Mere Catholicism: Catechesis vol. 2

Rachel asks: Orthodoxy: What are the most fundamental things I have to believe in order to convert? Like, mere Catholicism, if you will.

Introduction:

In one sense, that is a very easy question to answer, and it is summed up in what you will be asked to affirm at your reception into the Catholic Church, namely, all that the Catholic Church teaches as Dogma. It is a much longer, more complicated answer to describe everything that that entails. I am going to divide my answer into four parts, but know that I cannot cover everything that the Church teaches in detail here. First, we will briefly discuss the Nicene Creed and the Canons of the Ecumenical Councils. Next, we will talk about the teaching authority of the Church, especially in the office of the Pope. Thirdly, we will address the existence of different levels of church teaching which require different levels of commitment from the faithful.

Part the First: The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed

Of course, the central symbol of the faith is the Creed of Nicea, and because it is fairly short, we may reproduce the whole thing here:

I Believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth, and of all things visible and invisible. I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father; through Him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation He came down from Heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. I believe in One Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism for the remission of sins and I look forward to the Resurrection of the dead and the life of the World to Come. Amen.

Council of Nicaea, fresco in the Cistine Chapel

These are the propositions which were affirmed by the first ecumenical, or universal, council of the Catholic Church, which met at Nicea. We affirm not merely the words of the Creed, but also their logical entailments and implications as worked out by later Ecumenical Councils, notably the councils of Constantinople and Chalcedon, as well as all of those right down to Trent and the Vatican Councils. These include clarifications such as that Christ has both a human and a divine nature which are held together in him perfectly, without either confusion or division. They also include clarifications on a number of doctrines, such as the Doctrine of Justification.

But these councils passed more than just Creeds and dogmas, or official teachings, on the nature of Christ and the Holy Trinity. They also passed a series of instructions called Canons. Some of these have since been superceded, but the canons in principle carry authority, and serve as a point of reference for the contemporary Church.

Part the Second: The Teaching Authority of the Church

The question was not "why do you believe," or "by what authority does the Church teach what it

The declaration that Mary is the Mother of God

does," but I want to give a brief account of why the Ecumenical Councils are so important and so authoritative, which will lead into our next section. These are meetings of the leaders of the whole Catholic Church which agreed together on the teaching of the Church and the tradition of the Apostles. This is so significant because Christ promised the Apostles in the Gospel of John chapter 16 that he would send the Spirit of Truth, which would guide them into "all truth," show them "things to come," and reveal many things which Christ said they were not ready to bear.

The Catholic Church teaches that this ministry of the Spirit did not simply cease with the Apostles themselves, but was intended for the whole Church throughout history, through the ministry of the Apostles' successors: the bishops (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 857, 861-2). That the Apostles themselves appointed the bishops as their successors in this office is attested by the Church even in its very early stages (see the Epistle of St. Clement to the Corinthians, for example). In fact, this is not a small part of what we mean when we affirm in the Creed that the Church is "Apostolic." In the way that Elijah passes on the spirit with him to his successor Elisha, the Apostles handed on this spirit to their successors, the bishops of the Church.

This authority is ultimately invested in the successor to St. Peter, who lead the assembled Apostles in Jerusalem even in the book of Acts, chapter 15. He is the president of this assembly which has governed the Church since its earliest stage in Jerusalem. In a later entry we will go into more depth on Papal primacy and St. Matthew 16:18-19. But it is not merely the Pope's authority on which we rely, it is the Church's teaching authority with the Pope as its mouthpiece and the guarantor of the Church's unity, which was so dear to Christ that he spent his last night fervently praying for it (St. John 17:21).

The point here is simply that, as St. John Henry Newman pointed out, God might have left Christianity merely as a Sacred Literature like many other philosophies, but He did not. Rather, He left it as a society which believers as generally bound to join. Furthermore, because God's revelation of Himself was objective, a guarantor of proper interpretation through time and across cultures and experiences is required. Finally, "Surely, either an objective revelation has not been given, or it has been provided with means for impressing its objectiveness on the world." (Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, II.II.7) An authority, vested with the Spirit of Truth, must exist in order to govern this Society and guarantee Revelation. That is the Catholic Church, with its head the successor of Peter and Bishop of Rome. The summary of 'Mere Catholicism' is whatever is taught on this authority, because without such a guarantor there is no objective revelation of Truth in any substantial sense.

Part the Third: Tradition, Magisteria, and Magisterium

What we are bound to believe as Catholics is all that is taught by the teaching authority of the Church. But there is more than one degree of teaching, and therefore more than one degree of assent that is required of us. First it is important to understand that while the tradition of the Church is the foundation of all of our doctrine, handed down as it is from Christ through the Apostles, the Church's tradition includes a wide variety of types of tradition. It includes everything from the Bible and the Canons of the Councils, to variable and local customs like the way we cross ourselves.

I do not think that it is necessary to go into too much detail here, or to enumerate all of the degrees of tradition and their authority. We can treat this subject much more briefly in this general introduction to Catholic doctrine. At the lowest level of authority are the variable and at times local traditions, governing some aspects of the liturgy and devotions. It is at this level that we find legitimate variations. In the Eastern Catholic Churches, the Incarnation is celebrated on January 6, and that according to the Julian Calendar! There is nothing inherently sinful in variance at the level of tradition or custom, though of course we are capable of sinful motives for acts which are not sinful in themselves, and a Catholic should be conscientious about avoiding pride, pretension, and sloth.

The Chair of St Peter, with the Four Latin Doctors

Above this is the ordinary magisterium of the Catholic Church, which is authoritative, but not infallible. This refers to the teaching of the church's bishops, institutions, and the Pope Himself. While the exercise of the Church's ordinary teaching authority is to be considered authoritative, it is not final and beyond question. Bishops can err in judgment and in fact, as can popes. At the same time, the sermons, pastoral letters, and encyclicals, whether of your local bishop or conference of bishops, or of the Pope or one of the Vatican Congregations, is to be viewed as proceeding from the authority of their office. It is at this level that we accept the teaching of individual Fathers and Saints of the Church, sermons, and encyclicals. Of course, this does not extend to casual conversation by these officials, nor does it even extend to all public statements. The ordinary magisterium is only present when the teaching office of the Church is being explicitly invoked, and when the pope or bishop is speaking in agreement with what comes next: the ordinary universal magisterium.

Third is the ordinary universal magisterium. This refers to the consensus of the Fathers of the Church, as well as to the consensus of the Catholic Church as a whole today. Naturally, for this we do not have to look for perfect consensus. Especially today it would be hard to find any subject without some dissenting voice, but rather we are looking for the general consensus of the Church. The ordinary universal magisterium may be summarized by St Vincent of Lerins' famous phrase from chapter 4 of his Commonitorium, that he only intends to teach "What has been believed everywhere and always and by all." Much ink has been and continues to be spilled over defining this "all," as I have mentioned that it is not absolute, and of course excludes heretics. But a doctrine or practice which is held universally by the orthodox doctors of the ancient church is to be taken by Christians as authentic tradition, and according to the Council of Trent, shares in the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as Christ promised that the Spirit would lead his Church into all truth. In many cases, it is even taken to be a tradition of apostolic origin, though many of these traditions are later developments of the church's earliest belief and practice, as well.

Finally, we come to the extraordinary Magisterium, and this is the degree which people typically think of when referring to "The Magisterium." Only the Extraordinary Magisterium is infallible, though they all carry the weight of authority. These are the declarations of Ecumenical Councils, as well as ex cathedra declarations of the Pope. Here we find the Creed described above on the authority of the councils of Nicea and Constantinople, as well as the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary as promulgated by Pope Pius IX in Ineffibilis Deus, and the canon of the Bible, as decreed by the Council of Trent, confirming the earlier declaration of the earlier council, the Council of Florence.

Several points of clarification on this one are necessary, because not only is the ability of popes and councils to proclaim things infallibly very strictly constrained, the declarations themselves must be interpreted according to very tight rules to ensure continuity with the Tradition and the Deposit of Faith. First, as Catholics are often quick to reassure potential converts, not everything that the Pope says is part of the Extraordinary Magisterium, nor is every one of his encyclicals. In fact, not even every document from an Ecumenical Council. It is only when the Pope specifically exercises the teaching authority of his office that his statements enter the Magisterium at all, and then typically only the Ordinary Magisterium. Only under special conditions are papal definitions infallible, though they are always the teaching of a legitimate authority. When the Pope speaks from his teaching authority in his office as successor to St Peter, in concert with the whole Tradition of the Church, in solemn issues of faith and morals, his definitions are infallible. Likewise, the Ecumenical Councils decide many matters of discipline and issue canons which can later be altered, as long as the alterations are in keeping with the Tradition of the Church.

What is more, as Pope Benedict XVI has argued, the decisions of Ecumenical Councils and the Ex Cathedra definitions of popes must be interpreted by the Church using a "hermeneutic of continuity." That is to say, it must be interpreted as continuing and developing the established doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church, and may never be seen as reversing, undermining, or changing Sacred Doctrine as taught in Scripture and Tradition. This hermeneutic is derived from St. John Henry Newman's influential theory of the Development of Doctrine, in which he argues that Christian doctrine does develop, but it only develops organically and logically from what precedes and is already established. The most obvious example of a correct development of doctrine is a logical entailment: if an established doctrine, or a revelation in Scripture, logically implies a further doctrine, then the definition of that entailment is a legitimate development of the original doctrine, just as A=C is a logically necessary deduction from A=B, B=C.

Conclusion

While all of the Church's teachings require our religious submission and respect, they are not all infallible and some are subject to reconsideration and revision. Scripture, the creeds and dogmas of the Ecumenical Councils, and the Ex Cathedra definitions of the Popes are considered to be free from error in regard to issues of faith and morals. The universal faith of the Fathers and of the Universal Church are a trustworthy guide and should only be questioned with great consideration on grave evidence derived from Scripture and Tradition.

I realize that this does not really answer the question. I have not given you a list of dogmas which you must believe in order to be a faithful Catholic. In stead, I have given you a description of the kinds and sources of the doctrines that you must believe. That is partly a matter of practicality: the list of dogmas is actually quite long, and would make an unwieldy blog post. But it goes deeper than that. A Catholic is fundamentally a person under authority, specifically the authority of God in Christ, through His legitimate deputies. And here we must make a very careful distinction which is overwhlemingly neglected in the modern world, that is the difference between mere power and legitimate authority. Power is the mere possession of sufficient force to bring about our desires. Authority is the right and responsibility, justly exercised, to lead, to teach, and to care for those entrusted to our care. Authority, Latin Auctoritas, is always the gift and the trust of God, the Auctor of all Creation, who entrusts his stewards with His artwork. This is one of the distinguishing marks of a Catholic: not the blind submission to all power, but the reasoning and just submission to legitimate authority, which Christ has given to His Church. We trust, as St. Paul wrote, that the Church really is "The Household of God," and "the pillar and bulwark of the truth." (I Tim. 3:15) We trust that when Christ promised the Spirit would come to lead his followers into all truth (St. John 16:13), this means that the Spirit's authority rests on those Christians who have gone before us in faith and fear, have been guided by that same Spirit, who has never abandoned Christ's Church. This is tied with the promise of unity in the same passage in St John (17:11), which the teaching of the Spirit is meant to engender, but what unity is there without the guarantee of the Church, Her Tradition, and at her head the symbol of unity, St. Peter's successor?