Who in our age can we trust to listen to for sound teaching?

  • Thread starter Thread starter w01fpack
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
W

w01fpack

Guest
How can we tell these days who within the Church to listen to? With the ease of social media, I see a lot of Bishops and Cardinals opposing one another and often the Pope. Ill be honest, I get overwhelmed. Ill hear something that draws me to one person & then someone else points out how “wrong” they are.

I think some times living in the age of information is a cruel curse. There is so much information everywhere, and it seems there is often no good reliable source to verify against.
 
Consult the teachers edition. 🙂
40.png
Do you know the Catechism is the teachers' edition? Philosophy
In matters of faith and morals, priests have to teach in accordance with the Catechism, in order to be in communion with his bishop. And his bishop has to teach in accordance with the Catechism in order to be in communion with the Holy See.
Click to expand...
 
  1. The catechism.
  2. Catholic scripture commentaries.
  3. Known orthodox Catholic speakers and evangelists.
  4. Despite what some think, EWTN has a ton of really good folks on it.
As Saint Paul teaches in 1 Thessalonians 5: “Test everything. Retain what is good.”
 
Last edited:
Since joining the Church I’ve had to rethink what I mean by “listen to.” Example: Bishop Barron and Fr Ripperger. I love 'em both and have seen many of their videos. I feel there’s a general sense of the Good that they help me to understand, and that helps me grow in my relationship with God. But any two people are going to disagree on certain points here and there. Does that make one “right” and the other “wrong”? Do I need to go find a 3rd opinion to break the “tie”? I don’t think so. Rather, listening to them helps me better understand the Church’s teaching on an issue. So while the two may disagree on a particular point, if I better understand Church teaching and grow closer to God, they were both “right”, so to speak (assuming they’re both orthodox, which, in the case of the two mentioned, I do.)
 
Start by turning off the television and social media.
 
Last edited:
w01fpack said:
How can we tell these days who within the Church to listen to? With the ease of social media, I see a lot of Bishops and Cardinals opposing one another and often the Pope. Ill be honest, I get overwhelmed. Ill hear something that draws me to one person & then someone else points out how “wrong” they are.
Click to expand...
If it’s a matter of Catholic teaching, it’s in the Catechism and you can and should rely on that.

If it’s something not in the Catechism, then it’s not something Catholics in the pews need to be concerned with and it should be left to the Pope and cardinals to sort out. If you want to do something helpful, pray for them.
 
No tv here anyway,
Social media is a necessary evil. My wife and I work as volunteer high school youth ministers.
I already try to filter the best I can, it gets most confusing when Church leaders resort to “politicking”.
 
I follow Bishop Barron, & Fr. Mike Schmidt a lot!
In fact I’m enrolled in Bishop Barron’s Word on fire institute.
 
Our Bishops, our pastors, our Holy Father. Do not read the “outrage bait” online. Go to the source.

The Vatican.va website, your Bishop’s Conference (USCCB for us in the US), your Diocese paper/webpage, etc.
 
Any suggestions on methods or means to test by? For things not included in the Catechism or Bible.
I suppose, we just pray for the gift of seeing through the Bad Stuff and then trust our instincts.
 
Focus on how YOU can serve God. There is lots out there about immigration. Ask yourself, “Has God given me graces to deal with (blank/immigration)”? Yes, examine those graces and determine if you are doing Gods will. No, then move to next topic and find the graces God’s asking YOU to do. We cannot have our fingers in every pie piece out there. Focus on one thing that you can Glorify God in. Listen to all sides and take that information to God and hope He will lead you down His path.
 
1.) I think a good starting place is Archbishop Chaput, since he was #1 on McCarrick’s hit list.
2a.) Catholic Answers
2b.) EWTN
3.) Other orthodox Catholic theologians like Dr. Scott Hahn, professors at the Augustine Institute, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Holy Apostles College, etc.
4.) clergy who agree with the above.

Finally, the Holy Spirit gives most of us who pray, are well formed, and faithful to the teachings of the Church the ability to “sniff out” the truth. These people have built in “heresy detectors” that are gifts from the Holy Spirit.

So we have to listen to the Holy Spirit and insure that we are being told lines up with 2000 years of church teaching and does NOT contradict anything from 2000 years.

It’s important to remember that there is a heretical view that the most important Council is the last one (and it’s not just a Vatican II thing). This is totally false. All councils are of equally important and some even carry more weight in parts of Church teaching if they discussed a topic that others did not.

God Bless
 
Last edited:
Well, we are allowed quite a bit of latitude regarding things that are not de fide, i.e. doctrine that must be held by Catholics. Here is where the virtue of prudence comes into play. Primarily, we have a responsibility to see that our consciences are well-formed.

An extreme example is serial killers. Many have thought, according with their conscience, that what they were doing benefited society. However, their consciences were grossly malformed.

A good examination of conscience can help in this regard. Here is the best one I have stumbled onto recently:

https://www.leafletonline.com/examination-of-conscience

Look for it at your local Catholic bookstore. You can order direct, but the shipping is a killer on single copies.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top