Intentions of the Pope
The intentions of the Supreme Pontiff are: the exaltation of Holy Mother Church, the extirpation (overcoming) of heresies, propagation of the Faith, the conversion of sinners and peace among Christian nations. Unless specific prayers are prescribed for the Pope's intentions, any vocal prayers may be used. Rejoice, O Virgin Mary: Thou hast trampled down all heresies in the whole world. (Antiphon 7 at Matins on most feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary)Intentions of the Pope for May 2006: That the Blessed Virgin Mary may soon eradicate heresy from the Earth.Updates and Breaking News
News Release
May 2, 2006; Saint Athanasius
Sirianists are NOT Scholastics
One popular Trad site has come to the defense of the Siri crowd, promoting its main apologist as a "scholastic." Did someone dispute this, that such a defense was necessary in the first place?
Unless the philosophical system of St. Thomas Aquinas has been redefined by those outside the Church, Scholastic theology remains the same today as it was at the close of Pope Pius XII's reign. It is a system of deductive reasoning from the truths of faith as defined by the continual magisterium and the various discussions of scholastic theologians. Those arguments deduced from natural reason, philosophers following natural reason or ("trustworthy" — Bp. Melchior Cano) historians chronicling the history of the Church and national tradition are the three last sources on Cano's list. But the Siranists do not even attempt to argue from these.
In fact here is no evidence that any attempt to reason scholastically from the primary sources listed by Cano — and used since the 1600s to determine theological procedure — is made at all by those promoting Siri as Pope. Commenting on Cano's "loci theologici," which is featured on the sidebar of this site, Rev. J.C. Fenton, Professor at the Catholic University of America in the 1950s wrote: "Cano...adverted explicitly to the fact that sacred theology, unlike any other science naturally obtainable by man, makes its supreme appeal to authority rather than to the evidence of the matter with which it is concerned," (The Concept of Sacred Theology, Rev. J.C. Fenton, 1941).
Since no other theological method save scholasticism is used by the Church, Rev. Fenton directly refers here to scholastic theology. He divides it into two categories: fundamental or special. Fundamental theology treats "those conclusions which have to do with the body of Divine revelation itself...while special theology considers the individual doctrines which go to compose the message which God has given to the world through Jesus Christ our Lord," (Ibid).
Where can one find the exposition of these doctrines on the sites of the Sirianists? Private prophecy, media hype and other secular proofs do not appeal to the authority of the Church teaching throughout the ages, (unless one wishes to include the testimony of heretical NO "authorities" as Catholic). The determination of who is the true Pope lies demonstrably in the realm of dogmatic facts. It therefore clearly lies outside the matter of merely factual evidence, since it must be determined by and be in agreement with dogma.
St. Thomas clearly taught that theology and philosophy are two separate sciences, "yet ...they agree. They are distinct because...philosophy relies on reason alone, theology uses the truths derived from revelation, and also because there are some truths, the mysteries of Faith which belong [only] to theology. They must agree because God is the author of all truth, and it is impossible to think that He would teach in the natural order anything that would contradict what He teaches in the supernatural order. The recognition of these principles is the crowning achievement of Scholasticism," (Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XIII).
To claim someone uses Scholasticism in dealing with merely factual evidence outside the necessary theological proofs is to falsely assert that such facts are equal to the doctrinal evidence required and mandated by the Church Herself. It is a devious attempt to split theology from philosophy, when the two must agree. Truth IS One, while error is many. Those who pretend otherwise neither serve "veritas," nor even understand the purpose for its existence.
