Anglicans of The Catholic League Speaking On The Council Of Trent

A post on the Anglican Ordinariate Forum Facebook site included a link to The Creed of the Council of Trent with Explanations, which served as the inspiration for this blog post.

The Creed of the Council of Trent with Explanations (CCTE)

Published by The Catholic League

L.G. Fisher, Gen. Sec.

40, Barmead Road, Beckenham, Kent

Background. The Catholic League was established within the Church of England to encourage unity among all Christians with the See of Rome. The League was established in 1913 with 97 founding members, led by Richard Langford-James and Henry Fynes-Clinton. It followed earlier groups like the Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom (founded in 1857) and the Guild of the Love of God (founded in 1911). According to the League, it was started by Anglicans who strongly believed that the future of their Church depended on reuniting all Christians in a shared Catholic and Apostolic faith, fully restored in communion with the Successor of Peter in Rome.

Comments are embedded within the commentary on Section 11 CCTE by the original authors.

“XI. I acknowledge the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church to be the Mother and Mistress of all Churches, and I promise true obedience to the Bishop of Rome, Successor of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and Vicar of Jesus Christ.”

The Roman Church is called the Mother of all Churches, because by Divine Providence she exercises a maternal influence and authority over them. The expression “ Mother of all Churches ” does not mean that the Roman Church actually gave birth to every local church: it is only some, not all of the local churches which owe their origin directly to the Apostolic See. But a mother’s relationship with her children does not end with giving them birth: she must care for them and for their welfare according to their needs and capacities. Many of the fulfilments of motherhood are unique because nothing can adequately take their place. It is in this respect that the Roman Church is the Mother of all Churches; she possesses and bestows upon all local churches precisely that family status which guarantees their mutual relationship both with her and with one another.

The Church of the early ages of the Apostles was small and in one place. When Christianity began to spread, local assemblies of Christians, or churches, became necessary, and no such local church could be recognised as authentic unless it sprang from the original Church of the Apostles. Thus all local churches which are truly descended from the One True Church founded by Christ our Lord must recognise the Apostolic Church as their Mother. But is the “Roman” Church the same thing as the primitive Apostolic Church? It certainly is, and simply because St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, to whom our Lord gave the keys of the kingdom of heaven, founded the Roman Church when the Apostolic Church made its centre in Rome. Even non-Catholic historians now admit that St. Peter settled in Rome, and his successors are the successive Bishops of Rome.

The Holy Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church can have no rival as a Mother of Christians. No such rival indeed presents itself, for no other body of Christians can be said to make in practice such a claim. It being the function of a mother to care for the welfare of her children, the Roman Church provides for this in a manner and degree which belongs to no other body of Christians. The Roman system of jurisdiction and legislation which covers the day-to-day needs of the faithful is such as could embrace the whole world, if everyone were to give adherence to the Holy See.

We may now ask why the Roman Church is not only the Mother but also the Mistress of all Churches. The term “ Mistress’ here means that the Roman Church has authority over all Churches. About this both theology and history have much to say; but we will here confine ourselves to a brief outline which will explain the underlying truth of the Church’s authority.

Unless there is some ultimate authority in matters of faith and morals, different people will interpret them in different ways. (The fruit of Protestant doctrines such as sola scriptura have contributed to the scandal of division among Christians.)

But the fact that people can and do disagree does not affect the truth about God and the things of God. Divine truth remains what it is whatever people choose to think about it. It would still be true even if there were no living human being on the earth to believe it. (True. Revelation does not depend on a popularity contest hosted by revisionists with no sense of early Church history and the twin pillars of the written and oral Tradition. 2 Thessalonians 2:15)

If there is a God who has revealed Himself to man, there must be a means whereby that revelation can be known with accuracy. Divine revelation would not fulfil its purpose if its apprehension by man produced nothing better than the vagaries of human opinion. The truths which God has revealed to us in Christ our Lord must in some way be taught in this world with an authority which can preserve them from error. Such authority has been given to the Church on earth by our Lord Himself, in the Papacy; or to be more exact in the infallibility in matters concerning faith and morals with which He has endowed St. Peter and his successors.

We must not misunderstand what is meant by Papal infallibility. It means that when the Pope speaks ex cathedra (i.e. officially) to the whole Church concerning faith or morals, he is protected from error by a Divine assistance specially given by our Lord to St. Peter and his successors in the Papacy. In this the Pope is the Vicar or accredited representative of Christ on earth. But Papal infallibility does not mean that other utterances of the Holy Father are infallible, except in so far as they involve matter which is infallible by reason of a previous ex cathedra definition. Apart from ex cathedra definitions concerning faith and morals a Pope can err like other men. (All papal teachings should be taken seriously, though not all are considered infallible, i.e., protected by the Holy Spirit. Faithful and informed Catholics throughout history have recognized this. The Church’s teachings may not contradict the Deposit of the Faith.)

If we wish to inquire into the truth of the dogma of Papal infallibility we shall find that a number of considerations throw light upon it. Several passages in the Gospels shew that our Lord gave to St. Peter a position of primacy over the other Apostles. Clearly there is great significance in our Lord’s words, “Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” Also, ‘“‘ Simon, Simon, behold Satan has desired to have you (plural, i.e. all of you) that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee (singular) that thy faith fail not; and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” This was followed later by the commission “ Feed my sheep.” Other texts can also be quoted which are to the same purpose. The “rock” referred to may have been Christ Himself, or Peter’s Confession of Christ, or Peter who thus confessed Christ. In the writings of the Fathers all three interpretations are to be found; St. Augustine at different times favoured two of the three views. We need not decide between them, but it is nonetheless clear that upon this occasion our Lord bestowed a unique commission upon St. Peter, and the nature and scope of that commission becomes increasingly clear so as to leave no doubt as to its meaning.

History bears witness that the Pope in his ex cathedra teaching has preserved the integrity of the faith. The Papacy is the only institution which has never varied in its presentment of the essential truths of Christianity despite conflicting opinions. Some of the Popes have been saints, others quite the opposite, but their official teaching has never departed from the One Faith. The Divine origin of the Papacy is a matter of faith, and history corroborates the fulfilment of the infallibility in faith and morals with which Christ has endowed His Vicar on earth. (Remember - this commentary was offered by Protestants, i.e., Anglo-Catholics, committed to unity in the truth. By contrast, the teaching of pretend-Catholics - the wolves among the sheep - has caused tremendous confusion among Catholics.)

But what of the Roman claim to authority in those day-to-day affairs of the Church which are not within the scope of Papal infallibility? The exercise of such authority is clearly for the well-being of the Church in the many affairs which need careful ordering. The faithful in visible communion with the Holy See, have everything to gain by this authority (called the ordinary magisterium), even if mistakes sometimes occur in the working as may be expected in an imperfect world. But there is another case to be considered, viz. that of those who accept all that is contained in the Creed of the Council of Trent and yet believe themselves to be prevented from “becoming Roman Catholics” in the full sense of visible communion with the Holy See. There are e.g. some who are called Anglicans who are “Anglican” in nothing whatever except that they receive sacraments which depend on Anglican ordinations; they are Roman Catholics in everything except that they are not officially recognized by the juridical authorities of the Roman Church, and this because they believe ex amimo that Anglican ordinations are valid, whereas Rome rejects that belief. (Everything that has transpired in the Anglican Communion over the last 50 years tends to confirm the position of the Catholic Church that Anglican orders are invalid. The embrace within Anglicanism of sinful sexual practices has been a source of bitter division among Anglicans. The attempted ordination of women is another deviation from the Apostolic Faith that has caused significant tension within the Anglican Communion and offshoot groups.) It is admitted that the Roman rejection of the validity of Anglican ordinations is not an infallible decision of the Holy See, but the deadlock entailed keeps those in question outside the visible Roman unity. Are they, in the terms of the Tridentine Creed, able to say that they “promise true obedience to the Bishop of Rome, Successor of St Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and Vicar of Jesus Christ”? Assuredly they may do so in intention even though their avowal is not received by the Roman Church. They cannot in conscience do less. It is deplorable that they should be deprived of the full benefits of the Church’s ordinary magisterium, but they are within the Church’s unity of baptism and her unity of faith, and, under their claim to the validity of Anglican ordinations, they are within her unity of worship also, though they are outside her unity of government. This deprivation, while its cause remains a matter of conscience does not impair their hope of salvation. They are not wilful rebels who have individually broken away, but unfortunates who find themselves unwillingly involved in a disciplinary deadlock which they did not create. Disciplinary conditions produce a deadlock between truth and unity—between a question of truth (Anglican ordinations) in the realm of conscience, and a question of unity in the realm of government; and the Roman moralists are agreed that conscience must always be obeyed. Moreover, since the Tridentine Creed affirms (Section III) that “ Confirmation and Order cannot be repeated without sacrilege,” it must follow that a person who has received one or both of these sacraments from an Anglican bishop cannot in conscience submit to their repetition from any source, so long as he believes them to be valid. The deadlock continues, but it does not relieve those concerned from the duty of desiring to render obedience to the Vicar of Christ and the authority of the Roman Church, and of not merely desiring but actually rendering such obedience as far as is practicable in a state of exclusion from the visible unity of government. (In 2007, bishops of the Traditional Anglican Church (TAC) signed the Catechism of the Catholic Church and placed it on the altar of the historic Anglican and Catholic Marian shrine, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk. On October 11 that year, Archbishop Hepworth, along with TAC bishops Robert Mercer and Peter Wilkinson, personally delivered the signed documents to then Fr. Augustine Di Noia OP, the CDF’s senior ecumenical theologian, in a meeting arranged by CDF secretary Archbishop Angelo Amato. On November 4, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI issued the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, establishing the Personal Ordinariates as a realization of unity in truth. These Ordinariates, since their creation, have been drawing cradle Catholics, Protestants, and even the unchurched in growing numbers.)