On St. Thomas Aquinas

Once again, don’t be fooled by the broad-ranging glory of the title; this is just a blurb at best. However, Dr Francisco J. Romero Carrasquillo over at Ite ad Thomam has brought to my attention a beautiful tribute to the philosophy and theology of the Angelic Doctor, the Universal Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas.

The Relevance of St Thomas Aquinas

Too often, I hear Catholics stating, “Sure, St. Thomas is great, but it’s not like he’s the be-all and end-all of Catholic thinking.” True enough; but he’s certainly the standard against which all Catholic thinking is measured. Pope St. Pius V said that “[h]is theological doctrine, accepted by the Catholic Church, outshines every other as being safer and more secure.” Pope Innocent VI was even more explicit, stating that arguing with St. Thomas is itself enough to raise suspicion of heresy:

His teaching above that of others, the canonical writings alone excepted, enjoys such a precision of language, an order of matters, a truth of conclusions, that those who hold to it are never found swerving from the path of truth, and he who dares assail it will always be suspected of error.

Pope Benedict XIII stated that St. Thomas’s works were “written without the shadow of error,” while Benedict XIV honestly confessed that “if there is anything good in our books it must be ascribed wholly to such a great Teacher rather than to ourselves.” Perhaps the greatest commendation, however, comes from the great Pope St. Pius X:

If the doctrine of any other author or saint has ever been approved at any time by us or our predecessors with singular commendation joined with an invitation and order to propagate and defend it, it may be easily understood that it was commended insofar as it agreed with the principles of Aquinas or was in no way opposed to them.

In other words, other saints and authors are good, but only insofar as they agree with St. Thomas Aquinas.

Pius XI even stated that “the Church has adopted his doctrine for her own.”

So yes, I adulate St. Thomas Aquinas; when the teaching of the Church is not clear, I clarify it with St. Thomas Aquinas; when a philosopher disagrees with St. Thomas, I agree with St. Thomas universally. I do this because the Church herself has taught it.

But what about the Fathers? What about the other doctors? Pope St. Pius X answered that question quite clearly: they are good insofar as they agree with St. Thomas. They often approach things in different ways, and this is helpful; but St. Thomas is the one who just got everything right. (Philosophically and theologically; we’re not talking about his medieval biology here.) St. Thomas was the Universal Doctor, according to Pope Pius XI; this title is just, because he took all that was good from the Fathers, from the doctors, even from the pagans, and united it all in his work, into a whole in which shines forth all the beauty of the Catholic Thing to which he was so devoted.

So no, I’m not overglorifying St. Thomas; I’m giving him the glory which the Church herself gives him, and rightly so. According to Benedict XV, “[t]he eminent commendations of Thomas Aquinas by the Holy See no longer permit a Catholic to doubt that he was divinely raised up that the Church might have a master whose doctrine should be followed in a special way at all times.” If Catholics paid more attention to St. Thomas Aquinas, the Church would be healthier and holier; may his teaching be ever before our eyes, for no other thinker has better made Christ’s teaching so clear.

Praise be to Christ the King!