Video: What “Development of Doctrine” Really Means

"In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change and to be perfect is to have changed often." This famous quote by Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman speaks to his teaching of the development of Catholic doctrine. 

In light of the recent controversy about the Synod on the Family, Fr. Robert Barron explores what Newman taught, focusing on the central point that ideas are living things that unfold and develop. This doesn’t mean doctrine is up for grabs, but that it becomes "more fully itself" over time. Newman uses seven criteria to distinguish between a corruption of a doctrine and a legitimate development, and Barron outlines three of them here.