Backed by the Authority of the Church

Over at the Anglo-Catholic, Fr Holliday writes:

“The holy People of God shares also in Christ’s prophetic office,” above all in the supernatural sense of faith that belongs to the whole People, lay and clergy, when it “unfailingly adheres to the faith…once for all delivered to the saints,” and when it deepens its understanding and becomes Christ’s witness in the midst of the world (CCC 785).

These words from the Catechism provide faithful Anglicans with an important reason for availing themselves of the opportunity to restore true communion with the Catholic Church. This reason centers on one word in the last sentence above: “witness.” I have written previously that the crux of the matter that is Anglicanorum Coetibus is nothing less than the Gospel, taking the good news of Jesus Christ to the world. I submit this is not being — and cannot be done — if that good news is disjointed, obfuscated, or ambiguous, and that is exactly what it is when it is presented outside the authoritative teaching office of the Catholic Church. We are reminded in this statement of the Catechism that we share in Christ’s prophetic [teaching] office, and to rightly perform this office our message must be backed by the authority of the Church.

ie, the Gospel can not be separated from the Church..[read the rest]

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