The Continuity of “the Church” Through the Reformation

What is “the church”? Roman Catholic dogma about “the Church” leads to a misunderstanding of what Christ’s “church” actually consists of. For Roman Catholicism, Dogma #1 frequently seems to be “The Roman Catholic Church is God’s Great Gift to Mankind” – see this first sentence in the “Dogmatic Constitution on the Church”, Lumen Gentium: Christ …

The pillar and ground of the truth

One of the ongoing contentions that I will make going forward, Lord willing, is that the Roman Catholic Church is not what it says it is. (Just as a housekeeping note, I prefer to say “Roman Catholic Church” because that is the term favored by Fr. Richard John Neuhaus in his work “The Catholic Moment”. …

The Roman Church thinks highly of itself

Much of the following is taken directly from Lumen Gentium,” Vatican II’s “Dogmatic Constitution of the Church. This is Rome’s official definition of itself. Christ, the one Mediator, established and continually sustains here on earth His holy Church, the community of faith, hope and charity, as an entity with visible delineation through which He communicated …

Paul and the proper place of unity

At the end of a recent posting, I noted that Irenaeus wrote that “the church at Rome was ‘founded and set up by the two most glorious apostles Peter and Paul.’ (Against Heresies, 3.3.2).” It is clear from 1 Corinthians that Peter and Paul crossed paths from time to time, and they did so, among …