Authentic Development of Doctrine

Authentic development means this: an acorn becomes an oak tree. This is because an acorn is an oak tree, and by growing into a mature oak tree, it develops into more of what it was from the beginning. The purpose of pruning and training is to make the oak tree more authentically an oak tree. Incorrect pruning or training is an attempt to make the oak tree into something it is not. When I see an oak seedling, I already know what it will look like 100 years from now, if it succeeds. It will look like a beautiful, mature oak tree. It will not look like a beautiful, mature pine tree. Some people like the new leaves on the tree, and the roots below, but they don't like the trunk and the branches from which the new leaves bud. They want to cut out the trunk and the branches. There is one word for such a tree: dead.

Applying this to doctrine: If we cannot be sure what members of a church will believe in 100 or 500 years from now, then we can be assured that such a church is not the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church of Christ.  In the same way, authentic development of doctrine means that we are sure what Catholics will believe 100 or 500 years from now. It will be a mature version of the Faith that was passed on to us also. Any development of doctrine that tries to cut out portions of the trunk, or change the shape and nature of the Faith altogether, is not authentic development, but mutilation.