Hedging the Call

Published on by D. G. Hart

Devin Rose is one of the many apologists in the Roman Catholic world — a guy who was agnostic, became evangelical, dissatisfied with evangelicalism, and then took the plunge into the Tiber. If you want to hear his “testimony,” go here.

One thing to be said for what follows is that Rose implicitly admits the difficulty that he and other apologists face when the message from the bishops (even the pope) is not exactly what brought him to Roman Catholicism. So if you’re going to appeal to Protestants, you need to figure in Vatican 2’s equivocation:

Here are the four reasons you should evangelize Protestant friends and family with the fullness of the truth:

1. Future Souls

I have a Protestant friend who had two children then got sterilized. He and I had lots of discussions about the Catholic Faith and Protestantism. I told him at one point contraception and sterilization were sinful. He got angry.

But he also began to desire having more children. He was something of a providentialist and said that “God will miraculously give us children if He wants to, in spite of the sterilization.” I told him to get it reversed.

A year or two later he decided to reverse the sterilization. A short while later they conceived again and had a son. Then conceived again and had a daughter. So they have two older children and two little children! Sharing the fullness of truth in the Catholic Faith resulted in two new souls being created by God, destined for eternity with Him. Almost all Protestants embrace contraception and sterilization, which is really sad and not what God wants.

Note that this friend is still Protestant. He didn’t become Catholic, at least not yet. I hope he does, but I am thrilled that they opened up their marriage to God blessing them with more children.

2. The Sacraments

Protestants have baptism and marriage but not any other sacraments. God instituted seven, including the Eucharist, so that we could receive Him body and blood, soul and divinity, as well as Confirmation to be strengthened fully in the Spirit, and Confession to reconcile us to Himself and His Church. They are missing out on these.

They also miss out on consecrated virginity for the sake of the Kingdom, which Jesus in Matthew 19 spoke of and Paul did in 1 Corinthians 7. God wants His children to consider all vocations, not just marriage.

Through the sacraments we receive God’s grace in abundance.

3. Bigger Cups!

It is true that everyone in Heaven will be filled to the brim with God’s love, but some people will have bigger cups than others. Here on earth we can, with the help of His grace, become holier and holier, more and more like Him, so that our cups are enlarged. In the Catholic Faith these opportunities abound; we have the fullness of the means of sanctification.

Protestants want to become just like Jesus. They want the biggest cup possible. But they are operating outside of the ordinary means of increasing their cup’s volume.

4. Danger of Hell

It is true that God is not bound by His sacraments and can save anyone He likes. It is also true that Protestants have valid baptisms (by and large) and so receive the Holy Spirit and are regenerated, being born again, from above, to newness of life. However, it is also true that they are relying on God to work in an extra-ordinary way. He set out the way He wanted us to assure our salvation by giving us His Church, with rightful leaders, sacraments, Tradition, and protection from error of her doctrines.

Protestants eschew all those things and so in a sense test God to save them in spite of it. He is so merciful that He can and no doubt will, but Protestants are following the Faith on their own terms, not the way that God planned it.

What happens when a Protestant, after being baptized, commits a mortal sin? Their soul is in peril, and they cannot avail themselves of Confession. They have to confess directly to God and hope that they have perfect contrition to be forgiven. They are essentially gambling with their souls, though most don’t know it (invincible ignorance).

Bigger cups?!? We know how Erik will fight that reference.

We are a long way from Fulton Sheen.

62 thoughts on “Hedging the Call”

  2. “They are essentially gambling with their souls, though most don’t know it (invincible ignorance).”

    Protestants are gambling? Funny coming from a guy whose denomination doesn’t even know what game it’s playing. Devin thinks he’s playing World Series of Poker Texas Hold’em. Bryan’s playing Bridge (no body plays that game anymore, right?). Jason is playing Beer Pong (given his podcast and soul-patch). Pope Francis, however, is busy playing a vigorous game of Go Fish.

    If Salvation is a game, a gamble, why should I fall in with the Roman Church? Seems like they lost the rule book a long time ago. Should’ve taped it to the top of the box.

    Like

  3. You are not authorized to view this page
    The Web server you are attempting to reach has a list of IP addresses that are not allowed to access the Web site, and the IP address of your browsing computer is on this list.

    What I get when I click on the american catholic truth society link. I must be on a list.

    Spooky.

    Like

  4. “Jason is playing beer pong.” Nice one.

    The arguments RC apologists employ keep me ever secure in my Protestantism. But that makes me an anti-Catholic, according to Jason. Worst podcast ever to quote Comic Book Guy.

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  5. “some people will have bigger cups than others”

    Is that something like those who work more and then get grace to clean up their works so that in the end they get more crowns with more works than those who work less?

    a little extra, even though those with less won’t mind because they won’t notice?

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  6. Speaking of the call – millions of Philippine Roman Catholics are waiting for the Pope to arrive next week. Leading up to that they came out 1,000,000 strong to see the “cross of the black Nazarene” come through the streets today and thousands rushed to kiss it because of its “supernatural powers”. One died of a heart attack and over 1,000 were treated for scrapes and bruises.

    http://news.yahoo.com/man-dies-catholic-parade-manila-ahead-popes-visit-052015316.html

    Roman Catholicism continues to be a false religion, the Pope is its head, and the proponents within it are its prophets.

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  10. We are a long way from Fulton Sheen.

    Oh, Darryl, you’re so the Bishop Sheen of Presbyterianism. Even Paul Crouch’s Protestant Channel used to how Bishop Sheen’s “Life Is Worth Living.”

    You need a show too. Catholicism Sucks, and So Do You.

    Mind you, I don’t want to go to Hell. But if Heaven is Darryl G. Hart and his henchman “Erik Charter,” viewing his YouTube clips and listening to your horrible liturgical anti-music, I’m asking God to include me out of you “Elect.”

    No offense, Darryl & “Erik,” but you’ll miss me in Old Life Heaven a lot more than the rest of us will miss you.

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  11. AB
    Posted January 9, 2015 at 8:28 pm | Permalink
    golf anyone?

    sorry, ec. i’m out.

    fore

    ______________

    Mr. Hello I Must Be Going meets Darryl’s Junkyard Dog

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  16. Devin Rose is one of the many apologists in the Roman Catholic world — a guy who was agnostic, became evangelical, dissatisfied with evangelicalism, and then took the plunge into the Tiber. If you want to hear his “testimony,” go here.

    It’s an old story, someone get the callers a new producer. Their website ranking stinks.

    Gonna skip DR, thx anyway (emoticon).

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  20. “Become an Apologist!”

    “Sign up to get armed with the tools and knowledge you need to defend your faith with confidence and eloquence. Bonus: Get your free, two-hour training video on how to get your Catholic book published!”

    Bryan should offer a course like this. It would read like the most entertaining computer manuals on the market today.

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  21. Rose – Sharing the fullness of truth in the Catholic Faith resulted in two new souls being created by God, destined for eternity with Him.

    Erik – Way to help God out. He says “thanks”.

    No contraception is “the fullness of truth in the Catholic Faith”?

    And we thought the Baylys were the only ones who were all about sex.

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  22. Rose – They also miss out on consecrated virginity for the sake of the Kingdom, which Jesus in Matthew 19 spoke of and Paul did in 1 Corinthians 7. God wants His children to consider all vocations, not just marriage.

    Erik – I thought he just told us the fullness of truth in the Catholic faith was helping God create new souls?

    How does consecrated virginity help do that?

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  24. Rose – Here on earth we can, with the help of His grace, become holier and holier, more and more like Him, so that our cups are enlarged. In the Catholic Faith these opportunities abound; we have the fullness of the means of sanctification.

    Erik – Someone call the Obedience Boys with this news. It will resonate.

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  25. Rose – Protestants eschew all those things and so in a sense test God to save them in spite of it. He is so merciful that He can and no doubt will, but Protestants are following the Faith on their own terms, not the way that God planned it.

    Erik – Wow, this is still pretty good news for Protestants and may even falsify some things that Bryan aka “we” have said.

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  29. Seth – Protestants are gambling? Funny coming from a guy whose denomination doesn’t even know what game it’s playing. Devin thinks he’s playing World Series of Poker Texas Hold’em. Bryan’s playing Bridge (no body plays that game anymore, right?). Jason is playing Beer Pong (given his podcast and soul-patch). Pope Francis, however, is busy playing a vigorous game of Go Fish.

    Erik – That’s an awesome comment.

    We have some nice new guys here of late.

    Like

  30. ec, seth is among my favorite commenters, this one sealed it for me. he’s been around a little while, i think:

    Seth
    Posted December 9, 2014 at 2:25 pm | Permalink
    Erik quotes: “For his birthday last year, a staff member brought in three homeless men to celebrate with the pope, along with the staff in the rooming house where he lives.”

    This has got to be the craziest birthday present any pope has received, at least since Pope Sergius III got that trireme full of Numidian prostitutes.

    agreed, he nailed it here too.

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  31. B – One died of a heart attack and over 1,000 were treated for scrapes and bruises.

    Erik – This must be what Bryan was advocating when he was talking about loving the truth into death.

    This post & comment string are on fire. The holiday break recharged a lot of batteries.

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  33. Seth/AB –

    This has got to be the craziest birthday present any pope has received, at least since Pope Sergius III got that trireme full of Numidian prostitutes.

    agreed, he nailed it here too.

    Erik – LOL. Agreed.

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  34. “some people will have bigger cups than others”

    I once heard a priest say that Adolph Hitler might get a thimble. (This is Roman Catholic Universalism at its finest).

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  35. Erik: This post & comment string are on fire. The holiday break recharged a lot of batteries

    Roman Catholicism is THE BIGGEST PROBLEM in Christianity and in the world today.

    Calvin describes the relationship of “the papacy” to “the Church”:

    – [We] are to call back godly readers from those corruptions by which Satan, in the Papacy, has polluted everything God has appointed for salvation (Institutes, 4.1.1., Vol 2, pg 1012).

    http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2014/08/calvin-entire-church-is-polluted-by.html

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  37. AB,

    Of course it is didnt you get the memo. The RCC and Obama are tied. Some of this is approaching alex jones level conspiracy stuff.

    Btw the cup thing is taken from Therese of Lisieux. I dunno why it is being derided – many Reformed espouse differing degrees of glory for the saints – Edwards (no big fans here I know) wrote a whole thing on it.

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  39. Andrew, I’d dare say that the RCC that Machen knew is somewhat different (significantly different, in many ways) from the RCC that Machen knew.

    Don’t allow an anachronism like this one to cloud your thinking.

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  40. Cletus, you are the one who did not get the memo. Historically, when Jesus fully, clearly, explicitly stated that the disciples were not to claim authority for themselves, that’s all that Rome has done. Rome has done precisely the opposite of what Christ taught.

    Certainly there is a means of “defining orthodoxy vs heresy” and in that regard, a council such as Nicea (325) or Constantinople (381) or Chalcedon (451) is very helpful. But I think that conceptions of “authority” that the churches of these centuries had was not very helpful at all.

    Ephesus (431) is counted as one of the “ecumenical” councils, and yet, it was an embarrassment and blot on the history of the church. That is being kind to it. Such shenanigans led to major rifts in the church that have never been healed.

    In a similar vein, historically, the papacy is at the pinnacle of those harmful claims to authority.

    I have a series I’ve written, both at Triablogue and elsewhere, called “the nonexistent early papacy”. I’ve put together this timeline of the early papacy, which is necessarily incomplete but very revealing nevertheless:

    135-150 ad: the church at Rome is ruled by a plurality of presbyters who quarrel about status and honor. (Shepherd of Hermas). “They had a certain jealousy of one another over questions of preeminence and about some kind of distinction. But they are all fools to be jealous of one another regarding preeminence.”

    Also note in Hermas: “Clement’s” “job” is to “send books abroad.” — Peter Lampe does not think this Clement is the same individual from 1 Clement, but the time frame is appropriate.

    235: Hippolytus and Pontianus are exiled from Rome by the emperor “because of street fighting between their followers” (Collins citing Cerrato, Oxford 2002).

    258: Cyprian (Carthage/west) and Firmilian (Caesarea/east) both go apoplectic when Stephen tries to exercise authority outside of Rome.

    306: Rival “popes” exiled because of “violent clashes” (Collins)

    308: Rival “popes” exiled because of “violent clashes” (Collins again).

    325: Council of Nicea: Alexandria has authority over Egypt and Libya, just as “a similar custom exists with the Bishop of Rome.” The Bishop of Jerusalem is to be honored.

    366: Followers of “pope” Damasus [hired gravediggers armed with pick-axes] massacre 137 followers of rival “pope” Ursinus following the election of both men to the papacy.

    381: Constantinople: Because it is new Rome, the Bishop of Constantinople is to enjoy privileges of honour after the bishop of Rome. (This indicates Rome’s “honour” is due to its being the capital.)

    431: Cyril, “stole” the council (Moffett 174, citing “Book of Heraclides) and “the followers of Cyril went about in the city girt and armed with clubs … with yells of barbarians, snorting fiercely, raging with extravagant arrogance against those whom they knew to be opposed to their doings…”

    451: Chalcedon, 28th canon, passed by the council at the 16th session, “The fathers rightly accorded prerogatives to the see of Older Rome, since that is an imperial city; moved by the same purpose the 150 most devout bishops apportioned equal prerogatives to the most holy see of New Rome …”

    Again and again, “they argued among themselves as to who was greatest”. This is the story of the struggle for “authority” in early Christianity. … [Note that] the Eastern church “never”, ever accepted the claims of the papacy.

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  44. AB
    Posted January 10, 2015 at 10:53 pm | Permalink
    Bearded Spock Tom,

    I feel guilty calling you game show boy. I come bring to bring you a link of pennance.

    Thanks, AB. That was nasty and it did hurt me, because I hold you with both regard and affection.

    I hold Darryl and “Erik” that way too, which disturbs them greatly and I suppose it should, so they seem to inflict their petty cruelties as some sort of religious obligation. Although if I were Elect like you guys, I’d want to be kind to all the non-Elect in this life, since they’re so screwed in the next.

    FTR, I think Bob Barker cheated you, the bastard.

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  46. Tom,

    If you want people to love you, you need to be nicer.

    This is “getting people to love you 101” — something that narcissists usually miss.

    The kid presenting the trophy doesn’t get it.

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  48. Thanks,Tom. We really need to work on your understanding of
    election:

    8. The doctrine of this high mystery of predestination is to be handled with special prudence and care, that men, attending the will of God revealed in his Word, and yielding obedience thereunto, may, from the certainty of their effectual vocation, be assured of their eternal election. So shall this doctrine afford matter of praise, reverence, and admiration of God; and of humility, diligence, and abundant consolation to all that sincerely obey the gospel.

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  49. PS, I mean, Thomas, Thomas seems on board with us reformed. You should be too, methinks.

    If I’m off, we can ask RC Sproul. He’s a big Thomas (not the tank engine) fan. And golfer.

    Love that Violin music, E!

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  51. lol @ Catholicism being the biggest problem in the entire world today! Bugay has reached new levels of hysteria. AB is in his purest form and Erik Charter is flaming everyone and anything that annoys him. I don’t know where Daryl found you guys. Damn entertaining though.

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  54. Called to cooperate (when will Jason and the Callers heed their holy father?):

    “Certainly, such dialogue will accentuate how varied our beliefs, traditions and practices are,” the pope said. “But if we are honest in presenting our convictions, we will be able to see more clearly what we hold in common. New avenues will be opened for mutual esteem, cooperation and, indeed, friendship.”

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  55. Pope Francis, the Dwight D. Eisenhower of world religious leaders.

    Religion is good. Get one, don’t use it to promote violence, doesn’t matter too much which one you get.

    This & John’s list are raining on Bryan’s parade.

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  56. After all, Jesus did come to establish himself as just one of several viable religious options for mankind. I could just see him sitting around, rapping with Mohammed & The Buddha, patting each other on the back.

    No, actually I can’t see that.

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  57. Erik, true! worth a re-post

    Quotes about logic

    Logic is the art of going wrong with confidence.
    Joseph Wood Krutch

    Logic: an instrument used for bolstering a prejudice.
    Elbert Hubbard

    It is always better to say right out what you think without trying to prove anything much: for all our proofs are only variations of our opinions, and the contrary-minded listen neither to one nor the other.
    Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

    Most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do.
    James Harvey Robinson

    Logic is neither a science nor an art, but a dodge.
    Benjamin Jowett

    Logic, like whiskey, loses its beneficial effect when taken in too large quantities.
    Lord Dunsany

    He was in Logic a great critic,
    Profoundly skill’d in Analytic;
    He could distinguish, and divide
    A hair ‘twixt south and south-west side.
    Samuel Butler, Hudibras.
    We must beware of needless innovations, especially when guided by logic.
    Sir Winston Churchill, Reply, House of Commons, Dec. 17, 1942.

    …logic, the refuge of fools. The pedant and the priest have always been the most expert of logicians—and the most diligent disseminators of nonsense and worse.
    H. L. Mencken. The American Mercury. p. 75.

    I keep that list nearby, for safe keeping. Yeazel, shout out to you, bro!!

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  58. I wonder if Protestants can sign up for this service, to hedge their bets:

    When Rorate first started the Society, they were so desparate for help that they even offered to pay priests for Masses and planned to go through family records just to enroll Souls. “Who would have known that four short years later we would have over 50 priests saying weekly or monthly traditional Latin Masses (for free) for the Souls and roughly 100,000 Souls enrolled? God knew — but we surely didn’t.”

    Essentially, the website will no longer be posting lists of all the names of individuals and families enrolled in the society any longer, because the staff is simply overwhelmed. Nevertheless, the procedure for enrolling the souls of your departed loved ones remains the same: email athanasiuscatholic@yahoo.com and submit as follows: “Name, State, Country”. Please follow this formatting strictly. Although individual names are preferred, if you want to enroll entire families, simply write in the email: “The Jones family, Ohio, USA.”

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  60. watching kW try to thread the needle between being acceptable amongst us and the stellmanites is almost as much fun as watching the callers bob and weave and every move their pope makes.

    almost..

    AB
    Posted January 7, 2015 at 11:17 am | Permalink
    Meanwhile, Katniss poops on OLTS:

    KENNETH WINSMANN January 6, 2015 at 12:07 pm
    Jonathan,
    Oh i know Jason doesnt want to post anymore. Thats cool. I was under the impression that he had passed authorship on to you three and thats why I was asking. I didnt realize that you all had to ask permission to post.
    I dont think that the conversations at Old Life should be the litmus test for the blogosheres “general environment”. That place is uniquely nasty on the comment boards and only appeals to certain personality types. Jason has no problem talking about religion over a cold brew…. I dont see why he would be against letting you all exegete scripture.

    plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

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  61. Don’t forget Balthasar and Vatican 2:

    Balthasar tried to demonstrate from Scripture the real possibility of universal salvation—something that could happen. Yet he also contended damnation is a real possibility—likewise something that could happen. (His description of Hell is among the most chilling, by the way.) Dare We Hope “That All Men Be Saved”? focuses on the possibility all will be saved, rather than on the danger of damnation, a danger both Balthasar and his critics accepted.

    Balthasar unhesitatingly affirmed the Bible’s warning about damnation. But he saw two sets of biblical texts: (1) the two outcomes passages (Heaven and Hell) and (2) the salvation of all passages. Theologians often try to synthesize these passages, usually seeing the “salvation of all” texts as referring, in one way or another, to God’s offer of salvation to all and the “two outcomes” texts as proof that only some people will accept the offer. Balthasar rejected combining the two kinds of texts. This he saw as making one or the other set subordinate in order to say for certain which way things will turn out. He saw serious and insoluble theological problems resulting from the effort. He even spoke of the two sets of texts as “contradictory.” Why? Because they speak of irreconcilable possible outcomes—either some will be saved and others lost or all will be saved.

    In Balthasar’s view, which set of biblical texts will ultimately be realized depends on how, exactly, human history plays out. Because we can’t be certain which way things will turn out, Balthasar argued, we shouldn’t write off anybody as inevitably damned, nor should we presume everybody will be saved (including ourselves). We must heed the warning of the “two outcome” set of texts while hoping (and working) for the goal of the “salvation of all” texts. . . .

    some who think Vatican II’s teaching regarding the possibility of salvation for the non-Christians has been misunderstood have criticized Balthasar. Lumen Gentium no. 16, it has rightly been said, is no blank check when it comes to salvation for non-Christians, even though the Church’s teaching affirms such a possibility. According to this passage, “often” non-Christians are at risk of damnation because they do not respond to the saving grace of Christ mysteriously available to them apart from missionary efforts. “Wherefore to promote the glory of God and procure the salvation of all of these,” the passage declares, “and mindful of the command of the Lord, ‘Preach the Gospel to every creature’ (Mk 16:16), the Church fosters the missions with care and attention.”

    We could have an interesting discussion of how much factual weight the Council intends us to put on the word “often.” But, in any case, it is hard to see how Lumen Gentium no. 16’s teaching contradicts Balthasar’s views. Contrary to what some suggest, the text doesn’t assert that non-Christians are “often” damned. It says that they “often” turn away from the various mysterious ways saving grace is present and therefore by implication they often risk damnation. The Church’s missionary efforts, the Council goes on to say, seek to procure the salvation of these “at-risk” non-Christians, through an explicit presentation of the Gospel. They would seem to be included among the “all men” for whom Balthasar holds out hope, but not the certainty, of salvation; and the Church’s missionary efforts seem to be the means by which they may be included in the realization of that hope.

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  62. The BC here does not stand for Bryan Cross (but the bishop of Chicago appointed by Pope Francis):

    On how to deal with the overall decline of the Church in the USA:

    There are, however, some targeted things we can do. For instance, I think people will take notice that we are being good stewards when we are not afraid to make hard decisions about reconfiguring parishes and schools so that we use limited resources in a way that’s going to benefit the most people. Good stewardship is very important. We shouldn’t be afraid to make the hard decisions because people like good stewardship.
    The other piece of this is finding ways to bind up the wounds of people, to reach out to those who have been alienated from the church for one reason or another—and be very programmatic about finding ways to invite them back. When it comes to young people, we should challenge the tendency in society to want to go it alone. I think of the scene in Robert Bellah’s book Habits of the Heart in which a woman called Sheila is asked about her own system of beliefs, and she calls it “Sheilaism.” We can challenge that. The way to do it is not by saying, “You’re not going to Mass and so there’s a problem.” Rather, we can say, “We have an opportunity to better society and to better the common good. We work for the poor. Come and work for the poor with us.”

    Pope Francis recently met with the Pope St. John XXIII Community, which was created in the 1960s to address the problem of young people who were alienated from the church. What this group did was to say to them, “We’re not going to bug you about church attendance. But here are the poor. Let’s work for those who are disabled.” This has been a public association of the faithful for almost fifty years. Pope Francis celebrated their work. So there are many ways we can do it.

    On the 2014 Synod:

    [Interviewer]: The ethic of accompaniment seems to have guided the pope’s design of the recent Extraordinary Synod on the Family. Some bishops expressed some confusion about that meeting—whether it was over the media’s coverage of the synod, or what actually took place.

    BC: The media is not to blame at all. I think the media reported what actually took place. What really took place at the synod was that a majority of the bishops voted for all the proposals that were there in the final summary document. And I think Cardinal Timothy Dolan said that at the November bishops meeting. It’s true that three of the paragraphs [about divorce and gay people] did not get two-thirds majority support, but they got more than a majority. That’s what’s new. That’s the story. Those hot-button topics had been highlighted, and the majority of synod bishops voted for proposals that said we need to consider aspects of these issues.

    The pope has a firm belief that the spirit of the risen Lord is working in our midst and is alive in the hearts of people—and we cannot squelch that voice. We have to look for ways to listen to how the Lord is working in the lives of people. That’s why the pope said to the synod fathers, “Don’t come to the synod and say ‘You can’t say that’”—because it may be the spirit of Christ who is calling us to say these things. And we have to listen to that.

    3. Promoting Kasperite theology and the theology of the 2014 Synod “Relatio” in Chicago:

    [Interviewer]: The Vatican has developed another document for the world’s bishops in advance of next October’s synod, asking them for more input from the people in the pews. How do you intend to implement that here in Chicago?

    BC: I have met with my archdiocesan women’s council, the presbyteral council leadership, and my archdiocesan pastoral council. I gave them the relatio of the synod [the summary document] and asked them to propose a way in which there can be an effective—not necessarily widespread—consultation with their various constituencies, so that I can be informed, and our priests can be informed to speak articulately to our people. That will help me respond to the Holy See. It will also help me while talking with my brother bishops about this, since we are probably going to address this at our June meeting.
    What I did last year in Spokane I want to do here too. We’re going to have a day-long presentation for priests on two things: First, what are the canonical issues here? A good canonist will tell you that there are multiple ways in which we can be sensitive to our people’s needs. Second, we have to unpack this notion of the theology of the family. Cardinal Walter Kasper gave a talk about this to the cardinals last year, which has been published as a book called The Gospel of the Family. In Spokane, I gave all my priests a copy. Then I brought in a priest who knows Cardinal Kasper’s theology quite well, Msgr. John Strynkowski, and he helped them understand what Kasper is saying.

    4. And on doctrine:

    [Interviewer]: The synod deliberations also raised underlying theological questions about doctrine. What do you think the synod process itself says about the nature of church teaching?
    BC: Ours is a living tradition. It always has been. There is no moment in time that can be so idealized that it undermines the idea that the tradition is a living one. It is a living tradition not because of anything we say, but because the risen Christ is always doing something new in the life of the church. In Pope Francis’s Evangelii gaudium, there is a whole section in which he talks about the idea that Christ is always doing something new in the lives of his people as he accompanies them.

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