Tuesday, July 10, 2007

"Subsists In"

The Holy Father authorized the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (his former office) to release today a teaching document, in question-and-answer format, intended to clarify specific questions, all related to the Catholic Church's self-concept of its identity. Most importantly--as in the recent Motu Proprio--the concern is with the continuity of the Church throughout time.

The document mentions an expression: "the elements of sanctification," which is a direct reference to a list of these elements in the Constitution on the Church from the Council. The point of the list is that only the Catholic Church has retained, numerically, all of the helps and means of salvation that God wants us to have as Christians.

The document also explicitly refers to the Congregation's 2000 declaration Dominus Iesus, and seems to refer to it implicitly, often. I still have to study today's document. However, my initial impressions are that

a) there is no material change in the content, and

b) there is a deliberate softening of tone.

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