Is St. Thomas' Summa "Official" Church Teaching?

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Maccabees:
Married or single priest?

Why married or why single and what is most common among Orthodox priest these days?
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There is no link in the Orthodox Church between celibacy and the priesthood. Celibacy is not a requirement for the priesthood in the Orthodox Church. Just the opposite really. A man who desires to be a parish priest must find himself a wife and get married before he becomes a deacon.

Celibacy is a special calling from God for monks and for nuns.

Bishops are celibate because they are chosen from the monks and (quite rarely) from a widowed parish priest.

Some monks may be asked to operate in parishes if there is a shortage of married parish clergy but this is a bit of an anomaly.

Which is more numerous?

Here are some statistics (the diocese of Moscow) that may be of interest:

On December 23, 2003, the Diocesan Assembly of Moscow Diocese took place in Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow.

There are 132 dioceses in Moscow Patriarchate today.

The number of hierarchs: 154; 130 ruling hierarchs; 24 vicar and 12 retired

The number of monasteries: 312 male and 325 female; total - 635 (not taking into an account 167 monastery representations [podvorie] and 45 sketes) - a full total of 847

Number of parishes on the territory of Russia: 16,350
Number of clergymen that serve these parishes: 15,605 priests and 3,405 deacons; total - 19,010 clergymen

Number of monasteries in Moscow: 4 male and 4 female

Number of patriarchal stavropegial monasteries: 24

Number of theological schools: 5 theological academies; 1 theological
institute; 1 Orthodox university; 33 theological seminaries; 44 theological schools; 14 pastoral schools; 3 diocesan female schools. There are also a growing number of schools for choir directors, iconographers and Sunday school teachers.

Number of students in Moscow theological schools this year: 687 intern seminarians and 880 by correspondence.

The number of Orthodox temples and chapels in Moscow: 681, including 7 Kremlin cathedrals, 2 cathedral churches, 5 chapels of the synodal departments, 357 parish churches, 114 patriarchal representation churches [podvorie], 64 monastery representation churches [podvorie], 65 chapels; 67 temples and chapels are in the process of construction Divine services are taking place in 480 temples and 65 chapels. The services are not yet resumed in 31 temples. 32 temples are not yet vacated by their former occupants. 133 domestic chapels

Number of clergymen that serve Moscow parishes: 723 priests and 287 deacons; total - 1,010 clergymen

Number of priest-monks that serve in stavropegial monasteries in Moscow diocese: 347; in other stavropegial monasteries - 112

The total number of the clergymen in the Moscow diocese: 1,532

In the course if the current year, the clergy of Moscow was increased by 51 graduates of theological schools, the clergymen transferred from other dioceses and those ordained by recommendations of rectors of Moscow churches and monasteries.

In the current year we lost: 7 retired; 4 went to other dioceses; 1 (priest
Victor Shishkin) suspended; 6 died.
 
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Aris:
Because they stopped at the 7th Ecumenical council?
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We never stopped. What an idea! The Church has gone on to produce thousands and thousands of Saints right up until these present days. These are the fruits of the Spirit. The very latest to receive official recognition is Mother Maria of Paris - an amazing nun who died under the Nazis. See a bit about her at the end.

But we not not believe in some kind of never-ending development of doctrine. The Church dealt with the major errors produced in Christianity during the first millennium. Since then there has been no need to convene any major Councils. There have been no major assaults upon the Church.

And we have stayed stable and we have stayed Orthodox! Two thousand years without an infallible centre and without a centralised system of authority and without catechisms - and our faith has not changed one jot or iota 🙂 We must be doing something right… 👍

Something about the new Saint, Mother Maria of Paris.
A poem of hers, and something of her life for the poor.
The seal of her life’s work was her final death for Christ
in a Nazi camp in 1945.
Fr Ambrose
**"I searched for singers and for prophets
who wait by the ladder to heaven
see signs of the mysterious end
sing songs beyond our comprehension.

And I found people who were restless, orphaned, poor
drunk, despairing, useless,
lost whichever way they went
homeless lacking bread.

There are no prophecies. Only life
continually acts as prophet.
The day approaches,days grow shorter
You took a servant’s form. Hosanna."
**
http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2004a/020604/photos/ssp09ph.jpg

National Catholic Reporter
The Independent Newsweekly
NCRONLINE.ORG
Issue Date: February 6, 2004

MOTHER MARIA SKOBTSOVA:
ESSENTIAL WRITINGS
Orbis, 192 pages, $15

A fool for Christ

**Mother Maria Skobtsova’s faith was **
**passionate, severe, even insane
**
Reviewed by JERRY RYAN

When, during Great Lent of 1932, Metropolitan Evlogii received the monastic vows of Elisaveta Skobtsova at the church of St. Serge Institute in Paris, many were scandalized. After all, this woman had been twice divorced, had an illegitimate child by another man, had leftist political sympathies and was an original by any standard. At her profession she took the name of Maria in memory of St. Mary of Egypt, a prostitute who became a hermit and extreme ascetic. As a religious, Mother Maria continued to scandalize. Her “angelic habit” was usually stained with grease from the kitchen and paint from her workshop; she would hang out at bars late at night; she had little patience with the long Orthodox liturgies, and found the strict and frequent fasts a burden. And – horror of horrors – she even smoked in public in her habit! Her canonization process has been initiated [and completed] by the Orthodox church. Her “essential writings” constitute the latest book in the Orbis series of Modern Spiritual Masters.
 
This is not stuff for the faint-hearted. The charity that Mother Maria proposes as an obligation of Christian life is severe, absolute, uncompromising and insane. We must love others as Jesus loved, without reserve, in an utter and unconditional self-sacrificing of everything. We must follow the Son of Man not only to Golgotha but beyond – to the very depths of hell where God is absent. …

And Mother Maria leaves us no wiggle room: “It goes without saying that it seems to every man as if nothing will be left of his heart, that it will bleed itself dry if he opens it, not for the countless swords of all of
humanity, but even for the one sword of the nearest and dearest of his
brothers. … Natural law, which in some false way has penetrated into the spiritual life, will say definitively: Bear your cross responsibly, freely,
and honestly, opening your heart now and then to the cross-swords of your neighbor and that is all. … But if the cross of Christ is scandal and
folly for natural law, the two-edged weapon that pierces the soul should be as much of a folly and scandal for it. … All that is not the fullness of cross-bearing is sin.” This is, of course, sheer madness – the madness of the Eternal Wisdom, judged and condemned, spat upon and mocked, abused and humiliated, making his the sins of all and descending to the place of the damned.

The rest of the article is at
ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2004a/020604/ss020604h.htm

And there is another at:
http://www.incommunion.org/resources/skobtsova.asp

http://www.incommunion.org/resources/MotherMaria.jpg
 
Since then there has been no need to convene any major Councils. There have been no major assaults upon the Church.
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Uh gee let me think Islam, Protestantism, Communism, Nazism, Consumerism, Humanism, Atheism, Secularism.

I think there has been a major need to adress these heresies and movements. Vatican 2 for instance was not about dogma but how the church interacts with the modern world and co-exist in world with such obvious errors.
 
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Maccabees:
Uh gee let me think Islam, Protestantism, Communism, Nazism, Consumerism, Humanism, Atheism, Secularism.
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Yes, although these impacted on the Church, they were external to her. No Orthodox within the Church, bishops or laity, were tempted to adhere to them or promote them as doctrine.
 
Fr Ambrose:
But we not not believe in some kind of never-ending development of doctrine. The Church dealt with the major errors produced in Christianity during the first millennium. Since then there has been no need to convene any major Councils. There have been no major assaults upon the Church.
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Never-ending? No one can tell. No major errors? I see you have not heard of Protestantinism. or the non-Christian groups purporting to be christians. All came into being in the last 500 years. What about modernity? Do you not see this as an attack on the Church’s teaching?
Fr Ambrose:
And we have stayed stable and we have stayed Orthodox! Two thousand years without an infallible centre and without a centralised system of authority and without catechisms - and our faith has not changed one jot or iota 🙂 We must be doing something right… 👍
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Correction: 500 years only Father. Prior to that the Orthodox was part of the Catholic Church, which always had the Pope.
That is 2000 years history.
 
Fr Ambrose:
But we not not believe in some kind of never-ending development of doctrine. The Church dealt with the major errors produced in Christianity during the first millennium. Since then there has been no need to convene any major Councils. There have been no major assaults upon the Church.

And we have stayed stable and we have stayed Orthodox! Two thousand years without an infallible centre and without a centralised system of authority and without catechisms - and our faith has not changed one jot or iota 🙂 We must be doing something right… 👍
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With all due respect Father, two thousand years of Orthodox history is not exactly a model of doctrinal stability and consistency. Historically, the Orthodox East has often suffered lapses of Heresy especially during the first millenium, with the Patriarchs themselves espousing one heresy followed by another, chiefly the Monophysite heresy in the fifth century and the Monothelite in the sixth. I’m sure you are aware of the Ecthesis? At least Rome has been there to guide them back into orthodoxy.
 
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RobedWithLight:
With all due respect Father, two thousand years of Orthodox history is not exactly a model of doctrinal stability and consistency. Historically, the Orthodox East has often suffered lapses of Heresy especially during the first millenium, with the Patriarchs themselves espousing one heresy followed by another, chiefly the Monophysite heresy in the fifth century and the Monothelite in the sixth. I’m sure you are aware of the Ecthesis? At least Rome has been there to guide them back into orthodoxy.
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And I think that this is the reason why the great Ecumenical Councils were all held, not aty Rome, but in the East, at Nicea, Constantinople and Ephesus. It was there that the great heresies arose and it was there that they were analysed and refuted at the Seven Ecumenical Councils. None of the most important Councils of the Church were held at Rome nor did any of the Popes attend any of them.

In the process of combatting the major heresies on their own territories the Eastern Churches developed “anti-bodies” which protected them very well against heresy.
 
Fr Ambrose:
And I think that this is the reason why the great Ecumenical Councils were all held, not aty Rome, but in the East, at Nicea, Constantinople and Ephesus. It was there that the great heresies arose and it was there that they were analysed and refuted at the Seven Ecumenical Councils. None of the most important Councils of the Church were held at Rome nor did any of the Popes attend any of them.

In the process of combatting the major heresies on their own territories the Eastern Churches developed “anti-bodies” which protected them very well against heresy.
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But then many of these heresies, Arianism and especially Monophysitism were “popular” heresies, that is they were accepted by even many among the laity in the east, rather than individual priests or even small, isolated groupings of learned though heretical theologians, and thus does not lend credence to Eastern claims of doctrinal consistency and stability. Yes, these heretical teachings were indeed refuted in those councils. Pope Leo the Great (440-461), heeded the call of St. Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople for help against the monophysites, which had grown too strong, and Leo responded by writing the famous letter which was accepted at the Council of Chalcedon as the definitive statement of orthodoxy while condemning the heretical teachings of Eutyches. Leo may not have been there in person, but his influence in the council cannot be denied or minimized.

Gerry 🙂
 
Nevertheless, I likewise feel that this topic concerning heresy and the eastern Orthodox have deviated from the true question on this thread.
It is time to get back on track.

Gerry 🙂
 
Hello all,

I’ve read through this discussion with much interest, but a central question that I have not seen addressed is:
  • Which elements of the Summas of St. Thomas Aquinas are “official” Church teaching, and which are not?
  • Is there a list in some official Church documentation explaining which elements of the Summas have been incorporated into the Magisterium, and which have not?
It would be handy for Catholics to have some means of differentiating in this way when reading the Summas, as Papal statements such as the following could easily lead Catholics to accept the Summas almost unquestioningly:

Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical “Aeterni Patris,” said that St. Thomas Aquinas “is rightly and deservedly esteemed the special bulwark and glory of the Catholic faith.”

Pope Innocent VI in his “Serm. de St. Thom.,” said about St. Thomas Aquinas: “His teaching above that of others, the Canons alone excepted, enjoys such an elegance of Phraseology, a method of statement, a Truth of proposition, that those who hold to it are never found swerving from the path of Truth, and he who dare assail it will always be suspected of error.”

Pope Pius XII in his Encyclical “Humani Generis,” said that St. Thomas Aquinas is “singularly pre-eminent,” and that “his doctrine is in harmony with Divine Revelation.”

Christ’s peace be with you!
 
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