Pastor Aeternus: Obstacle to Catholic-Orthodox reconciliation? It seems that any legitimate contemporary Catholic ecclesiology must affirm the teachings of Vatican I on the nature of the papal office, but can its teachings be shown to be in harmony with the teachings of certain Church Fathers, as well as with history? The Orthodox answer no.

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Can we both simultaneously believe something is true and know that it is true? No. But some propositions that are naturally knowable can be the matter of faith -- we assent to them under the formality of God Himself. So there is a place within the theological virtue of faith for these propositions -- they are not extraneous to faith, simply because we could know that they are true through reason alone.