John Flader - Question Time: 150 Questions and Answers on the Catholic Faith

Introduction

SOON AFTER BEGINNING to write the Question Time column for The Catholic Weekly, I began to receive reports of people who were cutting out the columns and pasting them on paper for future reference, or photocopying them for others. Over the years numerous people have asked if there was any plan to publish the columns as a book.

Now that three years have passed, the time has come to satisfy the desires of these people and to publish the first 150 columns.

The questions and answers are arranged systematically by topic, following the general structure of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Chapter 1 deals with matters of Catholic doctrine, Chapter 2 with questions relating to the sacraments and sacramentals, Chapter 3 with matters of moral life in Christ, and Chapter 4 with questions relating to prayer and Christian devotions.

I am indebted especially to Joanne Lucas, who read most of the columns before they were sent to the Catholic Weekly and made helpful comments on their style and content. Also to Fr Peter Joseph and Fr Edward Barry, who made valuable suggestions to improve the final draft.

I am also grateful to Anthony Cappello of Connor Court Publishing, who graciously offered to publish the book.

I pray that Question Time will help those who read it to understand their faith better and to come to a deeper love for Jesus Christ, Our Lady and the Church.

Chapter One

Catholic Doctrine

God and Creation

1. The question of the "filioque"

From time to time I have heard people speak of the question of the "filioque", which has something to do with the Creed. Can you please explain what this is?

The word filioque is Latin for "and the Son". It appears, as you mention, in the Creed we say in Mass on Sundays when we profess our faith in the Holy Spirit, "who proceeds from the Father and the Son."It is good that all Catholics be acquainted with the background to this question.

As we know, the Creed is the formula of faith agreed upon in the first two Ecumenical Councils. The first two parts, relating to God the Father and God the Son, came from the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD and the last part, on the divinity of the Holy Spirit, from the Council of Constantinople in 381 AD.

The formula agreed upon by both Eastern and Western fathers at the Council of Constantinople stated that the Holy Spirit "proceeds from the Father". In 451 AD, the Council of Chalcedon, again attended by both Eastern and Western fathers, formally recognised and received the profession of faith of Nicaea and Constantinople, stating that the Holy Spirit "proceeds from the Father".

However, Pope St Leo the Great, following an ancient Latin and Alexandrian tradition, had professed dogmatically in 447 AD that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father "and the Son".

In 649 Pope Martin I used the phrase "and the Son" in a letter to the Church in Constantinople, causing upset that was diminished by St Maximus the Confessor, one of the great Eastern Fathers of the Church. Later, when Charlemagne introduced "and the Son" into the Creed early in the ninth century, Pope Leo III asked the Emperor to drop the phrase.

Nonetheless, the words "and the Son" were gradually introduced into the Creed in country after country of Europe between the eighth and eleventh centuries. The phrase was finally inserted into the Creed even in Rome around 1013. It was one of the arguments used against the Western Church by the Easterns at the time of the split in 1054. The Council of Florence in 1439, attended by both Eastern and Western fathers, discussed the question in 14 sessions and finally defined that "the filioque was added to the Creed licitly and reasonably to expound the truth, and under the spur of necessity."