Msg Base:  AREA 5  - ASK FATHER            CIN ECHO   AMDG
  Msg No: 165.  Mon 10-21-91 20:11  (NO KILL)  (MAILED)
    From: Father Mateo
      To: Jim Cox
 Subject: Your message of 10-14-91

³ I see in your reply to me that we are being accused of carrying on
³ a debate, by the sysop.  I won't debate you, therefore I have a
³ question based on the previous response.
³  
³ If revelation was closed with the death of the last apostle, how
³ do we know that the virginity of Mary is/was perpetual?  Doesn't
³ scripture say that Joseph didn't know his wife until after the
³ birth of Jesus?
³  
³ I'm assuming that a dogmatic defination is not revelation.
³  
³ Also, I would like to know a ranking of authoritative statements.
³ In other words what is the order of authority as regards
³ encyclicals, allocutions, letters, etc.  Also regarding the
³ constitutions of Vat. II, how so all these things fit in the
³ framework?  Please include, if you can, instructions from places
³ like the Holy Office.  No one I've ever met could tell me this.
³ All they would say is "I know there's an order, but I don't know
³ what it is."
³  
³ Jim.
³  
 
Dear Jim,
 
The sysop was not accusing anybody.  At my request she issued a
reminder that this is an information-only conference.  Debating, I
understand, can be done with other members of the net, but not in the
Ask Father Conference.
 
With regard to your question about Our Lady's perpetual virginity, I
think you have misquoted St. Matthew 1:25.  He does not say "until
after" but only "until".  The word HEOS (until) in Greek is discussed
in the message of January 30, 1989 to Augustus Zuaestor.  Other
pertinent messages are: 1) to Alva Svoboda, January 13, 1988; 2) to
Dan Tudor, October 4, 1991; and 3) to you, September 11, 1991.
 
The order of importance of papal, congregational, and conciliar
documents must be gathered from their subject matter, vocabulary, and
the intention of the issuing office or person.  There is no established
order of statements by form, but only by content and declared intention.
In other words, to use your term, there is no pre-established "framework".
 
Some of the decrees of Vatican II are more important than others by
reason of their subject matter.  So the decrees on the Church and the
Liturgy are more important than the decree on the Liturgy.  And of the
decrees on the Church, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church is more
important than the Church in the Modern World decree.
 
                        Sincerely in Christ,
 
                        Father Mateo