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pohandes
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Is The Catechism of the Council of Trent inerrant?
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kapp19
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It could be. But catechisms are not “the teaching of the Church,” they are expositions and explanations of the teaching of the Church (which is what is inerrant by nature).
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Isearch
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Not necessarily.
Heaven Open To Souls, a pre-Vatican II devotional booklet on obtaining Perfect Charity and Contrition, written by Rev. Henry Churchill Semple, argued that the Catechism of the Council of Trent contains, at best, an imprecise or, at worst, an erroneous sentence describing the difficulty of obtaining Perfect Contrition.
Heaven Open To Souls, a pre-Vatican II devotional booklet on obtaining Perfect Charity and Contrition, written by Rev. Henry Churchill Semple, argued that the Catechism of the Council of Trent contains, at best, an imprecise or, at worst, an erroneous sentence describing the difficulty of obtaining Perfect Contrition.
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Genesis315
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I am not aware of any error within it and it was used for centuries without any subsequent editions, from what I can tell. That’s a pretty good testament.
The writers were certainly capable of erring–unlike the writers of the Scriptures–but it doesn’t mean they did.
The writers were certainly capable of erring–unlike the writers of the Scriptures–but it doesn’t mean they did.
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Genesis315
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Could you provide more info? I can’t recall any paragraph about the difficulty of perfect contrition in the Catechism. I just did a quick search and couldn’t find any either.Heaven Open To Souls , a pre-Vatican II devotional booklet on obtaining Perfect Charity and Contrition, written by Rev. Henry Churchill Semple, argued that the Catechism of the Council of Trent contains, at best, an imprecise or, at worst, an erroneous sentence describing the difficulty of obtaining Perfect Contrition.
EDIT: nevermind, I found the passage in the Catechism:
Clearly whether few reach this kind of contrition is a question of fact that no one could really know one way or the other. We won’t know until the General Judgment whether this is in error or not. I was also able to pull up the pamphlet at issue and the author does make a pretty compelling argument for the other opinion, using that very Catechism itself. But at the end of the day, this is one of those things that cannot really be known with certainty one way or the other. As the author of the pamphlet himself notes, it is ultimately in the realm of free opinion.Contrition, it is true, blots out sin; but who does not know that to effect this it must be so intense, so ardent, so vehement, as to bear a proportion to the magnitude of the crimes which it effaces? This is a degree of contrition which few reach; and hence, in this way, very few indeed could hope to obtain the pardon of their sins. It, therefore, became necessary that the most merciful Lord should provide by some easier means for the common salvation of men; and this He has done in His admirable wisdom, by giving to His Church the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
A good reminder that not everything in a catechism has the same degree of certainty.
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JSRG
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No more so than any other catechism.Is The Catechism of the Council of Trent inerrant?
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