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Question

Dear Father Angelo,
Talking to people, one hears that the Church, by making some changes to  the pastoral care , has in fact changed the perennial Doctrine, causing the loss of the faith and  of the Catholic moral amongst the people of God. What do you think?
I would be very grateful if you wanted to answer me and please accept my best wishes for a Happy Easter (2017).
Fausto


Answer from the priest

Dear Fausto,
1. What you told me is unfortunately the general impression, also fed by the media.
But the doctrine of the Church cannot change because this doctrine is not its own, but belongs to Jesus Christ.
2. Jesus has given His Church His Spirit of Truth.
Precisely this Spirit of Truth protects the Church from error.
3. For us this is part of our faith and at the same time it is also an observation.
4. To say that the doctrine does not change does not mean  that it might instead reach greater insights.
With the help of the Holy Spirit, the Church can and must deepen more and more the Truth that Jesus has  revealed to us.
It would fail in its task if it did not do so.
In fact, Jesus said: “But when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth” (Jn 16:13).
5. But since the Holy Spirit cannot contradict Himself, the progressive unveiling of the revealed Truth cannot take place through a denial of what was previously believed.          St. John XXIII recalled in the inaugural address of the Second Vatican Council, eodem sensu eademque sententia  (in the same meaning and in the same doctrine), that is, “the genre of the doctrine, the doctrine itself, its meaning and its content”, as Vincent of Lerins had previously said in the fifth century in his Commonitorium primum.
6. Therefore it is not the writings of Catholic journalists or even of  theologians that make the  Doctrine.
The Doctrine is the one that has been taught by Peter and the apostolic college together with him, that is, by the Pope and the episcopal college.
Only when we see in the  Denzinger (which is the most conspicuous manual of dogmatic judgments and of the Magisterium of the Church) that the various judgments of the Magisterium contradict each other, then we could speak of a change in the  Doctrine.
But this will never happen according to the reassurance that Christ has given , because “the gates of hell will not prevail over it” (Mt 16:18).
It is the same faith in Christ that makes us certain a priori.This is not my opinion, which counts  nothing in itself, but what we believe through our faith.
In the hope of having removed your doubts and fears, I wish you well, I remind you to the Lord and I bless you.
Father Angelo