Michelle SweeneyIs there a doctor in the church?
February 22nd 2008 22:25
“What counts, is to worship God, not write about Him. What use is it to construct a grammatically-correct sentence containing the word ‘God’ if you don’t pray to Him properly?’ – St Peter Damien
Each year on the 23 rd of February, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St Peter Damien, Bishop and Doctor of the Church.
A Doctor of the Catholic Church is not a medical doctor who sits in the back pew just in case a parishioner in the congregation falls ill during Mass. Neither is it a university graduate with a PhD, blogging on a wireless laptop, waiting impatiently for Mass to finish in order to instruct the priest in the meaning of life.
He or she is a Saint whose writings are officially recognised by the Pope or a Church Council as having made a contribution to the understanding and development of Catholic doctrine or theology. In other words, a teaching doctor (from the Latin docere, to teach).
The three requirements needed to merit the title Doctor of the Church are:
1. Holiness of life (Sanctity)
2. Depth of doctrinal insight.
3. An extensive body of writings which the Church declares to be free of doctrinal error, and an expression of authentic traditional Catholic teaching.
Church Doctors’ writings vary in both subject and form.
St Ambrose was a prominent writer of letters and short treatises. St John of the Cross and St Catherine of Siena wrote spiritual poetry, and books on mystical theology. St Augustine and St Athanasius defended the Church against heresy. St John Chrysostom and St Bernard wrote expositions of Sacred Scripture and sermons. St Bede the Venerable wrote Church History. St Thomas Aquinas wrote scholastic philosophy and theology. St Alphonsus of Ligouri wrote on moral theology and prayer. St Therese of Lisieux wrote letters, journals and her autobiography, Story of a Soul.
There are three female doctors among the 33 Doctors of the Church, St Catherine of Siena, St Teresa of Avila, and St Therese of Lisieux.
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Comment by Damo
Comment by Ann 1
Bloganymity
Not yet. Even one of your regular sparring partners, Rev Lester Caudill would have to 'do a St Peter' and leave the wife and kids (and convert to Catholicism) and recant/retract all of his erroneous philosophies and theologies, and be retrained at a proper seminary before even being considered a priest, let alone a Doctor of the Church. In his case, he would probably also have to abjure the heresies of SL Brandish.
St Damo, Doctor of the Church, has a nice ring to it. You would be the first Doctor Damo. There's still time to overtake Fr Damien, the leper priest of Molokai. He is only beatified at this stage, and didn't write much. But he'd have a great blog profile pic:
The main competition you'd have in the political arena would probably come from St Thomas More, or Fr Denis Fahey. Fr Fahey's The Kingship of Christ and Organised Naturalism (1943) and The Mystical Body of Christ and the Reorganisation of Society (1945), would certainly have made good Orble Blogs.
Ann Onnamuss
Comment by Damo
Dr Damo as a ring to it.
I was trying out Dr Evil for a while but it became to common. These days everyone wants to be Dr Evil.
So I am content with merely report a little news and pointing to obvious logical fallacies where they exist.