Traditional Theology of the Magisterium, pt. 3: Evidence from Tradition
Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude of the people also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.
How Students Should Learn, and How Teachers Should Teach
The term “Magisterium” is a relatively new term that became prevalent in the past few generations of Church history. Before this, there was a distinction made within the Church Militant between the Ecclesia Docens (“Teaching Church”) and the Ecclesia Discens (“Learning Church”). The Baltimore Catechism: How may the members of the Church on earth be…
On Vatican II, Piety, and Being an Obedient Catholic
Liberals and Modernists of every stripe attempt to defend their own identity as Catholics by an appeal to infallibility. This appeal is not an effort to safeguard the Tradition of the faith, but an effort to excuse one’s conscience from obedience to the Fathers and the Magisterium. This appeal usually takes the following form: when…
Can Doctrine Change? It Depends on Your Perspective
This is the second of two related articles on whether doctrine can change. In the second, we explore doctrine in the broad sense, as “Church teaching.” Can doctrine change? Depending on whom you ask, you will get a different answer. Though some are mistaken, many are simply using different definitions. They could be speaking about…
Can Doctrine Change? Not Strictly
This is the first of two related articles on whether doctrine can change. In the first, we examine doctrine from the strict point of view, side by side with dogma. What does the Church really teach? Since Pope John Paul II, media and laity alike have been interested in and sometimes confused by the pope’s…
Vatican II Cannot Be Separated from Its ‘Spirit’
We have heard it all before. “The Second Vatican Council was not the problem; the problem was the ‘Spirit of Vatican II.’ The documents themselves are not that bad. Modernists hijacked the confusion after the Council, Traditionalists who bash Vatican II probably don’t even know anything about the documents. Archbishop Lefebvre even signed most of…
The SSPX, the Open Letter, and the Heresies of Pope Francis
Note from the Editors: The arguments contained in the following are not necessarily the position of 1P5. However, we believe that what you will read here is an important contribution to the ongoing theological debate about what can, in practical terms, be done about our heretical pope. Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre distinguished himself during and after…
Is It Ever Okay to Take Shelter in an SSPX Mass?
Over the years, many people have written to me for advice about attending Mass when their local situation is deplorably bad. The most common scenario I have been asked about is the following: “Our local parish has only the Novus Ordo, and it’s celebrated with altar girls, extraordinary ministers, communion in the hand, and music…
The Pope Forces the Question: What Good Is the New Catechism?
Part of the problem with Pope Francis’s change to the Catechism on the legitimacy of the death penalty – a decision on which he is doubling down in the face of worldwide opposition from theologically literate Catholics – is that it fundamentally misconstrues the role of a catechism. A catechism is not, and has never been…
Pius X Condemns Modernism: Relevant Then, Relevant Now
I offer this article in honor of Pope St. Pius X on his feast day in the calendar of the traditional Roman Rite – that is, September 3. On September 8, 1907, Pope Pius X issued his encyclical letter Pascendi Dominici Gregis, On the Doctrine of the Modernists. The Modernists in question were a group…
De Mattei: A Response to Edward Peters on the Buenos Aires Letter & Authentic Magisterium
(Image source: screengrab) Professor Edward Peters is a reliably orthodox scholar who wants to contain the damage of the Post-Synodal Exhortation Amoris laetitia by relying on the defense of canon law, in particular Canon 915 of the new Code of Canon Law, which says: “Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or…
