I fully agree with Professor Tina Beattie [The Tablet, 16 August] that Sensus Fidei in the Life of the Church, produced by the International Theological Commission, deserves to be widely read and discussed. However, the responses to the Bishop’s questionnaire on family life and marriage are not the result of Sensus Fidei but simply reflect public opinion, and one must distinguish between the two, as the ITC itself recognises.
As the professor says, Sensus Fidei holds that believers instinctively know whether a particular teaching or practice is in conformity with the Gospel and Apostolic faith because of their close proximity to God. Believers who have faithfully followed traditional teachings of the Catholic Church have had insights into major theological issues, such as the Real Presence, the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption. This has helped the bishops officially to proclaim the truth of these great Mysteries believed since the times of the early Church.
This is in sharp contrast to the major issues currently taxing the bishops, where a number of no doubt very sincere Catholics are challenging long standing moral teachings of the church. Although the rules are contained within the Magisterium and emanate from the Gospels and the apostles, modern Catholics find these rules very difficult to follow and wish them removed. This does not mean that they have been divinely inspired to discover that the rules have always been wrong or, even if valid in the past, that they now no longer apply.
Michael Hoddinott, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire
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