Dear Jon,
960120.02
You report your friend (who is "Catholic, too, and proud of it") as
saying: "I believe the Pope is only superior to any Christian because
of the holy life he leads, and the popes many years ago didn't lead
very holy lives. So the decisions they made, in my eyes, are invalid.
What do you think?"
I think your friend is shortchanging Almighty God and trying to make
Him dependent on His own creatures. God is not the prisoner of human
virtue. He can and does work through a sinner as easily as through a
saint. The Bible offers abundant proof of this. God often used the
Israelites' idolatrous neighbors to punish His chosen people for their
infidelities (e.g., 2nd Chronicles 36:15-20). The Lord inspired a
pagan ruler, Cyprus of Persia, to work the liberation of the Jews from
their exile and captivity (Ezra 1:1). Cyrus, then, pagan though he
was and without knowledge of the Lord, God calls "my shepherd" (Isaiah
44:28), "my anointed one" (ibid., 45:1). God used the sinful
persecutor of Jesus, the high priest Caiaphas, who presided over the
kangaroo court that condemned Our Lord to death -- used him and made
him a prophet (John 11:49-52. John notes specifically that Caiaphas
could be a prophet BECAUSE OF HIS OFFICE, NOT BECAUSE OF HIS HOLY
LIFE.)
Our Lord himself defended the teaching authority of the scribes and
Pharisees, while attacking their sinful behavior (Matthew 23:2-3).
You needn't be a theologian to recognize the principle at work here.
Military discipline also rests on the same basis. Every dogface knows
"You salute the uniform, not the jerk that's wearing it!"
The Church has re-asserted this principle again and again from her
earliest years. Pope Stephen I (254-257) taught that heretics confer
valid baptism. The 1st Council of Nicea (325) taught that ordinations
performed by heretical Novatian bishops were valid.
The heretics John Wycliffe and John Hus both taught your friend's
"doctrine" -- 1) that bishops and priests living in mortal sin cannot
give any sacrament; 2) that evil popes are members of the devil and
have no power over the faithful; 3) that a sinful pope is not a
successor of Peter but a vicar of Judas; 4) that a wicked pope is not
head of the Church, nor even a member of it, but a thief and son of
perdition. The ecumenical Council of Constance (1414-1418) formally
condemned these assertions.
The Council of Trent (1545-1565) re-affirmed the ancient teaching that
baptism conferred by heretics is valid, given the proper form and
intention. It renewed the teaching of Constance that bad priests and
popes retain their power to rule and give sacraments despite their own
sinful condition, provided they observe the correct matter, form, and
intention.
So what do I think about your friend's ideas? I think they are
cafeteria Catholicism, and her notions about popes and their right to
rule are unscriptural and heretical.
I found the following editorial in the October 7, 1995 issue of the
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS:
"It's foolish for Catholics to continue calling themselves Catholic
if they reject any one of the Church's teachings . . . The Roman
Catholic Church is a hierarchical institution and an authoritarian
one. It is not a political party or a poll-driven customer
satisfaction service. It claims to speak for God through His
Vicar, the Pope. One may well deny the claim, but it is hard to
see how one can simultaneously boast of being a `good Catholic.'
This is like calling oneself a good soldier while disobeying the CO
or a good lawyer while ignoring the Constitution. The stockade or
disbarment awaits these secular rebels. By Church teaching,
something eternally worse is in store for their spiritual
confederates."
I hope what I have written will be recognized as "tough love". The
Church is given us for our salvation. Dissenting from her teachings
endangers our salvation. Solid study and earnest prayer, joined with
humility and obedience, make us open to learning and rescue us from
dissent.
Sincerely in Christ,
Father Mateo
- Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. -
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