Why do Catholics always talk about the Early Church Fathers (Apostolic Fathers)?[Ecumenical]

the magisterium’s role, very practically, is not to give me the whole picture, but to guide and direct me as I get a WEE bit better and understanding

Well put, MD. thanks for your post.

I'm a convert, and when old friends who are non-Catholics discover I'm now a Catholic, they almost always are surprised and say something like: "Never thought you'd be Catholic, it's so structured" or "so strict" or "authoritarian". I tell them that all churches have to have walls some where or they wouldn't be different from another - and the Catholic Church's walls are the farthest out of any; it's the biggest Church.

I've belonged or attended most all the major Protestant Churches and now I can sometimes see them as taking a piece of the Church, one room maybe, and making it the whole thing.

The Church keeps us from going off on the wrong path, but gives a lot room to explore.

Here are some more quotes

“They [heretics] gather their views from other sources than the Scriptures...We have learned from none others the plan of our salvation, than from those through whom the Gospel has come down to us, which they did at one time proclaim in public, and, at a later period, by the will of God, handed down to us in the Scriptures, to be the ground and pillar of our faith”
- Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.1.1

“I beg of you, my dear brother, to live among these books [scripture], to meditate upon them, to know nothing else, to seek nothing else.”
- Jerome (Letter 53:10)

“There is, brethren, one God, the knowledge of whom we gain from the Holy Scriptures, and from no other source. For just as a man, if he wishes to be skilled in the wisdom of this world, will find himself unable to get at it in any other way than by mastering the dogmas of philosophers, so all of us who wish to practice piety will be unable to learn its practice from any other quarter than the oracles of God. Whatever things, then, the Holy Scripture declare, at these let us look; and whatsoever things they teach, these let us learn; and as the Father wills our belief to be, let us believe; and as He wills the Son to be glorified, let us glorify Him; and as He wills the Holy Spirit to be bestowed, let us receive Him. Not according to our own will, nor according to our own mind, nor yet as using violently those things which are given by God, but even as He has chosen to teach them by the Holy Scriptures, so let us discern them.”
- Hippolytus, Against Noetus, ch 9

“For how can we adopt those things which we do not find in the holy Scriptures?”
- Ambrose (On the Duties of the Clergy, 1:23:102)

“We use Scripture to answer heresy and preceive that it is power and truth.”
- Basil the Great

“Let the inspired Scriptures then be our umpire, and the vote of truth will be given to those whose dogmas are found to agree with the Divine words.”
- Gregory of Nyssa (d.ca, 395) “On the Holy Trinity”, NPNF, p. 327

“We are not content simply because this is the tradition of the Fathers. What is important is that the Fathers followed the meaning of the Scripture.”
- Basil the Great (ca.329–379) On the Holy Spirit, 7.16

“Neither dare one agree with catholic bishops if by chance they err in anything, but the result that their opinion is against the canonical Scriptures of God.”
- Augustine (354–430) De unitate ecclesiae, 10

“For our faith rests on the revelation made to the Prophets and Apostles who wrote the canonical books.”
- Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Summa Theologiae, Question 1, Art. 8

“For among the things that are plainly laid down in Scripture are to be found all matters that concern faith and the manner of life,—to wit, hope and love, of which I have spoken in the previous book. After this, when we have made ourselves to a certain extent familiar with the language of Scripture, we may proceed to open up and investigate the obscure passages, and in doing so draw examples from the plainer expressions to throw light upon the more obscure, and use the evidence of passages about which there is no doubt to remove all hesitation in regard to the doubtful passages.”
- Augustine (On Christian Doctrine, 2:9)

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