Just to make clear a distinction. Magisteriums. Problem word!
Years ago, I met a guy who was running a lay apostolate in the midwest,
and he was gung-ho JPII. He was all JPII-we-love-you in spades.
I heard him talking about the Magisterium this and the Magisterium that. It
became obvious he didn't know what Magisterium is. So I told him. I said,
"Are you aware of what the Magisterium is?" And he replied that it is the
body of bishops who run the Church, especially the College of Cardinals.
And I replied, "Well, sorry to inform you, but you're wrong. The Magisterium
is not a group of people. It is a Latin word that is NEUTER in gender and
as such cannot refer to any group of people. Because if it were people,
it could only be male or female. Now, it can only be female if it is ALL
women or girls or both, but if there is one man or boy included then the
whole must be referred to as masculine. The College of Cardinals would
then be magistri - plural masculine form of magister. But since this word is
singular and neuter, Magisterium is the TEACHING OFFICE of the Church.
It is not the people in the office, but the office itself."
This guy went off the handle and threw a fit, exclaiming that "You hit me
where I LIVE!!" and that kind of thing. I told him, "Go and ask any priest."
As such, the Magisterium refers to the teaching office of the Church throughout
the ages, and this office does not change its doctrine from age to age,
but transmits the same teaching faithfully from one generation to the next.
I mentioned this just today to my priest, and he told me that he has heard
Benedict XVI saying something that he has never heard any pope in the
Church ever say.
He said Benedict XVI spoke of "the Magisterium of Pius XII" -- now what in
the world is that? It's like he's trying to say that a pope owns his personal
Magisterium and it's some kind of shrine to his own SUBJECTIVE OPINIONS.
This is worse than offensive to pious ears. Because it has consequences.
So, when you say "Magisteriums" you are doing two things wrong. First,
the word in its plural form should be Magisterii, not Magisteriums. But there
are not multiple teaching offices in the Church, so the plural form is useless.
That is, of course, unless you are doing the B16 erroneous thing by which
he makes some adaptation of the word for a personal possession of the
various popes, which is bizarre at best and heretical at worst.
Very good point, Neil.
They seem to be using "Magisterium" as a synonym for "Administration" like the Bush Administration or Obama Administration. That is, a synonym for "the group of men running the executive branch of government" including their policies, beliefs, etc.
Sorry I did not respond to this sooner, Matthew, but I just saw it.
The word, Magisterium is a Latin word, neuter in gender and therefore not
human per se, but like a material thing without gender. In Latin, people are
always male or female, and the nouns that describe the people are likewise
either male or female.
The singular male form of this word is Magister, which means teacher. The
plural male form is Magistri. It can refer to a male teacher or a kind of
situation where either a male OR female teacher could be the object in mind,
such as "The post was held by a teacher."
In English teacher is always this way, that either male or female is possible,
but really there is no distinction even for neuter nouns in English, for all
nouns are alike in gender in English. The only exceptions are in regards to
implied gender, such as "man" or "woman" which are nouns. Liberals have
taken this to a new level of connotation with such canards as "male
chauvinist pig." There are nouns longstanding in English that imply feminine
gender and are quite disparaging -- so much so that it does no good for me
to list them here, so I won't do so, so as to avoid scandal on this good
forum. It seems to me that the new liberal bent is at least in some respects
a reaction to this history of discrimination against women in our common
language.
The singular female form of this word is Magistra, which means female
teacher. The plural form is Magistrae.
Returning to the neuter form, Magisterium and Magisterii, my dictionary
shows this to mean directorship, presidency, superintendence; control,
governance; instruction,
magisterium morum = censorship.
So in a secular way, magisterium rather hints at civil authority, and refers
to the office of one person or the power itself of that office. Therefore, it
is not a huge stretch to do as you say - stretch the meaning of the word
into,
"...a synonym for 'Administration' like the Bush Administration or Obama Administration. That is, a synonym for 'the group of men running the executive branch of government' including their policies, beliefs, etc." It is in the typically Teihardian method of morphing words into different
meanings, or, as Bishop Williamson explained in his recent St. Paul MN
conference, like spilling out all the contents of a pharmacy's pill bottles
and then re-filling all the bottles with the random mix of all the pills, such
that the bottles still have the same labels but contain all manner of other
substances.
Magisterium of the Church has NOTHING to do with a political administration,
due to the fact that the latter is highly subject to the subjective realities
in the minds of the people holding office, whereas the Magisterium of
the Church is composed of the collective truth in the teaching office of
the Church, that is, what doctrine and dogma come down to us from
the Apostles, which, was perfectly formed in them by Our Lord Himself
along with the abiding presence and protection of the Holy Ghost.
And the Holy Ghost continues, through the ages, to protect the defined
dogma of the Church, which He does so by means of the Pope infallibly
condemning error.
But today, the pope no longer condemns error. But there are bishops
who go around like a prowling lion seeking whom they may devour, that
condemn Traditional Catholicism instead. There are numerous examples.
In the "good old days" these bishops would be punished by the Holy Office,
but in our age of egalitarianism and false ecuмenism, out of a fear of
error, the Holy See does not condemn error any more. Hopefully this will
change one day, but we are now two whole generations away from
having heard such things from the Vatican. 1950 was the last time any
dogma definition was given, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.