Saint Thomas Aquinas Confessor, Doctor of the Church,1226-1274

EWTN ^ | 00/00/00 | John J. Crawley & Co.Inc Publisher;"Lives Of Saints"

[pseudo-justin]

I heard a homily yesterday on St. Thomas that went something like this:

"In his own day, St. Thomas was controversial for synthesizing Aristotle with the Catholic faith. His writings were condemned by the Church for almost a hundred years, or for some long period of time, and he is an example of how to be creative in one's theology. Just like today, people are afraid when Catholics engage in New Age spirituality. I grew up in a time when all we did was study Thomas, and the Church was closed to the outside world. Fortunately, that has changed a little bit. Let St. Thomas be our example."

This homily was given by a Jesuit who seems to have forgotten St. Ignatius' rule for thinking with the Church: "Even if it seems to me to be white, I will believe it to be black if the hierarchical Church thus determines it"

This pernicious use of St. Thomas refuted forthwith:

1.St. Thomas' writings were never censored by Rome.

2.At first, several propositions were censored by the Archbishop of Paris, and then only two of the theses were fairly attributed to St. Thomas.

3. Later, when St. Thomas writings were forbidden by the local Bishops of Paris and Canterbury, it was, in both cases, at the urging of disgruntled theologians on the faculty, e.g. Franciscans at Paris.

4. St. Thomas did not just read Aristotle and absorb it uncritically, but refuted many things Aristotle thought to be the case.

5. St. Thomas is known to have said, before he died, "I submit all my writings to the better judgment of the Church"

6. His family eventually went bankrupt due to its staunch fidelity to the Papacy in the controversies between the papacy and Frederick.

7. St. Thomas writes: "Accordingly, certain doctors seem to have differed either in matters the holding of which in this or that way is of no consequence, so far as faith is concerned, or even in matters of faith, which were not as yet defined by the Church; although if anyone were obstinately to deny them after they had been defined by the authority of the universal Church, he would be deemed a heretic. This authority resides chiefly in the Sovereign Pontiff. ST II-II,q.11.a2,ad3

8. Concerning New Age spirituality, the Soveriegn Pontiff John Paul II laments the many Catholics who are "unaware of the incomaptibility between these ideas with the Church's faith" Address to U.S. Bishops, May 28, 1993

[JMJ333]

Thanks PJ. :)

[JMJ333]

bttt! :)

[Desdemona]

8. Concerning New Age spirituality, the Soveriegn Pontiff John Paul II laments the many Catholics who are "unaware of the incomaptibility between these ideas with the Church's faith" Address to U.S. Bishops, May 28, 1993

Thanks

[nickcarraway]

Yikes! Where was this?

[TotusTuus]

3. Later, when St. Thomas writings were forbidden by the local Bishops of Paris and Canterbury, it was, in both cases, at the urging of disgruntled theologians on the faculty, e.g. Franciscans at Paris.

Didn't the bishop of Paris at one point put the "Dumb Ox", his master St. Albert the Great, and the Franciscan St. Bonaventure, on trial for heresy? Mud-slinging purpose, for sure. Three of the greatest minds the Church, or world, has ever known....

[Lady In Blue]

Thanks,Siobhan!

[Lady In Blue]

Thanks for the bump.

[Lady In Blue]

Thanks for the info on the "Just War Theory." I've heard of it but I wasn't aware that it was from St Thomas.BTW, love the beautiful pictures that you posted!

[Lady In Blue]

Thanks for the correction to the "opinions" of that Jesuit! Did you get a chance to talk to that father,afterwards? Amazing!

[Salvation]

This thread is a storehouse of knowledge!

[Salvation]

BTTT on the Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas, priest and doctor of the Church, January 28, 2005!

[Salvation]

American Cathlic's Saint of the Day

January 28, 2005

St. Thomas Aquinas

(1225-1274)

By universal consent Thomas Aquinas is the preeminent spokesman of the Catholic tradition of reason and of divine revelation. He is one of the great teachers of the medieval Catholic Church, honored with the titles Doctor of the Church and Angelic Doctor.

At five he was given to the Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino in his parents’ hopes that he would choose that way of life and later become abbot. In 1239 he was sent to Naples to complete his studies. It was here that he was first attracted to Aristotle’s philosophy.

By 1243, Thomas abandoned his family’s plans for him and joined the Dominicans, much to his mother’s dismay. On her order, Thomas was captured by his brother and kept at home for over a year.

Once free, he went to Paris and then to Cologne, where he finished his studies with Albert the Great. He held two professorships at Paris, lived at the court of Pope Urban IV, directed the Dominican schools at Rome and Viterbo, combated adversaries of the mendicants, as well as the Averroists, and argued with some Franciscans about Aristotelianism.

His greatest contribution to the Catholic Church is his writings. The unity, harmony and continuity of faith and reason, of revealed and natural human knowledge, pervades his writings. One might expect Thomas, as a man of the gospel, to be an ardent defender of revealed truth. But he was broad enough, deep enough, to see the whole natural order as coming from God the Creator, and to see reason as a divine gift to be highly cherished.

The Summa Theologiae, his last and, unfortunately, uncompleted work, deals with the whole of Catholic theology. He stopped work on it after celebrating Mass on December 6, 1273. When asked why he stopped writing, he replied, “I cannot go on.... All that I have written seems to me like so much straw compared to what I have seen and what has been revealed to me.” He died March 7, 1274.

Comment:

We can look to Thomas Aquinas as a towering example of Catholicism in the sense of broadness, universality and inclusiveness. We should be determined anew to exercise the divine gift of reason in us, our power to know, learn and understand. At the same time we should thank God for the gift of his revelation, especially in Jesus Christ.

Quote:

“Hence we must say that for the knowledge of any truth whatsoever man needs divine help, that the intellect may be moved by God to its act. But he does not need a new light added to his natural light, in order to know the truth in all things, but only in some that surpasses his natural knowledge” (Summa Theologiae, I-II, 109, 1).

[Salvation]

Saint of the Day Ping!

Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Saint of the Day Ping List.

[Smartass]

THANKS FOR     THE PING!

[nickcarraway]

BUMP

[Ciexyz]

Prayers offered up for safe elections in Iraq, and the safety of our soldiers.

[Ciexyz]

Prayers offered up to the Lord for the safety of our troops in Iraq at this critical time.

[Salvation]

Thank you for stopping by to read about St. Thomas Aquinas.

[Salvation]

Amen to both of those prayers!