church teaching

Next Friday, it is hoped that the Message of the Synod will be made known. While we await the final document, Zenit and ScriptureSynod continue to publish updates on the ongoing providing us with the Inside Stuff as it were of matters relevant to the Synod on the Word of God. Here are some of the articles that I found interesting.

The first draft of the Synodal Message on the Word of God has been presented. Mons. Gianfranco Ravasi, famous italian exegete, is the president of the commission charged with producing the Message. Below is an excerpt of a report about the draft and some other first hand observations about the Synod.

Tomorrow we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption. Catholics have become so used to the idea that when fundamentalists confront them with a question about the feast itself and the dogma of Pius XII declared in 1950, they are led to believe that their celebration in August 15 is due to the whimsy of a Pope. Thing is, the feast of the Assumption is much much older than the dogma of the Assumption, and the belief that Mary did not die but was preserved from corruption is a belief that is connected to her Immaculate Conception which in turn is directly linked to her Divine Motherhood. This latter, a dogma defined in Ephesus, is linked to the belief that Jesus is God (Jn. 1:1-18). This "chain" which shows how the different dogmas are linked together is what Catholics refer to as analogia fidei. Thus, if one does not accept the Assumption, one also does not accept the Divinity of Christ and therefore, as Pius XII puts it, "let him know that he has fallen away completely from the divine and Catholic Faith", and for that matter, from the Christian faith.

Last July 25, the Catholic Church in the Philippines celebrated the 40th Year of Humanae Vitae with a rally at the University of Sto. Tomas campus.  The rally also had another purpose, that of formally declaring the Church’s opposition to the Reproductive Health Bill that our legislators would like to pass as law.  The Bill is actually a misnomer, even a deliberate ploy to mislead:  since when is bearing children a sickness?  I still remember the Beijing Conference of 1996 and its agenda of women’s health which was nothing but a ploy to promote abortion and artificial contraception.

Have you read the document "Dominus Iesus?". It is a document categorized as a declaration and prepared by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith in February of 2000. The prefect of the congregation then was Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.

Zenit has published the English translation of the document "Clarification on the Doctrine of the Church." The document is short and regards five questions about Vatican II's doctrine on the Church.