About Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM, L.Th. Expertise I am a Catholic apologist, catechist, spiritual director, and spiritual warfare/deliverance counselor holding a degree of Licentiate in Theology. Questions dealing with the Catholic Faith will be answered according to official Church teachings, where such official teachings exist, and according to solid principles taught by the Church and the saints on areas where there is no specific Church teaching. I am a one-hundred-percent loyal and obedient to the Pope and Magisterium of the Church. If you want to know the TRUE SCOOP of Church teaching, here is the place to get it.
2) Apologetics and Catechesis primarily offered through a Catholic Q&A (plus volunteering on expert.com); and
3) Deliverance and Spiritual Warfare: involving many things ranging from investigating "haunted houses," to counseling with demonized people, to dealing with spiritual warfare issues in our society.
Experience I was a Baptist preacher, Bible teacher, and evangelist for 15 years before converting to the Catholic Church in 1992.
As a Catholic I have been teaching Bible, Catechetics, apologetics, and evangelism for 14 years. I also have 24 years of pastoral counseling experience and 14 years experience as a Catholic Spiritual Director.
I have been in deliverance ministry since 1986 as a Baptist. After converting to the Catholic Church I continued the spiritual warfare work including counseling, writing, consulting, and teaching workshops, and training Deliverance Counsellors.
In 2002 we began a new apostolate called the St. Padre Pio Center for Deliverance Counseling. This agency offers counseling to those persons who are demonized, and offers training for people who feel called by God to become Deliverance Counsellors. As director of the St. Padre Pio Center I was featured in a series of interviews on Spirtual Warfare on Ave Maria Radio.
Award: Recipient of the prestigious Kaltenborn Foundation Grant.
Organizations In Religion: Catholic Society of Evangelists, Institute on Religious Life, Adoremus: Society for the Renewal of the Sacred Liturgy, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, Coming Home Network, The Blue Army of our Lady of Fatima, Apostleship of Prayer, Confraternity of Mary, Queen of All Hearts (Montfort Fathers), Confraternity of the Brown Scapular
BR> In Counseling: American Counseling Association, Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling, the International Society for Mental Health Online, and the former National Psychiatric Association. Brother is also currently working with two other counselors to form a new association called the American Nouthethic Association of Catholic Counselors. This association is not yet operational.
In Website Design: HTML Writers Guild, the International Webmasters Association, and the Good News Web Designers Association.
In Creative Writing: Academy of American Poets, the Association of Authors and Publishers, and is listed as Editor and Publisher of St. Michael House Press and Writers House Press in the International Directory of Small Presses and Little Magazines and the WritersNet Online Directory
Publications Religious Book Publications include: +"Regula Sanctus Michaelis" (The Rule of St. Michael) +"Three Secret Strategies of Satan and Other Essays" +"St. Michael's Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog" +"Hope, Help, Victory: A Spiritual Warfare Workshop" +"St. Michael’s Deliverance Counseling Manual" +If God Wants This of Me: The Story of a Baptist Minister Turn Catholic Friar" (forthcoming)
Poetry Publications and Credits: Book: "Only Silence is Shame" Magazines & Readings: published in various magazines and conducted numerous readings
Listed: "Who's Who is U.S. Editors, Writers, and Poets" and the "International Authors and Poets Who's Who" out of London in the 1980s
Other Publications: Book: "The Wilder Letters" (book of essays)
Book: "The Falling Torch: Our Democracy in Crisis"
Question 1. It is obvious that Humanae vitae pertains to morals. But does it obviously and clearly state in the encyclical that it is promulgated ex cathedra?
2. Are there exact regulations on how the Pope must speak ex cathedra?
Answer Dear BF:
The requirements for the Pope to declare something ex cathedra are defined by the Vatican Council I:
"We teach and define that it is a dogma Divinely revealed that the Roman pontiff when he speaks ex cathedra, that is when in discharge of the office of pastor and doctor of all Christians, by virtue of his supreme Apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine regarding faith or morals to be held by the universal Church, by the Divine assistance promised to him in Blessed Peter, is possessed of that infallibility with which the Divine Redeemer willed that his Church should be endowed in defining doctrine regarding faith or morals, and that therefore such definitions of the Roman pontiff are of themselves and not from the consent of the Church irreformable."
Put more simply, an ex cathedra declaration is made when:
1) the issue is on faith and morals
2) the issue applies to the WHOLE church and not to just a portion of the Church (i.e., the Latin Rite only)
3) the Pope specifically intends to make an infallible declaration as the universal pastor from the chair.
Ex Cathedra statements, however, are only one of three ways something can be considered infallible. The other two are:
2) the bishops of the world in union with the Pope in council intend to declare a doctrine infallible
3) by the ordinary Magisterium determined by the constant and continual teaching of the Magisterium from the beginning of the Church.
In addition to infallible dogma, which is formally defined, there is also definitive teaching that may be infallible or not, but is still binding upon pain of sin.
The teaching that Prostitution is a sin is not a dogma, but it is a definitive teaching. If someone denies a dogma they are a heretic. If someone denies a definitive teaching, they are not technically heretics, but they are barred from the Sacraments because they are not in communion with the Church.
Contraception, abortion, and all the sexual morals of the Church are infallible definitive teachings of the ordinary Magisterium (not dogmas) as far as I know. Thus, Humanae Vitae does not have to be, and is not, an ex cathedra declaration since the issues are already infallibly taught by the ordinary Magisterium.
An ex cathedra statement is rare and only needed when a formal definition is required to settle a dispute of major significance. NO ONE disputes the sexual moral teachings of the Church, except rebels and liberals.
If the Pope someday thinks that the controversy over contraception, abortion, or whatever, requires an ex cathedra statement to declare what is already taught definitively then the Pope will do that.
