[CS-FSLUG] NI: Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible

Wed Oct 5 16:30:38 CDT 2005

                                                             JMJ + OBT

One thing to keep in mind is that it was a local council of bishops  
in Great Britain + Ireland that authored and published this document.

I haven't read it and so can't really offer my personal take on it;  
but suffice it so say that a local council, from the larger  
perspective of the Catholic Church, does not enjoy the same  
protection from error which it is believed that the Holy Spirit gives  
to the official, "voted on" declarations of an ecumenical council.

To the extent that this new document repeats, upholds and explains  
the historical orthodox teaching of the Church regarding Sacred  
Scripture, it is a valuable expression of it in this new millennium.  
To the extent that it deviates from or contradicts that teaching,  
then it is scandalous and gravely unfortunate.

It is a difficult pill for me and many of my Catholic brothers and  
sisters to swallow, but the plain truth is that Scripture scholarship  
in the (Western) Catholic Church in the last 50 years has drifted as  
a whole towards the extremely "liberal" end of the spectrum.

On the one hand, modern textual and historical critical methods can  
be valuable tools for studying God's Word -- Pope Benedict XVI, as  
Cardinal Ratzinger, was very open to and instrumental in furthering  
the integration of these methods into the work of the Pontifical  
Biblical Commission. At the same time, Cardinal Ratzinger and many  
other conservative Catholic thinkers/leaders have for many years  
openly criticized the departure by many scholars from the guidance of  
Patristic thought and the traditional Catholic belief in the complete  
inerrancy of the Holy Bible, which for 2000 years have served as the  
contexts in which Catholics interpreted the Scriptures.

The "modern tools" of Scripture scholars do not in themselves lead to  
heresy. It's how they are applied, in what context they are applied,  
and the underlying assumptions which the scholars have implicitly or  
explicitly adopted that lead to various problematic interpretations  
or analyses. For example, if a scholar has rejected the existence of  
the supernatural (sounds crazy that a Christian scholar would do  
that; but there are many such cases), then he/she will look at,  
interpret, and analyze miracles and other supernatural phenomenon as  
recorded in the Scriptures in a manner that is foreign to the great  
tradition of the Church.

Some of the worst, wackiest and heterodox currents of thought have  
alarmingly been the "meat and potatoes" of Scripture courses taken by  
Catholic seminarians in the past few decades! THANK GOD, things are  
beginning to turn around, and many young seminarians in the past five  
years have actually begun to combat the errors of their professors,  
in class even! [The Internet has helped to bring that about.]

Here are links to a few of _my_ favorite "tools" for combatting  
heterodox Scripture scholarship:

          Free From All Error: Authorship, Inerrancy, Historicity of  
Scripture,
          Church Teaching, and Modern Scripture Scholars (Fr. Most)

          http://www.catholicculture.org/docs/most/getwork.cfm? 
worknum=216

          A Catholic Guide to Biblical Interpretation: Exploring the  
Many Worlds of
          Scripture with Faith, Reason and Praxis

          http://www.kenrickparish.com/gresham/cbi/

          Crisis in Scripture Studies (Fr. Most)

          http://www.catholicculture.org/docs/most/getwork.cfm? 
worknum=53

          Answers to Modern Critics (Fr. Most)

          http://www.catholicculture.org/docs/most/getwork.cfm? 
worknum=212

          [many of the late Fr. William Most's works are valuable in  
this "fight"]

          The MOST Theological Collection

          http://www.catholicculture.org/docs/most/browse.cfm

          The Gospels are Historical

          http://www.church-in-history.org/pages/intro-sum/gospels- 
hist.htm

          The Neo-Patristic Approach to Sacred Scripture

          http://www.rtforum.org/study/index.html

          Intellectual Poison:  How Thomas Hobbes Ruined Biblical  
Studies

          http://www.crisismagazine.com/november2004/wiker.htm

          Historical-Critical Scripture Studies and the Catholic Faith

          http://www.catholicculture.org/docs/doc_view.cfm?recnum=1181

          The Use of Scripture in The Catechism Of The Catholic  
Church (awesome!)

          http://www.ewtn.com/library/CATECHSM/USEOFSCR.HTM

          Catholic Biblical Studies: The Golden Legend

          http://www.culturewars.com/CultureWars/1999/rewriting.htm

          Of course, it would be a mistake to leave out . . .

          Pope Pius XII's encyclical letter, "Divino Afflante Spiritu"

          http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/ 
documents/hf_p-xii_enc_30091943_divino-afflante-spiritu_en.html

          and "Dei Verbum," the Second Vatican Council's "Dogmatic  
Constitution On Divine Revelation"

          http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ 
ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651118_dei-verbum_en.html

I have every hope that Pope Benedict XVI is going to help lead a  
reform of Catholic Biblical scholarship, though I doubt he'll  
formally denounce many "heretics." Let us make sure to pray for  
him . . .

In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary,

Michael Bradley, Jr.

--
[Jesus said] Tell aching mankind to snuggle close
to My merciful Heart, and I will fill it with peace.
+ Diary of Saint Faustina #1074 +

My home on the Net ::
    http://homepage.mac.com/michaelsbradleyjr/

IC XC NIKA

On Oct 5, 2005, at 12:43 PM, Christopher Rose wrote:

> I can only pray that the current Pope will look at this document  
> that is written by men and call it for the blatant heresy that it  
> is. I would hope that the persons involved in writing this would  
> also review it themselves and take a little more time and care to  
> review all the evidence. There are a great many things they seem to  
> have ignored that would refute thier assertions. They would do well  
> to check out http://www.icr.org or http://www.gennet.org as these  
> will certainly refute much of what they claim is untrue.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Fred A. Miller" <fmiller at lightlink.com>
> To: "CS-LUG" <Christiansource at ofb.biz>
> Subject: [CS-FSLUG] NI: Catholic Church no longer swears by truth  
> of the    Bible
> Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 11:45:33 -0400
>
>
>>
>> I just rec'd this from someone here in the US. I've not had time  
>> yet to check
>> it out, but here it is for all to review.
>>
>> Fred
>> ____________________
>>
>> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C13509-1811332%2C00.html
>>
>> Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible
>> By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
>>
>> THE hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church has published a teaching
>> document instructing the faithful that some parts of the Bible are  
>> not
>> actually true.