Sep 9 Sat
Fidelity to the Truth and Doctrinal Development
In a recent interview, Pope Francis invoked St. Vincent of Lérins in relation to the concept of doctrinal development. Vincent of Lérins was a French monk who lived in the early 400s. He wrote the Commonitories (meaning “warnings”).
He set before himself the task of determining how to distinguish the true Catholic faith from heresies, writing:
“With great zeal and full attention, I often inquired from many men, outstanding in sanctity and doctrinal knowledge, how, in a concise and, so to speak, general and ordinary way, I might be able to discern the truth of the Catholic faith from the falsity of heretical corruption.”
“From almost all of them I always received the answer that if I or someone else wanted to expose the frauds of the heretics, and escape their snares, and remain sound in the integrity of faith, I had, with the help of the Lord, to strengthen that faith in a twofold manner: first, by the authority of the divine Law; second, by the Tradition of the Catholic Church.” Vincent thus appeals to both Scripture and Tradition.
He states: “In the Catholic Church itself, every care should be taken to hold fast to what has been believed everywhere, always and by all [quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus].
“Teach precisely what you have learned; but saying them ‘in a new manner’.”
At this point, the question may be asked: If this is right, then is no doctrinal progress possible within the Church of Christ?
To be sure, there has to be progress, even great progress. This teaching of ancient things “in a new manner” refers to what is today called doctrinal development.
“It must be progress in the proper sense of the word, and not a change in faith. Progress means that each thing grows within itself, whereas change implies that one thing is transformed into another.”
Vincent then offers an analogy: “The growth of religion in the soul should be like the growth of a person, which in the course of years develops and unfolds, yet remains the same as he was.” A human being does not grow to become an elephant.
“It is a genuine development only if it preserves what was authoritatively handed down from the beginning – at least implicitly, similar to the way men may grow beards even though babies don’t have them.”
There should be, then, a balance between the necessity of doctrinal continuity with the past, and the need for variability of expression with time, in order to bring out ancient truths more clearly in the present, and give an answer to new challenges. Vincent believed in both continuity and development.
The truth of the faith is best conveyed through witness. But the Church can only bear witness to the truth if she remains faithful to that same truth, living it, cherishing it, rather than treating it as an embarrassment.
Altering the truth with the excuse of being “pastoral” is dishonest, and a short road to disaster.
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