Definition of traditionalist:
Noun. A person who believes that all knowledge originates in divine revelation and is perpetuated by tradition.
Definition of fundamentalist:
Noun. A person who believes in the strict, literal interpretation of scripture in a religion. A person who adheres strictly to the basic principles of any subject or discipline.
Christ said “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
Christ started only one Church and with only one set of instructions to His Apostles.
“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
Christ also said that Peter was to be the head of His Church and that whatsoever he held to be a truth on earth would be honoured in Heaven. These are traditional principles of the Catholic Church fundamental to the Faith.
Christ did offer salvation to non-Jews, the woman at Jacob’s well and her fellow townspeople, and in doing so altered what had previously been taught in the Jewish faith, that salvation was only for God’s people, the Jews.
Christ did teach a new Commandment, to love one’s enemy, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.”
Whilst He did introduce a new understanding to the Jews of what God had revealed to the prophets and instruct them in the ways in which over time they had come into error He did not change in any way the Commandments which God had given to Moses.
The Holy Spirit through Peter told us, “There are some things in them (the Scriptures) hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures”.
Catholic fundamentalists believe what Peter said “First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation.”
While both Fundamentalists and Modernists understand that the Church is the sole interpreter of the Gospels, Modernists hold the view that everything that the Church has held historically is changeable and may be re-interpreted according to the current thinking.
Accordingly changes in society over time should be used as a guide in adjusting the teachings of Christ.
Why else would some Bishops be calling for changes to the teaching of Christ on marriage and sodomy, in other words just a copy of any Protestant Church?
The Church teaches us that where historically a law or teaching has been defined by the Catholic Church it must be preserved as defined and never altered in its truth or meaning.
Our Lord was a fundamentalist and I am happy to be included as one but please Your Holiness, when speaking about Moslems please do not include Catholic fundamentalists with Moslem fundamentalists who practice the teachings of the Quran.
That comparison is a leap too far.
- Joe Hannah