* I have learned to overlook things printed in your Letters section
over the years as honest but, to my way of thinking, incorrect opinions.
However, Gary Taylor's-letter (NCR, Aug. 7) in 'which he
deifies the Vatican, saying, "The Vatican is the voice of God, the
human representation of the authority of God," must be challenged.
Initially I thought he was simply substituting "the Vatican"
for ... but I couldn't come up with a true logical alternative.
Maybe the pope or the magisterium? In Catholic theology, the authority
of the pope to speak as "the voice of God" (ff that actually
exists) would, at best, be limited to the claim of papal infallibility.
But the Vatican? The Vatican is a geographical territory, a city-state
ceded to the Roman Catholic church as an independent territory by the
Lateran Treaty of 1929. This city-state was acknowledged by both parties
as a new creation and not as a vestige of the former Papal States. To
conflate the teaching authority of the Roman Catholic church with the
Vatican or even the curia is pushing the envelope beyond all degrees of
believability.
JIM McCREA
Piedmont, Calif.
COPYRIGHT 2009 National Catholic Reporter
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2009 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/God's+voice.-a0208534708
over the years as honest but, to my way of thinking, incorrect opinions.
However, Gary Taylor's-letter (NCR, Aug. 7) in 'which he
deifies the Vatican, saying, "The Vatican is the voice of God, the
human representation of the authority of God," must be challenged.
Initially I thought he was simply substituting "the Vatican"
for ... but I couldn't come up with a true logical alternative.
Maybe the pope or the magisterium? In Catholic theology, the authority
of the pope to speak as "the voice of God" (ff that actually
exists) would, at best, be limited to the claim of papal infallibility.
But the Vatican? The Vatican is a geographical territory, a city-state
ceded to the Roman Catholic church as an independent territory by the
Lateran Treaty of 1929. This city-state was acknowledged by both parties
as a new creation and not as a vestige of the former Papal States. To
conflate the teaching authority of the Roman Catholic church with the
Vatican or even the curia is pushing the envelope beyond all degrees of
believability.
JIM McCREA
Piedmont, Calif.
COPYRIGHT 2009 National Catholic Reporter
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2009 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/God's+voice.-a0208534708