I hope you agree with the scholastic principle: veritas est adaequatio intellectus et rei, “truth is the joining of the mind with reality.” The affirmation 3 + 5 = 8 is true. Tchaikovsky composed the Nutcracker—this statement corresponds with historical reality, it is true. It is also true to say that the Second Vatican Council formally opened under the pontificate of Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed under Pope Paul VI on 8 December 1965. Perhaps you did not know the exact dates, but you can easily verify these facts. Should someone propose different dates, his statement would simply not be true, just as it would be untrue to insist that 3 + 5 = 7. Error, then, is simply a deviation from reality, and those who are in error should correct their mistake, their misperception. If someone promotes and teaches error, we should encourage him to correct it!

In religious matters we uphold the same principles. We know that God exists! We also know his divine attributes: he is eternal, almighty, good and holy. Moreover, there is no room for error on these matters, and Saint Paul exclaims: “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and injustice of those men who detain the truth of God in injustice, because that which is known of God is manifest in them. For God hath manifested it unto them. For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; his eternal power also, and divinity, so that they are inexcusable” (Rom. 1:18-20).

God is real and people have many things to say about him. Sometimes their words shock, sometimes they edify, and sometimes they may frighten us. However, for a statement about God to be true it must be in accord with reality. It must be in accord with God’s own revelation!

There is, then, only one God. He is Real. He is the only Unchanging Truth. Two contradictory statements cannot simultaneously apply to God! If one is true, then the other must be false; it must be an error, a misperception, and those who have been deceived by error should be charitably corrected.

Needless to say, the Truth Incarnate, Jesus Christ, does not tolerate our modern notions of religious liberty. Rather he proclaims: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Father Jürgen Wegner