Understanding The Church Catholic: An Apostolic and Dogmatic Treatise
by Fr. E. Sylvester Berry
This book seems to be very much approved of by the Rockem Sockem Reverends.
It can be purchased on Amazon right now, in kindle format, for 99 cents. I think that's a splendid bargain. It is also available for free on Internet Archive.
I'm starting this thread in case there's anything interesting in the book that can be discussed here.
I did, in fact, find something interesting on the very first page. The word Ecclesia is both the Greek and Latin term for Church; and it is derived from a Greek word that means "to call together, or to summon."
The verb form of the word denotes the act of calling together; the noun form is the result of that calling together - namely the assembly of persons who are called.
Thus we may see very clearly, both from the earliest significations of the word Ecclesia, and all proper subsequent developments, that both the notion and the reality of division among the members of the Mystical Body is alien and abhorrent to the very notion of the Church, which is, properly speaking, an assembly.
No Catholic may, for any reason whatsoever, refuse to pray for and work for an end to all divisions. To fail in this duty is sin.
This is something that should be considered in relation to unamsanctam's call to the universal Church to end the divisions and assemble as Ecclesia.
The initiative is firmly grounded on the principle above enunciated; hence one of its constitutive principles is demonstrated.
Furthermore, the same principle underlies another principle which I mentioned somehwere on this forum recently; namely that the objective in calling together an imperfect council is to remove the scourge of individual clerics who usurp the three powers of the Church (ruling, teaching, and sanctifying) - which usurpation is the number one cause of the horrific divisions among otherwise faithful Catholics.
Bp. Roy has used the term 'autocephalous groups' to describe this problem; and he's dead on the money. He affirms that the Church is being poisoned (my parahrase) by the voices of individuals; and can only be healed through the mechanism of a gathering together in the Holy Ghost. He affirms that the voices of individuals must give way to the voice of Ecclesia. This principle rests firmly on the first; hence another constitutive principle is demonstrated.
Topic: Fr. Sylvester Berry: Dogmatic Treatise on the Church (Read 90 times)