Proclaiming the Truths of the Faith in a Time of Confusion

[Music] [Music] [Music] thank you father spitzer and thanks to all of you for the warm welcome there is no question that the church is currently experiencing one of the greatest crises which she has ever known today perhaps as at no time in the past there is an ever more diffuse phenomenon of general confusion and error within the body of christ about fundamental truths of the faith in the past there have been most serious doctrinal crises for example the heresy of arianism in the fourth century which denied the hypostatic union the truth of the two natures and the one divine person of our lord jesus christ however today there is confusion about many truths of the faith and a growing sense that the church is no longer certain regarding the truths that she has always taught the confusion seems daily to increase for example the catholic church in germany is engaged in a process called the synodal way which some german bishops have announced as a process for rewriting the church's moral teaching especially in matters regarding marriage and the family and the right ordering of man and woman in their human sexuality coupled with the ever spreading confusion is the silence of a great part of the pastors of the church the bishops who are consecrated to be true teachers of the faith in fact one of the chief responsibilities of bishops in the unbroken apostolic tradition is to protect the flock against error confusion and division pope saint gregory the great was most firm in describing this duty of the bishop in his masterwork the regula pastoralis or pastoral care as we call it in english in which he treats the many responsibilities of those called to be bishops in this regard the image used for the bishop is of the watchdog who guards the flock against the wolves warning the flock and driving the wolves away from the flock as saint boniface observed making reference to saint gregory the great the watchdog who does not bark when there is a threat to the flock is useless and harmful at the same time there is a great hunger among the faithful and among all persons of goodwill to know the truth set forth in the official teaching or magisterium of the church as a result of so many decades of poor catechesis and poor preaching many catholics do not know well their faith and do not have the capacity to give an account of the faith in a thoroughly secularized society yet they know as all honest people know that only the truth makes possible a virtuous life and only a virtuous life makes possible personal happiness and peace in society and in the world in the face of the present situation in the church i together with cardinal janis pujats archbishop emeritus of riga and latvia archbishop's tomas petta archbishop of saint mary in astana in kazakhstan and jan pablo lenga archbishop bishop emeritus of karaganda in kazakhstan and bishop anthony athanasius schneider auxiliary bishop of saint mary and astana published a document setting forth the official teaching of the church on some 40 points concerning which there is presently much confusion error and division in the church for each point we make reference to authoritative documents which present the tradition the constant teaching tradition of the church so that the faithful and other rightly disposed persons know that we are not setting forth our own ideas or our own personal agenda but rather we are striving to fulfill our responsibility as true teachers of the faith the declaration of the truths relating to some of the most common errors in the life of the church of our time was published on may 31st of this year the feast of the visitation of the blessed virgin mary in the calendar of the ordinary form and the feast of the queenship of mary in the calendar of the extraordinary form of the roman rite in publishing the declaration we cardinals and bishops entrusted it to the immaculate heart of the mother of god under the invocation salus popoli romani salvation of the roman people considering the privileged spiritual meaning which this icon has for the roman church this icon found in the borghese chapel in the basilic of saint mary major the declaration closes with the prayer quoting the preface of the mass in honor of the blessed virgin mary salvation of the roman people may the entire catholic church under the protection of the immaculate virgin and mother of god fight intrepidly the fight of the faith persist firmly in the doctrine of the apostles and proceed safely amidst the storms of the world until she reaches the heavenly city declaration is available in english translation as a booklet published by the marian catechist apostolate this is the little booklet i apologize i was unable to get copies to have them shipped here in time but it is available through the marion catechist apostolate which you can find online and they are distributing the text it seems particularly fitting to reflect on the declaration of the truth so that all of us may be a bit better prepared to promote and defend the truths of our catholic faith in the face of pervasive error and confusion and division in many ways this was the point of the luminous presentation given to us by george weigel only the truth ultimately the truth who is our lord jesus christ alive for us in his holy church permits us to grow in holiness the fundamentals of the faith the declaration first addresses two foundational truths of the faith which are under severe attack in our day the first has to do with the presentation of the truths of the faith in each time of the church's history it is rightly said that the tradition or magisterium is living because it is christ himself alive in the church who makes known the truths of the faith in every time but the presentation of the truth must be in continuity with the past for the truth does not change pope benedict xvi referred to this in his noteworthy 2005 address to the roman courier for the christmas feast using the terminology hermeneutic of continuity for the right transmission of the faith as opposed to a hermeneutic of rupture by which the truths of the faith are betrayed oftentimes one hears the term development of doctrine used in contradictory ways for some it is rightly understood as the development of the church's teaching of a doctrine which itself necessarily remains unchanged for instance over the centuries the church developed its appreciation of the truth of the real presence and expressed that appreciation through devotions like eucharistic adoration and eucharistic exposition and adoration eucharistic exposition and adoration do not change the church's teaching on the holy eucharist but provide a development in the understanding of the same teaching for others however the development of doctrine means a change in the doctrine for example there are some today who say that the church's teaching on the intrinsic evil of homosexual acts has developed so that now in contradiction to the constant teaching of the church in certain circumstances homosexual acts are considered to be good and loving in order to set forth the truth about the living tradition the declaration quotes the dogmatic constitution de filius on the catholic faith of the first vatican ecumenical council which states that any new insights regarding the doctrine of the faith and i quote cannot be contrary to what the church has always proposed in the same dogma in the same sense and in the same meaning to further illustrate the point the declaration quotes a declaration of the sacred congregation for the doctrine of the faith mysterio ecclesiae in defense of the catholic doctrine on the church against certain errors of the present day published by order of pope saint paul vi on june 24 1973 the document in question warns against a dogmatic relativism which would hold that any dogmatic definition of the church is but an approximation [Music] in the words of the declaration this declaration of the congregation with the doctrine of the faith the meaning of dogmatic formulas remains ever true and constant in the church even when it is expressed with greater clarity or more developed the declaration then takes up the work of presenting 40 truths of the faith which are suffering from confusion and error in our time under three categories the creed the law of god and the sacraments the creed the first truth of the creed to be presented regards the relationship of the kingdom of god in the world this is what george weigel was speaking to us about at the beginning of his presentation and trying to help us to see how to get this right the declaration quotes the apostolic letter of pope saint john's a pope paul pope saint paul vi solemni hawk liturgy of june 30th 1968 known in english as the cradle of the people of god i quote the kingdom of god begun here below in the church of christ is not of this world whose form is passing and its proper growth cannot be confounded with the progress of civilization of science or of human technology but it consists in an ever more profound knowledge of the unfathomable riches of christ an ever stronger hope in eternal blessings and ever more ardent response to the love of god and ever more generous bestowal of grace and holiness among men end of quote the solicitude of the church for this for the world can have only one end in mind to bring christ to the world for its transformation today some think that the church should approach the world in a way which identifies with the world rejoicing in the situation of the world as if it could be saved apart from the grace of christ declaration concludes the opinion is therefore erroneous that says that god is glorified in the temporal and earthly condition of the human race in numbers four and five of the declaration the confusion in error regarding the relationship of the catholic church to judaism and islam is addressed today there are those who say that judaism and islam have their own integrity and that therefore it is wrong to work for the conversion of jews or muslims to christ the declaration makes clear that salvation comes through faith in christ alone another widespread error another widespread error considers all forms of non-christian spirituality and religion to be seeds or fruits of the divine word but as the declaration makes clear such cannot be the case with spiritualities and religions that promote any kind of idolatry or pantheism this is a principle difficulty with regard to the working document of the coming panemazon synod and it's a most grave difficulty that calls into question the lordship the kingship of our lord jesus christ another current error sees ecumenism as a work of establishing a church that does not yet exist true ecumenism intends that non-catholics should enter that unity which the catholic church already indestructibly possesses in virtue of the prayer of christ always heard by his father that they may be one the declaration goes on to affirm the existence of hell for souls unrepentant of mortal sin in accord with divine justice and the immortality of the human soul correcting in accord with the infallible teaching of the fifth lateran council the error which holds that damned human souls will simply be annihilated the declaration goes on to correct the error which holds that just as god positively wills the diversity of the sexes and the diversity of nations he also i quote positively wills the diversity of religions the truth is that the religion born of faith in jesus christ the incarnate son of god and the only savior of humankind is the only religion positively willed by god quoting the apostolic exhortation evangelii nunciandi of pope saint paul the sixth the declaration reminds us that the christian religion alone effectively establishes with god an authentic and living relationship which the other religions do not succeed in doing even though they have as it were their arms stretched out towards heaven the final truth affirmed in the section on the creed is that the gift of freedom of will is for men to choose only the good and the true it is therefore wrong to state that man has the natural right to offend god in choosing the moral evil of sin the religious evil of idolatry blasphemy or a false religion the law of god the section of the declaration and the law of god begins by affirming that in accord with the decree on justification of the council of trent god grants to the justified soul the grace to carry out the objective demands of the divine law there is currently a great confusion in this regard it's a product of of a rationalist enlightenment philosophy which holds that the moral law is an ideal to which many souls are unable to conform themselves and therefore they should not be held to the moral law where as our faith teaches us that the moral law which god has written upon our hearts and and teaches us in the church is accompanied by the grace to conform ourselves to that law so that even the weakest human being receives the grace to be heroic in responding to the demands of a good true and holy life in number 13 the declaration quoting the luminous teaching of the encyclical letter very taught to splendor of pope saint john paul ii corrects those who believe that they can justify as morally good deliberate choices of behavior contrary to the commandments of the divine and natural law in other words the love of god and of one's neighbor is expressed in obedience to the commandments this is not rocket science but unfortunately today these truths have to be repeated the declaration continues by affirming that all of the commandments of god are equally just and merciful and that it is wrong to say that a person is able by obeying a divine prohibition for example the sixth commandment not to commit adultery to sin against god by this act of obedience actually these people say that by obeying god's law you can actually sin or could morally harm yourself or sin against another by obeying the commandments in the same way the declaration corrects the common error which states that a good intention or a good consequence can make morally good an act which is intrinsically evil the declaration then addresses a number of specifically of specific intrinsically evil acts procured abortion and number 16 procedures which cause conception to happen outside the womb number 17 suicide and euthanasia and number 18. regarding marriage the declaration makes clear that in accord with god's law it is a faithful and in marriage is a faithful and indissoluble union of one man and one woman quoting the pastoral constitution gaudium at spez of the second vatican ecumenical council it states by their very nature the institution of matrimony itself and conjugal love are ordained for the procreation and education of children and find in them their ultimate crown likewise the declaration states the moral truth that only that the only moral exercise of man's sexual powers is within a valid marriage thus it also refutes the common error today which teaches that a person can morally have sexual relationships with an individual while he or she is bound by marriage to a different person number 21 of the declaration in accord with the encyclical letter umanevite states the intrinsical intrinsically evil nature of any action which either before at the moment of or after sexual intercourse is specifically intended to prevent procreation whether as an end or as a means number 22 makes clear that those who are living in an irregular matrimonial union may not receive holy communion unless they are living chastely as brother and sister number 23 addresses the intrinsic moral evil of those who seek venereal pleasure from a person of the same sex is clear that this is not true sexual pleasure because our sexual identity is is toward a person of the opposite sex but this is rightly called venereal pleasure from a person of the same sex and the declaration states hence the opinion is contrary to natural law and divine revelation that says that as god the creator has given to some humans a natural imposition disposition to feel sexual desire for persons of the opposite sex so also he has given to others a natural disposition to feel sexual desire for persons of the same sex and that god intends that the latter disposition be acted on in some circumstances this is false in the same line the declaration makes clear that no human law or human power can give to two persons of the same sex the right to marry one another or to declare their marriage such arrangements which are wrongly called wrongly called marriages cannot be blessed by the church they cannot be blessed by the church neither is it possible to justify them by calling them civil or legal unions for such unions would encourage grave sin for the individuals who are in them and would be the cause of grave scandal to others here the declaration quotes a very timely document of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith of june 3rd 2003 the document entitled considerations regarding proposals to give legal recognition to unions between homosexual persons number 27 quoting number 2297 of the catechism of the catholic church teaches the truth that the male and female sexes men and women are biological realities created by the wise will of god it is therefore a grave sin to attempt to change one's sexual identity through self-mutilation or to hold that civil authority has the right or duty duty to recognize such acts number 28 declares the truth about capital punishment it states in accordance with the holy scripture and the constant tradition of the ordinary and universal magisterium the church did not err in teaching that civil power may lawfully exercise capital punishment on malefactors where this is truly necessary to preserve the existence or just order of societies the final number regarding the law of god defends the freedom of worship declaring all authority on earth as well as in heaven belongs to jesus christ therefore civil societies and all other associations of men are subject to his kingship so that the duty of offering god genuine worship concerns math man both individually and socially the next section then takes up truths regarding the sacraments in its third and final section the declaration takes up questions regarding the sacraments the first four numbers treat the most holy eucharist number 30 states the truth of transubstantiation declaring in the most holy sacrament of the eucharist a wonderful change takes place namely of the whole substance of bread into the body of christ and the whole substance of wine in to his blood number 31 declares the suitability of the language of the council of trent regarding the eucharistic mystery for men of all times and places regarding the holy eucharist the development of doctrine in no way repudiates the language of transubstantiation but rather confirms it as a perennially valid teaching of the church number 32 corrects two common confusions regarding the holy sacrifice of the mass first of all it makes clear that the holy mass is a true sacrifice which is propitiatory propitiatory both for men living on earth and for the souls in purgatory it is not just a spiritual sacrifice of prayers and praises while it is also not rightly defined only as christ giving himself to the faithful as their spiritual food christ gives himself to us as spiritual food which is the fruit of the prior reality his sacrifice which he makes sacramentally present during the offering of the holy mass number 33 presents the truth that the holy mass is the sacrifice of calvary rendered sacramentally present on our altars the declaration quotes the credo of the people of god we believe that as the bread and wine consecrated by the lord at the last supper were changed into his body and blood which were to be offered for us on the cross likewise the bread and wine consecrated by the priest are changed into the body and blood of christ enthroned gloriously in heaven and we believe that the mysterious presence of the lord under what continues to appear to our senses as before is a true real and substantial presence this is a quote from the creator of the people of god excuse me in the final number on the holy eucharist the declaration states the truth that the priest alone as the representative of christ and not as the representative of the faithful offers the unbloody sacrifice the declaration quotes the encyclical letter mediator day of the venerable pope pius xii to make clear the sense in which the faithful offered the sacrifice the faithful offered the sacrifice by the hands of the priest from the fact that the minister at the altar the priest and offering a sacrifice in the name of all his members represents christ this is the priest acting in the person of christ in the preeminent manner in the preeminent sense christ the head of the mystical of the mystical body the conclusion however that the people offer the sacrifice with the priest himself is not based on the fact that being members of the church no less than the priest himself they perform a visible liturgical right for this is the privilege only of the minister who has been divinely appointed to this office rather it is based on the fact that people unite their hearts in praise impatration expiation and thanksgiving with prayers or intentions of the priest even of the high priest himself so that in one and the same offering of the victim according to a visible right they may be presented to god the father this is to confront the air that is currently going about and this has happened it's not the first time in the church that if there is no ordained priest it is sufficient simply for the congregation of the faithful to designate one of their members to lead them in offering the eucharistic sacrifice this is a fundamental denial of a principle doctrine of our faith the inseparable connection between the sacrament of the holy eucharist and the sacrament of the of the ordained priesthood it is in the holy eucharist that the distinction between the ordained priesthood and the priesthood of the baptized is rightly seen any confusion regarding the rapport between the ordained priests and the faithful in the offering of the eucharistic sacrifice has therefore serious implications for the entire life of the church numbers 37 and 38 treat the discipline regarding the reception of the holy eucharist number 37 reminds us that the sacrament of the holy eucharist may not be given to those who are in a public state of objectively grave sin and sacramental absolution may not be given to those who express their unwillingness to conform to divine law even if their unwillingness pertains only to a single grave matter likewise the sacrament of the holy eucharist may not be given to those who deny any truth of the catholic faith by formally professing their in adherence to an heretical or to an officially systematic christian community numbers 35 and 36 pertain to the sacrament of penance number 35 reminds us of the truth that the sacrament of penance is the only ordinary means by which grave sins committed after baptism can be remitted and the second truth that those grave sins must be confessed by number and the species number 36 teaches the truth regarding the seal of the sacrament of penance a truth which has recently come under serious attack by civil authorities here in this beloved state of california this is a very recent experience number 36 reads by divine law the confessor may not violate the seal of the sacrament of penance for any reason whatsoever no ecclesiastical authority has the power to dispense him from the seal of the sacrament and the civil power is wholly incompetent to oblige him to do so the conversation of a penitent and priest in the sacrament of penance is indeed a conversation between the penitent and our lord with the priest representing our lord in virtue of the sacrament of holy orders for that reason the priests may not repeat or use in any way which violates the seal the knowledge received through the confession of a penitent the last two numbers create two matters regarding the holy priesthood number 39 affirms the truth that the laws by which priests are bound to observe perfect continence in celibacy but the law excuse me the law by which priests are bound to observe perfect continence in celibacy stems from the example of jesus christ that this is very important we we don't hear this often but it our lord himself chose celibacy our great high priest made this choice and that law belongs to immemorial and apostolic tradition according to the constant witness of the fathers and of the roman pontiffs quoting pope's riches the declaration makes clear that the law of perfect continence for clerics is not an invention of the church but is of apostolic origin therefore the law of perfect continence for the clergy should not be abolished in the roman church by making it optional either on the regional or universal level this is another grave difficulty with the working document of the pan-amazon synod lastly number 40 repeats the truth that only baptized men viri may receive the sacrament of orders whether in the episcopacy the priesthood or the diaconate the dark declaration also corrects a false statement that an ecumenical council can define this matter quoting the fifth lateran council in the first vatican council we are reminded that the teaching authority of an ecumenical council is not more extensive than that of the roman pontiff to conclude i hope that this review of the contents of the declaration of the truths relating to some of the most common errors in the life of the church of our time has given you some idea of the helpfulness in dealing with the pervasive confusion and error of its helpfulness excuse me in dealing with the pervasive confusion and error in the church today the declaration clearly limits itself to some of the errors there are certainly more confused points and errors and we should not fail to take note of them and to seek the truths about which christ alive for us in his holy catholic church teaches us through the magisterium may our reflection today give us wisdom and courage in defending the faith in the face of so much confusion and error the confession of our faith in its integrity is the only way to a virtuous life and a virtuous life is the only way to our happiness on this earth and to its fullness in the kingdom of heaven i close with the words from the explanatory note which is the preface of the declaration before the eyes of the divine judge and in his own conscience each bishop priest and lay faithful has the moral duty to give witness unambiguously to those truths that in our day are obfuscated undermined and denied private and public acts of a declaration of these truths could initiate a movement of a confession of the truth of its defense and of reparation for the widespread sins against the faith but the sins have hidden an open apostasy from the catholic faith of a not small number both of the clergy and of the laypeople this is within the possibility of all of us this movement of a confession of the truth of its defense and of reparation for the widespread sins against the faith one has to bear in mind however i underline this for you that such a movement will not judge itself according to numbers but according to the truth as saint gregory of nazianza said amidst the general doctrinal confusion of the aryan crisis god does not delight in numbers but he thoroughly delights in the truth [Applause] i must say for myself that i've been so heartened so encouraged and really filled with the new enthusiasm by this brief time and i'm sorry that it is so brief that i am spending with you in these days thanks to the napa institute but i see here so many individuals and also groups and associations and all in all different forms those who are striving who get the picture of the crisis that we're in and who are striving to serve the truth with love and god bless you for that may our gathering during these days be in itself and indeed i believe that it is such a movement of love for our lord and his mystical body the church may it also inspire us to see how in other ways and in other circumstances we may be able to give glory to god by confessing the truth and love of him and of our neighbor thank you for your most kind attention may god bless you in your homes thank you very much you

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Length: 43min 43sec (2623 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 12 2021