Cathal BarryThe Church cannot chop and change its teachings based on popular public opinion, an Irish priest-theologian and advisor to the Pope has warned.
International Theological Commission representative, Fr Thomas Norris, said majority opinion among Catholics on controversial Church teachings does not necessarily warrant change.
“There is a big difference between the actual faith of God’s people and popular public opinion. We have to respect people’s opinions while recognising they don’t necessarily coincide with the authentic sense of the Faith,” he said.
“There is such a thing as popular public opinion within the Church and wider society but not all opinion is correct,” he warned.
Fr Norris was speaking after the Vatican published a document reflecting the meaning, purpose and limits of sensus fidei and sensus fidelium – the capacity of individual believers and of the Church as a whole to discern the truth of faith.
He told The Irish Catholic the sense of the Faith (sensus fi dei) is essential in helping the Church respond to modern problems and challenges because it offers “a capacity to listen discerningly to what human culture and the progress of the sciences are saying”. “It turns religion into something living and personal,” he said.
The document, ‘Sensus Fidei’ in the Life of the Church, notes that while the validity and importance of different Church teachings cannot be the subject of a popular vote, the degree to which they are or are not accepted by most Catholics is important.
However, according to the document, there are situations in which Catholics claim to be relying on that instinct when, in fact, they are promoting deviations from the Christian faith, particularly on moral issues. “It is clear that there can be no simple identification between the sensus fidei and public or majority opinion,” the document said.
“These are by no means the same thing.”