The Changing Church? Doctrine & Dogma

 

I learned a fundamental teaching point a few years ago; I have been trying to correct myself of my mistake ever since.

When I was teaching, I used to use the phrase “The Church teaches” until someone pointed out that a more accurate way to describe what the Church teaches is to say, “What God has revealed.”

This is a significant clarification.

In The Catholic Faith Handbook for Youth it says, “Catholic doctrine expresses the Church’s understanding of God’s Revelation through Jesus.”

I could go into some detail about doctrine and dogma, but I will keep it simple. Continuing from the Handbook, it explains that doctrine can change over time as the Church grows in her understanding of revelation, but “doctrines most fundamental to Catholic belief are authoritatively defined by the *Magisterium and are called dogmas, and they do not change.”

Frequently when people get into discussions about the church, the debate gets wittled down to this fundamental question:  “Why doesn’t the Church change with the times?”

Interesting to the debate is the fact that as the Church grows in her understanding of what God has revealed, she—and this is noteworthy— must look at what is going on in the world.

One of the documents that came out of **Vatican II, The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World of 1965, beautifully explains:

“the Church has always had the duty of scrutinizing the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel. Thus, in language intelligible to each generation, she can respond to the perennial questions which men ask about this present life and the life to come, and about the relationship of the one to the other. We must therefore recognize and understand the world in which we live, its explanations, its longings, and its often dramatic characteristics . . . ” (¶ 4)

The Catechism also makes it very clear how the Church looks at this:

“Yet even if Revelation is already complete [which it is until Jesus returns], it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries.” (CCC, 66)

It’s not that the Church is not paying attention.  It is.  It’s just that if we were to follow a Church that flipped back and forth every time the winds of culture changed, it would be pretty hard to find solid footing on the truth of God revealed.

Janet Cassidy
janetcassidy.blogspot.com
janetcassidy.blubrry.net (podcasts)

*The Magisterium is the teaching office of the Church. It is the pope in communion with the bishops, divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit to interpret the Word of God. (Catholic Classroom)

**Vatican II  Second Vatican Council, also called Vatican II, (1962–65), 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, announced by Pope John XXIII on January 25, 1959, as a means of spiritual renewal for the church and as an occasion for Christians separated from Rome to join in a search for Christian unity. (online dictionary)