Called to Communion with Dr David Anders - Friday 02/11/2022

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 1-833-288-3986 [Music] catholic radio network well what do you know we made it to friday welcome again to call to communion here on ewtn radio this is the program for our non-catholic brothers and sisters is that you do you have a question about the catholic faith we're here to answer it for you here's that phone number 833 288 ewtn that's caveat 833-288-3986 early because the phones tend to clog up rather quickly on a friday afternoon we would like to get your call on the radio today 833 288 ewtn if you're listening to us outside of north america please dial the u.s country code and then 205-271-2985 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 and of course you can always shoot us an email ctc at ewtn.com ctc ewtn.com charles bury our producer uh we also have uh rich jesse handling the phones this afternoon i'm tom price along with dr david anders tom how are you today i'm very well how are you my friend well i'm doing decent thank you you ready for that groovy weekend coming up i'm ready for a groovy weekend weather's supposed to be kind of on the decent side it's beautiful right now it is just gorgeous here in uh birmingham we're looking for a high of possibly 70 degrees today i'm into that absolutely bring it on we're going to lead off here with an anonymous email that we received actually this morning came in just a couple of hours ago dear dr anders on a previous show you explained that when we offer suffering up it can be meritorious for both us and others in terms of salvation could you elaborate isn't jesus's death on the cross and once and for all event that opens up the possibility of salvation thanks anonymous thanks anonymous i really appreciate the question you're absolutely correct that the death of christ is what makes salvation possible for us and jesus won for us a sufficient redemption that it there's nothing left to be done by way of objectively meriting the grace of god for the church okay however uh between the uh the atoning death of christ and ourselves there is the question of the application of christ's work to me to my interiority i have to make the death of christ uh i have to incorporate it into my life in such a fashion that i am changed and i become like jesus all right that's that has to happen now that there's a medium if you will between christ's death and its application to my life and that that role is basically performed by the church the church is the extension of christ's ministry into the present day and mediates those graces to me principally through the sacraments and the preaching of the word so you know i'm not going to be able to be filled with christ if i don't know him saying jerome says he says ignorance of scripture is ignorance of christ it's why we always combine the eucharist is is the liturgy of the word literally the eucharist we have reading of scripture and meditating on the words of jesus and then we celebrate uh the events that we've just read about in uh in the holy eucharist we recapitulate them in the mass but you have to have that cognitive information about the person of christ and his teaching in order to interiorize that we come into relationship with him fellowship with him so that we can live in him and through him and for him and become other christs as we come to see the world as jesus sees it and that faith hope and charity transforms us into the likeness and image of our lord so that that has to take place in us for the redemption to really take hold now um in that you know when i'm applying the redemption of christ to my life i can be helped by the prayers of the saints and the prayers of the church because it's a it's a hard business becoming sanctified i've got to give up all kinds of attachments and sins and have all kinds of difficulties in the in life and i need the help of you know like ringo starr said need a little help from my friends there you go and and that can be that can be the love and the encouragement of the living it can also be the prayers of the saints in heaven who intercede on my behalf and encourage me to you know stay the course uh and i need that help st paul says that when i'm suffering for the faith for christ in pursuit of virtue that can be helpful to other people in colossians chapter one he says i fill up in my own flesh what's lacking in the sufferings of christ for the sake of his body the church not as if jesus's death were somehow insufficient to merit the grace of god it's completely sufficient but rather in the application of that grace to the condition of particular believers as they strive to draw ever closer into christ to imitate his life and to enter into his holy will for that we need the help of the saints and the sacraments and the teaching of the church thank you so much for your anonymous email here's one now from tony in louisiana tony says my daughter is christian she's married to a man who is not catholic he is non-denominational and he believes the man doesn't cook clean take care of his child and the woman is to be told what to do how do we get the baby who is now two months old baptized okay now let me get this straight i i i've got i've got a man and a woman and i've got a very patriarchal kind of domineering machismo guy yep and i've got a woman who's maybe putting up with it and they've got a child who who's writing the question i miss that well it just says tony in louisiana but it is uh tony's daughter oh okay that's what i missed is tony writing on behalf of him yeah all right well first of all um tony uh this is really the responsibility of the parents it's really the responsibility of the parents they can delegate the responsibility if they choose so for example if the parents don't want to take on the responsibility of raising their child catholic they could say hey tony you want to do it you got it right and the church will baptize a child provided there's a well-founded expectation the child will be brought up in the faith so if some adult steps forward and says i'm i'm taking this responsibility and i will catechize the child see the child goes to mass and so forth the church will baptize the baby normally that ought to be the parents and that's that's that's where it starts so if this couple uh is willing to do that for their child then they can certainly present the child for baptism now if the if the husband has said categorically no you can't baptize my child period in a paragraph um and uh and the wife uh succumbs to that well there's not a whole lot you can do you can't baptize contrary to the will of the parents now when it comes to the husband's domineering attitude ultimately it's got to be your daughter who stands up and says you know i draw the line at my conscience yeah and uh you respect me i respect you but my respect stops at conscience when you order me to do something that violates my conscience as martin luther once said um you know to disobey conscience is neither right nor safe that's right that was the one catholic thing he said right and so if god commands us to baptize our children your daughter can very reasonably say i'm going to baptize my child because you know i'm not going to cross the line of conscience for you and as santana once said you've got to change your evil ways baby in a moment we're going to get to uh ringo starr santana and martin luther on catholic radio we double it all here in a moment andre in trinidad on this edition of call to communion with dr david anders stay with us [Music] are you ready to spread your wings wings is the weekly newsletter that's packed with exclusive news program information features and updates of all that's going on at the global catholic network to sign up go to ewtn.com click subscribe enter your name and email address and you'll start getting your wings every week get your wings today it's the weekly newsletter from ewtn the global catholic network [Music] the most original and exclusive catholic content is on ewtn radio hey this is michael o'neal the miracle hunter this week i'll be visiting with father edward looney author of how they love mary and monsignor david lapuma pastor and director of our lady of victory shrine and basilica the miracle hunter with michael o'neal tomorrow afternoon one eastern on ewtn radio hi this is dave bashers president of annunciation radio the scripture says when the word of god goes out it doesn't return void but accomplishes that for which it was sent we regularly hear from individuals whose lives have been dramatically changed as a result of listening to catholic radio tell a family member tell a friend tell the whole world change your station and it'll change your life the world needs ewtn catholic radio now more than ever [Music] call the communion on this friday afternoon here on ewtn radio our phone number eight three three two eight eight ewtn that's 833 288 3986 looks like three lines being screened right now by our friend rich jesse three lines are still available for you at 833 288 ewtn i want to let you know about a wonderful website that's available for your perusal especially for those of you who are not familiar with our wonderful foundress mother angelica of happy memory you can visit our site dedicated to mother angelica you can celebrate her remarkable life with this great website devoted just to her filled with photos milestones heartfelt stories and of course her wit and words that have inspired the hearts of all ages throughout the years visit ewtn.com mother angelica today ewtn.com slash mother angelica i know david uh as you've uh entered the ewtn campus here there's this big beautiful picture of mother angelica right there in the hallway yes absolutely gorgeous i love it i say hello to mother every morning i don't think that's superstitious i i love her and i miss her uh you know i i never got to meet mother angelica and i'm very sad about that she was alive when i started working here but but uh you know she was kind of she was cloistered at that point and i didn't get the opportunity i joined the team in 1997 and at the time the way the things were set up at the time i reported directly to mother angelica in the cloister it is an amazing you know touchstone in my own life well you know i think my favorite part of the stories you've told me is how much she knew about the business of radio oh yes oh yes yes she was very very well schooled no doubt about it mother angelica fantastic all right uh if you're ready now let's go to the phones at 833 288 ewtn we begin with andre in trinidad listening to us today on youtube hello andre what's on your mind today hi tom hi dr ander anders hi um i think i had a little bit of a disturbing response uh last wednesday i believe you responded to a listener's question about latin as the language of the devil by relating a story about a dominican priest who was surprised by a possessed indigenous person here in trinidad who spoke in a remote irish accent so i've been following your show for the past four years and i find it of course very illuminating i may be god bless you for the help i receive personally but this is the third time i've heard you cite an example of spiritual possession always in trinidad capuchin friars and monks from spain first evangelized our indigenous caribbean people centuries ago and they for the most part and in spite of a brutal 17th century massacre of priests are today among the most loyal of catholic as part of my humble evangelization effort i have promoted your show to other devout catholics here largely of african and east indian heritage could you imagine the collective disappointment on the psyche of those in this part of the world to hear our blessed island being labeled in this way so repeatedly on an international forum and from your statement one may be led to think that spiritual possession occurs nowhere else or it implies that the internet have cornered the market on this problem i feel as if our country folk are being actively placed in a bucket some precious flowers in our field may have been squashed is there another danger that cultural bias could be looking behind spiritual principle andre uh you i am profoundly sorry i am profoundly sorry the last thing in the world i would ever want to do is characterize your nation or its people in any way that would be derogatory or dismissive uh or uh or uh condescending or patronizing that was the last thing in the world i would intend you have my sincere deep and profound apology and i will endeavor never to relate that episode on the show again because i would never want to offend that was never my intent you know the story that you are referring to was recounted to me as the dominican who told me the story meant it has no slight whatsoever at all against the people of trinidad it was actually an inside joke among dominican friars from ireland uh you know about uh irish sort of factional division within their own cultural culture and language um and certainly that could have happened and it could have happened anywhere right it could have happened in any nation including my own alabama right you know and uh and was not not intended on my part in the slightest to reflect anything about the character of catholicism or the faith in trinidad so i you are very very welcome to criticize me on that part and you have my humble and sincere apology i have nothing but the utmost respect for trinidad for the catholic faith there which is long-standing as you as you correctly note yes pious devout and virtuous as well as for the irish dominican friars that have served there for a very long long time so um yeah i'm sorry andre thank you so much for your call today that opens up a line for you right now at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 looks like two lines open at the moment here now is paul in tacoma washington listening on siriusxm channel 130. hey paul what's on your mind today oh good morning gentlemen howdy um my my question is um how we got to the current canons on on divorce um how we move from the teachings of jesus to our modern day canons on divorce can can you tell me a little bit about the history on how those canons developed yeah sure thank you so as you know christ taught that divorce is impermissible uh in the kingdom of god from among christians who possess a spirit that though moses permitted divorce it was because of hardness of heart but it was not god's intent from the beginning and so now christ calling his disciples to the more perfect way called them back to that perfect fidelity of marriage that was that was god's intent at creation so divorce not permittable not permissible and saint paul echoes that teaching in first corinthians chapter five um he uh excuse me five to seven paul says it's not permitted to divorce your spouse if you do you are to remain unmarried um or or be reconciled to your spouse so that's the practice of the church to this day if a person is validly married they cannot marry again in the catholic church unless they or their spouse passes away because marriage is only unto death now it also in first corinthians there is an understanding that not every coupling counts as a valid marriage so one of the reasons that paul wrote the first letter to the corinthians was because of a scandal where a man had taken his stepmother home to live with him and presumably in marriage and uh and he kind of boasted about this that he was you know freed from the jewish law and he was free in christ so he could you know run around do what he liked it was a misunderstanding of the nature of christian freedom and paul's position was that this relationship was invalid that that there was an impediment to there being together namely that she was his blood relation through marriage by way of his father and so uh he could not validly marry her and he demanded that that uh that the man repudiate the woman which he did he separated from her and he was reconciled to the church so we have both the principle of the indissolubility of marriage in sacred scripture and the principle that not every coupling that men call marriage is marriage there's such a thing as valid and invalid marriage and it's the valid marriage that's indissoluble so both of those principles exist in sacred scripture now the history of canon law is not my own personal specialty um you know there were can the canon law was largely sort of regional in particular in the in the church's history until the middle ages gratian the great 12th century canonist compiled a kind of digest of church canons down through the centuries that became a touchstone for the modern development of canon law since then we've had several formulations of the code most recently in 1983 prior to that 1917 but they all reflect uh the essential teaching of jesus about the indissolubility of marriage and uh and also the right of the church to define the the conditions for validity okay paul is that helpful for you oh that's wonderful thank you so much you are most welcome call to communion here on ewtn we have a couple of lines open for you at 833 288 ewtn if you have a question for dr david anders or if you'd like to tell us what's stopping you from becoming a catholic 833-288-3986 all right let's go to robert now robert is in tampa listening also on siriusxm channel 130 robert what's on your mind today thanks for taking the call dr anders this is going to be one i think you might be able to help with uh i'm a convert to catholicism and i have a dear friend who is a southern baptist pastor and so we'll get into biblical discussions and we'll note that something like john 3 where they talk about uh baptized by water and spirit the southern baptists will say that is a literal uh stating that's talking about the uh breaking of water during birth but in john 6 when jesus says that my body's real food my blood is you'll drink that's metaphorical and we'll say it's the opposite outside of something he will not listen to the history of church teaching passed down the ages of the catholic church is there something else i can say to him where when reading scripture there are touchstones that would say this should be taken or read literally this might be read uh figuratively kind of thing or is it once you get to that it's just open to whoever is reading the bible okay thanks i appreciate the question so we got a couple things to deal with here one of them is what is the proper way to read scripture and another one is how to communicate that to a baptist and those are two different two different problems okay so in fact hermeneutics or the theory of biblical interpretation is is part of the deposit of faith so the way we approach the bible is in fact dogmatically defined by scripture itself and by the church it's not willy-nilly free-for-all there is an appropriate way to read the bible it is not the way baptists read it that's not the appropriate way to read the bible or or as a fundamentalist would read it how does a fundamentalist read the bible he takes the the sentences the words the syntax the sort of denotative sense of the of the text you know as the man on the street would read you know instructions on a map or a menu uh you know or history textbook a straightforward narrative with no more nuance than that and that is clearly not the way the new testament approaches the biblical text and in fact to do so to read the bible in that way leads saint paul to the conclusion that it becomes for such a person a letter of death and he means that quite seriously because you remember saint paul used to read the bible that way he used to take it in a kind of straightforward fundamentalist way so that when the bible says you know if you have sabbath breakers you put them to death uh you know if you eat with gentiles or you don't wash before evening you're unclean and are to be cut off from your people that's what the old testament says paul taking those commands quite seriously and also following the example of phineas the fellow that that ran the spear through the israelite man and the moabite woman you know he caught them coupling and said you're not supposed to do that so he stabs them and that was kind of paul's idea you know i'm going to be like this guy i'm going to go out and take a sword and i'm going to run it through people who who violate the literal text of the law as i understand it so that's why he had christians dragged off into prison and put to death because they were unclean and violating the sabbath and running around with gentiles and all those things that he couldn't stand and he thought the texts of the scriptures were with him but then he had a very disturbing experience as you know he met christ on the on the road to damascus and jesus says yes so the actually me you're persecuting why are you persecuting me saint paul or saul and paul's entire way of reading the bible is reimagined in that moment and he reflects on that experience and how it changed the way he looked at the bible in particular first corinthians 2 where he says the man without the spirit cannot discern things of god because they're spiritually discerned so he doesn't know the right way to read the bible he reads it the wrong way because he's not reading with the eyes of christ but the one who turns to the lord now he can discern things spiritually and what was previously a letter of death now becomes a you know a spirit leading to life that's second corinthians chapter three and what that means is that he now goes back and he looks at the old testament and he sees typologies and allegories and symbols pointing to fulfillment in jesus so uh for example hagar and sarah he mentions in galatians chapter four uh we read them as you know two women who are related to patriarch abraham paul says well actually they're allegories for two kinds of covenants one according to the flesh and one according to the spirit you see jesus does the same thing paul's not making this up out of whole cloth he's getting it from christ christ says the you have heard that it was written the stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone that's in the psalms he because that's actually talking about me you remember the story of jonah well that's actually pointing to me as journey was three days in the in the fish some man will be three days in the belly of the earth right he's going back in the old testament finding these typological references saying they're indicating him and and he deflects from a purely literal insistence on enforcing the mosaic law so the law says you are to execute adulterers jesus refuses to do that the law says men can divorce their wives jesus forbids uh complying with that right instead he says the principle is the love of god and neighbor revealed in me and in my ministry so applying that principle saint augustine who writes the first book on christian hermeneutics on christian doctrine says the proper lens for interpreting sacred scripture is charity you read the old testament any interpretation that that tends to charity is acceptable one that like saint paul used to do tends to violence and division and hatred and factionalism against cherry that's not acceptable and he's following the example of jesus and of saint paul in doing that now when it comes to the sacraments themselves the the the realism of the sacraments is there from the beginning it's there it's there in christ's very ministry um when he uh when he says to the apostles i have longed to eat this passover with you and i won't eat it again until it's fulfillment in the kingdom of god right and and then he says this is my body given for you this is the cup of the new covenant which will be poured out for you clearly indicating his intention that this is a sacrificial rite the rite of the new covenant referencing both exodus 24 and jeremiah 31. now i haven't gotten to the business about baptism yet but i've laid a groundwork here comes the break all right very good so uh do sit tight there and we will continue with this conversation robert don't go away and we also have a call standing by michael in louisiana and there's a line open for you at uh ewtn's call to communion stay with us this is ewtn catholic radio there are a lot of ways to pray when i was in the evangelical world we didn't we didn't like road prayers that the catholics prayed no we we wanted to say our own prayers we thought that it was coming more from the heart any kind of prayer whether it comes from the heart and is a loose connection of words or it is a prayer that the church has had for centuries is good because it is prayer [Music] 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 children in unhappy homes almighty god we thank you that each one of us is fearfully wonderfully made you are our father and we are your children we pray for children who have not experienced your love in their homes console them lord we pray for those whose parents have separated comfort them lord we pray for those who have no one to turn to be their refuge lord grant all children the security of a happy home and assist those who now suffer amen want to be notified when called to communion goes live on facebook follow ewtn radio's facebook page and click the bell icon to be notified hi this is psychedelic host of catholic ants was live later today we talk current events with chris check and joe heschmeyer calvigans is live 6 p.m eastern on ewtn radio now back to call to communion with dr david anderson [Music] as we said a little bit earlier what's uh stopping you from becoming a catholic let's talk about that here on ewtn's call to communion our phone number three two eight eight ewtn three lines open at the moment eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six if you call right now we can probably get you on today's show and then you won't have to wait until uh monday so before the break we were talking with robert in tampa uh and he is a convert uh but he's debating a southern baptist regarding john three he needs a little help on steering between uh metaphorically versus literally yeah thank you so the the question with more detail was is there a is there a proper way to interpret the bible that i can communicate to somebody else yeah and and what i began to answer was there actually is and the method of biblical interpretation is one of the things that christ has conveyed to us as part of the tradition so that origen of alexandria and his book on first principles when he sort of lists the articles of the greed you know you've got to believe in god you got to believe in jesus have to believe in the church and the holy spirit he actually lists one of the things that catholics are obligated to believe is they're obligated to believe in the spiritual sense of the bible like your fundamentalism is disallowed to a catholic right you must believe that the bible is to be interpreted the way that jesus interprets it which is not purely literally he he builds spiritual applications into the text particularly the old testament of the moral uh allegorical and anagogical that means kind of the aspirational way that are intrinsic to what it means to be a christian i'll give you an example um the story of noah and the ark god says the thoughts of men's hearts are just purely evil so i'm going to send the flood and wipe them out well if you took that literally you know like my church did growing up that was fundamentalist that means well we better go you know get some archaeologists and go look for noah's ark on mount ararat in turkey that was the application they took from the text the new testament looks at that and says well this is a picture of baptism because as god was washing impurity from the face of the earth a story that clearly is meant to be applicable to us and not limited to say ancient geology the picture of that in our own life is christ washing impurity from our consciences through baptism and so first peter chapter 3 says the story of noah is actually an allegory or a type of christian baptism that's the way the new testament looks at the old you have to do it that way most baptists don't read the bible that way they don't they don't see these connections between old and new like now when it comes to the realism of the sacraments um the realism of the sacraments is implied it's present even in jesus's institution of the right right because as jesus institutes the mass he uses the language of sacrificial ritual and connects his institution directly to the moment that the first covenant with moses was inaugurated and the new covenant anticipated when moses went up on the mountain to receive the covenant of the law seventy elders went with him they offered sacrifices moses sprinkled the blood on the people and said this is the blood of the covenant it was a real sacrifice they slaughtered an animal and then the people ate and drank in the presence of the lord jesus recapitulates that very moment in the upper room combining the passover sacrifice along with the ascent of mount sinai and says this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood do this in memory of me and then of course they eat and drink as they would do in old testament rituals so it's very clearly a sacrificial act saint paul uses that same language of sacrifice when he says if you are a participant in the eucharist then you should not go participate in pagan sacrifices you can't be a sharer in the altar of the lord and the altar of demons the association between the eucharistic liturgy and the act of sacrifice is woven explicitly into the new testament that's that's a kind of sacramental realism now there is a victim present in the eucharist in an unbloody fashion and that is christ of course and that's why jesus says this is my body and john the parallel passage in john 6 says if you eat my flesh and drink my blood you'll have life now the eating and drinking of the sacrificial victim offered in sacrifice to the lord is an intrinsic part of participating in the sacrifice i mean that's all explicit in the text of the bible now uh you know descartes the french philosopher said you know it's possible for me to doubt you exist this table's not here my eyeballs aren't here you know it's systematic doubt you can deny anything and then say prove me wrong well you know i'm here waving my hands yeah but it's just an illusion right you can always just stipulate well i don't accept that right and you can just stipulate it and and so you can take the realism of sacred scripture and not only that but it's being embedded in a tradition that has read it this way for 2000 years and say well it's just all a big metaphor it's just all a big metaphor i don't accept what you're saying it's all just a big metaphor you can do that of course and i can't gain say you but that's quite arbitrary just to just to select some text at random and say well this one is to be taken at face value and this one is to be taken metaphorically anybody can do that anybody can do that but that's arbitrary there's no reason for that right and and the reason that the baptist does that the reason that he just stipulates arbitrarily well i just refuse to take jesus's words at face value and i'm going to treat them just merely as metaphor well why does he do that well because they conflict with his baptist understanding of what the faith is he holds to a doctrine of salvation by faith alone without material media that's his first principle and he starts there and then interprets the bible around that position which has been conveyed to him by his tradition right but his tradition doesn't possess divine authority because his tradition started in 1613 when john smith founded the baptists the catholic position however is grounded in the institution of jesus and the surrounding 2000 years of catholic tradition now you've said to me well my friend's not going to listen to catholic tradition i understand that which is why when i dialogue with baptists i don't really want to start with john 6. i want to start with how do we know what the faith is yeah rather than rather than get into a pedantic debate about exegesis and whether i take something literally or metaphorically i'd like to get behind that question and go how do i in fact know what the faith is is it through exegesis yeah and it's not it's not the bible is there to illumine and express and illustrate and build up our faith but it's not there to be a rule of faith that job was actually given to the church by jesus he said go into all nations make disciples and teach them everything i've commanded you robert we hope that's helpful for you thank you so much for your call thanks for hanging on there with us a little bit longer it is called a communion with dr david anders here on ewtn radio let's go to michael now driving very carefully through louisiana listening on the almighty 690 catholic community radio hey michael what's on your mind today sir hey well thank you very much for taking my call i listen to the catholic radio every time i'm in and out of the car the other day yesterday or day before whatever i don't know remember which program i was on listening to but the comment was made that if we don't believe in the standing pope that we're calling jesus a liar and and for many reasons i kind of questioned saint francis i'm pope francis for a few things but one i'll just give you one no you know i'd rather not if if i can't let me stop you just for one second if i don't answer your question we can come back i'd rather not have a slam on francis session okay that's just not what no no i i wasn't i wasn't going to do that okay i wasn't gonna i wasn't i was just gonna mention one thing and it's not a slam uh if you don't mind he he said that um if we don't get the vaccine we're being immoral and now the best flaming that i apologize okay no problem let me take it from there if i could okay so i remember the phone call i remember the uh and it was i who said it but you slightly maybe i wasn't clear maybe you tuned in late but that wasn't the point i was making the call was about a certification as to whether or not we can trust that there is a pope because there are people out there that claim that there's no pope that position is called said evacantism they think the seed of peter is empty all right that was the call my point was not that one is obligated to believe every word that comes out of the mouth of any sitting pontiff that was not my position my position was that to believe that there is a pope is an act of fidelity because christ instituted the papacy as an essential institution in the church's constitution and christ promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church and that the holy spirit actively guides the church and protects her from error and so when there's a valid papal election recognized by the college of cardinals and all the bishops throughout the world that is sufficient for the faithful to be certain that we have a valid pope and francis is that pope and to doubt that to call that into question to imagine that this or that papal election was a farce and there's no pope but there hasn't been for you know decades as some people hold is basically to say that jesus who said the gates of hell would not prevail the jesus was wrong the gates of hell prevailed because the church had failed in its central institution namely the papacy which is the foundation of the church's visible unity and so i don't regard it as a reasonable position instead of a cantism that is i think it's kind of a sort of conspiracy theory um that uh you know it tends to make people pull apart into little sectarian communities and they you know muddle with their texts and so forth but they've separated themselves from catholic unity and so we have to hold with the pope uh with paul with pope francis benedict before him john paul before him and that's what it means to be catholic i mean i'm in communion with the pope and the pope at present is francis so that was the point i was making now when it comes to your specific question am i obligated to follow to believe with divine and supernatural faith everything that comes out of any sitting pontiff's mouth the answer to that question is no no we're not obligated to do that so here is the kind of obedience we owe to the pope first of all if the pope were to teach something as infallibly true if you were to define a dogma uh then we would be obligated to believe such a dogma with divine and supernatural faith now most popes don't do that it's happened very rarely in papal history that a pope will define a dogma but it has like the immaculate conception for example the assumption of mary it happens from time to time those are dogmas of the faith i believe them because the church has taught them right that's we have that obligation now um many times the pope will through his ordinary teaching establish something as let's say the official catholic line on an issue yeah and and that might be i'll give you an example pope john paul ii made it a major point of emphasis in his moral catechesis that he thought it very very very imprudent to promote the death penalty in the modern world and that was that was kind of a new thing like prior to john paul ii i mean the vatican used to have a on staff executioner well not the vatican but the vatican city state you know had an executioner right and it was on the statute books of the vatican city state to allow executions up until the 1960s so for the pope to come out and say well you know execution we realized to be opposing that in the modern world was a little bit of a shift of well more than a little bit of a shift in emphasis but he gave an argument for it you know based on principles of the dignity of human person and also developments in in jurisprudence and criminal justice that seem to make the thing irrelevant and and arguments that it would be you know contrary to human dignity and might work across purposes to justice now is one obligated to hold that conclusion as an article of faith as some kind of defined dogma no and the church has made it clear that that's not the nature of that teaching it's it's moral catechesis that the pope has undertaken in his ordinary magisterium and he's given reasons for it you're not obligated to find those reasons compelling what you are obligated to is something the church calls a religious submission in mind and will which is that this is the church's public policy position on the death penalty and i'm not going to work at cross purposes to the church's teaching right i mean my bishop is signed an accord you know i signed a statement in alabama opposing the death penalty in our state like i work for my bishop his interests are mine you know i've taken that on sure as an issue um because that's the church's point of view now i'm not obligated to believe that the articulation of that is is a dogma or that it's without error or that it couldn't be improved or that there are nuances or you know this these kinds of things it's a different level of authority um and uh and then you know there's a when the pope just sort of gives his private opinion but he might do it in a public way um and that's more what we're talking about with this comments by the pope francis in that kind of instance i'm obligated like i would you know in a lesser degree with my pastor if i'm in mass and the pastor say stands up and makes an odd admonition about some moral issue and maybe something that kind of cuts me the wrong way what's the proper thing to do if i'm in mass and my pastor says something and it kind of grates on me a bit it is the proper thing to do for me to just cross my arms and purse my lips and say no not gonna and then march out and let me go home and give the kids a lecture on why the priest was wrong you know maybe he's crossed my he's poked me in my ideological eyeball you know that's probably that's not docile you know docility is part of prudence yes that doesn't mean i have to believe everything that my priest has said what it does mean that the proper disposition is to say all right let me let me take this seriously let me try to think about this let me internalize this let me see if i'm really being rational in my thinking let me be open to correction maybe there's a nuance here that i'm missing even if i disagree let me try to learn something and be docile and you know what let him be the priest and not me he's the one preaching the homily i'm not it's not my job to stand up in church and like wave a banner you know and if that's true with my priest it's it's doubly true with my bishop and triply true with the pope you know it doesn't mean i have to believe every word that comes out of the pope's mouth exactly as he says it but it does mean he's the pope and i'm not and if he's making a public statement on a moral issue even one that kind of grates me or cuts me the wrong way the don't immediately go to social media and start yelling about it yeah rather like stop and listen and let me re-examine my position and say is there something for me to learn here michael thanks so much for your call appreciate hearing from you in louisiana call to communion with dr david anders here on ewtn radio reminding you now to please join us for the bear woznick adventure it is a very manly program that's coming up tomorrow night 6 p.m eastern this week john martinony joins bear to talk about his new book blue collar apologetics sounds like a great show to me the bear wasn't adventure tomorrow night and every saturday night at 6 pm eastern right here on ewtn radio let's go to shelly now shelley is in omaha listening on the great spirit catholic radio hello shelly what's on your mind today hello thanks for your radio station we get so much good stuff from it thank you i'm always telling everybody about listen to dr david anders it's great you'll have so many questions anyway um we i have this ongoing conversation this question with my son about free will and god and all knowing you know how powerful um so i'm just going to kind of summarize it so he's asking he said what i want to know is how a loving all-knowing god can create a person with a specific plan in mind and then damn them to hell for fulfilling their purpose yeah and i explained to him it's the same as maybe like understanding my unconditional love that i have for you even knowing that you may not let me turn away from me and hate me that doesn't make my love for you any less real or less true he said i would say it's hard to love someone than damn them for eternal hell fire and torture just for not loving you back and then we have this conversation about how you know he asked about what about muslims or buddhists or anybody else who doesn't know jesus i said well that's a different circumstance he says so non-christians you know get a pass but atheists don't get a pass because there's just there's no logic in it okay okay yeah thanks i really appreciate the question so first of all god hasn't created any person for the purpose of damning them that's that's calvinism that's not catholicism god creates every person for the purpose of their coming into loving union with him that is the purpose of every human being and so god doesn't damn anyone for fulfilling their purpose it is in fact in fulfilling their purpose that they are saved now when it comes to the question of non-christians atheists and so forth non-christians don't get a pass that atheists don't also get and for that matter catholics don't get a pass no one gets a pass we're we're saved by coming into loving union with god but that union can be more or less cognitively explicit in other words is it necessary to have conscious explicit knowledge of the dogmas of catholic faith to be saved the answer to that question is no it's not necessary what is necessary is that we have some kind of implicit idea that there is a first cause a highest principle and that the order of my life needs to be brought into order with that first principle and while the church doesn't define this i think the church has said a lot of things that are consistent with that cohere with what i'm about to say which is a matter of private theological opinion you're not obligated to agree with me but this is my view i think it is possible for a person to be an atheist of a sort that is to say if you said do you believe in god they would answer the question in the negative and for that person to actually believe implicitly very strongly in the god of of catholic theism and to not know that they were so believing and i say that because i have read atheists who rail against religion and think that they've covered the whole set when in fact i think they're railing against a certain kind of fundamentalism and they don't really grasp the catholic idea of god and but those very same atheists have a very strong commitment to the true the good and the beautiful and maybe themselves be ethical people who seek to order their lives in accord with that sense of truth goodness and beauty with a certain degree of intellectual and moral humility yeah and and uh the church has said enough about the ability of non-christians to be saved by adhering to the truth that lies at the heart of their rights and ceremonies and traditions that i think it's not a stretch to say that there could be such an atheist also who whose dogmatic atheism you know really was a rejection of a kind of superstitious fundamentalism against which we also rail and reject right well at the heart of his person is a kind of implicit desire to be united to the truth the good and the beautiful shelley thanks so much for your call hope that's helpful for you and for your son as well let's go to michael in north kona hawaii uh listening on kfip hey hello michael what's on your mind today sir um yeah i i enjoyed the talk about uh expanding the church uh you know i've been hearing that thread quite a bit and um there's something that's always been on my mind i think if our officials were more upfront with the mysteries of the dogma i think you get a lot more people attracted to you know the mystery of the roman catholic church so that's just my opinion what do you think yeah thanks i appreciate the question so i think that uh dogmas if they are presented as a priori truths that could be grasped rationally are not very attractive and they're certainly not compelling because they are no such things they are not operary truths that we can rationally grasp can you define a priori something that i can know to be true by thinking it like two plus two equals four got it got it um thank you for that tom the church actually teaches in the catechism that dogmas are like lights l-i-g-h-t-s they illumine our path they themselves are obscure if you stare into a dogma you're not going to be able to rationally resolve the dogma but if you sort of stand with your back to it if it will if you will and let the light of the dog must shine over your life so that it structures your consciousness your thinking your affections your actions your your habitual responses you'll find that the dogma has an illuminating effect on your life take case and point the blessed trinity why does it matter that we teach that god is a trinity clearly not so we can engage in pedantic arguments over words but so that trinitarian love will come to pervade our personalities that's that's the purpose of teaching if god is a communion of persons i wish to be united to god that i must be like him in his communitarian relations of perfect self-giving that's the point of teaching the doctrine see it's illuminating my consciousness and my behavior i'm not going to be able to rationally penetrate it so i would agree with you about that now you said you think you would like our leaders to be more forthcoming with the mysteries that'd be fine be nice if they're forthcoming with the dogmas too yeah you know i mean i always encourage preach catholic dogma that's what it's there for yeah put it out there you know get it out there let it illuminate let it shine the mystery is going to do its own work sure will appreciate your call from north kona hawaii fantastic here is al now al's driving in florida listening on sirius hello al what's on your mind today sir al in florida are you there hey al driving in florida l okay we're gonna go to uh beverly in savannah georgia beverly what's on your mind today um i was in our bible we have a blackberry women's bible study so this week was made that joseph did not have was not married or had children previously to be with mary and then the other half stated that jesus was not a father of any children before mary and the priest our young priest came in and went with the idea that joseph had never been married and they haven't been made a merchant as mary and we were all confused because a previous teachings about joseph being married okay yeah i'm gonna jump in because we're almost out of time yeah yeah thanks so so uh mary was a virgin of course uh joseph there are different traditions on the virginity of saint joseph and um there is a tradition that joseph was married prior to the blessed virgin mary and that he was a widower and that he actually had adult children who may have been among those counted as jesus brothers and sisters there are other traditions that ascribe virginity to him we just don't know what we know is he is joseph most chaste yes one way or another he was chased he was either chased in the married state or chased in the celibate state okay and that's where we have to leave it i'm afraid beverly thanks so much for your call could not get to adrian in canada in edmonton alberta also couldn't get to steven grand rapids michigan if you folks could call us back next week whatever day you choose and we will put you at the head of the line dr david anders hope that you have a wonderful weekend thanks tom don't forget we do this program monday through friday 2 p.m eastern here on ewtn that's when we're live we bring you the encore at 11 pm eastern and that's 8 p.m pacific check out the podcast at any time by going to ewtnradio.net on behalf of our fantastic team i'm tom price along with dr david andrews and we hope that you have a wonderful weekend as well see you on monday here on call to communion god bless hello i'm kristelina evert host of women made new each week we sit down with our guests to discuss a range of issues confronting us as catholic women in today's ever changing society to

Channel: EWTN

Views: 1,664

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: WI1_Q8c3lq8

Length: 54min 15sec (3255 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 11 2022