Sunday, February 08, 2009

Quotes on Tradition (partim-partim)

In the combox of this post, a Catholic was denying that the partim-partim view of Catholic tradition was a legitimate viewpoint:

"I thought you should have known what it meant before stamping it on the Catholic Church. Partim-partim, even if it was discussed at Trent, has never been a Catholic principle." (source)

A quote from the Catholic Encyclopedia and Jimmy Akin had no effect, so my intention was to provide further documentation of the Catholic view of partim-partim in a new post. Unfortunately, I have still not had the time to get that post together, but Rhology was kind enough to provide his own post and some other Catholic commenters have agreed that partim-partim is an allowable viewpoint to hold (for more background, read Rhology's post and the comments there).

However, I still think the subject is worth another post and I have a fair amount of quotes to share. But it may be a few days to weeks before I have time to sit down and formulate the post. So in the meantime, I have decided to just post a quote here and there leading up to a full post sometime in the future. Comments will be closed on these quotes to reserve discussion for the final post.

Here is the first quote from a Catholic Catechism:

2. Why must we believe all that God has revealed?

Because God is the eternal and infallible truth.

3. What means 'all that God has revealed'?

It means all that God has made known for our salvation by the Patriarchs and Prophets, and last of all by His Son Jesus Christ and the Apostles.

4. How has divine revelation come down to us?

Divine revelation has come down to us partly by writing—that is, by the Holy Scripture, or the Bible; partly by word of mouth—that is, by tradition.

11. Is it enough to believe only what is contained In the Holy Scripture?

No; we must also believe Tradition—i.e., those revealed truths which the Apostles preached, but did not commit to writing.

13. What, then, must the Catholic Christian believe in general?

He must believe all that God has revealed and the Catholic Church proposes to his belief, whether it be contained in the Holy Scripture or not.

A Catechism of the Catholic Religion
by Rev. Joseph Deharbe, S.J. (1889 with imprimatur), pgs 51-53


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