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Cdl Burke on new edition of Catechism: Original remains ‘authoritative’
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<div><div><img src="cid:ii_k5b1gcbb0" alt="image.png" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="188" height="116"><br><br></div></div><div><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>The faithful cardinal
</b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)">emphasized that references to a new Pope Francis magisterium are 'simply
preposterous — this is not the magisterium! Priests and the lay
faithful must understand this.'</span></div>
<p>LA CROSSE, Wisconsin, January 10, 2019 (<a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com" target="_blank">LifeSiteNews</a>)
― An American cardinal has stated <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">tha<span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">t<span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b> a new edition of the Catechism
of the Catholic Church will not have the same authority as the original
promulgated by St. Pope John Paul II.</b></span></span></span></p>
<p>In a December interview with The Wanderer, <a href="https://thewandererpress.com/catholic/news/frontpage/interview-with-cardinal-burke-he-is-with-us-trusting-in-the-lord-in-turbulent-times-2/" target="_blank">published in two parts this week</a>,
Cardinal Raymond Burke responded to questions regarding a
“soon-to-be-published volume entitled Catechism of the Catholic Church
with Theological Commentary.” Of particular interest to the cardinal’s
interviewer, Don Fier, was the authority of the new text. </p>
<p>“This new issue of the Catechism will not have the authority of the
text that was approved for promulgation in 1994, which will continue to
be the authoritative text,” Burke declared. </p>
<p>“Whatever commentary (editor) Archbishop (Rino) Fisichella and other
contributors offer in the new volume will have the worth of their
fidelity to the unchanging doctrine of the Church,” the cardinal
continued. </p>
<p>“This is not some new Catechism of the Catholic Church and should not be viewed as such.”</p>
<p>The cardinal added that he asks people to study the official
English-language Catechism promulgated in 1994 and underscored that
authority is inextricably linked to the authentic teaching of the
Church.</p>
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<p>“Once again, I emphasize that whatever authority the new edition has
will depend on the correctness of its fidelity to doctrine,” Burke
said. </p>
<p>During the interview, the cardinal also recommended a study of the
authoritative Catechism in order to be truly transformed by Christ, not
merely experience “good feelings.”</p>
<p>“Right now, typical of a modernist approach, it is all
sentimentality, of people wanting to have ‘good feelings’ about how they
are living and about the Church,” he told his interviewer. </p>
<p>“But it is not a question about good feelings; it is a question about
truth and love. We need to return to the Catechism of the Catholic
Church, study it deeply, and conform our lives to what it teaches,” he
continued. </p>
<p>“In this way, our lives will be truly transformed by Christ Himself
because the knowledge of Christ is not something that is abstract.” </p>
<p>The Cardinal underscored that it is the perennial teaching of the
Church, found in the Catechism, not the theological opinions of a pope,
that must be Catholics’ “point of reference.”</p>
<p>“The only answer in the situation in which we find ourselves at
present is to fall back on the constant teaching of the Church, which is
contained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and in the official
magisterial teaching of the Church,” he told his interviewer. </p>
<p>“That has to be our point of reference. It is available to good
priests and faithful members of the laity — and they must have recourse
to it.”</p>
<p>Burke gave as his example the Arian Crisis:</p>
<p>“ ... When the Arian heresy was rampant, and the heretical element
was seemingly going to prevail because the majority of Catholics had
become Arians, it was by the heroic insistence on what the Church had
always taught about the two natures and one divine Person of Our Lord
Jesus Christ that the truth prevailed,” the cardinal explained. </p>
<p>He noted that St. Athanasius in particular suffered in this struggle
to keep the faith. The saint was exiled and even excommunicated by Pope
Liberius for the politically-motivated “sake of peace.” </p>
<p>“St. Athanasius accepted all the suffering inflicted upon him and
remained steadfast in fighting for the truth. That is precisely what
needs to happen again today,” Burke declared. “Faithful priests and
members of the laity must be prepared.”</p>
<p>He had impatient words for the concept of a “Pope Francis magisterium” that sweeps away perennial doctrine. </p>
<p>“Recently, I talked to two young priests who conveyed a conversation
they had with third young priest who was studying moral theology,” Burke
recounted. </p>
<p>“He said to them: ‘We have Pope Francis’ magisterium that is
completely new; we now have to abandon all the old categories and
develop a new theology to match this magisterium,’” the cardinal
continued.</p>
<p>“This is simply preposterous — this is not the magisterium! Priests and the lay faithful must understand this.”</p>
<p>The revised theological commentary for the new edition of the
Catechism will contain novel teachings proposed by Pope Francis, such as
the condemnation of <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/popes-new-teaching-on-death-penalty-appears-in-revised-theological-commentary-on-catechism" target="_blank">capital punishment as “intrinsically evil” </a>and “against the Gospel.” In the online edition, a change to paragraph 2267 has already been made. It now reads: </p>
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<blockquote>
<p>Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority,
following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to
the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means
of safeguarding the common good.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity
of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious
crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance
of penal sanctions imposed by the state. Lastly, more effective systems
of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of
citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty
of the possibility of redemption.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that
"the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the
inviolability and dignity of the person", and the Catholic Church works
with determination for its abolition worldwide. (CCC, 2267)</p>
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<p style="clear:both">The new concept of <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pope-francis-proposes-adding-ecological-sin-against-common-home-to-catechism" target="_blank">“ecological sin”</a>
is also expected to be propounded in the new edition. In a speech he
gave to the 20th World Congress of the International Association of
Penal Law in Rome, Pope Francis said, “We have to introduce ― we are
thinking about it ― to the Catechism of the Catholic Church the sin
against ecology, the 'ecological sin' against our common home, because a
duty is at stake.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2019/06/03/meet-bishop-behind-updated-catholic-catechism" target="_blank">According to the new volume’s editor</a>, Archbishop Fisichella, Pope Francis has written the preface to this new edition himself.</p>
<p>Fisichella is the first president of the Pontifical Council for the
Promotion of the New Evangelization, a post he received in 2010. This
role followed a short stint (between 2008 and 2010) as a controversial
president of <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/pope-francis-and-the-pontifical-academy-for-life-part-ii" target="_blank">the Pontifical Academy for Life</a>. During his tenure, Fisichella responded to a notorious abortion case in Brazil by <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/fisichella-claims-moral-high-ground-on-brazilian-abortion-case-one-year-lat" target="_blank">criticizing the bishop</a>
who excommunicated the abortionists and everyone else who encouraged
the procedure on the unusually young mother. He has served as president
of the International Council for Catechesis since 2013. </p>
<p>In a 2019 interview with <i>America </i>magazine, Fisichella
himself emphasized that the Theological Commentary is not itself a work
of Magisterium and that each of the 42 commentators “takes personal
responsibility for his or her own contribution.” The commentators
included such left-wing luminaries as Cardinal Christoph Schönborn,
whose <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/cardinal-schoenborn-married-gays-give-witness-that-marriage-is-an-important" target="_blank">commitment</a> to women’s ordination, blessings for same-sex couples, and other innovations are well documented. </p>
<p>Different dates are often given for the Catechism of the Catholic
Church promulgated by St. Pope John Paul II. He approved the original
text in 1992, but there was a delay regarding the English translation,
and thus it was not approved until 1994. The official Latin edition was
promulgated in 1997.</p>
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