Msg Base:  AREA 5  - ASK FATHER            CIN ECHO   AMDG
  Msg No: 235.  Thu  1-30-92 21:59  (NO KILL)  (MAILED)
    From: Father Mateo
      To: Jim Cox
 Subject: Papal definitions

+-
| >The teachings of the Church were not "developed", as if they are the
| >fruit of human industry and the passage of time.  They were revealed
| >us by God through Christ: "In times past, God spoke in partial and
| >various ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days
| >he spoke to us through a Son, whom he made heir of all things and
| >through whom he created the universe" (Hebrews 1:1-2).
|  
| Where did Christ reveal the Immaculate Conception?  Since Christ reveals
| why is Papal Defination necessary?
|  
| Jim
+-[JC=>FM]
 
Dear Jim,
 
You ask, "Since Christ reveals, why is papal definition necessary?"
Like a good rabbi, I'll answer your question by asking you another
question: "If your wife boils an artichoke and serves it to you, why do
you still have to pull off the leaves one by one in order to eat it?"
It is the job of the Church to meditate, expound, and interpret
doctrine.  Popes, pastors, theologians, and the faithful over the
centuries draw out the implications of the data of Scripture and Sacred
Tradition.  Papal definitions (or council definitions) usually come
when a doctrine is under attack.  Then we need clarity and certitude,
such as an infallible definition can give.
 
The earliest example on record of the Church's drawing out the
implications of one of Christ's teachings and confirming it with a
papal definition is found in the Book of Acts.  Christ had said: "Teach
all nations" ("ethne", "gentiles").  That should have been clear enough
---only it wasn't.  The very earliest Christians were converts from
Judaism, and they felt enormous difficulties in accepting converts from
paganism.  They felt these converts should be circumcised before
baptism, i.e., become Jews before becoming Catholics.
 
In this atmosphere, a Roman soldier named Cornelius, a good man with an
affinity toward Judaism, received a vision.  An angel told him to get
in touch with Simon Peter, our first Pope.  Meanwhile, Simon Peter
himself received a very disturbing vision, a panoramic vision and a
message telling him that ALL FOODS ARE CLEAN (Acts 10:9-16).  This
perplexed Peter because it seemed to mean that Jewish dietary laws no
longer held.  While he pondered the meaning of this new teaching, men
came from Cornelius inviting Peter to visit Cornelius and his family
and friends in their home.  Peter accompanied them.  Once inside the
house, he said that it was unlawful for Jews to associate with or visit
Gentiles, "but God has shown me that I should not call any MAN common
or unclean" (Acts 10:28-29).  Please note that Peter has pondered the
vision (v.19) and DEDUCED its IMPLICATION.  The vision was about
animals (vv.11-14); the message was ambivalent (v.15); Peter applied it
to PEOPLE (v.28).  This is development of dogma under the supervision
of the magisterium.
 
The Holy Spirit now intervened as Peter was preaching to these new
catechumens, causing them to praise God and speak in tongues.  So Peter
baptized them.
 
In chapter 11 of Acts, we find Peter in Jerusalem the target of
criticism from the "circumcision party".  So Peter told the whole story
of chapter 10 all over again, giving the reasons for his associating
with gentiles and receiving and baptizing them.  His critics were
thereby silenced.
 
These two chapters of Acts are a cameo of what the Church and her Popes
have been doing for 20 centuries, and they suggest at least why papal
definitions are sometimes necessary.
 
                                Sincerely in Christ,
 
                                Father Mateo