Clarifying Catholicism

"Remember that Jesus promised indefectibility to the Church as a community; it doesn’t reside in one individual person, though there is one very notable exception I’ll touch on soon. However, when all bishops, who dual wield the awesome indefectibility of the Church as a community and as an Apostolic institution, do agree on a teaching, their teaching is considered infallible. And there are two instances when such teaching occurs."

"In episode one of this series, we justified the Church’s teaching authority by exploring scripture. Specifically, we explored the biblical basis for bishops, who were ordained by a ritual called the “Laying on of Hands,” which evolved into what Catholics today call the Sacrament of Holy Orders. However, there are some people who have expressed doubts about the role bishops are supposed to play in the Church. So, today we will be exploring a few challenges to the office of bishops that have been invoked to undermine their authority."

"Magisterium this. Magisterium that.” I’m honestly astonished by how frequently I hear Catholics throwing that word around without properly understanding what it means. Let’s break it down."

Yes, indeed, our feeble human words fail to convey the almighty Word of God. But, given how we Christians believe that God created us with a similarity, or likeness, to Him, we can use our feeble human words to analogously speak about God, relative to our experiences.

"Why does the Catholic Church have so many rules? And with over 2,000 years of councils, papal documents, and catechesis, does every Church teaching have the same amount of relevance today? These are a few questions I hope to answer throughout this series on Church teaching authority."

In part twenty four of this series about the ecumenical councils according to the Catholic Church, Will Deatherage explores a few trends he observed from the ecumenical councils.

In part twenty three of this series about the ecumenical councils according to the Catholic Church, Will Deatherage examines the Second Vatican Council, which responded to problems of the modern world.

Clarification: Gallicanism was NOT the idea that the Church is subservient to the state in matters of doctrine; it is the idea that local bishops must accept a papal doctrine for it to be valid, which led to the state attempting to manipulate its bishops on a mass scale.

In part twenty two of this series about the ecumenical councils according to the Catholic Church, Will Deatherage examines the First Vatican Council, which defined the pope's ability to proclaim doctrines infallibly. 

Corrections: St. Peter's is not a cathedral, should have said Pope Julius III, NOT Julius II 

In part twenty one of this series about the ecumenical councils according to the Catholic Church, Will Deatherage examines the Council of Trent, which responded to Protestantism's doctrinal challenges against the papacy.

In part twenty of this series about the ecumenical councils according to the Catholic Church, Will Deatherage examines the Fifth Lateran Council, which responded to a king's attempt to assert power over the pope.