Previous reflections   The 16 Documents of Vatican II Resolution  


Reflection
 28:  Article 12 of  THE DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH
 


                                       LUMEN GENTIUM
, 1964 

Jesus was a prophet, priest and king.
All the members of his family share in his prophetic work

By living a life of faith and charity,
each member of the family is a witness to Jesus

Since Jesus has consecrated his family in the truth,
and given them the Holy Spirit of Truth,
they are guaranteed by Jesus not to be mistaken
when they all agree together about the life of faith

The successors of the apostles,
the bishops, with the pope,
are the mouthpiece of the family
in the understanding and expression of truth

If the bishops and pope go one way,
and the people another way,
neither can claim to be expressing the truth

It's the pope, bishops and people all together
who have been given the gift of being able to "sniff" the truth

The term "papal infallibility"
and the way the "doctrine" of "papal infallibility" was
rushed through Vatican Council One
make many people hope
that a better way can be found
of expressing the gift of "inerrancy"
given by Jesus to the Church

Jesus, please help the Church,
your spiritual family,
better understand
your gift of "inerrancy"

HTML Comment Box is loading comments...