QUOTATION: Dogma

Dogma as a single tenet proclaimed by the pope ex cathedra is the latest and lowest way of forming dogma. The original form in which the Church states her faith in a binding fashion is the Creed or symbolum; the profession of faith in the birth of Jesus from the Virgin, a statement quite unequivocal in meaning belongs firmly from the start to all symbola and is thus a constituent part of the original dogma of the Church.

 --Cardinal Josef Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), Introduction to Christianity, 1968

QUOTATION: The Rejection of Dogma

It is a fashion of the day, then, to suppose that all insisting upon precise Articles of Faith is injurious to the cause of spiritual religion, and inconsistent with an enlightened view of it; that it is all one to maintain, that the Gospel requires the reception of definite and positive Articles, and to acknowledge it to be technical and formal; that such a notion is superstitious, and interferes with the "liberty wherewith Christ has made us free;" that it argues a deficient insight into the principles and ends, a narrow comprehension of the spirit of His Revelation. Accordingly, instead of accepting reverently the doctrinal Truths which have come down to us, an attempt is made by the reasoners of this age to compare them together, to weigh and measure them, to analyze, simplify, refashion them; to reduce them to system, to arrange them into primary and secondary, to harmonize them into an intelligible dependence upon each other. The teacher of Christianity, instead of delivering its Mysteries, and (as far as may be) unfolding them, is taught to scrutinize them, with a view of separating the inward holy sense from the form of words, in which the Spirit has indissolubly lodged them. He asks himself, what is the use of the message which has come down to him? what the comparative value of this or that part of it? He proceeds to assume that there is some one end of his ministerial labours, such as to be ascertainable by him, some one revealed object of God's dealings with man in the Gospel. Then, perhaps, he arbitrarily assigns this end to be the salvation of the world, or the conversion of sinners. Next he measures all the Scripture doctrines by their respective sensible tendency to effect this end. He goes on to discard or degrade this or that sacred truth as superfluous in consequence, or of inferior importance; and throws the stress of his teaching upon one or other, which he pronounces to contain in it the essence of the Gospel, and on which he rests all others which he retains. Lastly, he reconstructs the language of theology to suit his (so-called) improved views of Scripture doctrine.

--Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman, "The Gospel, a Trust Committed to Us", Parochial and Plain Sermons

QUOTATION: The Rule of Faith

It always was, and is today, the usual practice of Catholics to test the true faith by two methods; first, by the authority of the divine Canon, and then, by the tradition of the Catholic Church. Not that the Canon is insufficient in itself in each case. But, because more interpreters of the Divine Word make use of their own arbitrary judgment and thus fall into various opinions and errors, the understanding of Holy Scripture must conform to the single rule of Catholic teaching—and this especially in regard to those questions upon which the foundations of all Catholic dogma are laid.

--St. Vincent of Lérins, Commonitory for the Antiquity and Universality of the Catholic Faith

QUOTATION: Sacred Tradition Equal to Scripture

Of the dogmas and proclamations preserved in the Church, some we possess from written teaching, while others we have received in secret from the Tradition of the Apostles; these both have the same validity for true religion. And no one will gainsay these points, at least if he is even moderately versed in ecclesiastical institutions.

--St. Basil the Great

QUOTATION: Dogma

The Christian faith proposes many things to be believed, which are so beyond all understanding that it is most difficult to give our consent to them; and yet are we commanded to believe them so firmly that we should be prepared (if necessary) to die a thousand times rather than deny one article of faith. This is a difficult duty, and no wonder so few comply with it. This is the reason why so many go over to Mahometanism and other heresies, because they cannot bear the strictness of faith, but have made the gate very wide, which nevertheless leads, not to life, but to destruction, according to the words of our Lord in St. Matthew: “Wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat.“(chap, vii.13)

--St. Robert Bellarmine, The Eternal Happiness of the Saints