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All Truths Require Assent

"He requires the assent of the mind to all truths without exception. It was thus the duty of all who heard Jesus Christ, if they wished for eternal salvation, not merely to accept His doctrine as a whole, but to assent with their entire mind to all and every point of it, since it is unlawful to withhold faith from God even in regard to one single point." (Pope Leo XIII, "Satis Cognitum", 1896 A.D.)

"If any one does not profess, in accordance with the holy Fathers, properly and truthfully all that has been handed down and taught publicly to the holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church of God, both by the same holy Fathers and the five approved universal councils, to the last detail in word and intention: let him be condemned." (Lateran Council, 649 A.D.)

Also See: Against 'Cafeteria Catholicism' | Error / Truth | One Should Not Be Open Minded to Error | Truth & the Nature of Man | Truth is Unchanging | Infallibility (Vatican View) | Truth (Topical Scripture) 

Can Catholic Dogma Ever Change?

Note: Categories are subjective and may overlap. For more items related to this topic, please review all applicable categories. For more 'Reflections' and for Scripture topics, see links below.

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Error / Truth

"This is the contrivance of the Devil, ever to mix error with truth." (St. John Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church)

"[A] false light...is worse than the very darkness" (Pope Pius VI, "Inscrutabile", 1775 A.D.)

"[Y]ou may, by every fitting means, oppose error by truth" (Pope Pius XI, "Casti Connubii", 1930 A.D.)

"In matters of faith, compromise is in contradiction with God who is Truth." (Pope John Paul II)

"[L]et all be warned and strengthened with special care against wrong principles and false teaching" (Pope Leo XIII, "Rerum Novarum", 1891 A.D.)

"Only those blinded by passion and hatred close their eyes to the light of truth and obstinately struggle against it." (Pope Pius XI, "Divini Redemptoris", 1937 A.D.)

"Those who wage war against the truth are powerless to win; rather, they wound themselves, like those who kick against spikes." (St. John Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church)

"[E]rror can easily be mistaken for truth because of its appearance of truth and can be distinguished from truth only with difficulty in the darkness." (Pope Clement XIII, "In Dominico Agro", 1761 A.D.)

"The thing from which the world suffers from just now more than from any other evil is not the assertion of falsehoods, but the endless and irrepressible repetition of half-truths." (G.K. Chesterton)

"There is only one way of standing in the truth; many and various of not standing in it." [Origen ("the greatest scholar of Christian antiquity" - although he would eventually be excommunicated and be regarded as a heretic), 3rd century A.D.]

"[W]hosoever faileth by weakness or ignorance may perhaps have some excuse before Almighty God; but he who resists the truth through malice and turns away from it, sins most grievously against the Holy Ghost." (Pope Leo XIII, "Divinum Illud Munus", 1897 A.D.)

"[D]iabolical error, when it has artfully colored its lies, easily clothes itself in the likeness of truth while very brief additions or changes corrupt the meaning of expressions; and confession, which usually works salvation, sometimes, with a slight change, inches toward death." (Pope Clement XIII, "In Dominico Agro", 1761 A.D.)

"Revealed truth is alone that whereby men enter into true liberty: Truth will make you free (Jn. viii. 32). Truth alone is able to bind in unity indissoluble with the many minds and wills that make up a nation; powerful is that bond, for it secures strength to a country beyond her frontiers and peace to her within." (Liturgical Year)

"Most mistaken people mean well, and all mistaken people mean something. There is something to be said for every error, but, whatever may be said for it, the most important thing to be said about it is that it is erroneous." (G.K. Chesterton)

"It is not surprising that such discord and error should always have existed outside the fold of Christ. For though, absolutely speaking, human reason by its own natural force and light can arrive at a true and certain knowledge of the one personal God, Who by His providence watches over and governs the world, and also of the natural law, which the Creator has written in our hearts, still there are not a few obstacles to prevent reason from making efficient and fruitful use of its natural ability. The truths that have to do with God and the relations between God and men, completely surpass the sensible order and demand self-surrender and self-abnegation in order to be put into practice and to influence practical life. Now the human intellect, in gaining the knowledge of such truths is hampered both by the activity of the senses and the imagination, and by evil passions arising from original sin. Hence men easily persuade themselves in such matters that what they do not wish to believe is false or at least doubtful. It is for this reason that divine revelation must be considered morally necessary so that those religious and moral truths which are not of their nature beyond the reach of reason in the present condition of the human race, may be known by all mean readily with a firm certainty and with freedom from all error." (Pope Pius XII, "Humani Generis", 1950 A.D.)

"Protestantism was established and rooted by the shedding of torrents of blood; and yet Protestants count it as a great crime that, here and there, the children of the true Church made an armed resistance against them. The heresy of the sixteenth century was the cruel and untiring persecutor of men, whose only crime was their adhesion to the old faith - the faith that had civilized the world. The so-called Reformation proclaimed liberty in matters of religion, and massacred Catholics who exercised this liberty, and prayed and believed as their ancestors had done for long ages before Luther and Calvin were born. A Catholic who gives heretics credit for sincerity when they talk about religious toleration, proves that he knows nothing of either the past or the present. There is a fatal instinct in error, which leads it to hate the Truth; and the true Church, by its unchangeableness, is a perpetual reproach to them that refuse to be her children. Heresy starts with an attempt to annihilate them that remain faithful; when it has grown tired of open persecution it vents its spleen in insults and calumnies; and when these do not produce the desired effect, hypocrisy comes in with its assurances of friendly forbearance. The history of Protestant Europe, during the last three centuries, confirms these statements; it also justifies us in honoring those courageous servants of God who, during that same period, have died for the ancient faith." (Gueranger, 19th Century A.D.)

"Protector of the Christian people! What other motive hadst thou, in all thy labors, but charity? What else but a desire to defend the weak from danger induced thee not only to preach against error, but to drive its teachers from the flock? How many simple souls, who were receiving divine truth from the teaching of the Church, have been deceived by the lying sophistry of heretical doctrine, and have lost the faith? Surely the Church would do her utmost to ward off such dangers from her children; she would do all she could to defend them from enemies, who were bent on destroying the glorious inheritance which had been handed down to them by millions of martyrs! She knew the strange tendency that often exists in the heart of fallen man to love error; whereas truth, though of itself unchanging, is not sure of its remaining firmly in the mind, unless it be defended by learning or by faith. As to learning, there are but few who possess it; and as to faith, error is ever conspiring against it, and, of course, with the appearance of truth. In the Christian ages it would have been deemed not only criminal, but absurd, to grant to error the liberty which is due only to truth; and they that were in authority considered it a duty to keep the weak from danger, by removing from them all occasions of a fall; just as the father of a family keeps his children from coming into contact with wicked companions who could easily impose on their inexperience, and lead them to evil under the name of good." (Gueranger)

"Nothingness can have no rights since it has no existence. It is impossible for a thing which does not exist to have any rights. Therefore to attribute rights to a non-existent entity is an injustice. But what are you doing if you attribute rights to error except attributing them to a non-existent entity? It is enough to consider what truth and error are in order to understand this. Truth is found in the intellect in the measure in which the intellect is in exact conformity with reality. When the intellect has an idea which is not in conformity with reality, then we have an error. But what is really happening in such a case? I have in my mind the idea of something as if this thing formed part of the order of being. I attribute it rights in my mind, as if it were portion of the divine scheme of things. But it is not so in reality. In point of fact it is a baseless creation of my own mind. How can I take as the foundation of my life and of my actions a 'reality' which is no reality? What can be the outcome of such an aberration? Precisely what happens in the case of any structure raised without foundation. If I take as a basis for my life and action an idea of my own to which nothing real or objective corresponds the whole intellectual and social edifice I raise on that basis is of necessity bound to crumble. There can be no other solid foundation for action and life than an objective reality. This then is why truth alone has the right to exist in the individual and in the social order. From no point of view can error claim this right. When it gets a footing in a mind or among the multitude, it usurps rights not belonging to it, it is unjust. Evil is the privation of the being and goodness due to a thing. Now error is the specific evil of the intelligence, the privation of the grasp of the order of the world which the intelligence is meant to have. It is a malady to be cured, a disease to be healed, a cancer to be eradicated, not a perfection to be extolled and proclaimed worthy of respect... Our Lord came down to restore the Divine Life of Grace to the human race and to each individual in it. For this end He revealed truth to the world. This truth belongs to Him in virtue of His divine right and also in virtue of His work of redemption. If this truth belongs to Him and is given to the world by Him in a well-defined sense and for a very definite purpose, then to ruin or lessen it is to commit an injustice. It is to sacrifice the rights of Jesus Christ... Certainly there is no place for anything but truth." (Fahey)

"The faithful - especially those who are simple or uncultivated - should be kept away from dangerous and narrow paths upon which they can hardly set foot without faltering. The sheep should not be led to pasture through trackless places. Nor should peculiar ideas - even those of Catholic scholars - be proposed to them. Rather, only those ideas should be communicated which are definitely marked as Catholic truth by their universality, antiquity, and harmony. Besides, since the crowd cannot go up to the mountain upon which the glory of the Lord came down, and if whoever crosses the boundaries to see will die, the teachers of the people should establish boundaries around them so that no word strays beyond that which is necessary or useful for salvation. The faithful should obey the apostolic advice not to know more than is necessary, but to know in moderation. The popes clearly understood this. They devoted all their efforts not only to cut short with the sword of anathema the poisonous buds of growing error, but also to cut away certain developing ideas which either could prevent the Christian people unnecessarily from bearing a greater fruit of faith or could harm the minds of the faithful by their proximity to error. So the Council of Trent condemned those heresies which tried at that time to dim the light of the Church and which led Catholic truth into a clearer light as if the cloud of errors had been dispersed... There are aspects of their action worthy of special praise. In it they compiled the teaching which is common to the whole Church and which is far removed from every danger of error, and they proposed to transmit it openly to the faithful in very eloquent words according to the precept of Christ the Lord who told the apostles to proclaim in the light what He had said in the dark and to proclaim from the rooftops what they heard in secret. They have obeyed His bride, the Church, whose words are, 'Show me where you recline at midday.' For where it is not midday and the light is not so bright that truth can be clearly known, error can easily be mistaken for truth because of its appearance of truth and can be distinguished from truth only with difficulty in the darkness. They knew that there were before and would again be people who attract those who seek food by the promise of more abundant pastures of wisdom and knowledge and that many people would come to those pastures because stolen waters are sweeter and hidden bread more delightful. Therefore, in case the Church should be deceived and wander after the flocks of the companions who are themselves wanderers and unsettled with no certainty of truth, who are always learning but never arriving at the knowledge of truth, they proposed that only what is necessary and very useful for salvation be clearly and plainly explained in the Roman Catechism and communicated to the faithful." (Pope Clement XIII, "In Dominico Agro", 1761 A.D.)

"Wherefore, as appears from what has been said, Christ instituted in the Church a living, authoritative and permanent Magisterium, which by His own power He strengthened, by the Spirit of truth He taught, and by miracles confirmed. He willed and ordered, under the gravest penalties, that its teachings should be received as if they were His own. As often, therefore, as it is declared on the authority of this teaching that this or that is contained in the deposit of divine revelation, it must be believed by every one as true. If it could in any way be false, an evident contradiction follows; for then God Himself would be the author of error in man. 'Lord, if we be in error, we are being deceived by Thee' (Richardus de S. Victore, De Trin., lib. i., cap. 2). In this wise, all cause for doubting being removed, can it be lawful for anyone to reject any one of those truths without by the very fact falling into heresy? Without separating himself from the Church? Without repudiating in one sweeping act the whole of Christian teaching? For such is the nature of faith that nothing can be more absurd than to accept some things and reject others. Faith, as the Church teaches, is 'that supernatural virtue by which, through the help of God and through the assistance of His grace, we believe what he has revealed to be true, not on account of the intrinsic truth perceived by the natural light of reason, but because of the authority of God Himself, the Revealer, who can neither deceive nor be deceived' (Conc. Vat., Sess. iii., cap. 3). If then it be certain that anything is revealed by God, and this is not believed, then nothing whatever is believed by divine Faith: for what the Apostle St. James judges to be the effect of a moral delinquency, the same is to be said of an erroneous opinion in the matter of faith. 'Whosoever shall offend in one point, is become guilty of all' (Ep. James ii., 10). Nay, it applies with greater force to an erroneous opinion. For it can be said with less truth that every law is violated by one who commits a single sin, since it may be that he only virtually despises the majesty of God the Legislator. But he who dissents even in one point from divinely revealed truth absolutely rejects all faith, since he thereby refuses to honor God as the supreme truth and the formal motive of faith. 'In many things they are with me, in a few things not with me; but in those few things in which they are not with me the many things in which they are will not profit them' (S. Augustinus in Psal. liv., n. 19). And this indeed most deservedly; for they, who take from Christian doctrine what they please, lean on their own judgments, not on faith; and not 'bringing into captivity every understanding unto the obedience of Christ' (2 Cor. x., 5), they more truly obey themselves than God. 'You, who believe what you like, believe yourselves rather than the gospel' (S. Augustinus, lib. xvii., Contra Faustum Manichaeum, cap. 3)." (Pope Leo XIII, "Satis Cognitum", 1896 A.D.)

Also See: Truth & the Nature of Man | All Truths Require Assent | Truth is Unchanging | Heresy/Heretics & Schism/Schismatics | Infallibility (Vatican View) | Truth (Topical Scripture)

Note: Categories are subjective and may overlap. For more items related to this topic, please review all applicable categories. For more 'Reflections' and for Scripture topics, see links below.

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False Opinions Influence / Pervert Actions

"Since it is in the very nature of man to follow the guide of reason to his actions, if his intellect sins at all, his will soon follows; and thus it happens that false opinions, whose seat is in the understanding, influence human actions and pervert them." (Pope Leo XIII)

Also See: Duty to Reject Strange Doctrine | Error / Truth | Heresy/Heretics & Schism/Schismatics | One Should Not Be Open Minded to Error | Ignorance | Personal Interpretation of Scripture / Rejection of Truth | Those Who Make Scripture Mean What They Want it to Mean | Truth & the Nature of Man | Truth (Topical Scripture) | Heresy / Error (Topical Scripture)

Note: Categories are subjective and may overlap. For more items related to this topic, please review all applicable categories. For more 'Reflections' and for Scripture topics, see links below.

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One Should Not Be Open Minded to Error

"It must be said once and for all: it is self-contradictory to be open-minded to error. It is like praising a susceptibility for disease as a particular sign of health. No, only the truth makes us free and lets us participate in real universality. It is a special sign of this freedom and universality, and of open-mindedness, to be immune to error, especially to philosophical and metaphysical error, and pre-eminently to heresy, to any teaching incompatible with the divine Revelation of Christ." (Von Hildebrand)

Also See: Duty to Reject Strange Doctrine | Against Human 'Progress' in Religion | Error / Truth | False Opinions Influence / Pervert Actions | Gospel Doesn't Support False Tolerance | Heresy/Heretics & Schism/Schismatics | Truth & the Nature of Man | Infallibility (Vatican View) | Truth (Topical Scripture) | Heresy / Error (Topical Scripture)

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Those Who Do Not Wish To See / Hear

"There are none so blind as those who do not wish to see and none so deaf as those who do not wish to hear." (Davies)

Also See: Doing Our Own Will Rather Than God's Will | No Repentance is Too Late | Sins / Sinners | Some Considering Their Deserved Punishment Would Prefer That There Be Nothing After Death | Some Don't Want To Convert Because They Want to Continue in Their Sinful Ways | Those Not Following Christ / Those Not of Christ | Those Who Mention Only Jesus' Clemency | Truth & the Nature of Man | Tough Love in the New Testament

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Truth & the Nature of Man

"People hate the truth for the sake of whatever it is they love more than the truth. They love truth when it shines warmly on them, and hate it when it rebukes them." (St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church)

"Man's nature is such that truth tastes bitter and pleasant vices are esteemed." (St. Jerome, Doctor of the Church)

"The discord and departure from truth on the part of the human race in religious and moral affairs have always been a source and a cause of very painful grief to all good men, and especially to the faithful and sincere sons of the Church, and more than ever today when we perceive the very principles of Christian culture offended on all sides. Indeed, it is no wonder that such discord and wandering have always flourished outside the fold of Christ. For although human reason, speaking simply, by its natural powers and light can in fact arrive at true and certain knowledge of one personal God who in His providence guards and directs the world, and also of the natural law infused into our souls by the Creator, nevertheless, not a few obstacles prevent man's reason from efficaciously and fruitfully using this natural faculty which it possesses. For matters which pertain to God and have to do with relationships between men and God, are truths which completely transcend the order of sensible things, and, when they are introduced into the action of life and shape it, demand devotion of self and self-abnegation. The human intellect, moreover, in acquiring such truths labors with difficulty not only on account of the impulse of the depraved senses and the imagination, but also of the desires which have their source in original sin. Therefore it happens that men in matters of this kind easily persuade themselves that what they do not wish to be true, are false or at least doubtful. For this reason divine 'revelation' must be considered morally necessary, in order that those truths, which in the realm of religion and morals are not of themselves beyond the scope of reason, yet in the present condition of the human race, may be readily grasped by all with strong certitude and with no admixture of error. Yet on the other hand the human mind can sometimes experience difficulties in forming a certain judgment 'of credibility' about the Catholic faith, although so many wonderful external signs have been disposed by God, through which, even by the natural light of reason alone, the divine origin of the Christian religion can be proven with certainty. For man, whether induced by prejudiced opinions or instigated by desires and evil will, can refuse and resist not only the evidence of external signs, which is pre-eminent, but also the supernal inspirations which God brings into our hearts. Anyone who observes those who are outside the fold of Christ, can easily see the chief ways upon which many learned men have entered." (Pope Pius XII, "Humani generis", August 12, 1950 A.D.)

Also See: Error / Truth | Truth (Topical Scripture)

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Truth is Unchanging

"[Truth] cannot change from day to day." (Pope Pius XII)

Also See: Against Human 'Progress' in Religion | Error / Truth | Popes as Preservers of Tradition / Against New Doctrines (Vatican View Reflections) | Infallibility (Vatican View) | Truth (Topical Scripture) | Unchanging (Topical Scripture) 

Can Catholic Dogma Ever Change?

Note: Categories are subjective and may overlap. For more items related to this topic, please review all applicable categories. For more 'Reflections' and for Scripture topics, see links below.

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