Dogma and Love

[Godlovesmetwo]

(hi Davidnic (is this thread OK?)
I've just taken the liberty of copying and pasting Davidnic's posts from his thread on OBOB. Personally I would like to see them discussed here as well as OBOB. If Davidnic wants to delete that is fine. I see it as a learning opportunity for me to grow in faith and am prepared for any challenges it may present to my thinking.

 

[Godlovesmetwo]

(by Davidnic Post 1) from OBOB

This is going to sound strange. But really, I think that when you delve into Dogmatic theology...you see love.

Over the next couple weeks you will likely see me making some threads about Dogma. It is so misunderstood. Often vilified. Usually the term is used incorrectly.

If you really....really look at the various grades of certainty and what is and is not dogma and why, then you see something amazing. Something miraculously sublime.

A balance. Almost an equation of God's love written upon the limits of human reason.

Theology is nothing without the love of God. To study God is to love Him. Any theologian who studies theology without the open love and joy of a bride and bridegroom is missing the point. But the rules, regulations and dogma are not a barrier to love. They are, when looked at deeply...a testament to the fact that God's love for us as expressed in Dogma is (in many ways) the underlying rational math of the universe that is build into the very fabric of the limits of our reason trying to know Him. It make the miraculous of the every day all that more amazing.

We can grasp God's love through feeling it, through the movement of the Spirit in our hearts. That is true. And so very necessary. But we can also grasp it though Dogma and Theology with the Holy Spirit with our minds. God's love surrounds all.

Theology without love is vain. And I would rather have the ability to Love God with all my heart than all the books of theology in the world.

But Dogma is not just stale words, the teachings are from the Person we love. They are a gift that ignites our very reason to the love of God along with our hearts. They are overflowing with His love. It is an invitation to know, although imperfectly, the One we love.

Sometimes the theologians have a hard time getting this across.

But the best of them, oh the best of them like St. John, Leo XIII, JPII , John XXIII, B16, Pope Francis, Ephrem the Syrian, Fulton Sheen and so many others; They ignite, through the Holy Spirit, both the heart and the mind. Oh some people may disagree with some on that list but they are far far far closer in what they are doing than many admit.

As humans there is always, when we love someone, something(s) about them that we love in a special way. Perhaps you love your daughter's resilience, Your son's charity, your wife's generosity or your husbands kindness. Maybe you love your brothers jokes, your sisters stories, your father's wisdom, or your mother's way of telling you what you need to hear when you need to hear it.

Perhaps it is their laugh, smile, the way they bear patiently in crisis, how they bring out parts of you that were weak and perfect them. So we must see that with God, each theologian has something they love in a special way. Each created being who loves the Creator is drawn to expressing their love about aspects that call to them. This is why people see some theologians at odds when they do not see that between themselves.

What they can not do is go outside what has been revealed or is connected. They can not make the Beloved in their image.

In Divine Revelation as contained in Scripture and Holy Tradition what you have is God showing Himself to us. Dogma are the facts of that revelation, and then an entire beautiful cascade of dependent and related intrinsically connected Truth weaves into it making a tapestry of love.

Not only can it not be changed because it is revealed by God. But also because to try to change it is like marring a painting God has made of Himself for us. When the beloved hands you something saying: "This is me." Who takes it and says: "Oh I love it and I love you...but your ears would look better like this..." and just starts changing it?

 

[Godlovesmetwo]

post 2 davidnic

So over the next few weeks expect me make some threads on what is dogma and what isn't. What can change and how. The relation between dogma and moral theology.

 

[Godlovesmetwo]

post 3 davidnic

I think people see Dogma as a limit to what they believe. Really it should be seen as an invitation to love. Each dogmata connects to a host of intrinsically connected things. That can bring us to deeper beauty.

And yes that does limit what we can believe. But only because if reflects God. And we do not get to freehand draw a god to love. Such a god can never be greater than the person creating it. The real limit is when we depart from Dogma.

But few people present it or see it as an open door to the house of the Beloved.

 

[Colin]

For some reason this thread draws me to an event in the life of St Thomas Aquinas , one of the greats among theologians .

On the feast of St. Nicholas in 1273 , Thomas Aquinas was celebrating Mass when he received a revelation that so affected him that he wrote and dictated no more, leaving his great work the Summa Theologica unfinished. To Brother Reginald’s (his secretary and friend) pleadings he replied, "The end of my labours has come. All that I have written appears to be as so much straw after the things that have been revealed to me." When later asked by Reginald to return to writing, Aquinas said, "I can write no more. I have seen things that make my writings like straw."

 

[Fish and Bread]

Not only can it not be changed because it is revealed by God. But also because to try to change it is like marring a painting God has made of Himself for us. When the beloved hands you something saying: "This is me." Who takes it and says: "Oh I love it and I love you...but your ears would look better like this..." and just starts changing it?

God is perfect in her ethics and her love. So, it naturally follows that she would not ask more of us than she asks of herself. The Incarnation is symbolic of that- where God became human and had to deal with the daily hardships of humanity, and ultimately a brutal unjust execution.

When people who seek to reform dogma and doctrine are thought of as not loving God for who she is, and there is the assertion that this is therefore a manifestation of imperfect love, because you don't only love someone on the condition that she change, you love her unconditionally, then surely the same morality would also be applicable in reverse- that God must love and accept us for who we are, unconditionally. And, of course, that means no eternal torment, no telling homosexuals they can't love who they were born to love, etc..

Except... that last sentence would violate a doctrine or two, wouldn't?

So, isn't it possible that we should question and seek, and combine the wisdom of our ancestors in faith with an evolving ethical understanding of what love is, and who the God who is a reflection of perfected love is?

Jesus taught us that we are not to seek an eye for an eye, but to turn the other cheek. Surely, God herself does the same and does not condemn people to an eternity of torture- she would turn the other cheek and not say "Do as I say, but not as I do". The God who the Church teaches condemns a finite amount of torture as inhumane, itself a position that has evolved for the better since times when Inquisitions and such were sanctioned, could not simply then turn around and sanction eternal torment. Justice is not served by infinite punishment for finite sin- not even Old Testament justice, which said to put aside taking more than you lost, and simply balance the scales, an eye for an eye instead of a life for an eye. God must walk the walk as well as talk the talk- I don't always live up to that standard, but then, I'm only human- I don't claim perfection. God does.

Our ancestors in faith who wrote the bible, feeling inspired by God, who then had their writings received as sacred scripture by the larger faith community, got that justice is no more than equal punishment for equal crime, and then evolved that even further, advocating that love be shown to those who hate us. Those writers and communities may not have immediately been able to process or accept the true implications of their revoltionary ideas, but as St. Paul admitted in an epistle, we see God but through a lens darkly and are constantly wrestling with our salvation.

We grow and and build and evolve, and perhaps one day our distant descendants will stand at the top of the pyramid of knowledge of love and ethics, and touch the true face of God as she is. Or maybe we can never fully comprehend, but will ever progress forward, with a step or two back here and there, but ultimately with forward monetum, growing ever closer to the infinite until we are one with the stars and the heavens and the songs of angels.

 

[Paidiske]

The issue of change seems to me to be inextricably linked to the issue of fallibility (or lack thereof).

To hijack David's metaphor, it is possible to imagine that God might reveal Godself to us, and that from that revelation we draw a portrait. But we get some detail wrong, and later realise this and seek to correct or amend that detail in some way (or that different groups of us argue about whether and to what degree it is, in fact, wrong).

If, however, we claim that not only is God's revelation perfect but our own understanding and articulation of it is perfect, then it can never be amended, because amendment would always be marring the image presented to us.

So the key question for me, in considering dogma, is not, whether it reveals God but whether we have adequately apprehended and articulated what has been revealed to us.

It is the human part of the equation which inspires less than total confidence in me...

 

[Davidnic]

Dogma can develop but there is a way to do it, I was about to make a thread on it in OBOB, I will post the link to the conversation starter article here in this thread too. The reason I did not make a thread here was I did not want to seem to be teaching at you in your home. Now, here when I quote things you can debate them, as opposed to some other places. Realize when I say "this is something a Catholic must believe" I am doing that strictly as a point to clarify the level of certainty of the teaching. Not that anyone different is not Catholic. The various levels of struggle or doubt are not in my human ability to assess. I say that, when and if I do, only as a point of clarification on what is taught and what can ever change as far as the Church teaches.

http://www.therealpresence.org/archives/Church_Dogma/Church_Dogma_039.htm

Yes doctrine can develop because we got some detail wrong. And we can have had insufficient understanding that is clarified in the light of time. For some things that works and others it will not. It depends on the level of certainty of that Dogma.

But yes, there is a human part of the puzzle and this is why the Pope and Councils can proclaim and clarify when to make certain.

As far as the Catholic view on it, the unacceptable form of development has been stated. So from Ott, l references with a D refer to Denzingers work.

Kind of Development a Catholic Can not accept

The Liberal Protestant concept of dogma (cf. A. von Harnack) as well as Modernism (cf. A. Loisy) assumes a substantial development of dogmas, so that the content of dogma changes radically in the course of time. Modernism poses the challenge: “Progress in the sciences demands that the conceptions of the Christian teaching of God, Creation, Revelation, Person of the Incarnate Word, Redemption, be remoulded” (cf. D 2064). Loisy declares: “As progress in science (philosophy) demands a new concept of the problem of God, so progress in historical research gives rise to a new concept of the problem of Christ and the Church.” (Autour d’un petit livre, Paris 1903, XXIV.) In this view there are no fixed and constant dogmas; their concept is always developing. The Vatican Council condemned Anton Günther’s (✝ 1863) application of the idea of development in this sense to dogmas as heretical: Si quis dixerit, fieri posse, ut dogmatibus ab Ecclesia propositis aliquando secundum progressum scientiae sensus tribuendus sit alius ab eo, quern intellexit et intelligit Ecclesia. If anybody says that by reason of the progress of science, a meaning must be given to dogmas of the Church other than that which the Church understood and understands them to have let him be anathema. A.S. D 1818. In the Encyclical “Humani Generis” (1950), Pope Pius XII rejected that dogmatic relativism, which would demand that dogmas should be expressed in the concepts of the philosophy ruling at any particular time, and enveloped in the stream of philosophical development: “This conception,” he says, “makes dogma a reed, which is driven hither and thither by the wind” (D 2312).

Ott, Ludwig. Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma (Kindle Locations 757-769). The Mercier Press. Kindle Edition.

Kind of Development A Catholic Can Accept

a) From the material side of dogma, that is, in the communication of the Truths of Revelation to humanity, a substantial growth took place in human history until Revelation reached its apogee and conclusion in Christ (cf. Hebr. 1, 1). St. Gregory the Great says: “With the progress of the times the knowledge of the spiritual Fathers increased; for, in the Science of God, Moses was more instructed than Abraham, the Prophets more than Moses, the Apostles more than the Prophets” (in Ezechielem lib. 2, hom. 4, 12). With Christ and the Apostles General Revelation concluded. (Sent. certa.) Pope Pius X rejected the liberal Protestant and Modernistic doctrine of the evolution of religion through “New Revelations.” Thus he condemned the proposition that: “The Revelation, which is the object of Catholic Faith, was not terminated with the Apostles.” D 2021. The clear teaching of Holy Writ and Tradition is that after Christ, and the Apostles who proclaimed the message of Christ, no further Revelation will be made. Christ was the fulfilment of the Law of the Old Testament (Mt. 5, 17; 5, 21 et seq.), and the absolute teacher of humanity (Mt. 23, 10: “One is your master, Christ”; cf. Mt. 28, 20). The Apostles saw in Christ: “the coming of the fullness of time” (Gal. 4, 4) and regarded as their task the preservation, integral and unfalsified, of the heritage of Faith entrusted to them by Christ (I Tim. 6, 14; 6, 20; 2 Tim. 1, 14; 2, 2; 3, 14). The Fathers indignantly repudiated the claim of the heretics to possess secret doctrines or new Revelations of the Holy Ghost. St. Irenaeus (Adv. haer III 1; IV 35, 8), and Tertullian (De praesc. 21) stress, against the Gnostics, that the full truth of Revelation is contained in the doctrine of the Apostles which is preserved unfalsified through the uninterrupted succession of the bishops.

b) As to the Formal side of dogma, that is, in the knowledge and in the ecclesiastical proposal of Revealed Truth, and consequently also in the public faith of the Church, there is a progress (accidental development of dogmas) which occurs in the following fashion:

1) Truths which formerly were only implicitly believed are expressly proposed for belief. (Cf. S. th. I; II, 1, 7: quantum ad explicationem crevit numerus articulorum (fidei), quia quaedam explicite cognita sunt a posterioribus, quae a prioribus non cognoscebantur explicite. There was an increase in the number of articles believed explicitly since to those who lived in later times some were known explicitly, which were not known explicitly by those who lived before them.)

2) Material Dogmas are raised to the status of Formal Dogmas.

3) To facilitate general understanding, and to avoid misunderstandings and distortions, the ancient truths which were always believed, e.g., the Hypostatic Union (unio hypostatica), Transubstantiation, etc., are formulated in new, sharply defined concepts.

4) Questions formerly disputed are explained and decided, and heretical propositions are condemned. Cf. St. Augustine, De civ. Dei 2, 1; ab adversario mota quaestio discendi existit occasio (a question moved by an adversary gives an occasion for learning). The exposition of the dogmas in the given sense is prepared by theological science and promulgated by the Teaching Authority of the Church under the direction of the Holy Ghost (John 14, 26). These new expositions of dogmatic truth are motivated, on the one hand, by the natural striving of man for deeper understanding of Revealed Truth, and on the other hand by external influences, such as the attacks arising from heresy and unbelief, theological controversies, advances in philosophical knowledge and historical research, development of the liturgy, and the general assertion of Faith expressed therein. Even the Fathers stress the necessity of deeper research into the truths of Revelation, of clearing up obscurities, and of developing the teachings of Revelation. Cf. the classical testimony of St. Vincent Lerin (✝ before 450). “But perhaps someone says: Will there then be no progress in the religion of Christ? Certainly there should be, even a great and rich progress . . . only, it must in truth be a progress in Faith and not an alteration of Faith. For progress it is necessary that something should increase of itself, for alteration, however, that something should change from one thing to the other.” (Commonitorium 23.) Cf. D 1800.

5) There may be also a progress in the confession of faith of the individual believer through the extension and deepening of his theological knowledge.

The basis for the possibility of this progress lies in the depth of the truths of Faith on the one hand, and on the other in the varying capacity for perfection of the human reason. Conditions making for a true progress in the knowledge of Faith by individual persons are, according to the declaration of the Vatican Council, zeal, reverence and moderation: cum sedule, pie et sobrie quaerit. D 1796.

Ott, Ludwig. Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma (Kindle Locations 772-813). The Mercier Press. Kindle Edition.

 

[Davidnic]

So the Church would agree that there is a component dependent on our understanding, but would limit what that can apply to more than other groups would.

 

[Davidnic]

This may help frame things. A primer on dogmatic grades of certainty.


Can not be changed

These things can be discussed as far as how the work and resolve doubts but they can not be taught against.

De fide, fides divina (defined by council clarifying revelation but a truth of revelation beyond question from the deposit of faith and understood and held as such)

Fides Ecclesiastica
Teaching Authority has decided. Ex cathedra is in this. This is usually stuff from the deposit of faith that needed further defense.

Can not be changed in any substantial way

Sententia fidei proxima (A Teaching proximate to Faith)

sententia ad fidem pertinens, i.e., theologice certa (sent certa) (A Teaching Pertaining to Faith)

To define some of the above.

A Teaching proximate to Faith (sententia fidei proxima) is a doctrine, which is regarded by theologians generally as a truth of Revelation, but which has not yet been finally promulgated as such by the Church. Think Immaculate Conception before it was proclaimed then it became Fides Ecclesiastica

or

A Teaching pertaining to the Faith, i.e., theologically certain (sententia ad fidem pertinens, i.e., theologice certa) is a doctrine, on which the Teaching Authority of the Church has not yet finally pronounced, but whose truth is guaranteed by its intrinsic connection with the doctrine of revelation (theological conclusions).

Open for debate:

sententia communis (common teaching)
Grades of that:

well-founded (bene fundata)
more probable (sententia probabilis)
probable (probabilior)
pious opinions (sententia pia)
tolerated opinions (opinio tolerata)


These are the declared Dogmas and those that are considered True even without the final proclamation essentially here are the De fide, fides divina, Fides Ecclesiastica, Sententia fidei proxima and sententia ad fidem pertinens, i.e., theologice certa (sent certa) teachings of the Church. You may say...wait I see no moral proclamations. That's right. There are no moral dogmas. Moral Theology is different, but there are truths that are the secondary object of infallible truths expounded in that. So although you will not see a direct moral dogma, moral theology and moral beliefs of the Church are connected to an protected by the infallible truth they come from.

The 255 Infallibly Declared Dogmas of the Catholic Faith

1. God, our Creator and Lord, can be known with certainty, by the natural light of reason from created things.
   
   
2. God’s existence is not merely an object of natural rational knowledge, but also an object of supernatural faith.
   
   
3. God’s Nature is incomprehensible to men.
   
   
4. The blessed in Heaven posses an immediate intuitive knowledge of the Divine Essence.
   
   
5. The Immediate Vision of God transcends the natural power of cognition of the human soul, and is therefore supernatural.
   
   
6. The soul, for the Immediate Vision of God, requires the light of glory.
   
   
7. God’s Essence is also incomprehensible to the blessed in Heaven.
   
   
8. The Divine Attributes are really identical among themselves and with the Divine Essence.
   
   
9. God is absolutely perfect.
   
   
10. God is actually infinite in every perfection.
    
    
11. God is absolutely simple.
    
    
12. There is only One God.
    
    
13. The One God is, in the ontological sense, The True God.
    
    
14. God possesses an infinite power of cognition.
    
    
15. God is absolute Veracity.
    
    
16. God is absolutely faithful.
    
    
17. God is absolute ontological Goodness in Himself and in relation to others.
    
    
18. God is absolute Moral Goodness or Holiness.
    
    
19. God is absolute Benignity.
    
    
20. God is absolutely immutable.
    
    
21. God is eternal.
    
    
22. God is immense or absolutely immeasurable.
    
    
23. God is everywhere present in created space.
    
    
24. God’s knowledge is infinite.
    
    
25. God knows all that is merely possible by the knowledge of simple intelligence (scientia simplicis intelligentiae).
    
    
26. God knows all real things in the past, the present and the future (Scientia visionis).
    
    
27. By knowledge of vision (scientia visionis) God also foresees the free acts of the rational creatures with infallible certainty.
    
    
28. God’s Divine will is infinite.
    
    
29. God loves Himself of necessity, but loves and wills the creation of extra-Divine things, on the other hand, with freedom.
    
    
30. God is almighty.
    
    
31. God is the Lord of the heavens and of the earth.
    
    
32. God is infinitely just.
    
    
33. God is infinitely merciful.
    
    
34. In God there are Three Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Each of the Three Persons possesses the one (numerical) Divine Essence.
    
    
35. In God there are two Internal Divine Processions.
    
    
36. The Divine Persons, not the Divine Nature, are the subject of the Internal Divine processions (in the active and in the passive sense).
    
    
37. The Second Divine Person proceeds from the First Divine Person by Generation, and therefore is related to Him as Son to a Father.
    
    
38. The Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and from the Son as from a Single Principle through a Single Spiration.
    
    
39. The Holy Ghost does not proceed through generation but through spiration.
    
    
40. The Relations in God are really identical with the Divine Nature.
    
    
41. The Three Divine Persons are in One Another.
    
    
42. All the ad extra Activities of God are common to all Three Persons.
    
    
43. All that exists outside God was, in its whole substance, produced out of nothing by God.
    
    
44. God was moved by His Goodness to create the world.
    
    
45. The world was created for the Glorification of God.
    
    
46. The Three Divine Persons are one single, common Principle of the Creation.
    
    
47. God created the world free from exterior compulsion and inner necessity.
    
    
48. God has created a good world.
    
    
49. The world had a beginning in time.
    
    
50. God alone created the World.
    
    
51. God keeps all created things in existence.
    
    
52. God through His providence protects and guides all that He has created.
    
    
53. The first man was created by God.
    
    
54. Man consists of two essential parts--a material body and a spiritual soul.
    
    
55. The rational soul is per se the essential form of the body.
    
    
56. Every human being possesses an individual soul.
    
    
57. God has conferred on man a supernatural Destiny.
    
    
58. Our first parents, before the Fall, were endowed with sanctifying grace.
    
    
59. They were also endowed with donum immortalitatis, i.e., the gift of bodily immortality.
    
    
60. Our first parents in paradise sinned grievously through transgression of the Divine probationary commandment.
    
    
61. Through the sin our first parents lost sanctifying grace and provoked the anger and the indignation of God.
    
    
62. Our first parents became subject to death and to the dominion of the Devil.
    
    
63. Adam’s sin is transmitted to his posterity, not by imitation, but by descent.
    
    
64. Original sin is transmitted by natural generation.
    
    
65. In the state of original sin man is deprived of sanctifying grace and all that this implies, as well as of the preternatural gifts of integrity.
    
    
66. Souls who depart this life in the state of original sin are excluded from the Beatific Vision of God.
    
    
67. In the beginning of time God created spiritual essences (angels) out of nothing.
    
    
68. The nature of angels is spiritual.
    
    
69. The secondary task of the good angels is the protection of men and care for their salvation.
    
    
70. The Devil possesses a certain dominion over mankind by reason of Adam’s sin.
    
    
71. Jesus Christ is the True God and True Son of God.
    
    
72. Christ assumed a real body, not an apparent body.
    
    
73. Christ assumed not only a body but also a rational soul.
    
    
74. Christ was truly generated and born of a daughter of Adam, the Virgin Mary.
    
    
75. The Divine and the human natures are united hypostatically in Christ, that is, joined to each other in one Person.
    
    
76. Christ Incarnate is a single, that is, a sole Person. He is God and man at the same time.
    
    
77. The God-Logos is connected with the flesh by an inner, physical or substantial unification. Christ is not the bearer of God, but is God really.
    
    
78. The human and the divine activities predicated of Christ in Holy Writ and in the Fathers may not be divided between two persons or hypostases, the Man-Christ and the God-Logos, but must be attributed to the one Christ, the Logos become Flesh. It is the Divine Logos, who suffered in the flesh, was crucified, died, and rose again.
    
    
79. The Holy Virgin is the Mother of God since she truly bore the God-Logos become Flesh.
    
    
80. In the Hypostatic Union each of the two natures of Christ continues unimpaired, untransformed and unmixed with the other.
    
    
81. Each of the two natures in Christ possesses its own natural will and its own natural mode of operation.
    
    
82. The Hypostatic Union of Christ’s human nature with the Divine Logos took place at the moment of conception.
    
    
83. The Hypostatic Union will never cease.
    
    
84. The Hypostatic Union was effected by the Three Divine Persons acting in common.
    
    
85. Only the Second Divine Person became Man.
    
    
86. Not only as God but also as man Jesus Christ is the natural Son of God.
    
    
87. The God-Man Jesus Christ is to be venerated with one single mode of Worship, the absolute Worship of Latria which is due to God alone.
    
    
88. Christ’s Divine and Human characteristics and activities are to be predicated of the one Word Incarnate.
    
    
89. Christ was free from all sin, from original sin as well as from all personal sin.
    
    
90. Christ’s human nature was passible (capable of sensation & suffering).
    
    
91. The Son of God became man in order to redeem men.
    
    
92. Fallen man cannot redeem himself.
    
    
93. The God-Man Jesus Christ is a High Priest.
    
    
94. Christ offered Himself on the Cross as a true and proper sacrifice.
    
    
95. Christ by His Sacrifice on the Cross has ransomed us and reconciled us with God.
    
    
96. Christ did not die for the predestined only.
    
    
97. Christ’s Atonement does not extend to the fallen angels.
    
    
98. Christ, through His Passion and Death, merited reward from God.
    
    
99. After His Death, Christ’s soul, which was separated from His Body, descended into the underworld.
    
    
100. On the third day after His Death Christ rose gloriously from the dead.
     
     
101. Christ ascended Body and Soul into Heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father.
     
     
102. Mary is truly the Mother of God.
     
     
103. Mary was conceived without stain of Original sin.
     
     
104. Mary conceived by the Holy Ghost without the co-operation of man.
     
     
105. Mary bore her Son without any violation of her virginal integrity.
     
     
106. Also after the Birth of Jesus Mary remained a Virgin.
     
     
107. Mary was a Virgin before, during and after the Birth of Jesus Christ.
     
     
108. Mary was assumed body and soul into Heaven.
     
     
109. There is a supernatural intervention of God in the faculties of the soul, which precedes the free act of the will.
     
     
110. There is a supernatural influence of God in the faculties of the soul which coincides in time with man’s free act of will.
     
     
111. For every salutary act internal supernatural grace of God (gratia elevans) is absolutely necessary.
     
     
112. Internal supernatural grace is absolutely necessary for the beginning of faith and of salvation.
     
     
113. Without the special help of God the justified cannot persevere to the end in justification.
     
     
114. The justified person is not able for his whole life long to avoid all sins, even venial sins, without the special privilege of the grace of God.
     
     
115. Even in the fallen state, man can, by his natural intellectual power, know religious and moral truths.
     
     
116. For the performance of a morally good action Sanctifying Grace is not required.
     
     
117. In the state of fallen nature it is morally impossible for man without Supernatural Revelation, to know easily, with absolute certainty and without admixture of error, all religious and moral truths of the natural order.
     
     
118. Grace cannot be merited by natural works either de condigno or de congruo.
     
     
119. God gives all the just sufficient grace (gratia proxime vel remote sufficiens) for the observation of the Divine Commandments.
     
     
120. God, by His Eternal Resolve of Will, has predetermined certain men to eternal blessedness.
     
     
121. God, by an Eternal Resolve of His Will, predestines certain men, on account of their foreseen sins, to eternal rejection.
     
     
122. The Human Will remains free under the influence of efficacious grace, which is not irresistible.
     
     
123. There is a grace which is truly sufficient and yet remains inefficacious (gratia vere et mere sufficiens).
     
     
124. The sinner can and must prepare himself by the help of actual grace for the reception of the grace by which he is justified.
     
     
125. The justification of an adult is not possible without Faith.
     
     
126. Besides faith, further acts of disposition must be present.
     
     
127. Sanctifying grace sanctifies the soul.
     
     
128. Sanctifying grace makes the just man a friend of God.
     
     
129. Sanctifying grace makes the just man a child of God and gives him a claim to the inheritance of Heaven.
     
     
130. The three Divine or Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity are infused with Sanctifying grace.
     
     
131. Without special Divine Revelation no one can know with the certainty of faith, if he be in the state of grace.
     
     
132. The degree of justifying grace is not identical in all the just.
     
     
133. Grace can be increased by good works.
     
     
134. The grace by which we are justified may be lost, and is lost by every grievous [mortal, serious] sin.
     
     
135. By his good works the justified man really acquires a claim to supernatural reward from God.
     
     
136. A just man merits for himself through each good work an increase of sanctifying grace, eternal life (if he dies in a state of grace) and an increase of heavenly glory.
     
     
137. The Church was founded by the God-Man Jesus Christ.
     
     
138. Our Redeemer Himself conserves with divine power the society founded by Him, the Church.
     
     
139. Christ is the Divine Redeemer of His Body, the Church.
     
     
140. Christ founded the Church in order to continue His work of redemption for all time.
     
     
141. Christ gave His Church a hierarchical constitution.
     
     
142. The powers bestowed on the Apostles have descended to the bishops.
     
     
143. Christ appointed the Apostle Peter to be the first of all the Apostles and to be the visible head of the whole Church, by appointing him immediately and personally to the primacy of jurisdiction.
     
     
144. According to Christ’s ordinance, Peter is to have successors in his Primacy over the whole Church and for all time.
     
     
145. The successors of Peter in the Primacy are the bishops of Rome.
     
     
146. The Pope possesses full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the whole Church, not merely in matters of faith and morals, but also in Church discipline and in the government of the Church.
     
     
147. The Pope is infallible when he speaks ex cathedra.
     
     
148. By virtue of Divine Right the bishops possess an ordinary power of government over their dioceses.
     
     
149. Christ is the Head of the Church.
     
     
150. In the final decision on doctrines concerning faith and morals the Church is infallible.
     
     
151. The primary object of the Infallibility is the formally revealed truths of Christian Doctrine concerning faith and morals.
     
     
152. The totality of the Bishops is infallible, when they, either assembled in general council or scattered over the earth, propose a teaching of faith or morals as one to be held by all the faithful.
     
     
153. The Church founded by Christ is unique and one.
     
     
154. The Church founded by Christ is holy.
     
     
155. The Church founded by Christ is catholic.
     
     
156. The Church founded by Christ is apostolic.
     
     
157. Membership of the Church is necessary for all men for salvation.
     
     
158. It is permissible and profitable to venerate the Saints in Heaven, and to invoke their intercession.
     
     
159. It is permissible and profitable to venerate the relics of the Saints.
     
     
160. It is permissible and profitable to venerate images of the Saints.
     
     
161. The living Faithful can come to the assistance of the Souls in Purgatory by their intercessions (suffrages).
     
     
162. The Sacraments of the New Covenant contain the grace which they signify, and bestow it on those who do not hinder it.
     
     
163. The Sacraments work ex opere operato (simply by being done).
     
     
164. All the Sacraments of the New Covenant confer sanctifying grace on the receivers.
     
     
165. Three Sacraments, Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders, imprint a character, that is, an indelible spiritual mark, and for this reason cannot be repeated.
     
     
166. The Sacramental Character is a spiritual mark imprinted on the soul.
     
     
167. The Sacramental Character continues at least until the death of its bearer.
     
     
168. All the Sacraments of the New Covenant were instituted by Jesus Christ.
     
     
169. There are Seven Sacraments of the New Law.
     
     
170. The Sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for the salvation of mankind.
     
     
171. For the valid dispensing of the Sacraments it is necessary that the minister accomplish the Sacramental Sign in the proper manner.
     
     
172. The minister must further have the intention at least of doing what the Church does.
     
     
173. In the case of adult recipients moral worthiness is necessary for the worthy or fruitful reception of the Sacraments.
     
     
174. Baptism is a true Sacrament instituted by Jesus Christ.
     
     
175. The materia remota of the Sacrament of Baptism is true and natural water.
     
     
176. Baptism confers the grace of justification.
     
     
177. Baptism effects the remission of all punishments of sin, both the eternal and the temporal.
     
     
178. Eve if it be unworthily received, valid Baptism imprints on the soul of the recipient an indelible spiritual mark, the Baptismal Character, and for this reason, the Sacrament cannot be repeated.
     
     
179. Baptism by water (Baptismus fluminis) is, since the promulgation of the Gospel, necessary for all men without exception, for salvation.
     
     
180. Baptism can be validly administered by anyone.
     
     
181. Baptism can be received by any person in the wayfaring state who is not already baptised.
     
     
182. The Baptism of young children is valid and licit.
     
     
183. Confirmation is a true Sacrament properly so-called.
     
     
184. Confirmation imprints on the soul an indelible spiritual mark, and for this reason, cannot be repeated.
     
     
185. The ordinary minister of Confirmation is the Bishop alone.
     
     
186. The Body and Blood of Jesus Christ are truly, really and substantially present in the Eucharist.
     
     
187. Christ becomes present in the Sacrament of the Altar by the transformation of the whole substance of the bread into His Body and the whole substance of the wine into His Blood.
     
     
188. The Accidents of bread and wine continue after the change of the substance.
     
     
189. The Body and the Blood of Christ together with His Soul and His Divinity and therefore the Whole Christ are truly present in the Eucharist.
     
     
190. The Whole Christ is present under each of the two Species.
     
     
191. When either consecrated species is divided the Whole Christ is present in each part of the species.
     
     
192. After the Consecration has been completed the Body and Blood are permanently present in the Eucharist.
     
     
193. The Worship of Adoration (latria) must be given to Christ present in the Eucharist.
     
     
194. The Eucharist is a true Sacrament instituted by Christ.
     
     
195. The matter for the consummation of the Eucharist is bread and wine.
     
     
196. For children before the age of reason the reception of the Eucharist is not necessary for salvation.
     
     
197. Communion under two forms is not necessary for any individual member of the Faithful, either by reason of Divine precept or as a means of salvation.
     
     
198. The power of consecration resides in a validly consecrated priest only.
     
     
199. The Sacrament of the Eucharist can be validly received by every baptized person in the wayfaring state, including young children.
     
     
200. For the worthy reception of the Eucharist the state of grace as well as the proper and pious disposition are necessary.
     
     
201. The Holy Mass is a true and proper Sacrifice.
     
     
202. In the Sacrifice of the Mass, Christ’s Sacrifice on the Cross is made present, its memory is celebrated, and its saving power is applied.
     
     
203. In the Sacrifice of the Mass and in the Sacrifice of the Cross the Sacrificial Gift and the Primary Sacrificing Priest are identical; only the nature and mode of the offering are different.
     
     
204. The Sacrifice of the Mass is not merely a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, but also a sacrifice of expiation and impetration.
     
     
205. The Church has received from Christ the power of remitting sins committed after Baptism.
     
     
206. By the Church’s Absolution sins are truly and immediately remitted.
     
     
207. The Church’s power to forgive sins extends to all sin without exception.
     
     
208. The exercise of the Church’s power to forgive sins is a judicial act.
     
     
209. The forgiveness of sins which takes place in the Tribunal of Penance is a true and proper Sacrament, which is distinct from the Sacrament of Baptism.
     
     
210. Extra-sacramental justification is effected by perfect sorrow only when it is associated with the desire for the Sacrament (votum sacramenti).
     
     
211. Contrition springing from the motive of fear is a morally good and supernatural act.
     
     
212. The Sacramental confession of sins is ordained by God and is necessary for salvation.
     
     
213. By virtue of Divine ordinance all grievous sins (mortal, serious) according to kind and number, as well as those circumstances which alter their nature, are subject to the obligation of confession.
     
     
214. The confession of venial sins is not necessary but is permitted and is useful.
     
     
215. All temporal punishments for sin are not always remitted by God with the guilt of sin and the eternal punishment.
     
     
216. The priest has the right and the duty, according to the nature of the sins and the ability of the penitent, to impose salutary and appropriate works of satisfaction.
     
     
217. Extra-sacramental penitential works, such as the performance of voluntary penitential practices and the patient bearing of trials sent by God, possess satisfactory value.
     
     
218. The form of the Sacrament of Penance consists in the words of Absolution.
     
     
219. Absolution, in association with the acts of the penitent, effects the forgiveness of sins.
     
     
220. The principal effect of the Sacrament of Penance is the reconciliation of the sinner with God.
     
     
221. The Sacrament of Penance is necessary for salvation to those who, after Baptism, fall into grievous sin.
     
     
222. The sole possessors of the Church’s Power of Absolution are the bishops and priests.
     
     
223. Absolution given by deacons, clerics of lower rank, and laymen is not Sacramental Absolution.
     
     
224. The Sacrament of Penance can be received by any baptized person, who, after Baptism, has committed a grievous or venial sin.
     
     
225. The Church possesses the power to grant Indulgences.
     
     
226. The use of Indulgences is useful and salutary to the Faithful.
     
     
227. Extreme Unction is a true and proper Sacrament instituted by Christ.
     
     
228. The remote matter of Extreme Unction is oil.
     
     
229. The form consists in the prayer of the priest for the sick person which accompanies the anointing.
     
     
230. Extreme Unction gives the sick person sanctifying grace in order to arouse and strengthen him.
     
     
231. Extreme Unction effects the remission of grievous sins still remaining and of venial sins.
     
     
232. Extreme Unction sometimes effects the restoration of bodily health, if this be of spiritual advantage.
     
     
233. Only bishops and priests can validly administer Extreme Unction.
     
     
234. Extreme Unction can be received only by the Faithful who are seriously ill.
     
     
235. Holy Order is a true and proper Sacrament which was instituted by Christ.
     
     
236. The consecration of priests is a Sacrament.
     
     
237. Bishops are superior to priests.
     
     
238. The Sacrament of Order confers sanctifying grace on the recipient.
     
     
239. The Sacrament of Order imprints a character on the recipient.
     
     
240. The Sacrament of Order confers a permanent spiritual power on the recipient.
     
     
241. The ordinary dispenser of all grades of Order, both the sacramental and the non-sacramental, is the validly consecrated bishop alone.
     
     
242. Marriage is a true and proper Sacrament instituted by God.
     
     
243. From the sacramental contract of marriage emerges the Bond of Marriage, which binds both marriage partners to a lifelong indivisible community of life.
     
     
244. The Sacrament of Matrimony bestows Sanctifying Grace on the contracting parties.
     
     
245. In the present order of salvation death is a punishment for sin.
     
     
246. All human beings subject to original sin are subject to the law of death.
     
     
247. The souls of the just which in the moment of death are free from all guilt of sin and punishment for sin, enter into Heaven.
     
     
248. The bliss of heaven lasts for all eternity.
     
     
249. The degree of perfection of the beatific vision granted to the just is proportioned to each one’s merits.
     
     
250. The souls of those who die in the condition of personal grievous sin enter Hell.
     
     
251. The punishment of Hell lasts for all eternity.
     
     
252. The souls of the just which, in the moment of death, are burdened with venial sins or temporal punishment due to sins, enter Purgatory.
     
     
253. At the end of the world Christ will come again in glory to pronounce judgment.
     
     
254. All the dead will rise again on the last day with their bodies.
     
     
255. Christ, on His second coming, will judge all men.

The 102 Certain Truths Not Yet Defined by the Magisterium

1. With Christ and the Apostles General Revelation concluded.
   
   
2. Our natural knowledge of God in this world is not as immediate, intuitive cognition, but a mediate, abstractive knowledge, because it is attained through the knowledge of creatures.
   
   
3. Our knowledge of God here below is not proper but analogical.
   
   
4. God is absolute Beauty.
   
   
5. God’s knowledge is purely and simply actual.
   
   
6. God’s knowledge is subsistent.
   
   
7. God’s knowledge is comprehensive.
   
   
8. God’s knowledge is independent of extra-divine things.
   
   
9. The primary and formal object of the Divine Cognition is God Himself.
   
   
10. The Son proceeds from the Intellect of the Father by way of Generation.
    
    
11. The Holy Ghost proceeds from the will or from the mutual love of the Father and of the Son.
    
    
12. The Father sends the Son: the Father and the Son send the Holy Ghost.
    
    
13. The world is the work of the Divine Wisdom.
    
    
14. God was free to create this world or any other.
    
    
15. The whole human race stems from one single human pair.
    
    
16. Every individual soul was immediately created out of nothing by God.
    
    
17. Adam received sanctifying grace not merely for himself, but for all his posterity.
    
    
18. God set a supernatural final end for the angels, the immediate vision of God, and endowed them with sanctifying grace in order that they might achieve this end.
    
    
19. The angels were subjected to a moral testing.
    
    
20. The evil spirits (demons) were created good by God; they became evil through their own fault.
    
    
21. The primary task of the good angels is the glorification and the service of God.
    
    
22. Every one of the faithful has his own special guardian angel from baptism.
    
    
23. The Hypostatic Union was never interrupted.
    
    
24. The Blood in the Living Body of Jesus Christ is an integral constituent part of human nature, immediately, not merely mediately, united with the Person of the Divine Logos.
    
    
25. Just as Latria is due to the whole Human nature of Christ, so is it due to the individual parts of His nature.
    
    
26. Christ’s soul possessed the immediate vision of God from the first moment of its existence.
    
    
27. Christ’s human knowledge was free from positive ignorance and from error.
    
    
28. By reason of His endowment with the fullness of created habitual grace, Christ’s soul is also accidentally holy.
    
    
29. Christ’s humanity, as instrument of the Logos, possesses the power of producing supernatural effects.
    
    
30. Christ’s soul was subject to sensual emotions.
    
    
31. God was not compelled to redeem mankind by either an internal or an external compulsion.
    
    
32. Christ is the Supreme Prophet promised in the Old Covenant and the absolute teacher of humanity.
    
    
33. Christ merited for Himself the condition of exaltation (Resurrection, Transfiguration of the body, Ascension into Heaven).
    
    
34. Christ merited all supernatural graces received by fallen mankind.
    
    
35. The underworld is the place of detention for the souls of the just of the pre-Christian era, the so-called vestibule of hell (limbus Patrum).
    
    
36. Mary gave the Redeemer, the Source of all graces, to the world, and in this way she is the channel of all graces.
    
    
37. Mary, the Mother of God, is entitled to the Cult of Hyperdulia.
    
    
38. Actual Grace internally and directly enlightens the understanding and strengthens the will.
    
    
39. The Grace of faith is not necessary for the performance of a morally good action.
    
    
40. Actual Grace is not necessary for the performance of a morally good action.
    
    
41. In the condition of fallen nature it is morally impossible for man without restoring grace (gratia sanans) to fulfill the entire moral law and to overcome all serious temptations for any considerable period of time.
    
    
42. Grace cannot be obtained by petitions deriving from purely natural prayer.
    
    
43. Man of himself cannot acquire any positive disposition for grace.
    
    
44. God gives all innocent unbelievers (infideles negativi) sufficient grace to achieve eternal salvation.
    
    
45. Sanctifying Grace is a supernatural state of being which is infused by God, and which permanently inheres in the soul.
    
    
46. Sanctifying grace is not a substance, but a real accident, which inheres in the soul-substance.
    
    
47. Supernatural grace is a participation in the divine nature.
    
    
48. Sanctifying grace makes the just man a Temple of the Holy Ghost.
    
    
49. The loss of sanctifying grace always involves the loss of Charity.
    
    
50. The Church is the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ.
    
    
51. By reason of her purpose and the means she uses to effect it the Church is a supernatural spiritual society.
    
    
52. The Church is a perfect society.
    
    
53. The Church is indefectible, that is, she remains and will remain the Institution of Salvation, founded by Christ, until the end of the world.
    
    
54. The secondary object of the Infallibility is truths of the Christian teaching on faith and morals, which are not formally revealed, but which are closely connected with the teaching of Revelation.
    
    
55. The Church founded by Christ is an external visible commonwealth.
    
    
56. Not only those members who are holy but the sinners also belong to the Church.
    
    
57. The members of the Church are those who have validly received the Sacrament of Baptism and who are not separated from the unity of the confession of the Faith, and from the unity of the lawful communion of the Church.
    
    
58. The members of the Kingdom of God on earth and in the other world sanctified by the redeeming grace of Christ are united in a common supernatural life with the Head of the Church and with one another.
    
    
59. By intercessory prayer the Faithful on earth can procure gifts from God for one another.
    
    
60. The faithful on earth can, by their good works performed in the state of grace, render atonement for one another.
    
    
61. The Sacraments of the New Covenant are effective signs of grace instituted by Christ.
    
    
62. Christ instituted all the Sacraments immediately and personally.
    
    
63. Christ fixed the substance of the Sacraments. The Church has no power to alter them.
    
    
64. God can communicate grace even without the Sacraments.
    
    
65. The primary minister of the Sacraments is the God-Man Jesus Christ.
    
    
66. The validity and efficacy of the Sacrament is independent of the minister’s orthodoxy and state of grace.
    
    
67. For the validity of the Sacraments in the case of adult recipients the intention of receiving the Sacrament is necessary.
    
    
68. The Old Testament Sacraments wrought, ex opere operato, not grace, but merely an external lawful purity.
    
    
69. The materia proxima of the Sacrament of Baptism is the ablution, by physical contact, of the body with water.
    
    
70. The form of Baptism consists in the words of the minister which accompany it and more closely determine it.
    
    
71. As a Sacrament of the living, Confirmation effects (per se) an increase of Sanctifying Grace.
    
    
72. The extraordinary minister of Confirmation is a priest on whom this full power is conferred by the common law or by a special apostolic indult.
    
    
73. Confirmation can be received by any baptized person who is not already confirmed.
    
    
74. The repetition of Confirmation is invalid and grievously sinful.
    
    
75. The Sacramental Accidents retain their physical reality after the change of the substance.
    
    
76. The Sacramental Accidents continue without a subject in which to inhere.
    
    
77. The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is a mystery of Faith.
    
    
78. The form of the Eucharist consists in Christ’s Words of institution, uttered at the Consecration.
    
    
79. The Chief fruit of the Eucharist is an intrinsic union of the recipient with Christ.
    
    
80. The Eucharist, as food for the soul, preserves and increases the supernatural life of the soul.
    
    
81. The Eucharist is a pledge of heavenly bliss and of the future resurrection of the body.
    
    
82. For adults the reception of the Eucharist is necessary for salvation with the necessity of precept (necessitate praecepti).
    
    
83. The ordinary minister of the Eucharist is the priest; the extraordinary minister is the deacon (with permission of the local Ordinary or of the parish priest for some weighty reason).
    
    
84. Those sins which are already forgiven directly by the Church’s Power of the Keys are a sufficient object of confession.
    
    
85. The source of Indulgences is the Church’s treasury of satisfaction which consists of superabundant satisfactions of Christ and of the Saints.
    
    
86. Extreme Unction is not of itself (per se) necessary for salvation.
    
    
87. The consecration of a Bishop is a Sacrament.
    
    
88. The Order of Diaconate is a Sacrament.
    
    
89. The extraordinary dispenser of the four Minor Orders and of the Order of the Subdiaconate is the presbyter.
    
    
90. The Sacrament of Order can be validly received by a baptized person of the male sex only.
    
    
91. Marriage was not instituted by Man, but by God.
    
    
92. The primary purpose of Marriage is the generation and bringing-up of offspring. The secondary purpose is mutual help and the morally regulated satisfaction of the sex urge.
    
    
93. The essential properties of Marriage are unity (monogamy) and indissolubility.
    
    
94. Every valid contract of Marriage between Christians is of itself a sacrament.
    
    
95. The contracting parties in Matrimony minister the Sacrament each to the other.
    
    
96. The Church possesses the sole and exclusive right to make laws and administer justice in the matrimonial affairs of baptized persons, in so far as these affect the Sacrament.
    
    
97. With death the possibility of merit or demerit or conversion ceases.
    
    
98. The time of Jesus’ second coming is unknown to men.
    
    
99. The bodies of the just will be re-modeled and transfigured to the pattern of the risen Christ.
    
    
100. The bodies of the godless will rise again in incorruption and immortality, but they will not be transfigured.
     
     
101. The present world will be destroyed on the Last Day.
     
     
102. The present world will be restored on the Last Day.

 

[Davidnic]

We also need to look at Catholic Truths that are secondary object and protected by connection:

Corresponding to the purpose of the Teaching Authority of the Church of preserving unfalsified and of infallibly interpreting the Truths of Revelation (D 1800) the primary object (obiectum primarium) of the Teaching Office of the Church is the body of immediately revealed truths and facts. The infallible doctrinal power of the Church extends, however, secondarily to all those truths and facts which are a consequence of the teaching of Revelation or a presupposition of it (obiectum secondarium). Those doctrines and truths defined by the Church not as immediately revealed but as intrinsically connected with the truths of Revelation so that their denial would undermine the revealed truths are called Catholic Truths (veritates catholicae) or Ecclesiastical Teachings (doctrinae ecclesiasticae) to distinguish them from the Divine Truths or Divine Doctrines of Revelation (veritates vel doctrinae divinae). These are proposed for belief in virtue of the infallibility of the Church in teaching doctrines of faith or morals (fides ecclcsiastica). To these Catholic truths belong:

1. Theological Conclusions (conclusiones theologicae) properly so-called. By these are understood religious truths, which are derived from two premisses, of which one is an immediately revealed truth, and the other a truth of natural reason. Since one premiss is a truth of Revelation, theological conclusions are spoken of as being mediately or virtually (virtualiter) revealed. If however both premisses are immediately revealed truths, then the conclusion also must be regarded as being immediately revealed and as the object of Immediate Divine Faith (Fides Immediate Divina).

2. Dogmatic Facts (facta dogmatica). By these are understood historical facts, which are not revealed, but which are intrinsically connected with revealed truth, for example, the legality of a Pope or of a General Council, or the fact of the Roman episcopate of St. Peter. The fact that a defined text does or does not agree with the doctrine of the Catholic Faith is also, in a narrower sense, a “dogmatic fact.” In deciding the meaning of a text the Church does not pronounce judgment on the subjective intention of the author, but on the objective sense of the text (D 1350; sensum quem verba prae se ferunt).

3. Truths of Reason, which have not been revealed, but which are intrinsically associated with a revealed truth, e.g., those philosophic truths which are presuppositions of the acts of Faith (knowledge of the supersensual, possibility of proofs of God, the spirituality of the soul, the freedom of will), or philosophic concepts, in terms of which dogma is promulgated (person, substance, transubstantiation, etc.). The Church has the right and the duty, for the protection of the heritage of Faith, of proscribing philosophic teachings which directly or indirectly endanger dogma. The Vatican Council declares: Ius etiam et officium divinitus habet falsi nominis scientiam proscribendi (D 1798).

Ott, Ludwig. Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma (Kindle Locations 814-836). The Mercier Press. Kindle Edition.

 

[Davidnic]

So how are they classified:

Dogmas are classified:

a) According to their content as: General Dogmas (dogmata generalia) and Special Dogmas (dogmata specialia). To the former belong the fundamental truths of Christianity, to the latter the individual truths contained therein.

b) According to their relation with Reason as: Pure Dogmas (dogmata pura) and Mixed Dogmas (dogmata mixta). The former we know solely through Divine Revelation, e.g., The Trinity (mysteries), the latter by Natural Reason also, e.g., The Existence of God.

c) According to the mode by which the Church proposes them, as: Formal Dogmas (dogmata formalia) and Material Dogmas (dogmata materialia). The former are proposed for belief by the Teaching Authority of the Church as truths of Revelation; the latter are not so proposed, for which reason they are not Dogmas in the strict sense.

d) According to their relation with salvation as: Necessary Dogmas (dogmata necessaria) and Non-necessary Dogmas
(dogmata non-necessaria). The former must be explicitly believed by all in order to achieve eternal salvation; for the latter implicit faith (fides implicita) suffices (cf. Hebr. 11, 6; para. 4).

Ott, Ludwig. Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma (Kindle Locations 744-754). The Mercier Press. Kindle Edition.

 

[Davidnic]

Now all of that can make the eyes blur. But essentially we can grow in knowledge of the Image of the Beloved. But we need to be sure we are not just drawing what we would like to see.

 

[Davidnic]

And again...love. Love is the key and the working toward understanding.

I use Montessori style catechesis of the Good Shepherd with my daughter.

With my junior high students I tell them in 10 years I will be impressed if you come up to me and remember the facts that I have taught you. But I will consider that I have succeeded if you remember that you are made in the image of God and that you and everyone else has dignity. That you have a special place in God plan and that you are to love each other.

Dogma is fascinating and it is very much a love story. It needs to be integrated with that love. We cannot divide it from the living charity on our hands and hearts. We cannot let it bog us down but we also cannot turn our backs on it.

I think too many do not see the love in it.

 

[Davidnic]

When I was taught all this it was not as a hammer or a barrier but and a gateway to beauty. It was given to me as wings not a weight. I wish it was presented like that more often.

 

[tadoflamb]

My take on dogma is that the Church defines it as well as she can at the time. It's also not as rigid as one would think, but more fluid with a life of it's own.

I'm beginning to see what David is saying about dogma and love. Previously, I thought dogma was just good for knowing what your willing to be fed to the lions for. Now I'm seeing that it reveals a God that really does love us.

 

[Davidnic]

It can be much more fluid than people think. It does develop. It can progress but it can not be altered. And I think this is where the different edges of Catholicism (indeed all of Christianity) argue. Over what is progress and what is alteration.

For instance we progress in understanding that there is an invisible union and that we know where the Church is but not where it isn't. That does not alter the concept of salvation outside the Church, it is just we understand it more. But to say all will be saved no matter what they believe would be an alteration not a progress. Normally you can tell an alteration because it goes against other Dogma already defined more rigidly.

Also we should challenge things but accept when we might be wrong. look at how things have developed. That Christ was True God and True Man was accepted, but it was challenged. From that we eventually get perfect clarity on that point as well as Mary is The Mother of God. That is a Christ Centered teaching. It is not for the glorification of Our Lady, but for the understanding (as best as we can) of the Incarnation. That is set in stone. So some things are what they are...anything Sent Certa or above can not change. It can develop in our understanding. The picture can get sharper, deeper and more complex but it can not go to a different picture.

 

[Fish and Bread]

Father Hans Kung says Francis Responded to Request for Free Discussion on Infallibility Dogma:

http://www.ncronline.org/news/theol...d-request-free-discussion-infallibility-dogma

 

[Fish and Bread]

Father Andrew Greeley editorial: "The Apologetics of Beauty" (Published in 2000 AD):

http://americamagazine.org/issue/380/article/apologetics-beauty

 

[Fish and Bread]

The Church's Changing Face by Father Andrew M. Greeley (2007):

http://americamagazine.org/issue/622/faith-focus/churchs-changing-face