“Iota Unum Non Praeteribit”. Doctrine Cannot Change

Iota Unum Non Praeteribit.

What would you think if your math teacher would tell you that he is not planning to change math rules? Right: you would think that the talk is senseless and arrogant at the same time.

The same impression I have when I read of Vatican speakers, or bishops, who reassure us that Francis does not intend to change doctrine.

This senseless and arrogant talk is even more arrogant and even more senseless than the one of the math teacher. More senseless because God, who is the perfect and immutable Creator, is infinitely more unchangeable than anything created; and more arrogant, because even the implication that anyone could change iota unum in God’s rules is a blasphemous madness.

Still, this talk must sound “encouraging” for the adulterers and perverts, and terrifying for those vaguely Catholic or vaguely Christian people who still have a (vaguely) felt appreciation for the stability and permanence of the Church. The first get the clear message that Francis does not intend, for now, to change doctrine, which he obviously could do. Therefore, what does not happen today could happen tomorrow, or the day after, or with the next Pope, or at some other point. The second will wonder how long it is before the Church changes, and will – from outside – look at the Church as just another political party about to embark in a “modernisation” process.

All this talk of Francis who “will not change doctrine” is gravely misleading with the best of intentions, and utterly heretical with the worst ones. Bishops, speakers, bloggers, and everyone else should repeat on every fitting and unfitting occasion that a Pope cannot change doctrine; that he is simply not allowed to; that he would be allowed by God to change His laws as much as he would the course of the sun, the rules of mathematics or the wetness of water.

Doctrine cannot change. God’s rules are as immutable as the laws of physics; more than them, because it is conceivable that God could change creation, but it is inconceivable that He could change Himself. The fact that we received, in some instances, a more profound insight of those rules in time does not mean that the rules changed, it means merely that Christianity developed a more detailed and thorough appreciation of it; exactly in the same way as history studied in high school is more deepened and detailed, but the same history, studied in elementary school.

Doctrine cannot change. Not ever. Iota unum non praeteribit.

Say it to your priest. Write it in every blog and forum. Mock whoever even vaguely implies anything different. Attack all those who mean anything different. Hammer the concept in the head of anyone near you.

We cannot allow these Modernists to put the wrong ideas in the head of the people.

M