The Council of Trent in session.
Ecumenical Councils are the main way in which the Christian Church settles doctrinal issues. There have been well over a dozen of these councils throughout the course of church history. They are for doctrinal issues and usually only surface when the Christian world is in crisis.
Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.
-St. Ignatius of Antioch
Epistle to the Smyrnaeans, 107 AD
St. Ignatius of Antioch
Bishop and Martyr
Many Catholics study early Church history and Church fathers. There are many fathers that are worth reading. St. Augustine and St. Athanasius come to mind but there are many others. One that cannot be ignored is St. Ignatius of Antioch.
St. Ignatius of Antioch was the Bishop of Antioch in the early second century. He was martyred in Rome in about 107 AD and gives an early witness to many church doctrines. Doctrines such as the deity of Christ, monarchial ecclesiology, transubstantiation and others.
Saint Jerome – Patron Saint of Biblical Studies
Liberal Biblical scholarship as I have mentioned before has been very damaging to the faith of many in the Church. The average churchgoer has not been directly exposed to this, but indirectly. A seminarian will learn these liberal interpretations of the Bible and then this will come through when he is a priest and is preaching to the congregation. The congregation will have no clue and could likely swallow this poison whole.
Scripture is extremely important in the life of every serious Catholic. Though the Church has always condemned private interpretation of scripture, it strongly encourages the reading of it.
Many in the Church have a warped view of scripture. While professing the Catholic faith, they will claim that the scriptures are full of contradictions, errors, forgeries and other problems. This is contradicted by the entire history of the Church. In Providentissimus Deus, Pope Leo XIII clearly states: “But it is absolutely wrong and forbidden, either to narrow inspiration to certain parts only of Holy Scripture, or to admit that the sacred writer has erred.”
In the modern era, many people sadly believe this. They have been led astray by liberal scholars such as Fr. Raymond Brown, Fr. Joseph Fitzmyer and others. It is very important for every Catholic to reject these men and their heretical scholarship.
We must also be wary of those who publish the Bible with new interpretations contrary to the Church’s laws. They skillfully distort the meaning by their own interpretation. They print the Bibles in the vernacular and, absorbing an incredible expense, offer them free even to the uneducated. Furthermore, the Bibles are rarely without perverse little inserts to insure that the reader imbibes their lethal poison instead of the saving water of salvation. Long ago the Apostolic See warned about this serious hazard to the faith and drew up a list of the authors of these pernicious notions. The rules of this Index were published by the Council of Trent; the ordinance required that translations of the Bible into the vernacular not be permitted without the approval of the Apostolic See and further required that they be published with commentaries from the Fathers. The sacred Synod of Trent had decreed in order to restrain impudent characters, that no one, relying on his own prudence in matters of faith and of conduct which concerns Christian doctrine, might twist the sacred Scriptures to his own opinion, or to an opinion contrary to that of the Church or the popes. Though such machinations against the Catholic faith had been assailed long ago by these canonical proscriptions, Our recent predecessors made a special effort to check these spreading evils. With these arms may you too strive to fight the battles of the Lord which endanger the sacred teachings, lest this deadly virus spread in your flock.
-Pope Pius VIII
Traditi Humilitati, May 24, 1829
Pope Pius VIII
One of the great Popes of the 19th Century.
The 19th Century produced some of the greatest Popes in the history of the Church. If one had to pick a century for the best Popes, the 19th Century would be my pick. At the end of the 18th Century, the diabolical abomination known as the French Revolution spread through Europe and completely overwhelmed Pope Pius VI and the Catholic Church.
Pius VI died in 1799 and in 1800, Pius VII was elected to combat these demonic ideas. The ideas of the French Revolution would be the target of many encyclicals throughout the 19th Century and even until the mid-20th Century. The ideas of Freemasonry were condemned.
Many good encyclicals were written in the 19th Century but here are my top 5 picks. They can all be found online.
5) Traditi Humilitati by Pope Pius VIII (May 5, 1829)
Although his pontificate was only 20 months, Pope Pius VIII published an amazing encyclical. It was short, sweet, and to the point. Indifferentism is viciously attacked as completely contrary to the faith. Pius VIII also condemns the publishing of Bibles without Church approval and patristic commentaries. A most excellent encyclical by an almost forgotten Pope.
4) Mirari Vos by Pope Gregory XVI (August 15, 1832)
In this document, Gregory XVI mercilessly goes after liberalism and indifferentism. Two of the many evils that came out of the Revolution. He taps into tradition by quoting the Councils of Florence and Trent. Two of the most important Councils of the Church. He also tells his fellow bishops to defend clerical celibacy and refers to the movement against it as an “abominable conspiracy”. In paragraph 13 he unambiguously comes out against indifferentism. In the next paragraph he clearly states: “This shameful font of indifferentism gives rise to that absurd and erroneous proposition which claims that liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone.” Pope Gregory XVI is without a doubt, one of the strongest Popes since the Council of Trent. He didn’t compromise one bit to the heresy that confronted the Church in his day.
The Holy Theotokos
Was Mary full of grace? Luke 1:28 is the key to solving that mystery. In fact, this verse gives us some evidence for the Immaculate Conception for the Blessed Virgin Mary. I should point out that more evidence than this would be needed to prove the doctrine in its entirety but this portion of scripture certainly helps. The verse reads:
“And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.”
The verse is very clear. The Blessed Virgin is full of grace. Regardless of this evidence, innovators deny that this verse says precisely what is does. They point out that the Douay Rheims translation is heavily based off of St. Jerome’s Latin Vulgate, which erred in translating this passage from the original Greek.
St. John of Damascus – The saint who wrote the first Christian treatise against Islam.
Ahmed Deedat is certainly the most influential muslim apologist in the last century. That doesn’t mean he’s the best as he certainly was not, but he’s the most influential and most popular. He talks in sound bites and relies on presentation as opposed to substance.
Deedat was born in 1918 in India, which was under British control at that time. He was an apologist for most of his life until he suffered a stroke in the 1990’s and was unable to continue in this profession. He died in 2005.
God always gives sufficient grace to whoever is willing to receive it.
-St. Francis de Sales
Homily on Election and Reprobation, February 24, 1622