240

THE AMERICAN ECCLESIASTICAL REVIEW

TRUTH AND NOVELTY IN THEOLOGY

Virgin reads: “Because of thee, thou full of grace, rejoiceth all crea­
tion, the angelic hosts and the human race : thou consecrated temple
and mystical paradise, thou praise of virginity, of whom God was
incarnate, and became man, He who is our God from all eternity. For
of thy bosom he made a throne, and thy womb he made more spacious
than the heaven. Because of thee, thou full of grace, rejoiceth all
creation : glory to thee 1”
However, the greatest good that this prayer book can do is to fulfill
its primary purpose. This is to build up a knowledge of their faith and
a devout practice of it among Romanian Catholics here in America and
elsewhere. In view of the persecution that the Church endures in their
ancestral land, it can inspire its readers to keep the oppressed before
their minds and to bring them aid. It is hoped that A Manual of
Prayers and Devotions will have the wide circulation and the con­
stant use that its high quality deserves. Its authors likewise deserve
commendation for their success in executing a difficult task and for
making a notable contribution to devotional literature.

(Editor’s note : The following article appeared in the Osservatore Romano on Monday, March 15, of this year. Because of the
intense interest it has aroused among theologians throughout the
world, and because of the timeliness of its teaching, we have sought
and obtained permission to publish a translation of this document
for the readers of The American Ecclesiastical Review.
The author of the article is the distinguished Fr. Mariano Cordovani, O.P., the Master of the Sacred Apostolic Palace. The
translation is the work of the Rev. Dr. Paschal P. Parente, Profes­
sor of Sacred Theology at The Catholic University of America.)

John K. Ryan

The Missionary Nature

of the

j

Church

There is no need to insist how foreign it is to the virtue of charity,
which embraces both God and men, for the members of Christ’s
Church not to think of those unfortunate souls who live in error out­
side the Fold. Surely the obligation of charity, which binds us to God,
demands not only that we strive to increase by every means within
our power the number of those who adore Him “in spirit and in truth”
but also that we try to bring under the rule of the gentle Christ as
many other men as possible in order that “the profit in his blood”
may be the more and more fruitful and that we may make ourselves
the more acceptable to Him to Whom nothing can possibly be more
pleasing than that “men should be saved and come to the knowledge
of truth.”
_ Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical Rerum ecclesiae, issued Feb. 28, 1926.

1

i

Two things at least must strike anyone who has carefully read,
the great Encyclical of His Holiness Pope Pius XII on sacred
liturgy : first, the number of errors that document was called upon
to condemn and the many deviations and alterations it had to cor­
rect; second, the fact that the Church Magisterium by remaining
ever faithful to its traditions does not fail to find a way both for
advancing the knowledge of revealed truth and for promoting a
more intensive practice of virtue.
Every theologian will have to keep in mind its doctrinal clari­
fication on the essence of the holy sacrifice of the Mass ; every one
of the faithful will understand better his own way of taking part in
that divine Sacrifice. A great jurist said that he has been assisting
at Mass in a more enlightened way ever since he read that beauti­
ful theological explanation.
Theologians as well as the more learned among the faithful find
in the Magisterium of the Church a brilliant proof of a magnificent
fact, namely, that truth in its intimate nature remains immutable
even then when it manifests itself inexhaustible in the novelties of
its applications. A retrograde attitude no less than an adventurous
daring lacks the Catholic trade-mark even though both may happen
to be the style of some scholars.
The Church does not expect individual theologians to be infalli­
ble but she wants them to be intelligent and discreet. Unfortunately,
discretion, which was called the mother of virtues by St. Benedict,
is like gold, something that everybody values, but which not every­
body has.
It is a serious thing to see how some theologians care much less
to learn, that is, to acquire in a scientific way the treasures gathered
by the theological discipline, than to build up for themselves with
241

242

THE AMERICAN ECCLESIASTICAL REVIEW

methods that are purely subjective and more or less arbitrary,
fascinated as they are by novelty rather than by truth, and more
satisfied with their own work than with the divine gift offered by
the Church. They speak of evolution, polygenism, ectimenicalism,
and the like, with such a condescending readiness for hypotheses
and novelties that are scientifically unchecked, as to be a dishonor
to Catholic studies. Their intentions may be honorable, but inten­
tions are not enough in theology. Even in practical life, intentions
must be aligned with truth.
Certain theories which, after a false vogue, had disappeared under
a general disqualification begin to rise again by the instrumen­
tality of some theologians who grow enthusiastic about them and
remain deaf to the authoritative voice of Shepherds and of learned
men, a voice raised to disillusion the unwary.
I have known priests who, having returned home after a visit in
Rome, where they had occasion to speak with some prelate and even
with the Holy Father himself, have broadcast as an approval of
their own personal ideas what had been only an encouragement to
serious study, to a sincere apostolate, to real merit.
I have read in no less than a diocesan bulletin the statement that
we do not know what matter really is, where it differs from life,
from the spirit, if such a difference exists !
The call of our Pontiff for a more scientific and less arbitrary
study of theology deserved to be heeded better than it has been.
The supreme Teacher of Faith had given the warning to all in a
most limpid and precise form. Who does not remember the allocu­
tion of the Holy Father to the members of the XXIX General
Congregation of the Society of Jesus on September 17, 1946, and
the other of September 22, of the same year, addressed to the
Capitular members of the Order of Preachers in Castel Gandolfo?
Those words have lost nothing of their timeliness and efficacy,
and no self-respecting theologian, no chancellor, no rector of higher
institutions can afford to forget them. If one does not penetrate the
intrinsic value of those directives, even from a purely scientific
point of view, he gives evidence of his own lack of understanding or
of a perfect scientific balance.
Loyality to tradition means exact knowledge of the divine revela­
tion. It means abiding in Christian truth which marks the path for
all uprightness and progress. He who is not on solid ground can­
not advance, he must get lost. It is, therefore, imperative that

TRUTH .AND NOVELTY IN THEOLOGY

243

next to biblical exegesis a patristic theology should flourish. This
would enrich the student with all the light inherent to the deposit
of Catholic doctrine.
The levity of a careless builder does not spell progress. It is not
progress to make intemperate assertions that have not been scien­
tifically checked. And yet, these assertions are swallowed as oracles
of modern science. Let it be authentic science and true Catholic
teaching and harmony will not fail, and the progress will be real.
Any person with a strong and well-balanced mind entering the
Vatican Library to see the wonderful scientific monographs, pub­
lished in the last few years by our major Catholic Universities,
if he does not stop at the dry speculation but ascend to the con­
templation of truth, will certainly experience one of those intellect­
ual satisfactions that are without equal in this world. One will
admire the serene and noble soaring of great minds which, amidst
the difficulties of learning and the obscurity of opinions, know
how to distinguish between light and darkness, between doubts
and certitude, and are able to discover a new heaven that had been
left unexplored in the vast sea of reality. And they can tell you in
a language that is both clear and modest all that may have been dis­
covered by them, without fear of sound criticism, but ever grateful
to the Lord when they have succeeded in flashing a new ray of light
throughout the skies of knowledge.
However, great minds are rare things, and our world is not
always peopled by giants. Nevertheless, the modest work of many
a scholar may have been of greater practical value to mankind than
the much praised achievements of great minds. At any rate, it is
a great satisfaction to behold the majestic stream of intellectual
light that Revelation has opened to the world. Were it not for an
infallible Teacher who is there to prevent all the counterfeits of
that revealed light, we poor mortals would end up by turning into
darkness that very stream of divine light.
Let us then remember that it is human to err and that obstinacy
alone is bad. It is interesting to notice how the wise man corrects
himself even before the learned one does, and the learned before the
common man. The readiness in correcting oneself is then in propor­
tion to the nobility and excellence of one’s mind.

Magister Sacri Palatii Apostolici
Vatican City

Mariano Cordovani,

O.P.