19.  St. Augustine said that all of the following things (except one) keep him in the Catholic Church. Which one should NOT be on the list?

A.   the Church’s authority

B.   the Church’s miracles

C.   the Church’s age

D.   the name “Catholic”

E.   the succession of priests, connecting back to Peter

F.   the five solas

 

The Answer is…“F” was not on Augustine’s list.

A, B, C, D, and E were listed by Augustine as keeping him in the Catholic Church. St. Augustine was the Catholic bishop of Hippo and a Doctor of the Church.

In 397 A.D., St. Augustine wrote:

“In the Catholic Church, not to speak of that purest wisdom, to the knowledge of which a few spiritual men attain in this life... I say of that wisdom which you do not believe is present in the Catholic Church, there are many other things which, most properly, can keep me in her bosom. The unanimity of peoples and nations keeps me here. Her authority, inaugurated in miracles, nourished by hope, augmented by love, and confirmed by her age, keeps me here. The succession of priests, from the very See of the Apostle Peter, to whom our Lord, after His resurrection, gave the charge of feeding His sheep [Jn 21:15ff], up to the present episcopate, keeps me here. And at last, the very name of Catholic, which, not without reason, belongs to this Church alone, in the face of so many heretics, so much so that, although all heretics want to be called Catholic, when a stranger inquired where the Catholic Church meets, none of the heretics would dare to point out his own basilica or house.” 

(Source: Against Letter of Mani 4:5, AD 397 as included in The Faith of the Early Fathers, Volume 3, p. 51, compiled by William A. Jurgens)

On the authority of the Catholic Church, St. Augustine also wrote: “If you should find someone who does not yet believe in the Gospel, what would you answer him when he says: “I do not believe”? Indeed, I would not believe in the Gospel myself if the authority of the Catholic Church did not influence me to do so.” (ibid p. 52)

St. Augustine also wrote: “We believe also in the holy Church, that is, the Catholic Church; for heretics and schismatics call their own congregations churches. But heretics violate the faith itself by a false opinion about God; schismatics, however, withdraw from fraternal love by hostile separations, although they believe the same things we do. Consquently, neither heretics nor schismatics belong to the Catholic Church; not heretics, because the Church loves God; and not schismatics, because the Church loves neighbor. (ibid p. 44)

 

 

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