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Major Innovations of Vatican II as to its New Ecclesiology
One expects to hear of Vatican II’s major innovations either from the traditionalist critics or “ordain a lady” type liberals, but it was interesting to read this report from the Vatican Information System, which described Cardinal Coccopalmerio’s discussion of the relationship between the 1983 code of canon law (which replaced the 1917 code of canon…
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Why Men Shouldn’t Be Ordained?
I understand the purpose of the top-ten list at this link, identifying supposed reasons that no men should be ordained. That is, the purpose is to take some of the arguments against women’s ordination and try to turn them on their head. Ultimately, the list ends up refocusing us on the real issue why men…
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Maximus the Roman Catholic Confessor?
My friend James Swan posted a short article describing Maximus the Confessor’s view of Rome’s authority. Matthew Bellisario at the Catholic Champion has now posted a response. The material provided by my friend, Mr. Swan, was as follows: 7. They said to him, “And what will you do if the Romans unite with the Byzantines?…
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Defining "Church"
John Bugay’s recent post, “Whatever else the “definition of the word church” contains, it must be purged of Roman conceptions of Rome ” led me to consider this question: Suppose you were to ask one of the apostles to define the term “the church.” Would that definition have any reference to Rome or her bishop?…
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Ecclesiology: the Rule of Elders
How do Scriptures describe the role of elders? There are many aspects. One on which I’ll focus in this post relates to their role as overseers and rulers. This seems to be a challenging part of the Scriptures for those living in Western democracies, in which rule of society tends to be (at least in…
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Steve Ray’s Response to Michael Welton Critiqued
Steve Ray has posted a response to comments made by Michael Welton in Popes and Patriarchs. There is a lot of filler in the response, but Mr. Ray aims to address essentially two issues (1) Basil’s words of dismissal of Rome and (2) Basil’s failure to appeal to the Bishop of Rome as a supreme…
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Carl Trueman’s "Reasons … For Moving Romeward"
No, Carl Trueman isn’t moving Romeward, but he has post listing reasons that he thinks people give for leaving (link to post). But the reasons given for leaving was not exactly the question posed to him. The question posed to him was the reasons that people leave for Rome. Trueman listed a lot of salient…
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The Church Christ Founded
One of Rome’s frequently asserted claims is to be “the church Christ founded.” There are a lot of ways to handle that claim. One way to handle it is to ask, “Would the church Christ founded do what Rome did in Ireland?” (see the Wikileak-enhanced story here). I realize some will simply say, “Yes –…
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Rejecting the Truth with Clement XI
Some of Rome’s rejections of Scriptural truth are more clear than others. One particularly clear set of examples comes from the dogmatic Constitution, “Unigenitus,”dated Sept. 8, 1713, and authorized by Clement XI. I’ve previously posted a full list of the 101 “errors” condemned (link to full list). There many alleged errors identified. I’ve taken the…
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Augustine on the "We Gave You the Scriptures" Argument
One argument that we sometimes hear from Roman Catholic apologists is an argument that Roman Catholicism gave us the Scriptures, in the sense of preserving them for us over the centuries. This claim is, of course, anachronistic (the folks who preserved the Scriptures from the 4th decade to the 4th century, for example, could hardly…