Will the Three Pillars of the Catholic Faith Remain Firm?

Know the three pillars of the Catholic faith!

Editor's note: This is the lead article from the Spring issue of the Les Femmes newsletter. It isn't on line yet, but most of the past issues (from Volume 5 on) are posted. This is the 27th year of publication. The newsletter began in response to Call to Action invading our churches in the Diocese of Arlington. We were able to expose and even stops a number of scandals by the grace of God and by lifting the rock hiding the creepy crawlies underneath. The laity can play an important role in defending the faith, if we cooperate with God's grace and pursue the truth. And when the Blessed Mother, our 12-star general is the editor, how can you go wrong? She's kept us in print these many years. Thank you, Blessed Mother!

Will the Three Pillars of the Catholic Faith Remain Firm?

The Catholic Church stands on a solid foundation that can’t be shaken when its three pillars are upheld. Scripture and the ruling Magisterium are two of them. The third is Sacred Tradition. Think of a well-balanced three-legged stool. The legs provide a stable foundation for the seat. Now imagine a foolish person who decides to start trimming the legs because he doesn’t like the aesthetics of the chair or thinks it needs an updated look. Trouble ahead!

 

No one has the right to take a saw to any of the pillars of the Church. The magisterium (the pope and bishops in union with him) have the duty, as the teaching authority of the Church, to uphold the correct interpretation of Scripture and to protect and defend Sacred Tradition which together make up the deposit of the faith, the truth of salvation entrusted to the apostles by Christ. Bishops may not alter Sacred Tradition in its essence any more than they may rewrite Holy Scripture. Part of Martin Luther’s heresy was to change Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 3, adding the word “alone” so that it read, “For we account a man to be justified by faith (alone), without the works of the law.” That led to generations of Christians embracing a serious error that is not supported by either Scripture or Tradition.

Today, all three pillars of our faith are under attack. Modernist scripture scholars debunk the clear teachings of the evangelists and disbelieve in Jesus’ miracles. Jesus didn’t multiply the loaves and fishes; he just encouraged the crowd to share what they already had. The twelve baskets of fragments left over certainly put that ridiculous idea to the lie. Some even claim Jesus didn’t know who He was and only gradually realized His Messianic role. After all, He was just a man like other men. What nonsense! He certainly knew who He was at the age of twelve! 

As for the Magisterium, they are a divided body. Some bishops uphold the teachings of the Church while others attack and undermine them. There is little unity to be observed among the various bishops or among the bishops’ conferences. Danger of schism is on the rise, particularly as we watch the results of recent synods including the current synod on synodality. 

The pope and the magisterium in union with him are the authentic interpreters of both written teaching (Scripture) and oral teaching (Sacred Tradition). Since there seems to be little unity today between the pope and the bishops, Catholics in the pew must learn the faith of our Fathers and cling to it. They also need to be smart about determining whose teaching is trustworthy and who spreads the “smoke of Satan.” Confusion is always a sign of the evil one, but we don’t have to be confused if we depend on the truth spoken by those who think with the mind of the Church beginning with the apostles. We have the Fathers of the Church, the saints, and two millennia of papal teaching and documents. There was, in fact, a Church before Vatican II. Whatever novelties were introduced since then must be examined in light of the continuous teachings of the past.

False teaching should not surprise us. In fact, St. Peter warned about false teachers in his second letter: 

But false prophets also appeared among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their indecent behavior, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. [2 Peter 2:1-3]

The Church has always faced the challenge of “false teachers” who are wide awake and looking for people to deceive. Often they come from the ranks of the clergy: Arius, Pelagius, Nestorias, Luther, etc. were all priests or monks. Heresy almost always comes from a man wearing clerical garb. Today, it also comes wrapped in synodality. The “synodal way” in various countries treats “doctrine” like play dough, to be reshaped according to the zeitgeist. Such is the case in Germany with their “synodal path.” At the plenary session ending October 4, 2021, the majority of members (both clerics and laity) approved documents that reject Church teaching on issues of sexuality and the priesthood. “Living in Successful Relationships – Living Love in Sexuality and Partnership,” while stating that sacramental marriage is only between a man and a woman, defends homosexual relationships, masturbation (described as “self-stimulating sexuality”), and contraception, as well as civil divorce and remarriage.

Russell Shaw describing the German synod’s document on “power” wrote this in Catholic World Report:

   The document’s controlling idea is that the Catholic Church must adopt the structures and processes of secular liberal democracy operating through a network of synods and synod-like bodies. All leadership positions in the Church, including bishops and pastors, are to be elective and term-limited. Decisions of bishops and pastors can be overruled by majority vote. The pope’s role in selecting bishops is simply to confirm the results of the elections that choose them.

   The document further holds that “plurality” even of “core convictions” is acceptable and even desirable in the Church. “A plurality of ways of thinking and living and a cultural multilingualism in the house of the Church is legitimate and even required,” it says. And lest there be any doubt: “plurality in questions of truth and doctrine is legitimate.”

The synod also supported ordination of women and voluntary celibacy for priests, staples of dissent.

Imagine a Church with no fixed truth or doctrine where the pope and bishops just rubber stamp the Catholic democratic vote. How will that work do you think? We saw the vote of the mob on Palm Sunday singing Hosannahs and calling Jesus King. We saw their reversal on Good Friday as they screamed, “Crucify Him!” For the synod to even suggest a democratic Church is, as Shaw puts it, “lunacy.”

The evils promoted by the German synod undermine all three pillars of the Church which led some in the hierarchy to respond. Over 70 cardinals and bishops sent a letter of concern to the German bishops warning of their threat to the unity of the Church and the integrity of the faith. The effort, though welcome, is unlikely to change Germany’s direction as their bishops follow in the footsteps of Martin Luther traveling the synodal path to schism! How much we must pray for our Church and her leaders!

Focusing now on Sacred Tradition, we can see an increasing attack since Vatican II, particularly under Pope Francis. First, exactly what is Sacred Tradition? We all know tradition with a small t, because it plays an important role in our lives. Families and ethnic groups celebrate holidays in various ways often according to national customs. Some celebrate Christmas on December 25th, others on Epiphany, January 6th. St. Lucy Day during Advent is celebrated by many in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries, not so commonly in the U.S.

Families often establish their own unique traditions repeated year after year. A birthday may involve giving the birthday person a silly hat to wear and a special plate. A particular cake or favorite dinner might be a staple of the celebration. Traditions make life-long memories as they are repeated over and over. But traditions with a small t are not written in stone. They can easily change and often do. Not so with Sacred Tradition! According to Fr. John Hardon, S.J.’s Catholic Dictionary, Sacred Tradition (with a capital T) has two “closely related but distinct meanings:”

Tradition first means all of divine revelation from the dawn of human history to the end of the apostolic age, as passed on from one generation of believers to the next, and as preserved under divine guidance by the Church established by Christ.

Secondly, Fr. Hardon says, Sacred Tradition means, “that part of God’s revealed word which is not contained in Sacred Scripture.” Protestants who believe in sola scriptura do not accept Sacred Tradition despite the witness St. John gives when he writes, “But there are also many other things which Jesus did; which, if they were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written.” (John 21:25) Note in the definition that the body of Sacred Tradition ended with the “end of the apostolic age” which is linked to the death of St. John around 100 A.D. Apostolic Traditions may change, but only in small ways that maintain the integrity of the Tradition. For example, Pope St. Pius X lowered the age of First Communion and urged frequent reception. The essence remained the same. No one, not even the pope, can deny the existence of Purgatory. While the word never appears in Scripture, St. Paul directly addresses purgation in 1 Corinthians 3 when he speaks about men’s works. If they are worthy, the man will be saved and receive his reward. If unworthy, “he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as one fleeing through fire.” Catholic Answers explicates the verse saying Paul:

...cannot be describing hell, because people are being saved there. He is not describing heaven, because there is imperfection being “burned up” there (cf. Heb. 1:13, Rev. 21:27). Paul is describing a third place, Purgatory: a place ...where the faithful dead who are in a state of grace but not yet purified of all imperfection go for final purification to prepare them to enter the glory of heaven.

This is just one example of a doctrine supported by Sacred Tradition and the hierarchy’s interpretation. There are many others. At his General Audience of May 4, 2006, Pope Benedict said this about Tradition:

Tradition is...the living Gospel, proclaimed by the apostles in its integrity....Tradition, therefore, is the history of the Spirit that acts in the history of the Church through the mediation of the Apostles and their successors, in faithful continuity with the experience of the origins.

Note the importance of acting “in faithful continuity.” The Deposit of the Faith (Holy Scripture and Sacred Tradition) doesn’t change except in small incremental ways that enrich it and increase the faithful’s understanding and practice, for example, the development of the doctrine of Penance to encourage its frequent use. On the other hand, those suggesting novelties or deviations that represent a break or a rupture with the past, (e.g., female ordination) violate Sacred Tradition. The Pope continued:

It is what Pope St. Clement of Rome explained toward the end of the first century: "The Apostles," he wrote, "proclaimed the Gospel to us sent by the Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ was sent by God. Christ, therefore, comes from God, the Apostles from Christ: Both proceed in an orderly way from the will of God. Our Apostles knew through our Lord Jesus Christ that disputes would arise around the episcopal function. Therefore, foreseeing the future perfectly, they established the chosen ones and ordered them that at their death other men of proven virtue assume their service" [Ad Corinthians," 42.44: PG 1, 292.296]. This chain of service continues to our day; it will continue until the end of the world. In fact, the mission entrusted by Jesus to the apostles has been transmitted by them to their successors. Beyond the experience of personal contact with Christ, unique and unrepeatable, the apostles transmitted to their successors the solemn sending to the world received from the Master. The word apostle comes in fact from the Greek term "apostellein," which means to send. The apostolic sending -- as the text of Matthew 28:19 and following shows -- "implies a pastoral service ('make disciples of all nations') a liturgical service ('baptizing them'), and a prophetic service ('teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you') guaranteeing closeness to the Lord until the end of the ages (I am with you always until the end of time').

 In 2007, after he issued the Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum, Pope Benedict explained his actions in a letter to the bishops of the world. He wrote, “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us, too.” According to Fr. John Hunwicke, quoted in Peter Kwasniewski’s book, From Benedict’s Peace to Francis’s War, Pope Benedict was acknowledging the importance of the rule of “auctoritas [i.e., the authority inherent in something enjoying long-lasting and widespread acceptance.],” in other words a long-standing tradition embraced by the faithful. The Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) is an iconic example of that definition.

While Pope Pius V codified the TLM in 1570 with the Bull, Quo Primum, he did not invent it. Remember, this was during the Protestant revolution when the liturgy was under attack. Pius’s Bull, protected and standardized liturgical practice. Notably, Pope Pius also allowed the continuation of liturgies in use for over 200 years which were unpolluted by the Protestant revolt. He respected tradition and the continuity of worship. Quo Primum was not simply a disciplinary document like changing the fast and abstinence rules. Rather, as Kwasniewski wrote in True Obedience in the Church, the bull deals with “the transmission of the Church’s faith in its most ancient, most authoritative, most normative form, which takes precedence over the Magisterium itself.” In fact, the force of the document was so authoritative that papal successors had the Bull included in subsequent editions of the Roman Missal. It’s important to remember that the Magisterium are not the owners of the Deposit of Faith, but its guardians: guardians of the correct interpretation of Sacred Scripture and guardians of Sacred Tradition.

Ironically that’s the literal title of Pope Francis’s motu proprio, Traditionis Custodes (TC), -- Guardians of Tradition. Like so many secular documents TC illustrates the same kind of newspeak as Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984. TC doesn’t “guard” Sacred Tradition at all. Rather, TC makes war on it by attempting to ban the TLM. TC seems to be merely the first step toward that goal. Is it any wonder that many clergy, canon lawyers, theologians, bishops, and Catholics in the pews are so concerned and questioning the document’s authority? Instead of unifying the Church, TC created a storm of disunity taking an axe to one of the three pillars of the Church, Sacred Tradition.

It is more important than ever for Catholics to know the faith, defend it, and transmit it in all its glorious truth to everyone they know. We need to study Church history, papal documents, and catechisms of the Church. One of the earliest is the Didache which describes the evil of abortion. Those who say the Church never taught against abortion, are ignorant of history. The more we know, the more we can, with charity and cheerfulness, correct ignorance. Socrates had the right idea when he taught by questioning. We don’t need to argue with Protestants about sola scriptura. Ask where the Bible came from. Did Jesus hand a book to the apostles before he ascended? No, the Catholic Church codified the books of the Bible in the 4th century at the Council of Rome. Knowledge is power, a tool for defending the faith. Let’s not neglect it out of sloth or love for the pleasures of the world. The most important thing we can do on this earth is to cooperate with God to save souls and bring them to love our Lord. Defending the pillars of the Church can help us do that.