by Thomas Pink
This is the first part of a three-part series. Parts two and three are available here and here respectively.
1. Vatican II and theological crisis in the Church
Leo XIII’s magisterial teaching in Immortale Dei is clear. The gospel requires that the state recognize the truth of Catholicism and unite to the Church in a single Christian community as body to the Church’s soul, legally privileging Catholicism as the true religion.[1] This magisterial teaching is now generally rejected within the Church—not in opposing magisterial teaching but through what I shall refer to as official theology. Official statements that do not themselves carry any magisterial authority—that come from office-holders within the Church but which merely express a prevailing theological opinion – constantly suggest, against Leo XIII, that the true ideal is for the state to be separate from the Church and to remain effectively neutral in matters of religion. Continue reading “Vatican II and Crisis in the Theology of Baptism: Part I”
