Called to Communion with Doctor David Anders - March 11, 2021

priest where is purgatory in the bible i think the pope has too much authority what's stopping you you are called to communion with dr david anders on the ewtn global catholic radio network everybody welcome again to call to communion here on ewtn it's the program for our non-catholic brothers and sisters like she says what's stopping you from becoming a catholic we would love to hear from you on this beautiful day here is our phone number 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 if you're listening to us outside of north america please dial the u.s country code and then 205 270 you can also 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 those of you watching us on tv today you can participate as well here is our email address ctc at ewtn.com ctc ewtn.com charles berry is our producer charles and ryan penny is our phone screener we also have jeff berson standing by on social media jeff will be glad to post any questions that you might want to post via facebook or youtube because we're streaming there right now i'm tom price along with dr david anders tom how are you today very well how are you sir i'm doing decent thank you very interesting question that is uh right on the money for this program this is from bert watching us on youtube burt says i live in vancouver and the church here is closed how as a protestant do i become a catholic do i join i don't even know where to start thanks bert yeah thanks bert i appreciate the question so first of all when you say the church is closed uh you know that they may have they may not be celebrating public liturgies i mean the church isn't closed okay i mean it's possible that the liturgy is not being celebrated so the first thing for you to do is to reach out to a local parish or diocese and i mean i imagine someone's still answering the phones and you indicate your desire to become catholic and you know eventually if you can get in touch with a priest i mean the priest can make you catholic the priest can confirm you in the church welcome you into the church uh after giving you instruction and and so there's a way to make this happen i mean you may have to knock on a few doors but you can get the thing done in the meanwhile you know when even the intent to become catholic even just you you've you've made a decision to do it already you're you're beginning to move in the orbit of the catholic church right and there is an order in the church the order of catechumens and candidates those who have formally declared their intent to become catholic but have not yet been confirmed or baptized they are they are they they belong to the church in a kind of remote way they have their own order in the church and so it's not like you're completely excluded from because it's it's not an all or nothing thing you say you know you can begin to pray with the church and you could pray the liturgy of the hours the daily prayer of the church you can begin to read the readings of mass you can study the catechism you can begin to read the fathers you can begin to sort of bathe yourself in the spirituality of the church as you're moving towards full acceptance and uh but you know basically just reach out and get in touch with a cleric and state your intent your desire and i myself came into the church in a sort of irregular way i didn't go through the regular classes rca i was received privately by a priest uh and in fairly short order too and that can happen all right very good uh bert thanks for watching us on youtube we do appreciate that here's a question from michelle since the church declared galileo a heretic but of course was proven wrong in the end how are we to defend the infallibility of the magisterium to those who use this incident as proof that the church gets things wrong yeah i appreciate the question so i think you misconstrue the galileo affair the issue with galileo was not that he denied any dogma of the faith and uh which he didn't right um but he had he had a scientific opinion that in his day had not yet been empirically verified and it would be eventually verified about 100 years later and the authorities the catholic authorities in galileo's day who were already sort of reeling from the effects of the protestant reformation and a lot of social dislocation people were kind of thrown into anxiety about the teaching of the faith and the church said look galileo we don't mind if you promulgate this thing as a scientific hypothesis and we think the math works i mean you've shown us that the math works and you've captured the phenomena so to speak you can describe the orbit of the planets using your model uh better than than the alternatives but we're we're unsure about the physical theory right and that was pope urban's position he sort of anticipated niels bohr in the copenhagen school of quantum physics right that says you know the best physics can do is give us an abstract model that can that can capture the phenomena but you don't really ever penetrate to the essence and the physical reality behind those phenomena is somewhat obscure to us that's sort of the modern copenhagen view of of quantum physics that was sort of pope urban's view that i'm not so sure we can penetrate to the physical reality but you can give us a good mathematical model so just refrain from saying reality is fundamentally this way now uh so cardinal bellarmine who was the chief theologian at the time took went a bit farther and he said look galileo if you can prove empirically that your theory is true well then then we'll retool our cosmology accordingly you know we we this is the way aristotle did it this is the way we think we should read sacred scripture and understand the world that's the way we've been doing it for a long time uh you're really making a radical claim but if you can show us that you're right we'll we'll go back and rework the data and we'll re we'll revisit the cosmology so there was a willingness on the part of the church to concede the scientific point once it had been proved now yeah what got galileo in trouble was not his theory it was the fact that he disobeyed ecclesiastical authority that said present it as a theory because we've had a lot of problems recently in the world and we just we don't need to throw people into any more disarray he was promoting it as a done deal he was promoting a done deal yeah and so you know it's like in science you you look at some some change in the physical universe and you try to come up with a hypothesis to explain it and your hypothesis may may actually capture the details of the phenomena that's different from saying you've actually explained the physical reality and that's really what was at issue so and as soon as the galileo hypothesis was experimentally confirmed look this these are these are catholics doing the astronomy i mean the jesuit astronomers who were his contemporaries were some of his biggest fans and the church many many churchmen were on the last side thought he had a good idea and they were just waiting for the deity to come in to see if they could get on board all right very good well there you go and uh michelle thank you so much for your email appreciate hearing from you if you would like to send us an email for a future show especially those of you watching on tv today our phone our address is ctc at ewtn.com ctc ewtn.com i started to say phone number let me give you that 833 288 ewtn if you have a question for dr david anders it is called a 833-288-3986 right here on ewtn to stay with us lent a season of grace with father cedric pasana the same holy spirit that drove jesus into the desert has to drive us to lead us to control us to push us motivate us and empower us to change and to be illumined and i pray that this lent the spirit will touch you in powerful ways lent a season of grace with father cedric pasegna sunday 8pm eastern on ewtn radio this is life issues with brad mattis president of life issues institute there are several homes to help addicts become sober in cleveland but none like mom's house it's reserved for pregnant women who are fighting addiction kimberly glover the house mom can relate to the women because she's walked in their shoes kimberly said the one thing i will never forget is how hard my journey has been imagine becoming a mother while fighting addiction she'll be their mentor and confidant a donor stepped up to pay for the rent additional donors supplied everything inside the move-in-ready home for moms and babies women will be able to stay a year or more after the birth of their children the goal is to help them develop a positive lifestyle and find their way in life may god richly bless this endeavor for more information visit our website at lifeissues.org and stay informed more informed than you've ever been it's called a communion here on ewtn if you're ready now let's go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn we're going to begin this time with chuck in canton michigan listening on ave maria radio a first time caller hey there chuck what's on your mind today so on a previous show dr anders had mentioned that the doctrine of solar scripture began with some other people who were looking into the muslims and they came away with a strong impression of the muslim emphasis on the book and that led to the doctrine of solas grower was part of it and i wanted to give you more information on that and who these people were and so on yeah thanks so i don't believe that was my show i didn't make that argument that's not my belief um now it is true that there are some philosophical uh analogies between medieval islamic philosophy and in early protestantism um uh but not but but they're only tangentially related to the formulation of sola scriptura as such so in in late medieval philosophy there was a there was an islamic thinker named al ghazali who really not the doctrine of the bible it was the doctrine of causality science a relationship of faith to reason algozoli believed that that there are no secondary causes there are no instrumental causes there's really no doctrine of nature as such that god was the immediate cause of every phenomena so al gazzali would put it this way he would say fire doesn't burn the cotton ball god burns the cotton ball in the presence of the fire now you can find that kind of reasoning in early protestant reformers so luther has a strong distaste for philosophical reason dialectical reason or the reasoning of aristotle uh john calvin actually in uh in a couple of places makes al ghazali's claim almost precisely in his commentary on ezekiel john calvin says that food does not nourish us but that god nourishes us on the occasion of food being in the stomach you know it's a this this is called occasionalism is the doctrine now um you know sort of a general antipathy towards secondary causes uh it does have some impact on protestant reasoning about the nature of the bible see in a catholic worldview not only nature but also the domain of grace is something that's mediated through instruments right so uh thomas thomas aquinas catholic philosopher uh famously argued against al ghazali and those like him that god can act through secondary causes you know god can work through gravity for example god can work through the laws of physics and chemistry and that doesn't take anything away from his sovereignty or his free will rather it demonstrates uh the the scope of his power that he can be totally in control while yet making use of secondary causes and while god can do that in the physical domain he can also do it in the domain of grace and uh and so grace is mediated to us through the sacraments and through the intercession of saints and things like that and the protestants didn't like that either they wanted to get god's immediate sort of monergistic that's the technical term activity not only in the realm of nature but also in the realm of grace so it's in this sort of philosophical mindset that they reject the uh you know the doctrine of sacred uh tradition and the teaching authority of the church but i really believe that um the the protestant formulation of solo scripture is a lot simpler than that now these philosophical questions may have been in the background but what really happened in my judgment was this in 1519 martin luther was debating some of these issues about grace and authority and whatnot with a catholic polemicist by the name of john eck and and ek pushes luther to the wall so to speak rhetorically and forces luther to acknowledge that luther is articulating positions that have already been condemned by church councils in particular the council of constance condemned some of luther's opinions in the person of john huss and uh and luther acknowledges that his opinions have already been condemned by ecclesiastical authority and then he he pulls this rabbit out of his hat he says but i reject ecclesiastical authority i'm going to stand on the bible alone and uh and that's my final authority so there really wasn't sort of an extended period of argument there wasn't a deep philosophical elaboration in luther of the doctrine of solo scripture it was a response to political exigencies he was forced in the moment to uh to justify his rejection of church authority and so he just said well i've got the bible i'm going to stand on that so and i've studied the history of protestant theology and their defense of solo scriptura and uh and it it's it's sort of grounded in that it's not a profound philosophical argument it really begins with the rejection of catholic authority right so it doesn't really establish that the bible is our soul rule of faith it goes like this well we think the bible is the soul authority because well it's obviously not the catholics and we gotta have something so it might as well be the bible that's really how the argument goes okay all right well there you go and uh thank you so much for your call that opens up a line for you right now at 833 288 ewtn looks like we have one line open right now 833 288 3986 call to communion here on ewtn let's go to martha now in lima ohio listening online ewtn.com martha what's on your mind today hi gentlemen thank you for taking my call i'd like to know how it is that protestant and catholic apologists can read the early church father's writings and both claim that they support their opposing positions regarding the real presence of christ in the eucharist okay thanks yeah i really appreciate the question well uh you know protestants have needed to cite the church fathers from the beginning because they wanted to uh establish that they were in continuity with the ancient church and that was an important political priority for both luther and calvin zewingley and cranmer they recognized that if they acknowledged they were doing something that was radically new that that would count against the integrity of their doctrine so they needed to peruse the fathers and and selectively quote them and attempt to show that they were in continuity with the ancient church now um when it comes to the doctrine on the eucharist luther actually appeals to the church fathers in support of the doctrine of the real presence and there's a passage in luther that i i've got it in memory but i can't give you the reference i wish i could give you the reference off the top of my head where luther says even if we didn't have any scripture at all it would be foolish to reject this doctrine of the real presence because of the unbroken universal tradition of the church down for 1500 years and uh and and it would be a terrible thing to go against the consensus of the entire christian church for so long now i wish that luther had been more consistent in applying that principle to other doctrines but when it comes to the doctrine of the real presence luther was very much a fan of the real presence and uh and of course he appeal appealed to the church fathers in defense of that doctrine uh as he rightly should now calvin also believed in the real presence but with a few qualifications right and and he also wanted to ground that in the writings of the church fathers now he he he he got off track a little bit well a lot bit but but he did really believe in what he would call a substantial partaking of the body and blood of the lord in the holy supper now um you know the the how can modern protestant apologists turn to the church fathers to reject the doctrine of the real presence well not very easily in my judgment not very easily in my judgment now remember that the doctrine on the eucharist this is the catholic doctrine on the eucharist is that the eucharist is a symbol but it's not only a symbol it is absolutely a symbol but it's not only a symbol it's a symbol that conveys the thing signified so if you go to texts of the church fathers and they they lay hold of the signifying character of the eucharist that there is a symbolic aspect to the eucharist and you yank such passages out of context and say see see the church fathers say this the eucharist is a symbol well we've always said the eucharist was a symbol that's never been at issue the issue is is it only a symbol and the answer to that question is emphatically no okay there you go martha thank you so much for your call it's called a communion here on ewtn i want to get to a question here from eddie in australia watching us on youtube today eddie says i'm new to the faith and i'm confused about catholic and protestant teaching could you please help me choose the right path and perhaps give me a resource that i can look up yeah thank you well um you you do know you're calling a catholic radio station right hello i'm gonna give you a catholic point of view to be sure sure um you know i'm a convert to the catholic church from the protestant tradition a lot of reasons i became catholic but to put it very simply the catholic church is the one founded by jesus i mean that's the simplest answer i can give you the catholic church is the one founded by jesus christ said to saint peter you are the rock on which i will build the church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it and whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven and loose on earth is loose in heaven and whoever hears you hears me and i'll be with you to the end of the age therefore go make disciples of all nations and teach them everything i've commanded you all of that is in the words of christ christ established a church gave it authority gave it a promise of divine assistance gave it a commission to teach his commands in perpetuity down to the end of the age and his own accompaniment that what it the church would bind on earth is bound in heaven now if you believe that jesus is telling the truth well then the church that christ founded the gates of hell did not prevail against it right and it's and it's going to the end of the age to the ends of the earth to teach christ's commands with his promise of divine assistance now protestantism is grounded in the rejection of that promise the protestant tradition begins on the assumption that the gates of hell prevailed against the church and that the church was not able to hold on to the faith and it needed to be reformed 1500 years after the fact by martin luther and in doing so luther taught doctrines that had never been taught in 1500 years anywhere throughout the world well that just from a historical point of view just strains credibility to the breaking point i mean how can jesus be the incarnate son of god and guarantee the church forever and then immediately it runs off the rails and stays off the rails for 1500 years and then luther is the first guy to notice i mean it's just not a credible story right so that's the simplest answer i can give you join the church that christ founded now you know i'll give you another piece of advice when i when i went to join the catholic church i left the presbyterian church and my dad who was presbyterian said you know son you don't have to leave a church just because it's got something wrong with it i said dad you've never said a truer word absolutely right you're dead right and he went oh and he never bothered me about it again because you should have been saying that to luther luther just because church has something wrong with it don't you have to leave it right right so the church was founded by christ and is still here two thousand years later does that mean that church doesn't have any problems no we got all kinds of problems because we're packed full of humans and um you know friend of mine said all the problems that an orangutan has in the world can be summarized in two words other orangutans and that's kind of like what it's like being a human being you know all of our problems come typically from other human beings whether they're catholics or not so join the church that christ founded recognize that it's full of people perhaps a resource uh we could steer him too you got any any ideas i was thinking of a book by scott hahn rome sweden you could go to rome sweet home uh look i'm kind of partial but i'd love you to go to call to communion.com there's some good stuff there appreciate you watching us in australia thanks so much for checking in today here on call to communion our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's 833-288-3986 let's go to derek in miami right now listening on facebook a first-time caller derek what's on your mind today hello thank you for taking my call my question is regarding the pope's recent document for kelly tutti that mentions universal fraternity uh my main question is freemasonry and the fraternity in respect to the catholic faith like what what is on a catholic being involved in freemasonry maybe because his family has been involved in it and and that sort of thing yeah thank you so the the holy father's uh encyclical fratelli for teletutti does not change the canon law concerning catholic membership in freemason organizations catholics are not permitted to belong to the freemasonry we're not permitted to and that is a long-standing prohibition and it goes back really to the origins of freemasonry which which uh have always been a validly anti-catholic now that doesn't mean every freemason is anti-catholic i'm not making that claim but the organization as such uh was structured from the beginning in opposition to the social influence of catholicism in the world and the doctrines of freemasonry are a validly indifferentist meaning that it is a doctrine of freemasonry that it does not matter what religion you belong to well it does matter what religion you belong to and differentism is is an erroneous opinion it's a false opinion and so both because of its of its uh intentional opposition to the catholic church and its influence in the world and because of its erroneous doctrines catholics are not permitted to be members now that being said does that mean that we think all freemasons are bad people no we don't think they're bad people all right and many of them are fine people you may have an uncle or a grandfather or a dad who was a freemason you don't have to be mean to them in consequence but you can't be a freemason there are other ways to scratch that itch so to speak try the knights of columbus absolutely hey derek thank you so much for your call it is called communion here on ewtn i've got one line open right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833 288 3986 quick question here from elijah watching us on youtube can you provide proof for the filioque way my orthodox priest told me it was a heresy um yeah thank you so uh i can line up a number of scriptures and obviously i'm not great at producing them at memory because i'm not in the habit of doing it um but there are plenty of places where the spirit in sacred scripture is described as being the spirit of christ or coming from christ as well as the father i mean you you the the the texts are evident um and they're well known in debates between orthodox and uh and catholics now i think more to the point is that the major uh ecumenical theologians on both sides of this issue agree today that the filioque clause is not a deal breaker for for catholic and orthodox unity and that there is not a real substantial difference in the doctrine of the trinity there is a difference in the historical formulation of the doctrine um and the way it's articulated but we don't have divergent doctrines of the trinity not really aiden nichols book roman the eastern churches is an excellent resource on that there we go elijah thanks for watching us on youtube today call to communion here on ewtn two lines open right now at eight three three two eight eight ewtn stay with us jerry usher dr ray garendi father benedict broshell you'll hear the leading catholic voices on the largest catholic media network in the world this is the ewtn global catholic radio network it's another quote from mother angelica's perpetual calendar lord spirit for love real love into my heart take out my earthly heart and replace it with a spiritual heart a heart free of all selfish motives a heart that can do nothing but love a heart that knows no greed or selfishness or lukewarmness or coldness mother angelica's perpetual calendar with her reflections is available at ewtn rc.com 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 today we pray for those who have left the church lord jesus christ good shepherd we praise you you founded the church on the foundation of the apostles and promised that the gates of hell would never prevail against her bring those who have left the faith back into the fold of the catholic church [Music] give them the grace of conversion from sin stir into flame the gift of the holy spirit within them and restore to your prodigal children their lost dignity lord jesus mercy amen tomorrow on more to life making a change not sure how to make a change or make it stick we'll help you find success that's tomorrow on more to life now back to call to communion [Music] glad you could join us today for call to communion our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight 288-3986 we have a couple of lines open if you have a question for dr david anders what's stopping you from becoming a catholic love to talk about that with you let's go to angela right now angela is in loveland colorado listening on catholic radio network angela what's on your mind today hi thanks for taking my question um i have family members who refuse to come back to the faith because they say we pray to mary and i i'm trying to figure out how exactly to talk to them to let them know that no we don't you know i i just i'm kind of out of law okay thanks i really appreciate the question and i appreciate your desire to speak to your relatives i will have to beg to differ on one point though i absolutely pray to the blessed virgin mary absolutely we do and we should and god wants us to and he's commanded us to uh the question is not do catholics pray to mary but why do we pray to mary and not only to mary but to all the saints i find generally in in dialoguing with protestants i like to begin with not the question of the virgin mary specifically but with the question of all of the saints i think it's easy to see with all of them what applies to all of them even more so applies to her um sacred scripture tells us that the saints in heaven are involved in our prayer life by offering our prayers to god the book of revelation chapter 5 in particular depicts the saints in heaven offering our prayers to god look they're not just praying for us they're actually offering our prayers to god that's what the text says revelation 8 says that the angels are involved in that same ministry these these hearken back to old testament passages that suggest the same thing so tobit chapter 12. the archangel rayfield says it's his job to carry people's prayers to god in in second maccabees chapter 15 the deceased holy ones of the old testament appear in reveal that they're praying for the people of god on earth you go even further back in the old testament into a passage like second kings chapter 13 and even the relics of the saints like the dead body of elisha the prophet are efficacious to bring miracles in the life of the people of god go even further back into genesis chapter 18 in the idea of god being merciful to the many on behalf of the righteousness of the few is an explicitly scriptural teaching when abraham challenges god and says will you will you wipe away the you know the ten righteous with all the wicked god says no for the sake of the ten i'll spare the many right and even in the book of job uh god tells job's companions ask my servant job to pray for you and i'll hear his prayers so god has always been merciful to the many on behalf of the righteousness of the few and that power of prayer and intercession continues not only in this life but also in the next life as we see clearly from those biblical passages so what is actually going on in the intercession of the saints well you know christ came to destroy death and to unite us into one body which is the church and so the person who says well that doesn't that doesn't work right but the dead people are no longer part of us and they're impotent to help us well the burden of proof is on them to demonstrate that right because christ came to destroy death and to unite us as one body in the church that we might share one another's burdens saint paul says i fill up in my own flesh what's lacking in the sufferings of christ for the sake of his body of the church now death does not get the final word because of christ and his ascension into heaven the holy and righteous dead are in heaven they're still part of the church and they still love us and pray for us just like they did when they were on earth that does not in any way diminish the power of christ's atonement on the contrary it establishes the power of christ's atonement it's in virtue of the death and resurrection of jesus that we have this ability to pray efficaciously for one another after death so it's a magnificent testament to the power of christ to accomplish what he set out to do namely to make us into one new body the body of christ which is the church which survives death and manifests its love one for another through the ministry of prayer and intercession there you go angela thank you so much for your call glad you're listening to us on uh catholic radio network out of loveland colorado call to communion here on ewtn let's go now to uh adrienne in vancouver washington listening on affiliate number one way back in the day modern day radio and uh adrienne what's on your mind today yes thank you for taking my call i was hoping that the doctor could explain mystics and i know as catholics we don't um partake in fortune telling and i just wanted to get his um input yeah thank you absolutely so the word mysticism is a funny word and it means a lot of different things to different people okay i will give you what is the official catholic teaching on mysticism mysticism has nothing to do with foretelling the future or talking to dead people or performing wonders or miracles or even having extraordinary uh experiences like floating off the ground it's got nothing to do with any of that mysticism is the essentially all catholics are called to be mystics but in a very special sense saint paul book of ephesians says i pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened i pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened that you might know the height and width and depth of the love of god that surpasses knowledge right that is the end of all catholic prayer we begin the catholic life like babes saint paul says i had to feed you with milk and not solid food because you weren't ready for it yet the christian life is progressive it begins in spiritual infancy and it grows over time where we're growing towards the aim of the spiritual life is to have that that immediate intuitive awareness of god's love in her heart that paul prays for i pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened that you may know the height and width and depth of the love of god that surpasses knowledge the end of mystical prayer the end of the mystical life the goal that is to say is that we would be transformed in charity lit a fire let aflame with the love of god so that our will is in perfect conformity to the will of god that we want only what god wants in this sense the greatest mystic in the catholic church the greatest mystic in the catholic church is one that performed no wonders and did no miracles and that is the blessed virgin mary right because in her prayer we see the the ultimate goal of all mysticism be it done to me according to thy word mary is the perfect catholic mystic be it done to me according to thy word now i will tell you a funny story that i love about mystics and wonder workers that gets to the heart of the catholic teaching on mysticism st thomas aquinas who was himself a mystic was once told about a celebrated nun who apparently could levitate the claim was she could float off the ground while she was in prayer in ecstasy and so thomas was you know whatever and they said we want to take you to see her and he says okay well let's go see her. so they walk in and there's the nun and she's five feet off the ground in the trance and thomas looks at her and he says she has big feet oh wow whereupon the nun comes out of her trance and is indignant at being so insulted and thomas utterly unflappable looks at her and says i exhort you to seek greater humility and he walks out he was not impressed wow not impressed right great story so and the point of fact is you know in assessing canonizations the holiness of saints it's a lot easier to determine a person's holiness if they don't float off the ground um you know it's mother teresa one time actually was uh apparently uh at a talk a theologian had come to her community and was giving some talk on a highfalutin topic and uh and they said mother teresa what do you think about him she said he talks too much he'd done better if we'd given him a broom oh right you know and uh so is there mysticism in the catholic tradition yes but it is the mysticism of the interior life as we seek to be like mary in the story of miriam martha who who hears the word of god and lives by it there we go adrienne thank you so much for your call good to hear from you today listening to modern day radio call to communion here on ewtn a couple of lines open if you have a question for dr david anders 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 what's keeping you from becoming a catholic let's talk about that right now let's go to robert in jackson mississippi listening on wjxc 107.9 fm a first-time caller hello robert what's on your mind today oh good afternoon really enjoy your program and uh so i'm an orthodox uh convert orthodoxy from protestantism and i really love the apologetics that you guys use because they are pretty much 99 of the same apologetics that we use um as orthodox christians obviously the significant difference between uh the catholic and orthodox churches is the issue of the papacy and i really do pray and hope and have faith that all of our churches are going to be uh reconciled again united one day soon i really pray for that and i view my catholic brothers and sisters as my brothers and sisters in the faith but my question about the papacy is is two two questions what number one what would be the downside of the roman papacy relinquishing its claim to supremacy and returning to its status as first among equals and i may be historically uh inaccurate or misinformed about that yes yes well are you aware of any pope in history that ever denied that he had universal jurisdiction because i don't think there is one in fact every single pope who has ever addressed the explicitly addressed the question of the pope's jurisdiction and i mean this is clear all the way back in the quarter decimating controversy of the second century when victor claimed the jurisdiction to excommunicate the eastern churches over the over the easter controversy right he didn't in fact do it but he claimed that authority that prerogative every pope who has addressed the question of his own jurisdiction has has claimed universal jurisdiction now is there any council of the church any ecumenical council that has ever contradicted that claim and the answer to the question is no absolutely not and based on what have the popes made their claim to universal jurisdiction based on the fact that they sit in the seat of peter not on their residence in the imperial imperial seat right it's not because their rome is the seat of the empire but because christ gave the power of the keys to saint peter way back in the 250s when pope stephen the first addresses the question of the universal jurisdiction he explicitly ties it to patron authority and look it's not only the romans that make this claim you will find the claim in the syriac churches that acknowledge roman primacy you'll find it in the assyrian the chaldean churches that acknowledge roman prophecy you find it in arabic theologians like theodore abu kara who also acknowledges the universal jurisdiction of the pope based on petron promises now there were some byzantine theologians in uh at the council of constantinople in 381 who suggested well maybe we should move the the seat of the church from rome to byzantium to constantinople because the empire's here well that guess how much traction that got it the council of constantinople it was it was rejected and byzantine theologians like maximus the confessor a century later powerfully confirmed the doctrine of universal primacy and jurisdiction of the pope right so this is the catholic doctrine founded by the teaching of jesus thou art peter and on this rock i'll build my church and the gates of hell not prevail against it give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven that's a sign of executive power and authority in the church so this idea that the pope is just a first among equals and he doesn't actually have universal jurisdiction is a fiction it's a it's a political doctrine that's been made up to justify this ism now there are other difficulties with with the uh with the byzantine point of view i shouldn't say byzantine but the orthodox point of view one of them is you sort of run into the same problem that protestants run into and i'll give you a couple of examples so um you know the orthodox position is that the essentially the highest doctrinal authority in the church is an ecumenical council well that immediately it's just like the protestants point to the bible alone well it throws up the question okay well what's the bible and how do you know you have an ecumenical counsel well the orthodox answer is the only the only way you know you've got north ecumenical council is that the church has accepted it over time is acquiescence to the teaching of the council well okay which church you got to know what the orthodox church is to know if the orthodox church accepts the legitimacy of a council and now we got a problem which one are you going to talk about you can talk about the oriental orthodox the assyrian orthodox the the uh the chalcedony and the byzantine orthodox you got competing claims to orthodoxy with divergent communions that give you different lists of ecumenical councils and there's no way out of that conundrum unless you can get your head out of the meat grinder for a minute and get an authority outside the system all right i mean the the the coptics and the co and the and the byzantines don't agree on calcitin and both of them claim antiquity and universality on their side and there's no way to adjudicate that conflict unless christ gave us a visible objective authority that can decide the issue it's the same problem the protestants have with the canon of the bible well i'm all appealed to the bible alone okay what belongs in the bible well i guess the books that the church put in there well which church how do you know and based on what right did christ ever say well you ecumenical council of constantinople are the rock and on this ecumenical council i will build my church and the gates will of hell will not prevail against it no he didn't the the orthodox rule of faith is not christ's rule of faith oh christ gave us thou art peter and on this rock i'll build my church there you go hey robert thank you so much for your call thanks also for your kind words about the show we really do appreciate that and please call us back another time call to communion here on ewtn our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six i want to tell you about uh some wonderful offerings right now courtesy of ewtn publishing a couple of great books one of them making a holy lent 40 meditations to prepare for the church's holiest season father william casey of the fathers of mercy turns our attention to jesus in brief reflections on topics like the real presence of jesus and the eucharist and the role that the blessed virgin mary plays in every healthy prayer life here's another one the four last things with our friend father wade menezes he wrote it it's a great book he focuses on the differences between the particular judgment and the last judgment also the church's teaching on heaven chief characteristics of the risen glorified and transfigured human body and on and on and on a couple of great books here making a holy lent from father william casey and the four last things with father wade menezes both available right now at ewtn rc ewtnrc.com by catholic shop ewtnrc.com back to the phones right now here is joseph in nebraska listening on spirit catholic radio hey there joseph what's on your mind today hello thank you for taking my call i wanted to ask there's a lot of protestants i've spoken to who reject catholic authority to change the law in regards to the best example i know of is changing the sabbath day to sunday instead of saturday i believe that we know that the apostles have the authority to add to add church teaching but i don't know how to explain it in regards to changing it especially in light of jesus and god's words that the law will never change um yeah thanks i really appreciate the question so uh if god destroyed the world and then built it anew could he institute a new uh feast or festival for his people you think he could do that if god would just wiped everything out and started all over again fresh yeah yeah i think he could and that's exactly what he did that's what the new testament says new testament says this right that all things have become new in christ we're talking about a radical reconfiguration of the entire cosmos paul says that christ is the new adam that is an astonishing claim he is the new adam an entire new race of spiritual people born not of in the natural way but born of water in the spirit has come to populate the planet all things have become new now the book of hebrews says explicitly by speaking of a new covenant he made the first one obsolete it's hebrews 8 13. he made the first one obsolete and what is obsolete is aging and will soon disappear saint paul says let no one judge you with regard to a new moon or a sabbath day right if anyone is in christ he is a new creator a new creature right a new creature god has destroyed the dividing wall of hostility he says in the book of ephesians chapter 2 between jew and gentile namely the law with it with its commandments that he might establish one new man attitude making peace uh for to all people through the cross and so it the practice of ancient christianity even within the new testament was that on the first day of the week namely sunday the church would gather to celebrate the resurrection of our lord and you know saint paul gives instructions also about taking up a collection on the first day of the week right for the poor in jerusalem and elsewhere and so this is of apostolic origin i mean this is not something the catholic church made up after uh you know a couple centuries this is this is a new testament institution now of course jewish christians in the first century didn't cease to to rest on the seventh day they didn't cease to celebrate the sabbath but it was quite explicit that that the mosaic code is not the basis for membership in the new covenant people of god which is based on faith in christ in the doctrine of a new creation you know the catholic understanding of sunday it's it's not simply we kicked saturday one day forward in the calendar all right it's a different feast now it's it's it's it's a fulfillment of the sabbath but it's not just the sabbath kicked one day for it's not it's not like daylight savings time applied to the sabbath right it has a it has an a fundamentally enhanced character because it speaks not only looking back to the first creation but to the new creation but also looks forward the book of hebrews talks about there is yet a sabbath rest towards which the people of god are are journeying right that sabbath rest with him in heaven and so it has this eschatological character about it the world has shifted on its axis and we are now living in a fundamentally different horizon aimed at christ all right joseph thank you so much uh for your call do appreciate that here is robert in cincinnati listening on sacred heart radio robert what's on your mind today uh i'm interested in what dr anders said about the saints offering up prayers i have heard other apologists on catholic radio saying that and yet i've also heard someone say the saints are not so limited they have power themselves and when i heard that i thought of joshua in the old testament because it said he had the holy spirit and could and was able to command the sun and the moon to stand still so i am wondering about this discrepancy among catholic apologists does that show that there is a certain uncertainty about catholic doctrine okay all right because of the way certain some some speakers will construe uh the intercession of saints as simply intercessory power and others act as though the saint has some sort of immediate agency in the supernatural realm is that this this the question you're asking about yes if uh you can uh pray to them and they will actually do the work for you uh that makes sense um now i i wonder if there is a discrepancy here okay sure so so the the catholic position like when we talk about discrepancy or in in catholic doctrine the church defines dogmas the church will say this is what we believe on this disputed issue and all catholics have to agree all right uh the number of of issues that might occur to someone in theology that are not defined in dog as dogma will always be greater than the number that are defined as a dogma like the church is not going to define for me like you know what's the best brand of banana right i mean there's just there are way more questions and so it is permitted for catholics to you know to construe events or even theological questions differently from one another provided we all operate within the same finite number of dogmas right so it is a dogma of the church that that prayer to the saints works that it's efficacious that it's beneficial and that the saints pray for us i mean that's that's what you have to believe as a catholic now you know we can we can propose different theories about how that works out um and uh and and sure there's some differences that are allowable now to your point does god delegate uh miraculous power to to instrumental agents to accomplish his purposes what clearly he does in sacred scripture i mean jesus says you know the works that i do you'll do greater works than these and talks about the apostles performing miracles could christ delegate such authority you know to the immediate agency of a saint of course he could right of course he could but that's not necessary for us to have the right concept of prayer to the saints the idea behind prayer to the saints anything that they do happens ultimately as a result of god and his providence and christ's grace that he's one force whether it's just god's immediate activity in our life or whether he delegates some sort of instrumental causality to the saints specifically is really kind of a secondary matter okay appreciate your call robert thank you so much for it real quick one here now this is from danielle she says i am attending rcia classes started two months ago i'm wondering since i cannot do confession am i okay by confessing my sins and my own prayers while listening to or attending mass okay thanks so once once you are determined that you will become catholic you've made this you're this you're you've stated you're you're gonna become catholic well you know you can you can approach the priest and say you know could i go ahead and be admitted to the sacrament of reconciliation if you've already been baptized you're a candidate you're headed into the church at easter you know that you can do that you can do that um ask permission but you can make your first reconciliation um in the meanwhile yes you should absolutely make an act of contrition uh tell god you're sorry for your sins and you should participate in the prayers of the church all right danielle thank you so much for your question there via youtube hey dr david anders thank you sir thank you tom don't forget we do the program on ewtn radio at 2 p.m eastern every weekday monday through friday we also bring you the best of uh call to communion on the weekends sunday at 2 p.m eastern and we encore that monday through friday live show at 11 p.m monday through friday on behalf of our fantastic team i'm tom price along with dr david anders thanks for joining us today we'll see you next time right here on ewtn's call to communion god bless [Music] hello this is father brian mullady please join me for open line thursday next on most of these ewtn stations

Channel: EWTN

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Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: Clkegafo37A

Length: 54min 0sec (3240 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 11 2021