Much confusion in the Church today rests in the doubts of many Christians regarding Revelation and Tradition, the two pillars of the Church. Over many days, I have shared a bit of Henry Cardinal Manning's thoughts from The Temporal Mission of The Holy Ghost.
One reason I have been recommending this book is the furor of this current pope.
When one understands that the Holy Spirit is the ONLY Teacher and Guide of the Church and that no man or individuals can change the immutable teaching of the Church, then one does not get so upset about sound-bites.
The problem is not with Revelation, but with the Protestantized mind-set of the media and groups of Catholics, both which do not understand the preservation of Truth in the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church.
No person can change the Church's teaching. Protestants see the doctrines of the Church as corrupted. The opposite is true. They have corrupted the doctrines.
The media has seen the doctrines of the Church as out-dated and unnecessary. The Church alone knows what is necessary for salvation.
Weak Catholics, who have not taken time to study the history of the Church or whose minds and hearts hold vestiges of revolution and relativism, fall into confusion, and all confusion is from the devil.
As Manning indicates, there is the "perpetuity of truth" within the Church, not settled on one man who speaks like a human except in certain circumstances, (why we HAVE a teaching on infallibility). This perpetuity of truth has been given and is guided by God, the Holy Spirit.
Reform in the Church comes from the Holy Spirit and this reform is not a change of doctrine ever, but merely a clarification of truth.
Let me quote Manning one more time from this book:
"The illumination of the Spirit informs the collective and continuous intelligence of the Church with adequate and precise conceptions of revealed truth, and the assistance of the Holy Spirit guides and sustains the Church in the adequate and precise enunciation of those conceptions."
That trads seem to be more upset with sound-bites indicates to me that they, of all people, seem to have either forgotten the truth of the Holy Spirit within the Church from Pentecost down to this present day, or they simply do not believe this is true.
Too bad history and Church history were subjects dropped from Catholic curricula so long ago. History and the study of the councils and doctrine give a perspective sadly missing from many commentators today.
