Called to Communion - 09/10/20 - with Dr. David Anders

higher levels of knowledge about their faith for more news with the catholic perspective visit ewtn news.com i'm theresa tomio and call to communion with dr david anders starts now what's stopping you from becoming a catholic why can't women become priests 1-833-288 ewtn i don't understand why i have to earn salvation why do i need to 1-833-288-3986 my sins to a priest what's stopping you this is called to communion with dr david anders on the ewtn global catholic radio network hey everybody welcome again to call to communion here on ewtn the program for our non-catholic brothers and sisters those of you who have questions about the catholic faith maybe you don't know where to turn maybe you've never walked into a catholic church you don't know a priest maybe you the whole process is a little mystifying to you let us help here's our phone number 833 288 ewtn if you have any questions about the catholic faith 833 288 3986 now if you're listening to us outside of north america please dial the u.s country code and then the special number just for you 205 271 2985 also you can text the letters ewtn to 5500 wait for our response and then text us your first name and your brief question message and data rates may apply and of course you can always shoot us an email ctc ewtn.com is the address charles berry our producer we also have ryan penny handling the phones and jeff burzin is on social media he'll be glad to tackle any uh questions that you may want to post via youtube or facebook he'll shoot those down to us here in studio one i'm tom price along with dr david anders hey tom how are you i'm doing very well you my friend oh hanging in there hanging in there do you remember yesterday we we took a question an email question right at the top about uh neanderthals and dinosaurs remember that one guess what we have another one okay fantastic this is uh from melissa who says i heard someone explain in another program how the first humans in genesis could have mated with neanderthals and that would account for the existence of other peoples not being specifically named in the bible so would those neanderthals have had an immortal soul or an animal soul is it possible then that human beings with an immortal soul mated with neanderthals with an animal soul and that their offspring were then given an immortal soul thanks melissa uh sure that's possible right the the hypothesis that you articulated is a possible one i don't know that is that would be possible to verify right because one of the things that that archaeology and anthropology is not going to give us direct evidence of is the possession of immortal souls now we do know from again from anthropology that that that the the hominid species underwent um something that anthropologists call the cognitive revolution and uh and that's you can actually find in the archaeological record a period before which there seems not to have been a lot of um ritual symbolic art that kind of thing evidences of of complex cognition and then all of a sudden that kind of stuff begins to appear in the record and uh and so that would be indirect evidence that okay these are rational people here that are that are thinking and and and doing and conceptualizing themselves in relationship to the unseen world i don't know enough about the data i'm just not an anthropologist to know whether or not that characterized neanderthal populations now we do know i think just genetically that i mean there are there are european peoples today that have neanderthal dna so the fact that there was interbreeding between sapiens and neanderthals has been scientifically established and so this is the kind of data that catholic theologians have to go to work on when they when they seek to reconcile what reason has revealed through empirical science and what we can know from the data of revelation and of course there are some parameters for what you can do and can't do in that uh pope pius 12th laid them out in the encyclical humanity generous where he sort of talks about the extent to which catholic theologians can integrate this kind of material into their understanding of revelation and uh and you can different catholic theologians will come up with different theories to to integrate it you know it's uh we know the the dogmatic parameters right that god created the human race uh infuses the immortal soul into into us and and there's a definite preferential option for for um monogenesis right because the pope says you have to ground this in what we know about redemption in christ who's the second adam but seem to call for the existence of a first adam uh but but beyond that you know we have to do our best to try to make sense of the scientific evidence in light of revelation all right melissa thank you so much for your email here's one now from tim in cleveland who listens to am 1260 the rock tim says i'm curious to know about the second coming of jesus in matthew 24 36 it says no one knows about that day or hour not even the angels in heaven nor the son but only the father some bibles omit nor the sun line why is that part omitted in some bibles and if jesus is part of the trinity which includes the father son and holy spirit then why wouldn't jesus know the hour of his return yeah so i don't think that bibles omit that i mean there are i have to go back and look at the the uh uh the synoptic gospels to see the divergent accounts i mean sometimes the gospel writers give different accounts of the same episode and i'd have to go refresh my memory on which one uses that phrase or if one doesn't but we're not admitting it and theologians have given different answers to this over the years i mean how do you understand jesus's words here and one way of looking at it is to say that christ did not have any acquired human knowledge he didn't have acquired human knowledge concerning the end of time which would have been true of course because it's not like it was in the texts right but as the son of god he had he had omniscience so he perfect communication of properties between the divinity and his humanity so he knew all things and uh and the sacred text says he knows all things he knows every even the thoughts of man right uh but he wouldn't have had any acquired knowledge of this that he was going to make as part of his public ministry very good and uh one more here before we go to break from ryan i recently came across the liturgy of saint james and the liturgy of saint mark these are the liturgies of the churches in jerusalem and the alexandria from at least the 300s a.d maybe even further back than that when i bring these up to protestant friends and ask where reformed theology appears in early church liturgy they claim that much of this liturgy is congruent with reformed theology so how should i respond effectively uh okay so yeah thanks i really appreciate the question so i i i think you need to go in to make very specific claims about what these liturgies teach about the real presence of christ in the eucharist and the sacrificial nature of the of of the eucharist all of them use the language of oblation and sacrifice all over the place i mean even even more than the roman rite does and uh and it's extremely explicit that the that the elements of the eucharist are themselves a sacrificial offering that the church makes to god that's not reconcilable with calvinism um and uh so there you go okay ryan thank you so much for your email and if you'd like to send us an email for a future show the address ctc at ewtn.com we're going to get to the phones in a moment here if you would like to jump in our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 the leading catholic voices are on ewtn radio every single day i get to help our listeners of the sunrise morning show wake up find out what's going on in the church in the world and then walk with them as we all seek to grow in knowledge and love of jesus christ and the catholic faith i mean how could it get any better the sunrise morning show with anna mitchell and matt swaim tomorrow morning 6 eastern on ewtn radio living the beatitudes with father bjorn blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy we get what we look for saint therese of lisu has an interesting insight on this once in a discussion over the possibility of avoiding purgatory the future saint told another member of her community sister maria fabronia that god was more father than judge and in this discussion debate she finally took the liberty of saying to the other sister if you look for the justice of god you will get it the soul will receive from god exactly what she desires are we full of wounds and anger and hurt and do we want to inflict that on other people are we allowing god to heal us if we receive his mercy we have to show it to others the beatitudes are the heart of jesus's message let's be transformed by them blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy for more about the beatitudes visit ewtnrc.com [Music] one of the great weekend shows we have for you every weekend here on ewtn radio is the word on fire with bishop robert barron you can check that out sundays after sunday afternoons at 4 pm eastern this week bishop baron discusses how your life is not about you well that seems rather bizarre but if you think about it it really isn't all about you so find out exactly what bishop baron is talking about sunday afternoon 4 pm eastern right here on ewtn radio if you're ready now let's go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn we begin with michael in wilmington delaware listening on siriusxm channel 130. hey michael what's on your mind today okay dr andrews thank you for taking my call my question deals with the oath of confirmation that you take at easter vigil during basically becoming a new catholic uh okay my my background is fundamental is evangelical baptist but i eventually got confirmed as a episcopalian low church i recently went through eight months of rcia in the latin rights roman catholic church and completed it but i did not go through with the confirmation process at easter vigil it would have required me to stand before the congregation and take the oath i believe and profess all that the holy catholic church believes teaches and proclaims to be revealed by god in my present state i feel i would be lying to the congregation and church leaders if i said that oath the reason is i still believe in evangelical end time prophecy that would be outside of catholic teaching which would include a belief in a pre-millennial rapture dispensationalism israel being the woman in revelation 12 and not mary and basically some marion um doctrines in general so i'm presently investigating eastern catholicism at a meltit byzantine catholic church which does not require the latin right oath of confirmation and other than the nicene creed which i say every week as an episcopalian so do you feel that maybe becoming a eastern right byzantine catholic would enabled me to still hold on to my um end time beliefs okay thanks so i've i got a couple things to to say about this and and the first one is i would really encourage you to read the doctrinal commentary on the profession that was pinned by cardinal ratzinger that talks about the the precise nature of the ascent of faith that we make when we profess our faith in the catholic church and it's fairly nuanced in the way it distinguishes between those dogmas that are formally proclaimed uh by the churches having been revealed by god and as such are irreformable uh versus other sort of levels of magisterial teaching and you might find some nuance in there that would that would um sort of soften the blow if you will if you still have some difficulties with certain catholic practices or doctrines now uh honestly i think that the the the eschatology is that's an issue we'll talk about that the marian stuff is is more significant right because marion many of the marian doctrines are formally proclaimed as dogmas and so you have to believe that they've been revealed by god i mean that's what you mean when you say i'm going to become catholic the church is a lot less specific has been historically less specific on defining the details of the eschaton as formally revealed by god i mean there are there are theological theories that are that are consistently catholic about how to interpret the apocalypse um but uh uh but you know not a lot in the way of formal definition i mean some of the things that get circulated in end times prophecy are clearly ruled out i mean like you can't hold that the pope is the antichrist for example i mean that's out definitely um your your concern about the woman in revelation not being the virgin mary that believe it or not that's not that'd be okay like i would disagree with you but that's that's okay the the church has not formally defined this is the only way that you can interpret this passage of the bible and in fact it almost never does that church just doesn't settle in on texts in scripture you know chapter and verse and say this is the only way to understand that i mean it really doesn't right and uh and has a really kind of a i hate to use the word liberal because it has so many connotations but sort of broad-minded is a better way of looking at approach to the exegesis of texts and uh and that that goes to a deeper point right which is that the the ground of our catholic identity is not primarily that you know we've all agreed on a particular exegesis of chapter and verse as as defined by the magisterium but rather that we've all agreed that this is the church founded by christ and and the scriptures are a part of sacred tradition and they're there to inform our worship and our prayer and our life and community but they're not they're not a theology textbook never were meant to be not intended to be by god god did not give us the bible to be our rule of faith and he didn't give us the bible so that we could exegete our way to catholic unity now he gave us the church so that we could come to catholic unity with the the means of handing on the faith being the magisterium and sacred tradition of which scripture is a part um and so i think once you get your head wrapped around that first of all you realize that there's more latitude for you in interpreting the bible than you might at first think and secondly that the whole question of the interpretation of texts as such is not as much of an issue as you want to make it right that fundamentally i don't come to know god i don't come into relationship with god because i've got the right exegesis of texts you know that's that's part of the science of theology biblical studies but it doesn't need to play the role in the life of the individual catholic that many evangelical congregations place on it they lay more weight on that question than is warranted um now would your problem be better off in a melkite church okay well in one respect yes and in one respect no yes insofar as the milk most male kites aren't gonna care or know what the heck you're talking about if you walk in and say i'm a dispensational pre-millennialist they'll be like that's fine um can we get fries with that i mean they're just that's just they're not going to be motivated by it because the kinds of questions that fundamentalism was asking and the in the way they were going about doing theology in the early 20th century when this stuff really got promulgated it's just so far removed from the way milk heights think about living the faith and they're like whatever you know look this is about the liturgy this is about our life and community this is about being grounded in the fathers you know this is about this is about you know the patrimony of sacred tradition that we've lived out in the middle east in in you know in connection to the byzantine church also for all these centuries so you'll have your last god logical theories all day long but that's just not what it means to be milkite so they're not going to really care right in one sense and if you really want to be melkite because you're attracted to to that expression of the catholic faith that's why you need to be milkite not because you get a pass for your private eschatological theories but because god is calling you into communion with the malkite expression of catholic faith which hey i'm all about malkites i've got friends that are melchized we've got milkite parish here in our diocese they're wonderful but embrace it for the right reasons uh now in another sense it's not going to help you because malkites are catholics they're catholics so you know like uh if you believe this is the church that christ founded that he granted to the church the charism of infallibility and the church really can teach the faith and promulgate uh symbols of the faith promulgate professions of faith and so forth then that's your faith is in that not your private power to exegete texts all right and then finally i would encourage you um you know i i'm it kind of pains me i'm i'm sort of sorry for you to hear that your big hang up is this attachment to dispensationalism because uh it's uh it's an oppressive doctrine and it's not biblical i believe it's not certainly not the faith of the church historically it wasn't even the church it wasn't even the faith of the early protestant reformers luther didn't know anything about it calvin did anything about it cranmer didn't know it zwingli didn't know it jonathan edwards didn't know it um uh you know heck i went to wheaton college and it was founded by a guy named jonathan blanchard and we used to joke at whedon you know in the in the late 80s and early 90s that that jesus christ who founded the religion and jonathan blanchard who founded the college neither one would be allowed to teach at wheaton the one because he drank wine and the other because he was a post-millennialist wow you know i mean it's uh it's just not central to christian identity and it came out of a time of of you know deep apocalyptic fervor and disaffection with the establishment of course you know it was born in the plymouth brethren uh denomination darby was a major influence in formulating the doctrine it was circulated through fundamentalism uh with the scofield reference bible and institutions like dallas theological and moody bible institute among others and uh and it captured the spirit nathos of the fundamentalist modernist controversy in early early america because you know fundamentalists felt like they'd been ejected from their congregations and their denominations and seminaries and in an end times prophecy that said the world's going to hell in a hand basket don't worry about it suited the mood right but that's not our vocation as christians we're not to run for the hills and bury our heads in the sand and give it all up for loss because you know the fire is going to fall from heaven tomorrow but to really engage the social order and to live the life of love in public and let our light shine before men believing that god is going to triumph in the here and now and we don't have to wait for this uh end time apocalypse to wipe out all our enemies michael thank you so much for your very thoughtful call we do appreciate that and that opens up a line for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 let's go down to missy in a beautiful area of our country palm bay florida listening on divine mercy catholic radio hey messi what's on your mind today good afternoon i um i'm going to be teaching catechism for the very first time this year and i've been thrown into the deep end with the 8th graders in confirmation so i yeah so i was thinking um it might be good if i had a couple of books on saints appropriate for eighth graders that they could read about some of the things and and let that be um some fertile ground for them to choose their patron's name um so i wondered if you had some recommendations wow yeah thanks i appreciate the question so in in terms of uh recommendations for literature that is written specifically for this age group with lives of the saints i'm sorry that's not my forte you know i uh i'm i'm in the same boat you are when i want to read about the saints i just go out and research them and a lot of times i get hagiography that's 100 years old and the language is kind of stilted and certainly not contemporary and and i read it because i read everything but you know it would be tough to give to a 13 14 year old today who's you know used to superman movies um so you know my recommendation would be you know you might check with some some uh catholic school librarians who are in the business of handing out literature to this crowd all the time they work with that population they know the books that are coming off the press you know i'd check some of the some of the catholic publishers ignatius press look at ewtn's religious catalog you know tan books uh you know some of these names that uh that consistently uh sophia institute that uh that pour stuff off the presses all the time and maybe call some of them up and ask them i i'm sorry i don't have any specific recommendations for you appreciate your call though uh missy thank you so much for it it is called a communion here on ewtn jessica watching us right now on facebook she says i heard a former catholic say that um her dad was baptized in the catholic church after his death is this proper practice kind of depends to be honest with you um because the church you're not supposed to baptize people after they're dead like long after they're dead uh but we recognize as catholics that there may be a difference between between biological death and metaphysical death right that that we know we can tell when your heart stops and when your brain waves quit can we pinpoint scientifically the exact moment that soul and body are separated the answer to that question is no now it's gonna be pretty darn quick on the dissolution of the physical organism um but so for example let's say father's on his way to the hospital because he's gonna give somebody last rites or he's going to baptize them and he gets to the door of the hospital and the nurse says ah sorry father go home you're too late he just passed well the priest is going to say out of my way i got work to do and he's going to go in and administer the sacraments because he doesn't know and no one knows and that's the practice all right can he come in two weeks later and do it absolutely not okay very good and a quick one here from richard oh let me give you the phone number before we do that 833 288 ewtn is our number we have a line open for you right now 833-288-3986 all right richard watching us on facebook who says i'm not catholic but i've been praying the rosary recently i found her to be far deeper and involved than i ever expected but the glory be prayer puzzles me can you please exchange or explain rather the world without end as doesn't the world get destroyed at the end before being recreated yeah this is a this is a this is a very infilicitus translation of uh of the phrase in secular secularum right and it just means forever and ever okay so not to read too much yeah don't yeah it's just it's just it's just not idiomatic english unfortunately okay but you know it it it's a very interesting thing here that richard brings up and uh richard thanks for listening to us how many people begin uh they sort of stumble across the rosary they they start praying it maybe a catholic friend has been praying it and they want to join in with their friend and then they they realize the very depth of the rosary well you know that the whole saying all roads lead to rome they don't actually mean that about the catholic church but there's a sense in which that applies to the catholic church you can dip your toe in the catholic waters at a lot of different places and then you'll eventually get sort of drawn into the vortex i had a buddy one time who started praying the divine office long before he was catholic and he told me i went home and told my wife so-and-so is going to be catholic she says how do you know it says he's praying divine office it's just a matter of time he's going to get sucked into the undertow you watch then sure enough he did it sure happens and uh sometimes people will start looking into the lives of the early church fathers oh well you just the battle's gone man game over game over check please game over thanks again for checking us out on facebook richard in a moment we'll get back to the phones here if you have a question for dr david anders love to tackle it at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 for the thursday edition of call to communion here on ewtn stay with us teresa tamia it's our goal to help each and every listener take this beautiful faith of ours out into the public square with great ideas on making a difference through engaging the culture the leading catholic voices are on ewtn radio here is today's quote from mother angelica's perpetual calendar the faith of the christian sees god's love in every event of his life mother's spiral bound perpetual calendar features an inspirational message for each day of the year it's available from the ewtn religious catalogue at ewtnrc.com that's ewtnrc.com or call 1-800-854-6316 and now the ewtn family prayer with father joseph family a prayer that we pray together is a powerful prayer so please pray together with me our ewtn family prayer [Music] today we pray for peace in the world lord jesus christ prince of peace we need you the world is filled with strife and violence and this fills us with fear you told your disciples that peace was your gift to them give us your peace to bring us calm in the midst of the storm [Music] instill your gift of peace into the hearts of all men that they may seek reconciliation and understanding quiet the sounds of war and hatred and raise up a chorus of harmony and peace amen tomorrow on more to life honoring the heroes as we remember the anniversary of 9 11 let us honor the heroes in our lives that's tomorrow on more to life now back to call to communion with dr david anders [Music] hey it's called a communion here on ewtn we'd love to hear from you we have one line open right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 here now julian in athens georgia listening on athens catholic radio hey julian what's on your mind today hey thank you for taking my call how are you great great um so basically i'm calling i'm looking for some advice i've recently found my way back to the church i grew up catholic pretty strong catholic altered boy um staying in the choir i was involved with youth groups and then i actually went to a catholic college called southern catholic college before it closed down and i allowed sin to kind of enter my life for a long time and it really pulled me away from the church and by god's grace i found my way back but unfortunately um there's i guess a bit of a battle that i'm dealing with at home trying to make sure that my kids are raised in the uh within the church and um i'm hoping that you can give me some advice on how to be a point of um i guess a lead or a shining light in my household to help guide my family all back to the church yeah thanks i really appreciate the question so first of all been there done that uh had the same experience myself although i didn't grow up catholic i became catholic and my family was not excited about it and today they are so it took a while but you know we got there and it was not easy and it was sometimes quite painful so i relate to your problem and my heart goes out to you um in my own experience and and this is the experience of a lot of guys that i know who have been in your shoes apologetics works great on other guys not so well on wives a lot of times right and uh and because they you know i mean depends on the kind of fellow you are but a lot of times wives are like don't give me the verbage you know show me the money yeah all right show me the difference this is made in your life and uh and that's so that's my answer number one right that the point of being catholic is that we will grow in wisdom and compassion and virtue and we will transcend ourselves and we will master our passions and and become deep profound people of love and exhibit all those characteristics that paul tells us to in first corinthians 13 where he enumerates the qualities of love patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and self-control and all that good stuff and so the most important thing i think is uh that you seek to be the most virtuous kind-hearted loving person that you can possibly be and uh not a few catholic wives have come to the faith because of the change in character in their husbands and the way in which they are treated by them right and then this ultimately gets grounded back in christ as he's present to us in the catholic church so that's the most important thing um you know i think that uh uh another suggestion would be the important thing is that y'all come to unity in the faith it is less important that you be the the direct instrument that makes that happen and so in other words letting other people help you in this also works wonders um in my own case all my attempts at persuasion went unheeded but um father angelus shaughnessy capuchin priest who used to live here at ewtn he died several years ago is the one that ultimately brought my wife back to the faith not me you know and and he reached her with words that i would never have thought to use and with a life that was very different from mine um and so you know as you associate with catholic friends uh sometimes the faith is more called than taught that's another positive influence um you know i think uh so you know if you can if you can have catholic folks over and go to catholic events and spend time rub elbows with people that are that are kind-hearted and who who understand their faith and can live and express it generously all these things will help and then you know and then finally be ready with an answer for the hope that is within you so be be able to answer the questions that she might have about the faith and uh you know like my friend john martin and he always says if if you get asked a question you don't know the answer you say i don't know the answer but i will find out and get back to you because there is one and then make sure that you actually do get back and then make sure that you do you know and uh sometimes i know couples have have agreed to like literature exchanges i'll read one of your books if you read one of mine you know that sort of thing yeah good stuff uh julian thank you so much excuse me thank you so much for your call it is called a communion here on ewtn let's go to natalie now natalie is in lodi california listening on the ewtn app hey there natalie what's on your mind today hi um thank you for taking my call so i am born and raised catholic and i was kind of dry my face like six months ago but with all this corona thing i got a lot more back into it i've been praying the rosary every day and listening to the math and stuff like that but i've also been reaching out and listening to other people's other like christian groups perspectives on the world and everything that's going on right now um like i said i'm in california with all these fires and everything it just it looks like a pop apocalyptic sorry um out here and i was kind of and i've heard different christian views um and i've been going to this little bible study with people that aren't oh catholic we're just going there to meet up and pray and talk about god's word and stuff but a lot i've heard quite a few different videos or people saying that they think california and i kind of feel like there's definitely something going to happen here basically um they feel like califor god's going to do something to california soon like it's some kind of natural disaster or something and i just kind of want to see what your take on that is if you feel like that yeah surely or i appreciate that yeah so so uh you know jesus tells us in matthew 24 that we will hear of wars and rumors of wars right and and and all kinds of uh cataclysms that will occur before the end of time book of revelation echoes this sentiment and actually pictures some of these events in highly symbolic figurative language one of the things that we discern though as we look at church history is we find that these have always characterized the life of the people of god yes there are cataclysms yes there are horrible events there are wars there are earthquakes there are famines there are diseases their plagues and such has always been the lot of the children of god the people of god and and you know so if you're if you're suffering these things they're quite horrible and i don't want to make light of that but our present circumstances in the united states i think pale in comparison to some of the things that have been suffered by christians down through the centuries you know in in in late medieval europe during the plague a third of europe died i mean i think in alabama like something like two maybe three percent no not even no it's like 2.3 percent of the population has caught the coronavirus and of that you know negligible number have actually died and not negligence will fit if you're one of the ones that die it's not negative to you in terms of a percentage of the population it's quite negligible compared to europe where a third of the 33 of the population died of the plague unbelievable catastrophe in comparison to what we're presently facing i look at something like the um islamic imperialism that swept over the christian middle east and at one time the the patriarch of baghdad was the most populous christian diocese in the whole world baghdad believe it or not uh jerusalem um north africa hippo carthage this is in alexandria i mean this was the center of the christian world and that's where all the action was almost completely wiped out like it was a reverse decimation instead of 10 being knocked out it was 90 of the population you know just the christian church was absolutely devastated seemed absolutely apocalyptic uh the fall of rome in 410 a.d uh seemed to many christians at the time to presage the end of the world right and and uh to say nothing of world war one world war two we can we could we could pick any period of history what about the fall of constantinople in 1453 to the ottoman turks uh who ended up pushing all the way to the gates of vienna and and kidnapping uh christian girls from from their bedrooms on on the eastern side of the italian peninsula i mean horror panhar panhar that has been meted out on the people of god for 2 000 years and so in every age somebody says it couldn't get any worse than this this has got to be the end jesus is definitely going to come back tomorrow and yet here we are here we are and i'm reminded of the words of christ himself who said no one knows the day of the hour no one knows so be ready he says all the parables about you know the virgins with their lamps and some of the lamps and some don't you got to have your lamplight got to be ready to go at any time but as far as we know we could still be in the early church so will god use wars and rumors of wars and cataclysms and sufferings to bring people to their senses and call them to faith in christ of course he will as he has done for 2000 years and god only knows how much longer he'll keep doing it natalie thank you so much for your call it is called a communion here on ewtn let's go now to uh robert enlisting in victoria texas on guadalupe radio a first-time caller hey robert what's on your mind today yes uh how y'all doing i appreciate what you do dr atlantis you're an awesome your brainiac anyways uh um my question is is it a sin to talk about our priests you know because uh uh my parents well i've heard people say bad things about a priest i love i love all my priests you know uh but he transferred out but uh and and and i still hear people say things about that and that's not just in our parish you know i've i've heard it you know on your uh i you know it's just not in my parish so that that's my question is it a sin to talk about our priest for the sacrifices they make yeah thanks i really appreciate the question so actually saint thomas has quite a lot to say about this in the in the summer theologica on the article on justice where he talks about the various ways that we can send against another person's reputation with our words calumny slander backbiting detraction all these are ways of damaging another person's a good name which they have a right to they have a right to and um you know there are there are occasions when injustice it is necessary to make known the faults of some other person all right and you know i'm thinking in particular like if somebody is known to be a danger to himself or other people uh maybe with children or something like that you mean you know you you don't let that guy babysit your kids you're not gonna let that guy take your daughter out you understand what i'm saying and uh and that that might need to be publicly known for the sake of the good of the community um but if it's a question of of you know just the the a person's prudential exercise of their office and this is a matter of opinion or you're making evaluations you know about their character based on uh isolated incidents you do you do owe a debt of charity in the kind of judgments that you make and uh um and so it's possible to sin with our tongues by by detraction slander calamity these kinds of things now if a priest says something that's manifestly false you know if he gets up and says god is a is a baked burrito or something um you can point out to your friends the catholic church does not actually teach that actually teaches that god is a trinity you know i mean there are you you understand good sense good sense and charity and a recognition that people have a right to their good name robert thank you so much for your call it is called a communion here on ewtn i want to tell you about a brand new book hot off the press in fact we don't even have a copy of it here at the network i would love to hold it up for our youtube and facebook viewers but uh don't have it yet hope to have it in the next couple of days it is a winner though i can tell you that trustful surrender stories of grace amidst crisis by ewtn radios jerry and debbie and what this is is a collection of deeply moving stories from listeners uh whose loved ones have left the catholic church now there are stories of heartache and sacrifice but also stories of hope and redemption you'll discover in this book how families have coped successfully and in some cases unsuccessfully with the fallen away loved ones praying for their return working with the the grace of god to reach out and touch their hearts you're going to learn in this great book how they placed their fears and anxieties at the foot of the cross and implored god with constancy deep compassion and unwavering fervor this is a great book and you probably have somebody in your family who has left the church maybe it's you or maybe it's someone that you know who has left the church and and you're trying to think well golly what can i do besides prayer this book is a great book and a great resource for for you trustful surrender stories of grace amidst crisis it's available right now at ewtn rc.com by catholic shop ewtnrc.com you won't be sorry it's a great book all right back to the phones right now for carol carol is listening in nashville on the ewtn app hey there carol what's on your mind today hi thanks for taking my column battling allergies though oh that's okay i can oh okay um dr anders i was just wondering if you thought there was some connection between john darby and saul olinsky i realize that's kind of odd question but i've heard you answer more questions um with john darby in the answer to people i guess yeah thanks appreciate the question so so obviously these these fellows represent very very different social movements and very different ideologies um and uh and so i don't think there's any direct uh genealogical connection i don't think alinsky was borrowing from darby in any way i think he would have hated darby actually quite intensely but what they what they do have in common is that they are sort of anti-establishment characters right but operating in two very different social milieu and two different periods of history uh but it's not uncommon you know and when you look through history to find revolutionary characters who taken sort of dissenting outsider point of view and then concoct some sort of wild scheme to to justify their their anti-societal notions and i think in that respect you know they would be similar in that respect only but there's no no relationship of direct dependence of one on the other no okay carol thank you so much for your call henry is watching us right now on youtube henry says what would we say to folks uh who endorsed the presbyterial presbyterian ecclesial polity saying that there are only deacons and overseers in the bible uh episcopal and presbyter being the same office yeah thanks appreciate it well the first thing i would say to somebody who made that claim was that the bible does not give us a comprehensive ecclesiology i mean it's patently obvious pick up the bible and read it as if thinking that this is a treatise on ecclesiology you can be woefully disappointed it's an incredibly occasional mentions of ecclesial office that usually serve either direct exhortation to the office holders themselves and how to conduct themselves or their you know just the off-handed mentions about the progress of the church and the appointment of new leadership by the apostles but nothing like a treatise on ecclesial government why well so look at look at the scriptures that are being written on this issue and the think about the time in the setting in which they're written by whom were they written by apostles right and what authority did they bear well the authority of the apostles sure right in other words apostolic government preceded the writing of the texts and was the grounds for their acceptance there was already an ecclesiology in place right where did that come from it didn't come from the bible it preceded the bible i mean there was a church before there was a bible it was members of the church hierarchy that wrote the texts and promulgated them well it's not like they didn't base their ecclesiology on those texts that's absurd they received the commission immediately from christ and christ himself never gave any indication that their authority was somehow like in the future to be grounded on the exegesis of texts no he sent them directly and said go into all nations make disciples teach them everything i've commanded you all of which was oral and i'll be with you to the end of the age and whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth is loose in heaven right christ set up the ecclesiology and the mode of its transmission and teaching in the very office of the apostles right and uh and so if you want to know ecclesiology or any other catholic doctrine you need to receive it in the mode or from the sources that jesus established and he never indicated that the pastoral epistles of the new testament were our exhaustive text on ecclesiology so that's number one all right uh number two there's this uh the the there is an ambiguity right in the language all right of of uh presbytery and episcopal and clearly i mean there are uses of these terms that are non-technical in the new testament that don't yet refer to the to the developed offices that we would understand in the catholic church but that's just uh that's just a semantic question right how are these texts lived out and expressed in the life of the early church well the most the most evident witness to this is ignatius of antioch who who is the third bishop of antioch after saint peter and uh and and known to the direct successors of the apostles and he gives the most explicit coherent doctrine of a monarchical episcopacy possessing apostolic succession that you would ever want to read right and you find the same thing elaborated in in irenaeus civilian and in a backhanded way even in tertullian i mean one of my favorite texts in tertullian is this a lecture on penance where he rejects the pope because the pope claims to be the bishop of rome i'm excuse me the the successor to saint peter who holds the keys right so in other words like tritalion who ended up leaving the catholic church and becoming a like pentecostal basically a montanist acknowledged the catholic doctrine as and then walked around and left it you know so the church's detractors were already recognizing that these claims were being made very very early on um you know and then you have the acceptance of that doctrine by the universal church east and west yes including the byzantines including the arabs all right including the syriacs uh and no one balked no one balked nobody bought when the pope claimed to be the successor to saint peter and that's why even the orthodox acknowledge first four centuries of the church you want to have your dispute settled where do you go rome well i mean if this was an innovative doctrine then why didn't the entire catholic world east west north south greek latin coptic syriac why don't they all just rise up in mass and go that's crazy no they all they all accepted it and operated on the basis of its truth so there we are there you go okay henry uh thank you so much for watching us on youtube today i think we have time for one or two more quick questions logan also watching on youtube this afternoon what evidence do you have that the bishop of rome was the supreme bishop and not just a quote first among equals okay thanks well we sort of got into that in the last call yeah and the evidence is overwhelming right so i mean they're literally treatises and books written on the topic and i'd recommend steve ray's book upon this rock which is just just one big massive fat book of citations from church fathers on this question let me give you a few first of all we have to go to the foundation of the church by jesus what is the what is the lord's doctrine on this and uh you know christ doesn't doesn't acknowledge peter is just first among equals he says that peter is the rock foundation of the church's unity to whom he gives the keys of the kingdom of heaven and the charge of strengthening the brethren feeding the sheep i mean it's very unique what excuse me redundant my high school english teacher would kill me for that it's unique the commission that he gives to saint peter and nobody else has given the keys to the kingdom of heaven which is which is a symbol of executive authority as the major domo of christ's palace if you will and modeled on the on the uh isaiah 22 and no one else is called the rock foundation of the church's unity and this is why saint paul who even though he has this commission direct from jesus has to go up to peter for two weeks and get the right hand to fellowship so that he has that public approbation everybody recognized that he's teaching the same doctrine that peter's teaching um and uh and then you know so that's the biblical foundation is primary but then we have the reception of the doctrine in the second century third century fourth century and uh you know every time the question of the pope's authority is raised in antiquity you get one consistent answer and that answer is that he's the successor to saint peter now you know pope stephen in the third century made this claim explicitly already mentioned how tertullian who was a detractor recognized pope callixtus as making this claim right i mean they had a dispute over who you should admit readmit to the church after sin and calyx just took the catholic position which is that you can absolve them and bring them back and tertullian was a puritanical rigorous you wanted to kick people out and keep them out and he said i know what you're going to say alexis you're going to claim to sit in the sea of peter and have his keys well let me tell you a thing or two mr callixtus and off he went and joined the modernists you know uh you've got ernest's explicit teaching on the question and then you know we've got hosts of of byzantine arabic and syriac as well as latin theologians in the first four centuries that echoed this claim right so i mean look did christ mean what he say did he say what he meant there you go appreciate that thank you so much for your question logan uh we're going to close with this one from sarah in louisiana what is the difference between judgment when we die and the final judgment is the end result of heaven or hell determined once and for all at the time of our death thanks sarah yeah absolutely so at your particular judgment is when you are determined whether you go to heaven or hell that's the particular judgment the final judgment is when that verdict is made public right and so judgment can can mean well done good and faithful servant judgment doesn't necessarily have a negative connotation and at the final judgment part of the reward of the just the saints is that they will be vindicated in the sight of the very people who dishonored them so you think about the murders of the second century those guys who were burned at the stake and had their flesh ripped off with iron combs and whatnot and they're sitting there telling the roman emperors buddy you're going to catch it one day if you do this i'm serious you're going to live to regret it the roman emperors say you know off with his head well those very same roman emperors are going to stand up and face those that they persecuted and the persecuted will face their their uh their persecutors and say we told you so we told you so that's part of the function of the final judgment all right wow a fast-moving hour for sure we had all sorts of emails we had all sorts of phoned in questions uh we had a lot going on today and i certainly thank everybody for checking us out today here on ewtn's a call to communion i hit the wrong button there we go now we got it right there was a woman talking there i don't know who that was well we had a bird who called in a little while ago did you hear that bird i that was hilarious you know well the cause creator says the bird has a question i don't speak bird i'm sorry we couldn't get to the bird's question was dr doolittle coming on after us uh could be could be dr david andrews thank you my friend father mitch probably speaks bird he speaks everything it wouldn't surprise me aramaic bird aramaic bird all right don't forget we do the program monday through friday here on ewtn radio 2 pm eastern with an encore at 11 p.m eastern and also a best of show on sundays at 2 p.m eastern and you can check out the podcast anytime at ewtnradio.net i'm tom price along with dr david andrews see you next time right here on ewtn radio's call to communion god bless you

Channel: EWTN

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Length: 54min 12sec (3252 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 10 2020