Francis, Original Sin & Schismatic Errors

Hi,

I'm really concerned about the implications of recent comments by Pope Francis's regarding redemption - here and here.

These kind of comments can lead to confusion and the false belief that people can be redeemed just by doing good works and without accepting the redemption that Jesus Christ offers through the sacrament of confession.

Will the next step be the transformation of the Catholic Church into an all-inclusive, everything-goes, feel-happy congregation that denies the reality of human fallen nature and the need of redemption that only Jesus can bring?

     L.G.

TIA,

I am sure your readers will enjoy watching this short video as tribute to our American Starfighter jet.

     Gary Morella

Dear Marian,

I have a prayer I say at morning and night:

Dear God, I thank you for your beautiful creation and all the marvelous things within it.
I thank you for my beautiful wife and family.
I thank you for my life.
I thank you for not having taken my life in the state of mortal sin.

This slide show on birds certainly shows a small portion of that beautiful creation.

      May Our Blessed Lady cradle you in her loving arms,

      J.P.

P.S. I consider it an honor and a privilege to have your acquaintance and friendship. I pray for you and Atila daily.

TIA,

If you don’t know yet about this news report, the article below is something of interest for your files and for your readers. It was published by O Globo of Rio, in its online edition.

      A.F.G., Brazil

Prelate Found with a Prostitute behind a Cemetery
Last year in December Pope Benedict XVI named as Papal Prelate of Honor Msgr. Arthur M. Coyle, the Episcopal Vicar in the Boston Archdiocese. … Last Monday [August 4, 2013], however, Coyle was caught with a prostitute behind a cemetery in Boston.

The Boston Globe reports Coyle was in the back seat of a car with the woman, who was already registered with the police as a prostitute. Caught by police officers Coyle was taken to the police department where he admitted he had offered $40 to the woman to have oral sex with him.

Behind the cemetery is a known area of prostitution. After the incident, the Church put Coyle on administrative leave and asked prayers for him. Boston was the heart of the denunciations of pedophilia involving Catholic priests in the U.S.

To Whom It May Concern:

I am a Catholic layman. Although admittedly I have little formal knowledge of theology, I have, nevertheless, recently been struggling to understand the fundamentals of my faith more deeply.

Subsequently, I have spent some time examining the differences between the Catholic Faith and the various “Christian” sects - in particular, the differences between Catholicism, on the one hand, and Protestantism and Eastern Orthodoxy, on the other hand. In regard to the various errors of Protestantism, I believe that these errors have already been sufficiently addressed and refuted by brighter theological minds than I, and so, consequently, this does not need mention here.

However, while the errors of Protestantism have been repeatedly addressed, I feel that there has, unfortunately, been as of late a seeming lack of similar sound theological critiques of the errors of Eastern Orthodoxy - the errors of which are no less serious than those of Protestantism.

This is important to note because, in a sense, the error of Eastern Orthodoxy is a more serious error since, while Protestants wholly reject the authority of Apostolic Tradition, the Eastern Orthodox accept Apostolic Tradition, yet interpret it in such a way (often employing the Greek Fathers in doing so) that denies not only the authority of the Pope (e.g. in clarifying doctrine and approving of canon law and ecumenical councils) but also several infallible dogmas of the Catholic faith (such as the Filioque doctrine, the doctrine of Original Sin, the Catholic doctrine of Divine Simplicity, the doctrine of the Particular Judgment, the doctrine of Purgatory, etc.).

In addition, I also feel that the error is more serious because it is currently leading “Tradition-minded” Novus Ordo Catholics and Protestants - people who would otherwise convert to the Catholic Faith - to instead enter into the fold of the Eastern Orthodox (not to mention the fact that the Novus Ordo Church is also attempting to bring the Eastern Orthodox back into it without really seeming to mention the wrongness of these errors).

With the above in mind, I humbly make the following request to all the clergy and theologians present here: Can you address what the theological differences are between Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, and more importantly, can you state how these errors are to be refuted?

I would gladly appreciate any and all assistance that you can provide me in this matter (even if this includes a simple referral to a relevant website, book, or document).

Thank you and God bless,

T.B.


TIA responds:

T.B.,

Thank you for your well studied message.

We believe you are correct in the errors of the Schismatics you pointed out. We would add to those the following:

1. Denial of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception;
2. Denial of the dogma of Papal Infallibility;
3. Denial of the dogma of the Petrine Primacy;
4. Denial of the independence of the Church regarding the State.

The third error implies a doctrine completely different from the monarchical regime of the Catholic Church. The Schismatics preach the doctrine of autocephaly, which means that a Schismatic church of one country is absolutely independent from any other Schismatic church in other countries. These broken branches gather together once in a while, but do not admit any authority above them; they only admit a primus inter pares, a first among equals, who is one of the heads of their churches. They give him a primacy of honor without any effective power over the other parts. This merely symbolic primacy has been conferred habitually to the Schismatic patriarch of Constantinople.

This supposed autonomy has another side of the coin, which leads us to the fourth error: It makes each church dependent on that country’s State.

Since the beginning of the Eastern Schism, the Byzantine Schismatic Church became Caesaropapist, i.e., it was officially subordinate to Caesar, the Emperor of Byzantium.

While in the West the Popes, under the leadership of St. Gregory VII, defeated the Emperors in the Investiture Controversy, in the East the Schismatic Church fully surrendered itself to the Emperors.

Other Schismatic Churches, insofar as their countries were or became politically separate from Byzantium, also separated themselves from the Byzantine Schismatic Church, declared themselves independent and submitted to their local governments.

If we were to make an encompassing study on this topic, we would start with the life of Cardinal Humbert da Silva Candida, one of the companions of St. Leo IX and St. Gregory VII, and the great enemy of Michael Caerularius, the head of the Eastern Schism. He studied all the sophisms of the Schismatics. He went to Constantinople several times to discuss points of difference with them, and with his implacable logic and admirable erudition he defeated them. Finally, he went to the Cathedral of St. Sophia to engage in another discussion, and he found no one there. On that occasion, he left on the altar of that church the papal bull excommunicating the Eastern Church.

An important document we recomend you to study is the letter Ex quo of December 26, 1910, by St. Pius X. It exposes errors and heresies of the Greek Schismatics.

These are some suggestions we offer on how to pursue your endeavor.

     Cordially,

     TIA correspondence desk