The following are excerpts from Athanasius Schneider, Credo: Compendium of the Catholic Faith (Manchester, N.H.: Sophia Institute Press, 2023)
46. Can the Magisterium change
the contents of this Deposit of Faith?
No, “Heaven and earth shall pass
away, but My words shall never pass away” (Mt. 24:35). It is beyond the power
of the Church to add to, subtract from, or alter the content of divine
revelation, for she is charged strictly to teach “all those things whatsoever I
have commanded you” (Mt 28:20).
47. What is the true meaning
of the expression living Magisterium?
It means that the apostolic
preaching, voiced through the Church’s Magisterium, will not cease until the
end of the world. The voice of the apostles still lives and speaks when their
successors, in an unbroken and faithful tradition, preserve and transmit the
revealed truths; passing the living torch of the immutable doctrine of Faith,
always eodem, dogmate, eodem sensu, eademque sententia—“the same dogma,
in the same sense, and in the same meaning.”
48. What of a development
of doctrine, subject to changing circumstances?
The expression “living tradition,”
“living Magisterium,” “hermeneutic of continuity,” and “development of doctrine,”
properly understood, can only mean that a greater clarity or precision is given
to the same changeless content of divine revelation over time. Such new
insights can never contradict what the Church has previously and definitively
proposed, because Christ promised that the Holy Spirit would not reveal
anything new, but only remind the disciples of what He told them (see Jn
14:26). (Athanasius Schneider, Credo: Compendium of the Catholic Faith [Manchester,
N.H.: Sophia Institute Press, 2023], 7)
178. What were the immediate
effects of this sin upon Adam and Eve?
Having become enemies of God,
they were deprived of all grace and supernatural gifts, lost the right to enter
heaven, and became subject to ignorance, concupiscence (the inclination to
sin), suffering, and death. (Athanasius Schneider, Credo: Compendium of the
Catholic Faith [Manchester, N.H.: Sophia Institute Press, 2023], 31)
257. Then what happens to
infants who die with baptism?
Having committed no personal sin,
it seems unfitting that unbaptized infants should suffer the fate of those who
are damned. A widespread theological opinion holds that their exclusion from
the Beatific Vision may not necessarily entail pain and suffering; but rather,
infants dying without baptism could be admitted to a peaceful eternity of
purely natural goods—a kind of indirect or mediate vision of God.
. . .
259. Would it be unjust to
exclude unbaptized infants from the Beatific Vision?
No, because human nature has no
right to the Beatific Vision. We may ask God to grant these children the
miracle of sanctifying grace on account of His infinite mercy, but their destiny
ultimately remains a mystery which we entrust to the loving providence of God. (Athanasius
Schneider, Credo: Compendium of the Catholic Faith [Manchester, N.H.:
Sophia Institute Press, 2023], 248, 249)
680. Have there been cases of
popes promoting doctrinally ambiguous prayers in the liturgy of the Mass?
Yes. In 1969 Pope Paul VI approved
a New Order of Mass with novel Offertory Prayers modeled after the Jewish
Sabbath meal blessings (Berekoth). Because these prayers emphasize the
aspect of a meal while seriously obscuring the propitiatory nature of
the sacrifice, these Offertory Prayers are very close to a Protestant
understanding of Holy Mass as a mere banquet.
681. Have there been cases of
popes promoting doctrinally erroneous and morally problematic sacramental
practices?
Yes. In 2016 Pope Francis
approved the norms of the Buenos Aires bishops that granted Communion to unrepentant
public adulterers: “When it is not possible to obtain a declaration of nullity,
[living in continence] may not, in fact, be feasible. . . . If one arrives at
the recognition that, in a particular case, there are limitations that diminish
responsibility and culpability, particularly when a person judges that he would
fall into a subsequent fault by damaging the children of the new union [by living
in continence], Amoris Laetitia opens up the possibility of access to
the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist.” (Athanasius Schneider, Credo:
Compendium of the Catholic Faith [Manchester, N.H.: Sophia Institute Press,
2023], 95)
In this, Pope Francis undermines
the truth of the indissolubility of a valid and consummated marriage and, at
the same time, the holiness of the two sacraments of the Eucharist and penance,
which requires contrition and an intention not to sin against the divine
commandments. Regarding the document of the Buenos Aires Bishops, Pope Francis
maintained: “The document is very good and complexly explains the meaning of
chapter VIII of Amoris Laetitia . There are no other interpretations.
And I am certain that it will do much good” (Letter of September 5, 2016). In
his later audience with the Cardinal Secretary of State, “Ex audientia SS.mi”
(June 5, 2017), the pope declared this approval of the norms of the Bishops of
the Buenos Aires region to be “authentic Magisterium.” (Ibid., 363 n. 74)
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