Vox Populi Vox Dei and the Magisterium

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I just read one woman’s comment on women’s ordination that “Vox populi, vox Dei”, the voice of the people is the voice of God.

Is there such a thing as “Vox Populi vox Dei”? What is its relation to the Magisterium?
 
CutlerB said:
I just read one woman’s comment on women’s ordination that “Vox populi, vox Dei”, the voice of the people is the voice of God.
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That is nonsense 🙂 Christ said to the apostles: “Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.”

One of the earliest (if not the earliest) uses of this phrase is in a letter from Alcuin to Charlemagne in AD 798:
those people should not be listened to who keep saying the voice of the people is the voice of God, since the riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness
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One fact is clear: women have never been ordained throughout the history of the Church back to the apostolic age, and the Vicar of Christ, to whom the Keys of the Kingdom were entrusted in a special way, to whom alone Christ said: “I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail”, has recently stated once and for all, with a statement that cannot be contradicted without falling into error:
in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church’s divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful
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Saint Alcuin, who is broadly considered to have originated the phrase, wrote:

Nec audiendi qui solent dicere, Vox populi, vox Dei, quum tumultuositas vulgi semper insaniae proxima sit.

English translation:
And those people should not be listened to who keep saying the voice of the people is the voice of God, since the riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness.

edit: Scooped by R_C
 
R_C said:
That is nonsense 🙂 Christ said to the apostles: “Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.”

One of the earliest (if not the earliest) uses of this phrase is in a letter from Alcuin to Charlemagne in AD 798:

One fact is clear: women have never been ordained throughout the history of the Church back to the apostolic age, and the Vicar of Christ, to whom the Keys of the Kingdom were entrusted in a special way, to whom alone Christ said: “I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail”, has recently stated once and for all, with a statement that cannot be contradicted without falling into error:
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So there is no place for Vox Populi Vox Dei in Catholicism? I have heard the phrase before, but never knew what its place was.
 
An extensive google search showed that this expression is not present in any catholic document. If I’m wrong about this I’d appreciate a linked correction. What I did find is the use of this quote by a religious figure.

Definition of: vox populi, vox Dei

vox populi, vox Dei: (An old proverb quoted by William of Malmesbury in the Twelfth Century), The voice of the people is the voice of God. - See more at: sacklunch.net/Latin/V/voxpopulivoxDei.html#sthash.9162uOuf.dpuf

He said this in relation of the dethronement of Edward II in favour of Edward III. No connection to catholic doctrine.
 
And all of us know mob rule… errr democracy is not always best. 🙂
 
The voice of the Magisterium is the voice of God, not a vague notion of the people. The idea that “the people” in some vague sense, normally meaning those people that advocate opposition to Church doctrine, is what should be headed amounts to the heresies of Modernism, and Americanism that were so heavily condemned by Pius IX, Leo XIII, and Pius X.
There is a Catholic notion of “the sense of the Faithful”, but this is certainly not what is meant by advocating something like women’s ordination.
 
The problem with the “Voice of the People” is the power of the centralized Media in our time. Countless independent newspapers, TV and radio stations closed or became part of chains. Decisions that were once made by tens of thousands of people are now made by hundreds - possibly just dozens - of people. Most of the Media is dominated by people committed to one religion, what I would call Secular Humanism. People who reject Secular Humanism, like orthodox, believing Catholics and Evangelicals, seldom get hired or promoted to positions of influence.

Catholics, like everybody else, are deeply influenced by this climate, both directly through Education, Politics, and many of the professions, which are also influenced by the Media corporations. We can’t judge Catholics who repeat the views of the Media corporations, on ordination of women, contraception, divorce, abortion, etc. But to equate this peer pressure (Huffpost, CNN) with “the Voice of God” would be a mistake.
 
This is a perversion of the authentic notion of the sensus fidelium. Pope Benedict XVI explained this here:
Pope Benedict XVI:
The Second Vatican Council, while confirming the specific and irreplaceable role of Magisterium, stressed, however, that the whole People of God participates in Christ’s prophetic office, thus fulfilling the inspired desire expressed by Moses, " If only all the people of the LORD were prophets! If only the LORD would bestow his spirit on them! "(Num 11:29). The Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium thus teaches us on the subject: “The entire body of the faithful, anointed as they are by the Holy One,(111) cannot err in matters of belief. They manifest this special property by means of the whole peoples’ supernatural discernment in matters of faith when “from the Bishops down to the last of the lay faithful” they show universal agreement in matters of faith and morals. "(n. 12). This gift, the sensus fidei, constitutes in the believer a kind of supernatural instinct that has a connatural life with the same object of faith. It is a criterion for discerning whether or not a truth belongs to the deposit of the living apostolic tradition. It also has a propositional value because the Holy Spirit does not cease to speak to the Churches and lead them to the whole truth. Today, however, it is particularly important to clarify the criteria used to distinguish the authentic sensus fidelium from its counterfeits. In fact, it is not some kind of public opinion of the Church, and it is unthinkable to mention it in order to challenge the teachings of the Magisterium, this because the sensus fidei can not grow authentically in the believer except to the extent in which he or she fully participates in the life of the Church, and this requires a responsible adherence to her Magisterium.
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news.va/en/news/pope-address-to-international-theological-commissi
 
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