05 October 2015

Correction Of An Earlier Synod

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On 28 August 1794, Pius VI condemned eighty-five of those propositions of the Synod of Pistoia which Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany had caused to be printed and issued as authoritative to clergy in areas under his temporal rule. 

The section on The Previous Disposition Necessary for Admitting Penitents to Reconciliation is remarkably apposite today.

Section 36 of the Pope's Constitution Auctorem Fidei reads as follows:

The doctrine of the synod in which, after it stated that "when there are unmistakeable signs of the love of God dominating the heart of a man, he can be deservedly be considered worthy of being admitted to participation in the Blood of Jesus Christ which takes place in the sacraments", it further adds "that false conversions, which take place through attrition [[incomplete sorrow for sins]], are not usually efficacious or durable", consequently "the shepherd of souls must insist on unmistakeable signs of the dominating charity before he admits his penitents to the sacraments"; which signs as it [[the decree]] then teaches " a pastor can deduce from a stable abstention from sin, and from fervour in good works"; and this "fervour of charity", moreover, it prescribes, as the disposition that "should precede absolution";

if understood in the sense that for a man to be admitted to the sacraments, and, in particular, for penitents to be admitted to the benefit of absolution, there is generally and absolutely required not only imperfect contrition, which is sometimes called "attrition", even when it is united to the love by which man begins to love God as the source of all justice, nd not only contrition formed by charity, but also the fervour of dominating charity that has proved itself through long experience by fervour in good works;

[[is]] false, rash, disturbing to the peace of souls, contrary to the secure and approved practice of the Church, detracting from the efficacy of the sacrament and injurious to it.

(Denzinger Enchiridion 2636)

You can't mess about with the doctrine of Absolution to allow people to receive Holy Communion, and you can't mess the Eucharist up to allow people to play fast and loose with the Sacrament of Matrimony. If you start tugging at one of the threads, then the whole thing has to unravel. 
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2 comments:

Left-footer said...

So this is not the first time! Thank you, Tony, and God bless.

Mike Cliffson said...

hmm
also apropo , have you seen the office of readings ( http://www.universalis.com/readings.htm ) for today Fri 9th?
Touched on interalia in St Paul to Tim ( .................../................Anyone who teaches anything different, and does not keep to the sound teaching which is that of our Lord Jesus Christ, the doctrine which is in accordance with true religion, is simply ignorant and must be full of self-conceit – with a craze for questioning everything and arguing about words. All that can come of this is jealousy, contention, abuse and wicked mistrust of one another; and unending disputes by people who are neither rational nor informed and imagine that religion is a way of making a profit. ...../...)
and the burden of all the second reading (Second Reading
An instruction by St Vincent of Lerins
The development of doctrine
It begins
"Is there to be no development of religion in the Church of Christ? Certainly, there is to be development and on the largest scale.
Who can be so grudging to men, so full of hate for God, as to try to prevent it? But it must truly be development of the faith, not alteration of the faith. Development means that each thing expands to be itself, while alteration means that a thing is changed from one thing into another."
...../....
and ends
" In ancient times our ancestors sowed the good seed in the harvest field of the Church. It would be very wrong and unfitting if we, their descendants, were to reap, not the genuine wheat of truth but the intrusive growth of error.
On the contrary, what is right and fitting is this: there should be no inconsistency between first and last, but we should reap true doctrine from the growth of true teaching, so that when, in the course of time, those first sowings yield an increase it may flourish and be tended in our day also.")

Well worth a visit. Go on , borrow my car.
God bless.