“The body of the episcopate can never perish or err, but each bishop can fall into error and even separate from his brothers through schism or heresy.” Image: Bishops at Vatican II, Wiki Commons As we already noted, the author J.M.A. Vacant was the initial director of the Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique and was a seminary professor. …
Category archives: Theology
Can the ordinary magisterium create new dogmas or obligations of belief? Fr Vacant explains
“Is a solemn definition by a Pope or a Council necessary to make a doctrine heretical?” Image: The Immaculate Conception, Wiki Commons As we already noted, the author J.M.A. Vacant was the initial director of the Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique and was a seminary professor. This short work was awarded the prize for the theological competition in La …
We are all under the dominion of the Devil unless we are incorporated into Christ – Fr Anselm Stolz, 1938
“One triumphs completely over an enemy when one penetrates into his realm, even into his own house, and takes away his throne and his possessions.” Image: Follower of Bosch, Christ in Limbo (Wiki Commons) Translator’s Introduction The following text is an edited translation of the third chapter of Fr. Anselm Stolz’s work Theology of Mysticism. …
What obligations are imposed by the “ordinary magisterium”? – Chapter IVa of Fr J.M.A. Vacant’s nineteenth-century work
“What are the signs that identify a doctrine taught infallibly by the ordinary and universal magisterium?” This is the first half of Vacant’s long Chapter IV, which considers again the different ways in which the Church’s ordinary magisterium teaches us, and the obligations corresponding to these ways. As we already noted, the author J.M.A. Vacant …
John Henry Newman, Anti-Ecumenist
“Catholics and Protestants, as bodies, hold nothing in common in religion, however they may seem to do so.” Image: Newman kneeling before Fr Dominic Barberi, who received him into the Church in Littlemore in 1845. From the parish of Littlemore. Editors’ Notes What follows is an extract from the fifth of Newman’s series of discourses …
Short essay: The Agony in the Garden and the unity of the Church
“… and the world may know that thou hast sent me.”
On the immorality of labelling other Catholics as “radical traditionalists”
“A little historical awareness, humility, respect and basic human kindness would go a long way.” Image: David Gilbert Wright, ‘Queuing for Holy Communion at the top of the mountain.’ This article is an expanded excerpt from our essay What does Michael Lofton mean by “tradition”? In order to address this topic, we have to remember …
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John Henry Newman, Anti-Modernist – Part III
“Nothing is easier than to use the word, and mean nothing by it.” Image: Bust of Newman at Trinity College, Oxford where he was an undergraduate, and where one of our editors lived for a term. Wiki Commons, Public Domain Editors’ Notes This is the third part of Discourse II (‘Theology a Branch of Knowledge’) of John …
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John Henry Newman, Anti-Modernist – Part II
“Faith is an intellectual act, its object truth, and its result knowledge.” Image: Wiki Commons, Public Domain Editors’ Notes This is the second part of Discourse II (‘Theology a Branch of Knowledge’) of John Henry Newman’s The Idea of a University, in which he considers the arguments of those who would exclude the teaching of …
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John Henry Newman, Anti-Modernist – Part I
“It is very plain, that a Divine Being and a University so circumstanced cannot co-exist.” Image: Wiki Commons, Public Domain Editors’ Notes In Discourse II (‘Theology a Branch of Knowledge’) of his The Idea of a University, John Henry Newman considers the arguments of those who would exclude the teaching of theology from university – …
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