Can Catholic Doctrine Change

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Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com

A question that comes up over and over regarding Catholic Teaching is… can it change- can the doctrines and dogmas of the Catholic Church change over time? And the reason this question keeps coming up is because, depending on who you ask, you will tend to get different answers which will trend towards that person’s particular partisan preferences.

And a well established concept in Catholic theology that routinely emerges within the midst of this conversation is what’s known as the development of doctrine because it’s used to explain anything that appears to be an innovation or even an aberration (depending on who you ask).

When more traditionally minded Catholics lament some attempt to change something, progressives will say, “C’mon man, it’s just the development of doctrine in action. That dude St. John Henry Newman said it was all good…”

But this concept and practice of the development of doctrine, I would say it’s wreaked a lot of havoc in the Church because most people don’t seem to understand what it means, or if they do, they exploit the fact that most other people don’t understand it and use that fact to serve their own activist agenda.

So, this is my dead level best attempt to clear some of that air and hopefully help you the next time someone references it as if it’s some kind of wild card to justify an agenda that is intent on distorting Catholic teaching.