On Saturday I did a show with fellow Catholic apologist Elijah Yasi. He specializes in a book called the Relatio by Bishop Gasser. I had known about this document for years but hadn’t read it until the last few months. It was part of Erick Ybarra’s top 10 books on the papacy that he recommends.
So recently I read it and had Elijah Yasi on my YouTube channel to talk about this. He’s been a student of this document for years. While we have the documents of Vatican I and many have read them, fewer have read the official Relatio. If you watch the show with Elijah Yasi he even talks about the statements of the Swiss bishops that go beyond the Relatio.
The funny thing is, I don’t know any critic of the papacy who has read this book. The one exception is an anonymous Eastern Orthodox blogger who goes by the moniker Ubi Petrus. He’s read this book and tries to understand it. I don’t know if his understanding is correct but I give him credit for digging into it.
I went to James White’s website aomin.org and did a search for the Relatio. I typed “Gasser” into the search bar and it yielded zero results. However, I typed “Salmon” into the search bar and got 28 results. For those of you who don’t know, White gets all of his anti-papal arguments from George Salmon. If you watch his Papal Infallibility debates he always throws the same tired arguments out. He simply lets Salmon define the Catholic faith and not Bishop Gasser.
I even heard White once say on the Dividing Line that he’s never lost a debate on the papacy. I don’t believe this but White is entitled to his opinion. It’s ironic though that White has accused Catholics of not understanding Sola Scriptura while he doesn’t seem to read our most important document on a doctrine he takes issue with and often debates.
To make a long story short, I really enjoyed this book. I also enjoyed having Elijah Yasi on to discuss it. My favourite part is where it talks about the importance of certain councils, mainly Constantinople IV, Lyons II, and Florence. Three very important councils that are hardly ever discussed.
The day before Elijah came on my channel I went on his channel to talk about the fourth crusade. The crusade that goes wildly off course and ends up capturing and looting Constantinople. Check it out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoCTvNb9l4c&t=1s
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