During the last Synod on the family, readers found the word “change” used a number of times by the Bishops and the Pope himself. What is involved here? The history of the Church’s teaching on faith and morals became deeper when she was challenged by heresy and error, because general councils and the popes themselves intervened and, like referees at a game, declared certain teachings not in conformity with revealed truth. Notwithstanding the sometime good will of her erroneous thinkers or members, truth had to be defended and often explained so that the flock would not be deceived. New words or phrases had to be coined to explain revealed truth not found in Sacred Scripture such as consubstantial, incarnation, transubstantiation, Trinity and Mother of God. In addition, some doctrines could not be found in the Bible literally, such as the Immaculate Conception, Assumption of Mary, Infallibility of the Pope. As the Church traversed down the ages, theologians using reason to understand the content of the faith did their best to explain the meaning of these words and doctrines, often deepening their meaning. Some of the early Fathers of the Church wrote or preached about Christ or Mary and did not always see the hidden truths underlying their personal ideas.
It was always the case that the doctrines of the Church, both dogmatic and moral, had levels of importance. Some truths were solemnly defined or made definitive, depending on the intent of a Council or a Pope. Other truths proclaimed were often probable or even pious opinions, yet still authoritative. Some of these truths eventually became solemn definitions or were declared definitive by reason of the fact that they were always taught by the bishops together with the Pope. Theologians like to say that all of these doctrines were developments of divine revelation. In turn, some will say that the understanding of the doctrines evolved by becoming clearer or more deeply understood. Over the centuries, the Church’s understanding was not revolutionary, that is, she did not contradict her understanding of the sacred deposit of truth. That means sentences trying to put into human language truths above human reason were never contradicted, but further distinguished and so understood more deeply with the same meaning.
One of the Fathers of the Church, St. Vincent of Lerins, in his treatise called Commonitory (Remembrance) describes this process very well, when he says in chapter XX, “Notes on a True Catholic:
[48] “….he is the true and genuine Catholic who loves the truth of God, who loves the Church, who loves the Body of Christ, who esteems divine religion and the Catholic Faith above everything, above the authority, above the regard, above the genius, above the eloquence, above the philosophy, of every man whatsoever; who set light by all of these, and continuing steadfast and established in the faith, resolves that he will believe that, and that only, which he is sure the Catholic Church has held universally and from ancient time; but that whatsoever new and unheard-of doctrine he shall find to have been furtively introduced by some one or another, besides that of all, or contrary to that of all the saints, this, he will understand, does not pertain to religion, but is permitted as a trial, being instructed especially by the words of the blessed Apostle Paul, who writes thus in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, ‘There must needs be heresies, that they who are approved may be made manifest among you:’ as though he should say, This is the reason why the authors of Heresies are not forthwith rooted up by God, namely, that they who are approved may be made manifest; that is, that it maybe apparent of each individual, how tenacious and faithful and steadfast he is in his love of the Catholic faith.”
He continues and uses the analogy of the human body as it grows from infancy to adulthood, yet is always the same human person without alteration of its nature. So likewise, something similar happens in understanding the truth of faith which includes the will of God or the journey to heaven for human beings. Then in a further paragraph, he explains further what development means:
[59] But the Church of Christ, the careful and watchful guardian of the doctrines deposited in her charge, never changes anything in them, never diminishes, never adds, does not cut off what is necessary, does not add what is superfluous, does not lose her own, does not appropriate what is another’s, but while dealing faithfully and judiciously with ancient doctrine, keeps this one object carefully in view, if there be anything which antiquity has left shapeless and rudimentary, to fashion and polish it, if anything already reduced to shape and developed, to consolidate and strengthen it, if any already ratified and defined to keep and guard it. Finally, what other object have Councils ever aimed at in their decrees, than to provide that what was before believed in simplicity should in future be believed intelligently, that what was before preached coldly should in future be preached earnestly, that what was before practiced negligently should thenceforward be practiced with double solicitude? This, I say, is what the Catholic Church, roused by the novelties of heretics, has accomplished by the decrees of her Councils this, and nothing else, she has thenceforward consigned to posterity in writing what she had received from those of olden times only by Tradition, comprising a great amount of matter in a few words, and often, for the better understanding, designating an old article of the faith by the characteristic of a new name.
So, it is clear and evident that the Church cannot cause by contradictions a revolution of its understanding of revealed truth without undermining the divine faith. The Ten Commandments contain a beginning of the virtues for ordinary persons to practice while not referencing all the vices to be avoided or the virtues to be attained. Many moral precepts are discovered both in the Old and New Testament not immediately found in the Decalogue, but taught by the Church from its inception. With the coming of the biological and chemical sciences, the Church has had to evolve her understanding to make decisions of certain medical procedures as morally good or evil relying of principles found implicitly in the Sacred Scriptures and Sacred Tradition.
When it comes to pastoral practice, one can find in history a more or less severe or mild approach to sinners from extreme humiliation of public penitents of the early centuries to a more mild understanding of “penances” in modern times. Yet a sin is still a sin, that is, something disordered contrary to right reason introduced into a person by his or her free will. The disorder must be hated but not the person created in the image of God. In the day to day praxis of the Church from country to country, individual sinful persons are treated differently based upon a host of circumstances judged by the confessor or pastor from tough love to gentle love. No matter how wretched or weak a person is, the person is to be treated with respect when seeking forgiveness with the requisite conditions of true sorrow for sin, a desire to make amends and to forgo with the best of intentions from committing a particular sin again. It is called repentance.
The Church welcomes all sinners since they are part of her family, either actually as “dead” members, or potential members. She also has the tools of reconciliation and graces of healing the wounds of moral evil inflicted on oneself in the sacraments. But she cannot pretend to welcome sinners and at the same time treat them as actual saints. The worst of us are all potential saints. And all of us are “repentant” sinners struggling unless we never committed a mortal sin. Furthermore, she cannot compromise and call a moral evil a moral good. As Aquinas reminds us, if someone becomes comfortable with a sin, he will eventually deny the truth about God:
….turbid passions and for keeping a right faith in matters of divine worship. An impure heart pulls man away by love of earthly things, a bad conscience gives a man a horror of God’s justice through fear of punishment, and a false faith draws a man’s affections into imagining fictions about God which separates him from the truth about God.”
The ministers of the Church welcome members of the mafia, murderers, robbers, adulterers etc. and their cooperators into her arms even if they are not yet repentant. However, they cannot give them as yet any sacrament until they show some signs of repentance even if slight. Nevertheless, they are to show mercy by giving them as best as possible the motivating truth to repent of their sins, for which sacred ministers must do much penance for them before preaching the gospel of forgiveness to any and all hardened sinners, whether weakened or caught by undue circumstances or just malicious. Otherwise, we have a Church of the 60′s culture which believed, “I’m okay, you’re okay, we are all okay.” This, of course, leads to spiritual anarchy.
Father Basil Cole, O.P. is currently a Professor of Moral and Spiritual Theology, Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. Father is also author of Music and Morals, The Hidden Enemies of the Priesthood and coauthor of Christian Totality; Theology of Consecrated Life. A native San Franciscan, Father has been a prior in the Western province of the Dominicans, a parish missionary and retreat master, and invited professor of moral and spiritual theology at the Angelicum in Rome.
