In a previous article (here), I made the case that the pope, when he exercises his non-infallible teaching authority, as he typically does in encyclical letters, apostolic exhortations, letters to bishops, etc., does not speak therein with the full authority of the Church (as he does when he speaks ex cathedra), but rather with his…
In 1967, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith introduced a new formula to be used in place of the Tridentine Profession of Faith and the Oath against Modernism in all cases where those used to be required. This was updated in 1988 and then re-promulgated again in 1998. The current version consists of…
Summer Theology Program 2019 St. Thomas’ Commentary on the Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians August 12–16 in Wausau, Wisconsin Hosted by the St. Albert the Great Center for Scholastic Studies, in collaboration with The Aquinas Institute for the Study of Sacred Doctrine, and the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. The annual…
In the discussions prompted by the recent news about the publication in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis (AAS) of two documents pertaining to the interpretation of Amoris laetitia, many people seem to have picked up the idea that the Authentic Magisterium is infallible, as if this were a case of Roma locuta est, causa finita est.…
In a two-part essay at Public Discourse (here and here), E. Christian Brugger has responded to Edward Feser and Joseph M. Bassette’s new book on capital punishment (By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed: A Catholic Defense of Capital Punishment). Feser and Bessette argue that the Church’s traditional teaching on the moral permissibility of the death penalty…
In the current climate of confusion and debate over the contents of Amoris laetitia, I recently re-read Veritatis splendor, the 1993 encyclical letter of Pope St. John Paul II on moral theology, which is cited in three of the five dubia relating to Amoris laetitia. It is not my purpose to enter here into any of the…
(Part II of a two-part series. Read Part I here.) In the first part of this essay I attempted to cut through some of the confusion that frequently surrounds discussions of the various modes of exercise of the magisterium, particularly with reference to the term ‘ordinary magisterium’, which can mean two different things in two different…
Editor’s note: As we continue our exploration of the Church’s magisterium in light of some more recently troubling papal documents, we are pleased to introduce this work from Dr. des. John P. Joy. Joy wrote his doctoral dissertation in dogmatic theology “On the Ordinary and Extraordinary Magisterium from Joseph Kleutgen to the Second Vatican Council”…
