of the same gift that comes from God and, thanks to the apostolic ministry, is safeguarded in the Church and handed down to us, to our present time! And the love of the Trinitarian God also reaches us through the service of the Apostles and their successors, to communicate to us the truth that sets us free (cf. Jn 8: 32)!

All this, which we see in the newborn Church, impels us to pray for the Successors of the Apostles, for all the Bishops and for the Successors of Peter, so that together they may truly be at the same time custodians of truth and love; so that, in this regard, they may truly be apostles of Christ and that his light, the light of truth and love, may never be extinguished in the Church or in the world.

[Source:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2006/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20060405_en.html, emphasis added]

God bless,

Dave