Everything that I have written today is part of the Teaching Magisterium of the Church. Nothing is secret, arcane knowledge.
The lost art of reading, the horrible busyness of most people's lives, and the insistence that experiential religions is more important than study and reflection created an atmosphere of gross anti-intellectualism in our Church.
The dropping of real religious studies in many Catholic elementary and secondary schools, the removal of the catechism from required reading, the lack of discipline in both teachers and students have brought us to the point where a sizable majority of Catholics no longer or have never thought like Catholics.
The weakness of the Church comes from within. I challenged Catholics to reclaim the use of their intellects in religion. Recently, I have witnessed this anti-intellectualism in adult Catholics on line. Opinions not based on Catholic teaching are becoming more and more common, even among some clergy members, who have had poor seminary studies. An odd sentimentality has replaced rational discourse among Catholic adults. It is not attractive and this approach to religion is, frankly, dangerous.
Do you know that in some seminaries Aquinas may be only required in one class, semester length? May I quote Pius XII:
“… the Angelic Doctor interpreted [Aristotle] in a uniquely brilliant manner. He made that philosophy Christian when he purged it of the errors into which a pagan writer would easily fall; he used those very errors in his exposition and vindication of Catholic truth. Among the important advances which the Church owes to the great Aquinas this certainly should be included that so nicely did he harmonize Christian truth with the enduring peripatetic philosophy that he made Aristotle cease to be an adversary and become, instead, a militant supporter for Christ … Therefore, those who wish to be true philosophers … should take the principles and foundations of their doctrine from Thomas Aquinas. To follow his leadership is praiseworthy: on the contrary, to depart foolishly and rashly from the wisdom of the angelic Doctor is something far from Our mind and fraught with peril … For those who apply themselves to the teaching and study of Theology and Philosophy should consider it their capital duty, having set aside the findings of a fruitless philosophy, to follow St. Thomas Aquinas and to cherish him as their master and their leader.
For more quotations on Aquinas from Popes, look here. http://www.thomasaquinas.edu/a-liberating-education/popes-st-thomas
As adults, we have no excuse to fall into the mushy thinking of those who left the Church in search of spiritual experiences. We all need to learn to think like Catholics again.
