I really Need Help With This

[diggerdomer]

You can not speak for the Church, just like you can not speak for the government, CNN, PETA or any other organization you are not included in the power structure of.

You may still defend the Church, the government, CNN, or PETA- but your defenses carry no official weight.

Whose post are you responding to? I don’t understand. Thanks.

 

[Nita]

doctrines (as distinct from dogmas) can also be changed.

Many doctrines are considered infallible and therefore cannot be changed. They just have not been officially defined “ex cathedra” by the pope, or in a council.

From Fr. John Hardon’s “Modern Catholic Dictionary”:

DOCTRINE: Any truth taught by the Church as necessary for acceptance by the faithful. The truth may be either formally revealed (as the Real Presence), or a theological conclusion (as the canonization of a saint), or part of the natural law (as the sinfulness of contraception). In any case, what makes it doctrine is that the Church authority teaches that it is to be believed. This teaching may be done either solemnly in ex cathedra pronouncements or ordinarily in the perennial exercise of the Church’s magisterium or teaching authority. DOGMAS are those doctrines which the Church proposes for belief as formally revealed by God.

 

[Tomb54]

I was hoping for some help with this.

I was in an informal debate with a Protestant Friend of mine and a minister, and the discussion was not going well for them, not based on scripture (Thank you Time Staples for the Scriptural Cheat Sheet), or based on history.

Then they come up with this nugget and tell me I am disobeying the authority of the Church. Can some-one explain what this means and if apologist really do not have permission to defend doctrine? The website can be accessed at this link.

newadvent.org/cathen/08748a.htm

Thank you for the help!!!
“As to doctrine
The body of the faithful is strictly speaking the Ecclesia docta (the Church taught), in contrast with the Ecclesia docens (the teaching Church), which consists of the pope and the bishops. When there is question, therefore, of the official teaching of religious doctrine, the laity is neither competent nor authorized to speak in the name of God and the Church (cap. xii et sq., lib. V, tit. vii, “de haereticis”). Consequently they are not allowed to preach in church, or to undertake to defend the Catholic doctrine in public discussions with heretics. But in their private capacity, they may most lawfully defend and teach their religion by word and writing, while submitting themselves to the control and guidance of ecclesiastical authority. Moreover, they may be appointed to give doctrinal instruction more or less officially, or may even become the defenders of Catholic truth. Thus they give excellent help to the clergy in teaching catechism, the lay masters in our schools give religious instruction, and some laymen have received a missio canonica, or due ecclesiastical authorization, to teach the religious sciences in universities and seminaries; the important point in this, as in other matters, is for them to be submissive to the legitimate teaching authority.”

I think this is represented fairly well in a statement St Augustine wrote which states Believe in what the Catholic Church teaches even over what I write. I am do sure where it is but it is something like that and I might be able find it again.

 

[diggerdomer]

Many doctrines are considered infallible and therefore cannot be changed. They just have not been officially defined “ex cathedra” by the pope, or in a council.

From Fr. John Hardon’s “Modern Catholic Dictionary”:

DOCTRINE: Any truth taught by the Church as necessary for acceptance by the faithful. The truth may be either formally revealed (as the Real Presence), or a theological conclusion (as the canonization of a saint), or part of the natural law (as the sinfulness of contraception). In any case, what makes it doctrine is that the Church authority teaches that it is to be believed. This teaching may be done either solemnly in ex cathedra pronouncements or ordinarily in the perennial exercise of the Church’s magisterium or teaching authority. DOGMAS are those doctrines which the Church proposes for belief as formally revealed by God.

Fr. John Hardon does not have the authority to proclaim what has been taught infallibly by the Catholic Church. His opinions may be correct, or not.

Just because something isn’t taught infallibly does not mean Catholics are not obliged to believe it.