"The Church is visible by reason of the visibility of her members and her organisation. But the edges are very blurred." Objection: Some Catholics profess heretical doctrines in good faith, and they are sometimes called "material heretics." Therefore, the description of the Church's "visible unity" is overly idealised, and arguments about heresy and membership based …
Continue reading Should mistaken Catholics be called “material heretics”?
"A visible unity in 'claims to be Catholic' is no more remarkable than a unity of 'claims to be Anglican.'" Photo by Sander Sammy on Unsplash Objection: "As long as someone claims to be a Catholic and professes submission to the Church’s magisterium, he cannot be considered to be more than an occult heretic – …
Continue reading Are we obliged to believe every person who calls himself a Catholic?
"What does it mean for the Church to be visible?" Editor’s comment: Whatever some may think about Archbishop Lefebvre, his thoughts, words, and deeds, it is clear that he was an enormously significant figure in the twentieth century response to Vatican II. Hence, while he is not an authority, what he thought about the Conciliar …
Introduction In the first three parts of this series, we have seen that: The Catholic Church is a perpetually visible society which must therefore consist of members whose identity is discernible by the senses;The sacrament of baptism is necessary and sufficient for constituting an individual as both a subject and a member of the Catholic …
Continue reading Membership of the Church: Part IV – Schism & Excommunication
In this part we will examine the second condition of membership, that of public profession of the true faith. In part one of this series, we saw that the Catholic Church could be defined as: “The society of men who, by their profession of the same faith, and by their partaking of the same sacraments, make up, …
Continue reading Membership of the Church: Part III – Public Profession of the True Faith