Nov 15 – Homily – Fr Alan: St. Albert the Great, Champion of Truth

St. Albert the Great, Bishop and Doctor of the Church, is credited with laying the foundation for the great Scholastic synthesis of all truth, both natural and divinely revealed, which was the crowning achievement of Christian philosophy and theology in the 13th Century.

It is arguable that in the history of thought and intellectual activity, the accomplishments of Albertus Magnus, his disciple St. Thomas Aquinas, and the Scholastics constitute a zenith yet to be equaled or surpassed. In fact, the abandonment of their method of metaphysical thought has given rise to the deadly heresies of our culture of death, in particular, to the falsehood of relativism. That is why recent popes have directed the faithful to conserve and perpetuate the study of scholastic theology, in particular that of St. Thomas of Aquinas. In the same tradition of the Scholastics, Pope St. John Paul II reasserted the harmony and complimentary truth of the natural and sacred sciences in the 1998 encyclical on Faith and Reason (Fides et Ratio).

Correction: Fr. Alan erroneously states that it was Pope Pius XII who declared St. Albert a doctor of the Church; rather, it was Pope Pius XI, who simultaneously canonized St. Albert and declared him Doctor in 1931. Pius XII named Albert patron saint of natural scientists in 1941.

Ave Maria!

Mass: St. Albert the Great - Opt Mem
Audio (MP3)

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