POPE FRANCIS CLARIFYING THE TRUE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH AND WHO HOLDS THAT AUTHORITY AND IN DOING SO CLARIFYING CATHOLIC IDENTITY OF BISHOPS, PRIESTS, RELIGIOUS AND LAITY AND IT IS SUMMED UP IN ONE WORD "MAGISTERIUM!"

Ever since becoming the Bishop of Rome, Pope Francis has emphasized again and again the authentic teaching authority of the Church what is called the Magisterium.

He did so at the meeting of the Pontifical Biblical Commission shortly after his election and told biblical theologians that their ministry in the Church was to be faithful the the Deposit of Faith of the Catholic Church and not dilute it with their own personal ideologies and careerism as theologians in the Church. They are not to make a name for themselves contradicting the sure and certain faith of the Church because in doing so they create great damage to the Church.

The Holy Father Francis insisted that they be obedient to the Magisterium of the Church, the Bishops in union with the Bishop of Rome and in union with the Deposit of Faith handed down from the earliest days of the Church and clarified at Vatican II.

Then the Holy Father Francis, Bishop of Rome, spoke to the Religious Sisters gathered in Rome and told them the same. They are to be obedient to the Bishop of Rome and the pastors of the Church (bishops) in the areas of faith, morals and canon law. They are to find their identity in the Magisterium of the Church who interprets their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

The Holy Father could not have been any clearer when he emphatically insisted to these religious sisters the following:

“Your vocation is a fundamental charism for the Church's journey and it isn't possible that a consecrated woman or man might 'feel' themselves not to be with the Church. A 'feeling' with the Church that has generated us in Baptism; a 'feeling' with the Church that finds its filial expression in fidelity to the Magisterium, in communion with the Bishops and the Successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome, a visible sign of that unity,” the pontiff added, citing Paul VI: “It is an absurd dichotomy to think of living with Jesus but without the Church, of following Jesus outside of the Church, of loving Jesus without loving the Church. Feel the responsibility that you have of caring for the formation of your Institutes in sound Church doctrine, in love of the Church, and in an ecclesial spirit.”

The Holy Father, Francis, the Bishop of Rome knows that in the Church since the Vatican Council have been those voices wanting to usurp the authority of the legitimate Magisterium of the Church. I know this for a fact as I was in the seminary in the 1970's and it was spoken aloud by the theologians teaching us that theologians should be considered the "loyal opposition" to the bishops of the Church, to the legitimate Magisterium and they push their careers and bogus authority on unwitting seminarians (not me, I never bought it!). They are the ideologues that Pope Francis speaks of, the intellectuals of the Church who know nothing!

But then everyone in the Church of the 1970's and "What's happening Now" thought themselves to be superior to the mean old men in the Vatican and those bishops around the world who are know-nothings. Religious sisters of the more radical persuasion corrupted and perverted by radical feminism alien to the Magisterium of the Church pushed their ungodly and post-Catholic agenda on a world that up until that time respected the teaching authority of nuns in all our educational institutions. But prior to this corruption they were in sync with the Magisterium and many thought they still were when they were shoving down the throats of the unsuspecting Church their perverted post-Catholic theology. Some have described this large cabal of post Catholic ultra radical feminist nuns who tend to hate men as the "magisterium of nuns." Of course their self-asserted authority is completely bogus as is the self-asserted authority of the theologians who described themselves as the "loyal opposition" of the authentic Magisterium of the Church.

Father William Most wrote the following brief description of what the Magisterium is and how theologians were corrupting it with their pseudo magisterium in 1990:

The Magisterium or Teaching Authority of the Church

by Fr. William G. Most

By the Magisterium we mean the teaching office of the Church. It consists of the Pope and Bishops. Christ promised to protect the teaching of the Church : "He who hears you, hears me; he who rejects your rejects me, he who rejects me, rejects Him who sent me" (Luke 10. 16). Now of course the promise of Christ cannot fail: hence when the Church presents some doctrine as definitive or final, it comes under this protection, it cannot be in error; in other words, it is infallible. This is true even if the Church does not use the solemn ceremony of definition. The day to day teaching of the Church throughout the world, when the Bishops are in union with each other and with the Pope, and present something as definitive, this is infallible. (Vatican II, Lumen gentium # 25). It was precisely by the use of that authority that Vatican I was able to define that the Pope alone, when speaking as such and making things definitive, is also infallible. Of course this infallibility covers also teaching on what morality requires, for that is needed for salvation.

A "theologian" who would claim he needs to be able to ignore the Magisterium in order to find the truth is strangely perverse: the teaching of the Magisterium is the prime, God-given means of finding the truth. Nor could he claim academic freedom lets him contradict the Church. In any field of knowledge, academic freedom belongs only to a properly qualified professor teaching in his own field. But one is not properly qualified if he does not use the correct method of working in his field, e.g., a science professor who would want to go back to medieval methods would be laughed off campus, not protected. Now in Catholic theology , the correct method is to study the sources of revelation, but then give the final word to the Church. He who does not follow that method is not a qualified Catholic theologian. Vatican II taught (Dei Verbum # 10): "The task of authoritatively interpreting the word of God, whether written or handed on [Scripture or Tradition], has been entrusted exclusively to the living Magisterium of the Church, whose authority is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ."

My final comments: The Holy Father knows that in radical convents, monasteries, institutions of higher learning in the Catholic world, there are those who continue to contradict the Magisterium of the Church and try as hard as they can to have an authority above the legitimate Magisterium. They do so in the following ways, striving to corrupt the youthful minds of Catholics who listen to their perverse ideologies:

1. Natural Law is dead, artificial birth control is allowed, same sex relationships and opposite sex relationships are fine (fornication) and same sex marriage should be allowed in society and the Church.

2. Natural Law is ignored as they promote a radical feminist theology that seeks the ordination of women and the overthrowing of the traditional sacramental principles of the Church and the authority of the Patriarchal Magisterium of the Church.

This is really sad, but these perverse careerists in these institutions of higher learning and in convents and monasteries have their own divisive agenda and support splinter groups in the Church that promote heresy and division, such as renegade priests in Ireland, Austria and elsewhere not to mention radical women religious promoting their post-Catholic feminist new age Church of what's happening now.

There are sympathizers with these radical, heretical Catholics who think they are right and should be given an ear. The only bridge that Pope Francis is building for them to cross over is to the actual truths of the Church and her living Magisterium!