Wednesday, 6/28/17
Today we honor Irenaeus who was raised in Smyrna by Polycarp,
who followed John the Apostle. Irenaeus, as a boy, over and over listened to Polycarp
repeating the teachings of Jesus that he had heard from John.
Then, in the Second Century, some so-called Christians began
filling Rome with new “Christian teachings,” they claimed they were receiving
directly from angels. With that, the Pope asked Irenaeus to come to Rome to
straighten those people out.
After meeting with all those innovators, Irenaeus kindly
brought them around to seeing that the teachings of Jesus were completed before
his Ascension when he entrusted his Gospel to the Apostles.
Irenaeus wrote that since the death of the Apostles, the
true teachings of Jesus could be learned
by consulting the bishops appointed by the Apostles. That holds today.
In 1870, the First Vatican Council declared the pope to be
infallible, but following on that, the members of Rome’s Curia came to see
themselves, as infallible when they spoke in the pope’s name. The error of that
came to light when the Curia began subjecting the world’s bishops to their
decrees.
Pope John XXIII straightened us out on that by inviting all
the world’s Catholic bishops to attend the Second Vatican Council, where they as
one clarified what had been the one Gospel of Christ.
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