How do you answer Jay Dyer's claim that Unam Sanctam and Vatican II show the Church contradicting itself?
Robert Sungenis answers that Jay Dyer builds a straw man: Boniface VIII's Unam Sanctam claims the pope's spiritual power to judge rulers by God's law, not to govern countries. He calls Dignitatis Humanae one of the Church's most beautiful documents, forbidding coercion of conscience, notes that Nostra Aetate never gave the Jews their own covenant, and holds there is no contradiction.
A viewer sent a video by Orthodox apologist Jay Dyer arguing the Catholic Church contradicts itself, attacking Unam Sanctam's teaching on papal temporal power and Vatican II's Dignitatis Humanae and Nostra Aetate.
Answer
Dyer builds a straw man. He reads Boniface VIII's Unam Sanctum as if the pope claimed to be a full-time geopolitical ruler over kings, but Boniface only means the pope's spiritual power guides and judges whether temporal rulers act in accord with God's law; he can excommunicate a Catholic ruler, but he does not run countries, and that is exactly what popes do today with issues like abortion. Then Dyer attacks Dignitatis Humanae without even reading it; it is one of the most beautiful documents the Church ever wrote, and it is about coercion, teaching that no one may be forced against his conscience, which first of all secures the Catholic Church's own right to exist. He does the same with Nostra Aetate, which never gave the Jews their own covenant. There is no contradiction; the Church teaches today what she always taught.