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To: Wallace T.
As I understand the Catholic position on the Magisterium, the validity of the teaching authority of the Catholic Church is based firstly on Scriptural passages, notably the "binding and loosing" passages in Matthew 16 and 18 where Christ assigned "the keys to the kingdom" to the church.

The teaching authority of the Catholic Church does not come from Scripture; Scripture comes from the Catholic Church. The teaching authority of the Catholic Church comes directly from Christ, who gave authority to the Twelve Apostles (including the keys to Peter), who then gave authority to the bishops whom they ordained.

-A8

622 posted on 12/07/2006 2:56:59 PM PST by adiaireton8 ("There is no greater evil one can suffer than to hate reasonable discourse." - Plato, Phaedo 89d)
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To: adiaireton8

The four Gospels were written within at most 40 years of Jesus' death and resurrection. Thus, they were available within the lifetime at least of some of the Apostles. The Catholic argument for the teaching authority of the church is indeed derived from Scripture, as opposed to oral tradition, which would support the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary, for example. In the Catholic view, both Scripture and tradition derive from God, even if the instrumentality that has defined what is true Scripture (the Four Gospels vs. the Gospel of Thomas) and what is valid tradition (for instance, the tradition that is the basis for the Chalcedonian definition of the Second Person of the Trinity as opposed to the Gnostic tradition that Christ is pure spirit) is the church.


624 posted on 12/07/2006 3:09:28 PM PST by Wallace T.
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