One of the most common objections against the Catholic Church is it is corrupt and full of wicked shepherds. This supposedly justified the protestant revolt, and people leaving the Church to this day…
But as I discovered when I began studying the Church Fathers, this is not a new objection. In fact, it’s a very old one, to which the Fathers offered a unanimous and resounding answer: separation from the Church is never justified.
Read MoreThe deeper I dug, the more I discovered that the Catholic notion of authority had very Jewish roots, which only shed light on the many places in the New Testament when Christ and the Apostles delegated authority to others. Indeed, the Hebrew Bible is deeply instructive on the topic of how God exercises His authority among His people.
Read MoreIt is beyond doubt that Ignatius speaks of the Roman church in ways he simply does not speak of any church. Most significantly, he speaks of her as one who teaches, confirms, instructs, and enjoins other churches, and as one not only deserving of, but indeed gifted with, unique honors and graces both from God, and the other churches. Ignatius thus serves as one of the earliest witnesses to the primacy of the Roman church.
Read MoreIn short, this Ignatian epistle, like the others, shows that he had a high view of Church authority; he considers obedience to a hierarchical structure of bishops, priests, and deacons to be obedience to Christ; he believes that this obedience is an inherent part of eucharistic communion; and that he believed obedience to these ministers provided strong protection against falling into heresy.
Read MoreIn short, in this epistle, like the others, Ignatius of Antioch, a man who knew and was discipled by some of the Apostles himself, and barely 75 years after the death and Resurrection of Christ, took the authority of the Church very seriously, and took the tri-partite structure of Bishop, priests, and deacons for granted within the Catholic Church.
Read MoreHow one of the earliest Church Fathers who knew the Apostles, and wrote some letters barely 75 years after Christ’s death, changed my life forever.
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