Introibo Ad Altare Dei: Apostolic Digest

Ecclesia Militans

The Book of Sentimental Excuses

BOOK VI, CHAPTER FOUR

THE DOGMAS OF FAITH ADMIT

NO ALTERATION WHATSOEVER

Nothing may be taken away, or added. (Ecclesiasticus 18:5)

Nothing ever changes in the eternal Catholic doctrine. (Pope John Paul II) 1

Nothing can ever pass away from the words of Jesus Christ, nor can anything be changed which the Catholic Church received from Christ to guard, protect, and preach. (Ven. Pope Pius IX) 2

The Catholic Faith is such that nothing can be added to it, nothing taken away. Either it is held in its entirety, or rejected totally. This is the Catholic faith, which, unless a man believes faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved. (Pope Benedict XV) 3

And I hold this faith, not as that which seems better and more suited to the culture of a certain age, but in such a way that nothing else is to be believed than by the words; and I hold that this absolute and unchangeable truth, which was preached by the Apostles from the earliest times, is to be understood in no way other than by the words. (Oath Against Modernism) 4

Add nothing to His words, lest you be reproved and found a liar. (Proverbs 30:6)

God's Word is one and the same and endures forever unchanged, always the same. (St. Athanasius) 5

Wherefore, if there be revealed to us anything new or different, we must in no way give consent to it, not even though it were spoken by an angel. (St. John of the Cross) 6

But though we, or an angel from Heaven, preach a Gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema! (Galatians 1:8)

All novelty in faith is a sure mark of heresy. St. Paul cried out aloud, again and again, to all men, to all times, and to all places that, if anyone announces a new dogma, let him be anathematized! (St. Vincent of Lerins) 7

The faith shall never vary in any age, for one is the faith which justifies the Just of all ages. It is unlawful to differ even by a single word from apostolic doctrine. (Pope St. Leo the Great) 8

Nothing new is to be allowed, for nothing can be added to the old. Look for the faith of the elders, and do not let our faith be disturbed by a mixture of new doctrines. (Pope St. Sixtus III) 9

Our faith is identical with that of the ancients. Deny this, and you dissolve the unity of the Church. We must hold this for certain: that the faith of the people at the present day is one with the faith of the people of past centuries. Were this not true, then we would be in a different church than they and, literally, the Church would not be One. (St. Thomas Aquinas) 10

I accept the doctrine of faith as handed down to us from the Apostles by the orthodox Fathers, always in the same sense and with the same interpretation. (Pope St. Pius X) 11

For it is not allowable for anyone to change even one word nor allow one syllable to be passed over, mindful of the saying: "Pass not beyond the ancient bounds which thy Fathers have set" (Proverbs 22: 28). (St. Cyril of Alexandria) 12

The Church has a duty to proclaim the faith without any whittling-down, just as Christ revealed it, and no consideration of time or circumstance can lessen the strictness of this obligation. (Pope Pius XII) 13

Wretches tainted with Indifferentism and Modernism hold that dogmatic truth is not absolute, but relative; that is, that it must adapt itself to the varying necessities of the times and varying dispositions of souls, since it is not contained in an unchangeable revelation but is, by its very nature, meant to accommodate itself to the life of man. (Pope Pius XI) 14

Let nothing of the truths that have been defined be lessened, nothing altered, nothing added; but let them be preserved intact in word and in meaning. (Pope Gregory XVI) 15

The faith which God has revealed has not been proposed like a theory of philosophy, to be elaborated upon by human understanding, but as a divine deposit to be faithfully guarded and infallibly declared. Therefore, that sense of sacred dogmas is to be kept forever which Holy Mother Church has once declared, and it must never be deviated from on the specious pretext of a more profound understanding. Let intelligence, and science, and wisdom increase, but only according to the same dogma, the same sense, the same meaning. If anyone shall have said that there may ever be attributed to the doctrines proposed by the Church a sense which is different from the sense which the Church has once understood and now understands: let him be anathema. (I Vatican Council) 16

Under no circumstances can we conceive of the possibility of change, of evolution, or of any modification in matters of faith. The Creed remains always the same. (Pope Paul VI) 17

The proposition, that the Apostles' Creed did not have the same meaning for the Christians of the earliest times as for our time, is hereby condemned as erroneous. (Pope St. Pius X) 18

Christ's commandment to hear the Church is binding on all men, in every period, and in every country. (Pope Pius XI) 19

What I say to you, I say to all. (St. Mark 13:37)

Therefore, it is necessary to receive these divine oracles integrally, in the same sense in which they have been kept, and are still being kept, by this Roman Chair of Blessed Peter where, if man gathers not, he scatters. Remain firm and unshakably attached to this faith which, unless a man keep whole and entire, he shall undoubtedly be lost. (Ven. Pope Pius IX) 20

Every possible care must be taken to hold fast to that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, and by everyone. He is a genuine Catholic who continues steadfast in the faith, who resolves that he will believe those things - and only those things - which he is sure the Catholic Church has held universally and from ancient times. It is therefore an indispensable obligation for all Catholics to adhere to the faith of the Fathers, to preserve it, to die for it and, on the other hand, to detest the profane novelties of profane men, to dread them, to harass them, and to attack them. (St. Vincent of Lerins) 21

O keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding the profane novelties of words. (I St. Timothy 6:20)

As long as you live and have breath in you, let no man change you! (Ecclesiasticus 33:21)

Continue in that doctrine which you have learned in Holy Church, neither adding nor subtracting from it. (Bl. Isaias) 22

Whosoever does not continue in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. (II St. John 1:9)

REFERENCES

BOOK VI, CHAPTER FOUR

1. John Paul II: LOR n.49, December 9, 1992

2. Pius IX: "Ubi Primum," OUR GLORIOUS POPES, Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Cambridge, MA: 1955, p.157

3. Benedict XV: "Ad Beatissimi," PTC:761

4. Modernist Oath: DNZ:2147

5. Athanasius: Cf. "On the Incarnation," PG 26:983

6. John: THE COLLECTED WORKS OF ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS, rev. ed., Washington: ICS Publications, Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1991