Up until 1996, one of the front-running contenders for the next Pope was a man by the name of Cardinal Martini. Martini, an Italian Cardinal is known worldwide for his studies on the "Jewish Question" constantly confronting Church doctrine including questions of what the Vatican considers different Covenants, and issues of Amillenialism and Replacement Doctrines. Martini had been highly favored also by the Italian Press: his place as a frontrunner is dampened only by his age: he is almost as old as the Pope. What many do not know about Cardinal Martini is that he was an essential part of Modern Bible Translations: and since the translations he was a part of are not Catholic translations, that could prove significant were he elected to the Papal Throne.

It is impossible in a brief space to go into the entire history of the Roman Church's dealing with the Word of God. Early councils in the Catholic Church defined the limits of Canon: in other words, final decisions on what would be considered the Word of God and what would not were of central importance in the early years of the Church. The Roman Catholic Church, while accepting the 66 books of the Bible all accept, of Genesis through Revelation, also accepts secondary canonical texts such as the Apocrypha. Books such as Tobit, Susanna, Maccabees and further 'adventures' of the prophet Daniel are included in Catholic Texts. Many of these texts are dismissed by other scholars due to their lesser credibility and inclusion not just of 'miracles' but other 'fantastical' happenings..

MORE TO FOLLOW

The Vatican Position on the Word

The Word of God vs the Reason of Man has been the perennial struggle in the human condition. On extreme ends we find the 'Humanists' who deny God, and for whom human reason is deified, and on the opposite end, are those who adhere to the Word of God as the final Authority for every issue of Life. Most blindly suppose that all "Churches" that go under the rubric "Christian" or Catholic hold to the latter: that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God sufficient for every human need. The issue has been clouded over by 2000 years of debating divine dogma tainted by human scrutiny.

The Vatican though more than other Denominations has considered the topic in councils and apolegetics, arriving after a 1700 year history at a position expounded in Pope John Paul's 13th Encyclical (1998) at a position referred to as "Fides et Ratio": denoting the admixture of the Catholic position of faith and human reason. The Holy See has denounced belief in adherence to scripture as final authority as "Fideism": which though defined in complexity, amounts to the belief in the total and final authority of Scripture, as written, instead of human interpretation of Scripture. This battle of dogma of "Fides et Ratio" vs "Fideism" (derogatorily used) paints the picture of one of the fundamental differences between Evangelical and Fundamental Believers, and the Roman Church: it is an essentially irreconciable difference.

MORE TO FOLLOW .³