That council [Trent, 1551] was convened and met intermittently for two decades in order to respond to the Protestant Reformation. It defined the Roman Catholic Church. Until that council concluded, there was still some hope that Rome might repent, that she might embrace the gospel, that the Roman bishop might recognize that he was but one pastor among many. But at Trent, Rome not only embraced the errors of some medieval theologians and councils but codified them and placed the Protestants under an anathema (condemnation) at every key point of disagreement. Despite the fervent wishes of the modern, liberal ecumenical movement, Vatican II (1962–1965) did not revoke those anathemas and, in Mysterium Fidei (The Mystery of the Faith, 1965) it reaffirmed the Tridentine teaching. The 1994 catechism reaffirmed Tridentine teaching generally and on justification, tradition, and the sacraments. The Roman Catholic Church is a Tridentine communion and not the ancient Christian church.

R. Scott Clark, The Heidelberg Catechism: A Historical, Theological & Pastoral Commentary (Lexham Academic: 2025), 539.

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Post authored by:

• Inwoo Lee

  

  Inwoo Lee (BA, UCSD) earned his MA (Historical Theology) in 2020 from Westminster Seminary California and is author of “Righteous Before God: William Perkins’ Doctrine of Justification in Elizabethan England” (MA Thesis, Westminster Seminary California, 2020). He lives in the Great Seoul area, in South Korea with his wife Holly.

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