Why Protestants are not Roman Catholic

Last updated on: October 12, 2011 at 11:25 am by Scot McKnight

Why Protestants are not Roman Catholic 2011-10-08T06:28:08-05:00 Scot McKnight

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Here is a major difference between Protestants (sola scriptura, even as prima scriptura) and Catholics, from the CNA:

On Oct. 3, Cardinal Piacenza gave an address to seminarians titled, “The Word of God in the Life of the Priest,” in which he meditated on the apostolic exhortation “Verbum Domini.”

Speaking in Spanish, he explained the importance of the Second Vatican Council for the life of the Catholic Church and that it should not be viewed as a break with the past. “It is always good to recall that the only authentic hermeneutic of the great conciliar event is that of continuity and reform.”

“There are not two Catholic Churches, one pre-counciliar and one post-counciliar. If that were the case, the latter would be illegitimate.”

Cardinal Piacenza said that this perspective is essential for understanding the function of Sacred Scripture in the life of every priest. The Word of God, he said, “is a person and not a book. It is necessary to recognize that when it comes to the writings from which it is inspired, Christianity maintains a unique relationship that no other religious tradition can have.”

These Scriptures, he said, cannot be separated from tradition. “It is never licit to separate Scripture from tradition, just as it is never licit to separate them from the interpretation that the Magisterium of the Church gives and has given them. These kinds of separations always entail very grave spiritual and pastoral consequences.”

“Scripture without tradition would be an historical book, and history tells us what others think, while Theology seeks to tell us about God.”

“The triptych of Scripture-Tradition-Magisterium, from the strictly historical point of view, should really be configured as: Tradition, understood as the place in which Scripture is brought forth, Scripture and tradition linked to Scripture; and everything authoritatively interpreted by the Magisterium, that is, by the legitimate successors of the apostles,” the cardinal explained.

This kind of configuration wisely prevents “illegitimate” one-sidedness. In order to read, know and follow the Sacred Scriptures, a priest should read them always taking into account the pneumatic aspect, that is, the essential participation of the Holy Spirit. “If Christ is the fullness of revelation and the entire existence of Christ is in the Spirit, then revelation itself is a pneumatic event: the Spirit animates tradition, the Spirit inspires Scripture and the Spirit guides the Magisterium in the task of authoritatively interpreting Scripture and tradition,” the cardinal said.

He underscored that in reading the Scriptures in the Spirit, “any focus that is merely positivist or limited to historicism and that does not allow for the understanding of the real meaning of the text should be avoided. If we approach the Scriptures overlooking their pneumatic dimension, they end up saying nothing, and instead of talking to us about God and making us hear his voice, they simply narrate a story.”

After underscoring the importance of the Liturgy of the Hours in the life of the priest, Cardinal Piacenza explained that because of the ministry entrusted to them, priests are not just “hearers of the Word, like the rest of our brothers and sisters, but also its authorized proclaimers and interpreters.” For this reason, he added, “(w)e cannot proclaim what we do not know and have not made our own; consequently, the possibility to proclaim is structurally linked to knowledge of the Scriptures and familiarity and identification with the thinking of Christ.”

No “mechanism” for this process exists, he said, but only a profound interior life that allows us to make Christ and his message alive for the transforming of everyday culture. “Nothing creates culture like the proclamation of the Word. In other words, it creates a new way of envisioning life, relationships, society and even politics. The more evangelical this new way is, the more we discover how deeply and surprisingly it corresponds to the human heart,” the cardinal said.

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