That authority comes from Christ down through the apostles and their successors, the Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops -- then to the priests and finally to the Church -- the Body of Christ -- us.
TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; History; Theology; Click to Add Topic
KEYWORDS: bible; catholic; catholiclist; tradition; Click to Add Keyword
The problem comes down to this. When the “oral” authority conflicts with the plain reading of the “written” authority, the Roman Church has not only gotten the order wrong (oral trumps written), but it has also got this problem of pronouncing anathemas on all who assert that this order is wrong.
The best I can see is that you should just ignore Trent and pretend it isn’t there (pretty much what I see modern Catholics doing, many of whom are fairly evangelical), or tell us it doesn’t really mean what it says.
Just like a plain reading of Scripture creates huge problems for the concept of oral authority, it seems that the history of oral authority does as well......, at least if you don’t want to damn the entire Protestant arm of Christianity.