On The Collaboration Between Bishops And Theologians

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On the Collaboration between Bishopsand Theologians

WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

© 2002 Cardinal Newman Society
Published by Newman House Press. All rights reserved.
ISBN 0-9704022-3-6
Published in: Newman’s Idea of a University: The American Response
EDITED BY REV. PETER M. J. STRAVINSKAS
AND PATRICK J. REILLY
Newman House Press
PAPERS PRESENTED AT THE CONFERENCE OF THE CARDINAL NEWMAN SOCIETY
NOVEMBER II, 2001
ON THE OCCASION OF THE TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE CARDINAL’S BIRTH
THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA
WASHINGTON, D.C.
FOR INFORMATION:CARDINAL NEWMAN SOCIETY
207 PARK AVENUE
SUITE B-2
FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA 22046
info@cardinalnewmansociety.org
http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org

The title assigned to my talk is an easy and peaceable one, but the subtitle I was given is a killer. It is the following question: Does the essential collaboration between bishops and theologians compromise the integrity of the university?

I shall proceed in three stages. First, I shall ask whether we have a real question here. Second, if we do, I shall present the affirmative answer (yes, the university’s integrity is compromised). Then, I shall consider some negative answers which I think are inadequate. Finally, I shall sketch what I think is the right negative answer (saying why the university’s integrity is not compromised).
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Veritatis Splendor Outshines Dissenters

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Veritatis Splendor Outshines Dissenters

W. H. Marshner

Human Life International
Volume II, Number 12
December 1993

Superlatives are rash, but I am going to risk two: Veritatis splendor is the most comprehensive teaching on morality in the entire history of the Holy See, and it is the most important papal encyclical since Vatican II.

My first superlative can be proved. The second is trickier. Richard McCormick, S.J., has told the readers of America that he is betting on the future. History will bury this encyclical, he thinks, as it has long since buried the warnings of Pius XII against “new theology.” Well, this writer is prepared to bet on the other side, and I’ll match any sum Fr. McCormick is prepared to put up. I’ll bet that in ten years the doctrine of John Paul II will be triumphant in the Church, and the “proportionalism” of McCormick will be well on its way to oblivion.

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Episcopal Conferences And Teaching Authority

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EPISCOPAL CONFERENCES AND TEACHING AUTHORITY

by William H. Marshner

The Light
Vol. V No. 10, October 1988
ANGELA GRIMM, Editor
The Catholic Center
721 Second Street, N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20002
(202)546-3004
A Non-Profit, Tax-Exempt Educational Organization

A key item on the agenda of the meeting of the U.S. bishops next month is the Vatican’s draft guidelines on the theological and juridical nature of episcopal conferences. The central question up for debate is whether episcopal conferences, such as the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, possess any magisterial teaching authority of their own.
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The Immaculate Conception And Recent Ecclesiology

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THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION AND RECENT
ECCLESIOLOGY:

III. Mary, the Church, and Sinlessness

WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

Christendom College
Front Royal, Virginia
1984

How does the grace of the Immaculate Conception illuminate the problems of ecclesiology? How does it clarify the new being to which we are called in the Church of God?

The purpose of this paper is to answer these questions with respect to a specific and crucial issue: the sinlessness of the Catholic Church, which is, as St. Ambrose put it, ex maculis immaculata. In order to address this issue, I must begin again with the original questions and summarize for the reader the pre-requisite clarifications which I have tried to bring to them in previous papers. Continue reading “The Immaculate Conception And Recent Ecclesiology”

Annulment Or Divorce

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Annulment or Divorce?

A CRITIQUE OF CURRENT TRIBUNAL PRACTICE AND THE PROPOSED REVISION OF CANON LAW

WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

© Christendom Educational Corporation 1978
Crossroads Book
Crossroads Books is an imprint of the Christendom College Press designed to offer scholarly insights on current Catholic issues in a format accessible to a broad spectrum of readers.

William H. Marshner brings a unique background to his authorship of the first of the Crossroads booklets. Formerly a contributing editor to The Wanderer and an assistant editor of Triumph magazine, Mr. Marshner has long experience in the apostolate of the Catholic Press.
A Ph.D. candidate in Languages at Yale University and in Theology at the University of Dallas, Mr. Marshner is completing his dissertation on Cardinal Newman’s notion of doctrinal development. He is also professor and acting chairman in Theology at Christendom College.

CONTENTS

Introduction, Rev. Mark A. Pilon
Author’s Preface
Historical Background
Preliminary Remarks
Canonical Perspective
Definition of Marriage
Theologico-Juridical Critique
Conclusion/Summation

Notes
Appendix/Staffa Letter

The incredible increase in the numbers of marriage annulments in the churches of Holland, Canada and our own United States is rapidly becoming one of the greatest scandals in recent Church history, and yet the true proportions of this problem are still relatively unknown to many American Catholics. In 1976 alone over 15,000 annulments were declared in this country, and that number can be expected to greatly increase in the years ahead, given the present orientation of growing numbers of our tribunal officials.
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The Defense of Dogma

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The Defense of Dogma

W. H. Marshner

APOLOGETICS
REASONS FOR HOPE
© Christendom Educational Corporation 1978
Christendom College Press

In today’s world especially since the advent of Modernism, it is insufficient to simply define the authority of the pope and leave the faithful to follow his teachings. It is unfortunately fashionable to deny that Church teachings are to be taken literally, fashionable in other words, to retain the precise wording of dogmatic formulations while interpreting them in purely symbolic or metaphorical terms. Therefore, a further defense is necessary, a defense which is at times technical, but nonetheless indispensable: it is the defense that Church teachings mean what they say. And in order to appreciate the ways in which dogma is under attack today—some of them quite subtle—and to meet those attacks, we must begin by taking special pains to be fully clear about exactly what dogma is.

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Criteria For Doctrinal Development In The Marian Dogmas: An Essay In Metatheology

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CRITERIA FOR DOCTRINAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE MARIAN DOGMAS: AN ESSAY IN METATHEOLOGY

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

MARIAN STUDIES, Vol. 28 (1977)
University of Dallas
Irving, Texas 75061

Synopsis

As a critique of recent proposals by E. J. Yarnold, S.J., and R. E. Brown, S.S., to re-think the “meaning” of certain Marian dogmas, a method is proposed for establishing the sense and reference (hence verifiability conditions, falsifiability conditions, axiomatic connexions, and metalinguistic “properties”) of these and other dogmas. It is shown that such a method forms an integral part of a general criteriology for doctrinal development. At the outset, then, the possibility and necessity of such a criteriology is defended against certain “theological theories” of doctrinal development, especially that of K. Rahner, S.J. Finally, the relevance of Henri Bouillard’s problematic of “reconceptualization” to the here proposed method and general criteriology is evaluated. Several philosophical and theological issues closely related to the main thesis are handled in footnoted discussions.
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Contra Gentiles: Integrism In America II

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Contra Gentiles: Integrism in America II

W. H. Marshner

Triumph
Vol. VIII No. 5
May 1973

In the March Triumph, this column argued that “Integrism” in its full, European sense did not and could not exist in America. But it was also argued that there is a narrower sense of the word, a purely ecclesiastical sense, in which there is an American Integrism, perceptibly taking form since Vatican II. Herewith, an attempt to examine this native movement more carefully.

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The Forum

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The Forum

THE WANDERER
December 21, 1972

MY VIEWS WERE CARICATURED …

Editor, THE WANDERER:

I hope your readers will not be misled by the caricature of my views given by John J. Mulloy in your November 16th issue. In my published writings I have repeatedly said that history is not all progress, that change is not automatically for the better, and that criteria are necessary to evaluate proposed changes. I have likewise said that “to evaluate new and appropriate expressions (of the Faith), suited to the mentality of the times, is primarily the responsibility of the Church’s Magisterium. But the theologian has the function of exploring new possibilities and of seeking in this way to be of service to the Church” Continue reading “The Forum”

The Wright Intervention

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THE WRIGHT INTERVENTION

W.H. MARSHNER

THE WANDERER (Section Two)
November 2, 1972

In September of 1971, a “joint assembly” of priests and Bishops met in Madrid to adopt guidelines on pastoral action. When they were finished, a week later, they had approved a gigantic document, divided into seven parts (ponencias — an untranslatable word which means both “theses” and “chapters”). Each part consisted of a long body of texts followed by 50 or so “propositions” or conclusions, each of which had been voted on separately. The finished document was held to be a milestone in Spanish Church history, and its approval by the full hierarchy of the national conference was thought to be a rubber stamp affair. Continue reading “The Wright Intervention”

Hans Küng: Infallible?

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Hans Küng: Infallible?

An Inquiry

W. H. MARSHNER

Triumph
Vol. VI. No. 6
June 1971

Hans Küng calls the preface to his new book “candid,” a word whose ambiguity is the key to this deeply equivocal volume. In “candid confession” it implies a full disclosure of one’s subjective state; in “candid camera” it implies unvarnished portrayal of the objectively real. Küng wants it both ways: his own growing sense of isolation since the Council is simultaneously predicated of the vast majority of the whole Church. Küng claims to know of no one who “really” believes in the birth control ban; Ignaz Döllinger said the same a century ago about infallibility.

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The Scripture Game II

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The Scripture Game II

W. H. MARSHNER

Triumph
Vol. V. No. 5
May 1970

The first part of this commentary on modem biblical scholarship argued that the Catholic biblical revival is producing suspicious fruits because the philological-critical method of exegesis has been misapplied to the task of Christian exegesis. It remains to show what Christian exegesis is, why it is theologically inevitable and how it can be defended against the charge of obscurantism.

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The Scripture Game

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The Scripture Game

W. H. MARSHNER

Triumph
Vol. V. No. 4
April 1970

No Christian can object to increasing the knowledge or the influence of Sacred Scripture. Yet the wide diversity of benefits that are expected to flow from the current “progress” in biblical studies suggests anything but unanimity as to how the subject ought to be approached. Continue reading “The Scripture Game”