UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
Michael Sean Winters | Jun. 30, 2014 Distinctly Catholic
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued an important document last week that did not generate as much attention as it should have. The text deals with the sensus fidei and it represents the work of the International Theological Commission over several years. I would add that it is a very finely done document, accessible to anyone with even a rudimentary familiarity with theology.
The sensus fidei may be the single most misunderstood and abused concept in the post-Vatican II era. And, mere veracity requires those of us in the Catholic left and those of us who are not full-time theologians to admit that we have been the principal perpetrators of the misunderstandings. For all of my difficulties with certain trends in modern theology, most theologians have not misused the concept; it has been the commentariat. The sense of the faithful has been conflated with public opinion, repeatedly, and used to undermine Church teaching. It has been used to justify a stance of dissent. The misuse and misunderstanding of the phrase has been one of the more obvious examples of the maxim that a little learning can be a dangerous thing. This new document helps to ward of that danger. One wishes it had been published in, oh, I don’t know, late 1967!!!!
I do not need to repeat all that the document says, but would like to highlight a few key points that jumped out at me.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.