The Infallibility of the Church

Posted on by — Leave a reply

The Infallibility of the Church

 

Table of Contents

I. Introduction

  1. Identity of Mission
  2. Power to Teach Infallibly
  3. Assistance of the Spirit of Truth
  4. Always Until the End of the World
  5. Promise to Saint Peter
  6. Transmission

II. Preliminary Notions on the Magisterium

III. Definition of Infallibility

IV. Distinctions in Infallibility

  1. Positive and Negative Aspects
  2. Modes
    1. Extraordinary and Universal Magisterium (EUM)
    2. Ordinary and Universal Magisterium (OUM)
    3. Corollary: The OUMFunctions Even Without a Pope in Times of Sede Vacante
    4. Counter-Arguments
    5. Complementarity of the Modes
    6. Commonitorium of Saint Vincent of Lérins: Infallibility of the Church as a Whole: “quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus”

V. Institution of the Authentic and Infallible Magisterium

VI. Subject of the Infallible Magisterium

VII. Object of the Infallible Magisterium

A. Primary Object of the Magisterium

B. Secondary Object

C. Infallibility in Dogmatic Facts

a. What Is a Dogmatic Fact?

b. Scriptural and Traditional Proof

c. Universal Peaceful Acceptance (UPA) as an Infallible Criterion

VIII. Refutation of Counter-Arguments

IX. Conclusion

 

  1. Introduction

 

We believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ is the awaited Messiah, come to announce the good news to the poor, to console the afflicted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to set free the oppressed (Luke 4:18): whoever believes in Him will know the truth that gives true freedom (John 8:31-32), but whoever does not believe will be condemned (Mark 16:16).

This, in summary, is the mission that Our Lord received from the Father (John 6:38), and on several occasions, He demanded faith in His teaching (Mark 1:15; John 6:29). This is why He accepted being called Master (John 13:13), and He even emphasized that He is the only true Master (Matthew 23:8-10) who not only teaches the truth but is the Truth (John 14:6).

Other teachers deserve the title of master to the extent that they participate in His truth: Our Lord, on the contrary, teaches as one who has authority (Mark 1:22).

 

  1. Identity of Mission

 

The mission that Our Lord exercised, He communicated entirely to His Apostles. The doctrine and institution of the College of the Apostles are proof of this: after spending a night in prayer, He chose the Twelve and gave them the name “Apostles” (that is, sent ones) (Luke 6:12-13).

Throughout His public life, He instructed them and prepared them for the mission they were to receive.

 

Finally, He entrusted to them the same mission that He had exercised on earth: “As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world” (John 17:18). “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (John 20:21). “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. Whoever hears you hears me, and whoever despises you despises me. Whoever despises me despises him who sent me” (Matthew 10:40; Luke 10:16).

The Apostles constituted the same moral person as Our Lord; they had a charge and a power equal to His in fullness and extent. However, with this nuance that Christ remains their invisible head and the source of their power.

 

This identity of mission is a truth of divine faith because it is contained in Sacred Scripture, and it is the Catholic doctrine taught by the First Vatican Council (DS 3050), by Leo XIII in Satis Cognitum, and by Pius XII in Mystici Corporis.

 

  1. Power to Teach Infallibly.

 

Thus, Our Lord gave to the Apostles and their successors the charge to continue His mission as infallible Master, that is, the power to teach infallibly.

As we see in the Gospels (Mark 16:16), He demands absolute obedience to this Magisterium, to the point that “whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

This threat would be absurd if there were no harmony between His Magisterium and that of the Apostles and their successors.

 

  1. Assistance of the Spirit of Truth

 

These will indeed have the assistance of the Spirit of truth; they will constitute one thing with Our Lord; they will be the witnesses and authentic interpreters of His doctrine: “I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth… When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John 14:16-17; 16:13).

 

  1. Always Until the End of the World

 

The infallible Magisterium will remain forever in the Church: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations… teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).

 

  1. Promise to Saint Peter

 

He made a particular promise to Saint Peter: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:18-19).

 

From this promise, one can deduce that Our Lord gave to Saint Peter and his successors the same mission and the same privileges as those given to the Church (DS 3058, 3074-75).

 

  1. Transmission

 

The Apostles were conscious of their infallibility and transmitted their powers to their successors.

 

The Fathers closest to the Apostles repeated the same teaching.

Saint Ignatius of Antioch († 107) affirms that just as Jesus is the Word of the Father, so the bishops constitute the doctrine of Christ and the faithful must adhere to it.

For Saint Irenaeus, the apostolic doctrine, which reaches us through the succession of bishops, is the criterion for discerning truth from heresy.

 

“Where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; where the Spirit of God is, there is also the Church.”

This doctrine, always taught by the whole Church, has been denied by the Gnostics, the Protestants, the rationalists, the modernists.

These heresies, which deny ecclesiastical infallibility, contradict the very logic of Revelation: without an infallible Magisterium, faith would be left to human arbitrariness, which is contrary to divine wisdom as exposed by Saint Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica (II-II, q. 1, a. 9, sed contra), where he affirms that faith rests on the infallible authority of the Church as on a certain foundation.

 

  1. Preliminary Notions on the Magisterium

 

When you seek to know a truth, you must first refer to the Magisterium of the Church, which is the rule of faith.

If the doctrine exposed by the Magisterium is not clear, it is appropriate to refer to other documents where the Magisterium has expressed itself on this question. If you want to achieve greater clarity, you will also need to seek the texts that prepared the declaration of the Magisterium: for this, you refer to certain explanations of the Fathers of the Vatican Council. Finally, you will need to refer to the theologians, and where they do not agree, you will need to follow preferably the doctrine held as unanimous by the theologians or the thesis considered the most probable.

 

The Magisterium is an institution intended to instruct people: in school, at the university, in training courses, in seminaries, wherever there is someone who teaches and listeners who are there to be instructed, there is a Magisterium. The Master par excellence is Our Lord who possesses the truth and teaches it with authority.

 

The authentic Magisterium (from the Greek authentia = authority) is the duty that legitimate authority has to transmit the doctrine, to which corresponds for the disciple the obligation and the right to receive the instruction.

 

It is subdivided into:

 

– Broad sense: it does not have of itself the force to require from the disciple the assent of the intelligence (a professor who teaches a personal theory).

 

– Strict sense: it has the force to impose the doctrine in such a way that the disciples are bound to give the assent of their intelligence because of the authority of the master who is the representative of God.

 

The authority of the Magisterium of the Church is founded on the mission it has received from God.

 

The infallible Magisterium: it has the supreme degree of authority.

 

We distinguish:

 

– Infallibility of fact: it is pure inerrancy, simply the absence of error (by saying any truth, one does not err even if it concerns neither faith nor morals: 2+2=4).

 

– Infallibility of right: it is the impossibility of erring by principle: the infallibility of the Church comes from the assistance of the Holy Spirit and therefore cannot err.

 

The Magisterium is then subdivided into:

 

  1. a) Written: even after the death of the author, it is exercised by his writings (for example, the writings of the popes).

 

  1. b) Living: it is exercised by living men and can be:

 

– Traditional: it must only keep, declare, explain, defend the deposit.

– Inventive: it objectively adds new truths: in the Church, revelation ended with the death of the last apostle, Saint John (+ ca. A.D. 100).

 

III. Definition of Infallibility

 

Infallibility is that gift by which the Church enjoys a privilege such that, thanks to the assistance of the Holy Spirit, it cannot err in what concerns faith and morals, either in what it teaches or in what it believes.

 

– Gift:

the Church is infallible not ex natura sua (by nature), but because it participates in the infallibility of Our Lord who is the Head of the Church.

 

– Assistance of the Holy Spirit:

the Holy Spirit does not dwell in the soul in a special way, but there is an operation of God attributed to the Holy Spirit. It is a special and effective help from God, which governs the mind of the one who teaches in such a way that the latter, when he proposes a doctrine, is always preserved from error.

This does not exclude human research, which is even indispensable: the assistance presupposes cooperation.

 

– Faith and Morals: the object of infallibility is constituted by the truths of faith and morals as well as those that are connected to them.

 

– Either in the truths to teach, or in the truths to believe: we distinguish a double infallibility, active and passive.

 

– The active (in docendo) concerns the teaching Church (Ecclesia docens), the body of pastors who cannot err when it transmits a doctrine of faith or morals.

 

– The passive (in credendo) concerns the whole of the faithful (Ecclesia discens), insofar as they are submitted to the pastors to the extent that their unanimous consent cannot err in what concerns faith or morals. Passive infallibility can only exist in union and submission to legitimate pastors.

 

– The Church cannot err:

infallibility not only means immunity from error of fact, called rather inerrancy, but also includes the impossibility of erring; as the theologian J. de Groot says, the Church not only does not err, which is a fact, but cannot err either, which belongs to it by right (J. V. de Groot, O.P., Summa apologetica de Ecclesia Catholica ad mentem S. Thomae Aquinatis, Ratisbonae, G. J. Manz, 3rd ed., 1906)

The same Cardinal Billot affirms that infallibility is necessary for the act of faith and for salvation: indeed, Holy Scripture is insufficient as a criterion (De Ecclesia Christi, tome I).

 

  1. Distinctions in Infallibility

 

  1. In infallibility we can distinguish two aspects:

 

– one that we could call positive when the Magisterium positively affirms a truth that until then was only a matter of opinion (ex. Leo XIII establishes that Anglican ordinations are invalid) or when it gives a solemn definition of a truth (which was not yet or was already of faith). These decisions are irreformable.

 

– The aspect that we call negative consists simply in the non-existence of error or harmfulness vis-à-vis Faith and morals, in all that the Church teaches as being revealed or connected to Revelation: ex., when Pius XI promulgated the Mass and Office of the Sacred Heart, all Catholics were sure that in celebrating this Mass and reciting this Office, they ran no risk of error contrary to faith or morals, or that there was nothing harmful to eternal salvation.

These decisions are not irreformable; for this reason, the same Pontiff or another can change or annul the Mass and/or the Office: likewise this change would be infallible in a negative sense, that is, there would be no error against Faith or morals or any danger for eternal salvation.

 

Cardinal Franzelin speaks of it regarding the infallibility of the Magisterium of the Church when it gives the dogmatic note of a proposition as “safe” and “not safe.” Thus when the Church declared that in morals one can follow in all safety the opinions of Saint Alphonsus, this does not mean that everyone is obliged to follow Saint Alphonsus, but that in his works there is nothing contrary to the doctrine of the Church.

 

  1. Modes:

 

We finally distinguish the kinds of exercise of infallibility according to the modes of the Magisterium.

The infallible Magisterium is exercised in two principal ways: the Extraordinary and Universal Magisterium (EUM) and the Ordinary and Universal Magisterium (OUM).

 

A- The EUM is solemn and formal:

 

it includes the ex cathedra definitions of the Roman Pontiff and the decisions of Ecumenical Councils in union with the Pope. These acts are solemn judgments that dogmatically define a truth of faith or morals, making the proposition irreformable and obliging to the assent of divine and Catholic faith (DS 3074).

For example, the definition of pontifical infallibility at the Vatican Council (DS 3073-3075) is an act of the EUM.

This mode is rare, but it is the most striking testimony of divine assistance, refuting the modernist objections that claim the Church can err in its solemn definitions – rejected by the affirmation of the contrary by Pius IX in Pastor Aeternus, 1870, DS 3070–3075.

 

B- The OUM is continuous and habitual:

 

it is exercised by the unanimous teaching of the bishops dispersed in the world, in communion with the Pope, when they propose a doctrine of faith or morals as definitively to be believed.

It does not require a solemn form, but rests on the persistence and universality of the teaching (DS 3011: “by its ordinary and universal Magisterium”).

For example, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was taught by the OUM before its solemn definition in 1854.

This mode is more frequent and covers the entire deposit of faith, as explained by Saint Thomas (II-II, q. 5, a. 3): the Church teaches infallibly through the living Tradition of the pastors.

 

C- Corollary: The OUM Functions Even Without a Pope in Times of Sede Vacante

 

In times of Sede vacante the Pope does not exist, the Church persists without him during the interregnum.

 

However, the Church itself – mystical body of Christ, assisted by the Holy Spirit – could not fail, under penalty of contradicting the promise of the Lord: “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).

 

If the OUM were absent or lost its infallibility during the vacancy, this would imply that the whole of the Church is fallible during this period, which is impossible.

 

Indeed, the OUM is the constant and unanimous teaching of the bishops in communion with one another (and with the Pope when he exists), dispersed in the world, on the truths of faith and morals. This moral unanimity suffices to engage infallibility, as affirmed by the same Vatican I in Pastor Aeternus (July 18, 1870), by extending infallibility to the episcopal college united to the successor of Peter – but the vacancy does not interrupt the ordinary exercise of the dispersed Church

 

D- As for possible counter-arguments

 

for example, those who claim that without a Pope, there is no longer possible communion and therefore no more infallibility, they are refuted by the very logic of the doctrine: the Church is a perfect and indefectible society, and its ordinary Magisterium does not depend on an individual, but on the divine assistance promised to the whole teaching body.

 

– This assistance of the Holy Spirit to the entire Church, as the mystical body of Christ, is affirmed with dogmatic clarity by the First Vatican Council in its constitution Dei Filius (April 24, 1870, chapter 3, De fide):

 

“Moreover, by divine and Catholic faith, all those things are to be believed which are contained in the word of God as found in Scripture and tradition, and which are proposed by the Church as matters to be believed as divinely revealed, whether by her solemn judgment or by her ordinary and universal Magisterium.”

 

This immutable truth excludes any possibility of temporary fallibility during the interregnum, under penalty of contradicting the very Thomistic logic of the perfect society of the Church.

 

Cf. Saint Thomas, Summa Theologica, III, q. 8, a. 3, where he explains that Jesus is the head of the Church.

Since its head is infallible, the Church is infallible by divine assistance. For a body thinks and teaches through its head.

 

The objections that would limit infallibility to the sole presence of a reigning Pope are therefore refuted by this certain doctrine: the Church persists and teaches infallibly through its bishops in communion, assisted by the Paraclete, independently of a mortal individual.

 

In these times of grave crisis, where the See has been vacant for more than sixty years due to the public heresy of the conciliar occupants, this infallibility of the OUM guides us precisely: it obliges us to adhere to the immaculate Tradition, without concession to novelties. This is how faithful Catholics discern eternal truth.

 

The Protestant objections, which deny this mode by invoking “Sola Scriptura,” are refuted by the very logic of Revelation: without the OUM, Scripture would be obscure and subject to private interpretation, which contradicts the promise of Christ (John 16:13).

 

E- These two modes complement each other:

 

the EUM specifies and defines what the OUM already proposes in a continuous manner.

Both ensure the perpetuity of infallibility, against the liberal errors that imagine a fallible Church.

 

F- The infallibility of the Church as a whole: “quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus”

 

However, infallibility is not limited to these exercises of the teaching Magisterium: the Church as a whole is infallible, by virtue of its organic unity under the head of Christ.

 

As taught by Saint Vincent of Lérins in his Commonitorium (II, 6):

“Id teneamus, quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est; hoc est enim vere proprieque catholicum”

“Let us hold that which has been believed everywhere, always, by all; for that is truly and properly Catholic.”

We will devote a chapter to the Commonitorium of Saint Vincent of Lérins.

 

This criterion of catholicity – what has been believed and taught by all, everywhere and always – manifests the passive infallibility of the Ecclesia docens and discens united: the perennial consensus of Tradition, preserved by the faithful Church against heresies subsequent to 1963, is infallible in itself.

 

Thus, not only the OUM and the EUM, but the entire Church, in its doctrinal permanence, is preserved from error, as confirmed by the Vatican Council (DS 3020): the revealed doctrine must be kept faithfully and declared infallibly.

 

  1. Our Lord Instituted an Authentic and Infallible Magisterium, Living and Traditional, So That It May Last in Perpetuity

 

Thanks to the following documents, we say that this truth has been at least implicitly defined by a solemn judgment at the First Vatican Council. It defined:

 

1) The Magisterium Was Instituted by God upon the Apostles:

 

“God instituted the Church… so that She may be known by all as the guardian and mistress of the Revelation” (DS 3012).

 

“The Church… in addition to the apostolic charge of teaching has received the mission to conserve the deposit of faith” (DS 3018).

 

2) The Magisterium Is Authentic and Has Authority:

 

– To interpret Sacred Scripture: DS 3007;

– To propose to the faithful the truths to believe of divine and Catholic faith: DS 3011;

– To judge scientific and philosophical truths that are connected to the revealed deposit: DS 3017-3018.

 

3) The Magisterium Instituted by Our Lord Is Perpetual:

 

DS 3050

“The eternal pastor and guardian of our souls (1 Peter 2:25), in order to perpetuate the salutary work of the Redemption, decided to found the Church, in which, as in the house of the living God, all the faithful would be gathered by the bond of one faith and one charity”

 

DS 3071

“This charism of truth and of faith forever indefectible was granted by God to Peter and to his successors in this chair, so that they fulfill their high charge for the salvation of all, so that the universal flock of Christ, turned away from the poisoned nourishments of error, may be nourished by heavenly doctrine, so that, every occasion of schism being suppressed, the Church may be conserved whole”

 

4) It Is Infallible:

 

DS 3020

“For the doctrine of faith that God has revealed has not been proposed as a philosophical invention to be perfected by human talents, but as a divine deposit entrusted to the Spouse of Christ to be faithfully guarded and infallibly declared. Hence the meaning of the sacred dogmas which must always be preserved is that which our holy Mother the Church has once declared, and there must never be deviation from that meaning under the species or name of a higher understanding (can.3). ‘Let, therefore… and very much and vigorously progress, as well of individuals as of all, as well of one man as of the whole Church, according to the degrees of ages and centuries, intelligence, knowledge, wisdom: but in its own kind only, in the same dogma, in the same sense and in the same opinion’.”

 

DS 3074.

“therefore, these definitions of the Roman pontiff are irreformable by themselves and not by virtue of the consent of the Church.”

 

5) It Is Traditional:

 

it was instituted not to teach new things but to guard, defend and proclaim the deposit received:

 

DS 3070.

“For the Holy Spirit was not promised to the successors of Peter so that they might make known under his revelation a new doctrine, but so that with his assistance they might guard holily and expose faithfully the Revelation transmitted by the apostles, that is, the deposit of faith.”

 

  1. Subject of the Infallible Magisterium (see above: “III. Distinctions in Infallibility – Mode”)

 

The subject of this infallible Magisterium, that is, the moral or physical person who possesses this function of teaching is:

 

– The Roman Pontiff, as formal Successor of Saint Peter in his primacy over the Church or as Vicar of Our Lord, when the holy chair is occupied;

 

– The Body of Bishops in submission to the Sovereign Pontiff. The Bishops can be gathered in Council or dispersed in the world.

 

In the first case we speak of Pontifical Magisterium; in the second of universal Magisterium, which is exercised by the modes distinguished above.

 

The infallibility of the Sovereign Pontiff is a truth of defined divine faith. It is contained in Revelation (Matthew 16:18-19; Luke 22:32), has always been taught, believed, practiced by the Church.

 

The Sovereign Pontiff enjoys the same infallibility as the Church (DS 3074):

“when the Roman pontiff speaks ex cathedra, that is, when, fulfilling his charge as pastor and doctor of all Christians, he defines, by virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, that a doctrine in matter of faith or morals must be held by the whole Church, he enjoys, by virtue of the divine assistance promised to him in the person of blessed Peter, that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer willed that his Church be provided when it defines doctrine on faith or morals; therefore, these definitions of the Roman pontiff are irreformable by themselves and not by virtue of the consent of the Church.”

 

When the Sovereign Pontiff speaks not as Pope, but as a private doctor, he does not enjoy infallibility.

 

The infallibility of the bishops united and submitted to the Pope is a truth of faith implicitly defined at the Vatican Council (DS 3011), and is founded on the documents of Sacred Scripture cited at the beginning of this chapter. The Catholic Church, faithful to the apostolic Tradition, preserves this infallible unity against schisms and heresies.

 

VII. Object of the Infallible Magisterium

 

The object of the Magisterium is called the set of propositions on which it can pronounce a positive or negative judgment, according to whether such propositions are true or false.

 

It is about truths linked to Revelation (since the infallible Magisterium was given in order to guard, defend and explicit the deposit of Revelation) and which are normally indicated by the phrase: “doctrine regarding faith and morals.”

 

All theologians divide these truths of faith or morals into two classes: primary or direct, secondary or indirect. Saint Thomas: “A proposition can be of faith for two reasons: in the first place and principally, like the articles of faith, or indirectly and secondarily like the propositions whose negation entails the alteration of some article of faith” (II-II, q. 11, a. 2).

 

  1. Primary Object of the Magisterium

 

The first class is constituted by the propositions that are formally contained in Revelation, explicitly or implicitly; ex.: “Jesus is God.” They are called truths revealed in themselves and they constitute the primary or direct object of the Magisterium. Let us see the teaching of the Church on this subject.

 

– First Vatican Council (1870):

 

“Must be believed by divine and Catholic faith all that is contained in the word of God written or handed down, and that the Church proposes to be believed as divinely revealed, either by a solemn judgment or by her ordinary and universal Magisterium” (DS 3011).

 

“The doctrine of faith, which God has revealed… handed down to the Spouse of Christ as a divine deposit, must be faithfully guarded and infallibly declared” (DS 3020).

 

“The Holy Spirit was not promised to the successors of Peter so that they might reveal a new doctrine, but so that, with his assistance, they might guard holily and expose faithfully the revelation transmitted by the Apostles, that is, the deposit of faith. All the venerable Fathers have accepted and the holy Catholic doctors have venerated and followed the apostolic doctrine, knowing very well that the chair of Saint Peter remained pure of all error, according to the promise of Our Lord made to the prince of the Apostles: ‘I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail: and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren’ (Luke 22:32)” (DS 3070).

 

Leo XIII “Sapientiae Christianae”: “Among the things that are contained in divine revelation, some relate to God, and others to man and to the means necessary for man’s eternal salvation. It belongs by divine right to the Church, and, in the Church, to the Roman Pontiff, to determine in these two orders what must be believed and what must be done. This is why the Pontiff must be able to judge with authority what the word of God contains [Revelation], decide which doctrines agree with it and which doctrines contradict it. Likewise, in the sphere of morals, it is up to him to determine what is good, what is bad, what is necessary to accomplish and avoid if one wants to attain eternal salvation; otherwise, he could be neither the infallible interpreter of the word of God, nor the sure guide of human life” (DS 1936a).

 

Pius XII, Humani Generis:

“And although this sacred Magisterium must be for every theologian, in matters of faith and morals, the proximate and universal rule of truth, – since it is to it that Christ Our Lord has entrusted the whole deposit of faith, Sacred Scripture and Tradition, to guard, to defend and to interpret… God, indeed, has given to His Church, with these sources that we have said, a living Magisterium to illuminate and disentangle what was contained in the deposit of Faith only in an obscure way and as if implicitly. This deposit, it is not to each of the faithful, nor to the theologians themselves that our divine Redeemer has entrusted the authentic interpretation, but to the sole Magisterium of the Church…

It belongs to it by divine institution… to guard and interpret the deposit of divinely revealed truths” (DS 3884, 3886).

 

The dogmatic value of these propositions from the cited texts is the following: it is a truth of faith defined that the object of infallibility is constituted by the formally revealed truths (Vatican Council).

DS 3011 et seq.:

 

“Porro fide divina et catholica ea omnia credenda sunt, quae in verbo Dei scripto vel tradito continentur et ab Ecclesia sive solemni iudicio sive ordinario et universali magisterio tamquam divinitus revelata credenda proponuntur.”

 

DS, 3020,

“Neque enim fidei doctrina, quam Deus revelavit, velut philosophicum inventum proposita est humanis ingeniis perficienda, sed tamquam divinum depositum Christi Sponsae tradita, fideliter custodienda et infallibiliter declaranda. Hinc sacrorum quoque dogmatum is sensus perpetuo est retinendus, quem semel declaravit sancta mater Ecclesia, nec umquam ab eo sensu altioris intelligentiae specie et nomine recedendum (can.3). “Crescat igitur… et multum vehementerque proficiat, tam singulorum quam omnium, tam unius hominis quam totius Ecclesiae, aetatum ac saeculorum gradibus, intelligentia, scientia, sapientia: sed in suo dumtaxat genere, in eodem scilicet dogmate, eodem sensu eademque sententia “.

 

DS 3067.

“Approbante vero Lugdunensi Concilio secundo Graeci professi sunt: ‘sanctam Romanam Ecclesiam summum et plenum primatum et principatum super universam Ecclesiam catholicam obtinere quem se ab ipso Domino in beato Petro Apostolorum principe sive vertice, cuius Romanus Pontifex est successor, cum potestatis plenitudine recepisse veraciter et humiliter recognoscit; et sicut prae ceteris tenetur fidei veritatem defendere, sic et, si quae de fide subortae fuerint quaestiones, suo debent iudicio definiri’ (cf. DS 861). «

 

Translation:

 

DS 3011

“Moreover, by divine and Catholic faith, all those things are to be believed which are contained in the word of God as found in Scripture and tradition, and which are proposed by the Church as matters to be believed as divinely revealed, whether by her solemn judgment or by her ordinary and universal Magisterium.”

 

DS 3020

“For the doctrine of the faith which God has revealed is put forward not as some philosophical discovery capable of being perfected by human intelligence, but as a divine deposit committed to the spouse of Christ to be faithfully protected and infallibly promulgated. Hence, too, that meaning of the sacred dogmas is ever to be maintained which has once been declared by holy mother Church, and there must never be any abandonment of this sense under the pretext or in the name of a more profound understanding (can.3). ‘May, therefore… understanding, knowledge and wisdom increase as ages and centuries roll along, and greatly and vigorously flourish, in each and all, in the individual and the whole Church: but this only in its own proper kind, that is to say, in the same doctrine, the same sense, and the same understanding’.”

 

DS 3067

“With the approval of the Second Council of Lyons, the Greeks professed: ‘the holy Roman Church possesses supreme and full primacy and principality over the whole Catholic Church, which it truly and humbly acknowledges that it has received with the plenitude of power from the Lord Himself in the person of blessed Peter, Prince or Head of the Apostles, whose successor the Roman Pontiff is; and as the Apostolic See is bound above others to defend the truth of faith, so also, if any questions regarding faith shall arise, they must be defined by its judgment’ (cf. DS 861).”

 

The thesis according to which the doctrine on faith and morals constitutes the direct and primary object of infallibility is contained implicitly in the definition of the infallibility of the Pontiff: indeed, it is said that its object is “the doctrine on faith or morals” (DS 3074).

 

  1. The Secondary Object

 

The second class is constituted by the propositions that are connected (linked) in a necessary way to Revelation, which are useful for the reception, conservation, and communication of the revealed deposit.

Indeed, as Bishop Gasser teaches, there exist many truths which “although they are not revealed in themselves, are nevertheless required to guard intact the deposit of Revelation itself, to explain it as befits, and to define it effectively.” Absolutely all Catholic theologians, concludes Bishop Gasser, agree in recognizing that these truths, which are not revealed in themselves but which belong to the guard of the deposit of faith, are infallible.

 

Thus Bishop Vincent Gasser (1810-1879), bishop of Brixen (current Bressanone), during the Vatican Council I. It is an official intervention made in the name of the Deputation of the Faith, on July 11, 1870, in the framework of the discussions on the definition of pontifical infallibility. This intervention, often qualified as “Gasser report,” is an authorized and infallible explanation of the meaning of the dogmatic constitution Pastor Aeternus (promulgated on July 18, 1870), which defines the infallibility of the Pope in matters of faith and morals.

 

It is called secondary object because it derives from the primary; it is said indirect object of infallibility, because infallibility does not touch it itself, but because of the primary object.

 

It includes the propositions drawn formally from those that are revealed by means of a legitimate deduction; it also includes the truths necessary to guard intact the deposit of Revelation (which, without them, would be corrupted) to explain it and define it further. It is customary to divide it into several groups.

 

  1. A Secondary Object in Particular: “Infallibility in Dogmatic Facts”

 

Moreover, the Church is infallible in dogmatic facts (FD), that is, the historical facts necessary for faith and morals, such as the authenticity of the Holy Books or the resurrection of Christ.

 

  1. What Is a Dogmatic Fact?

 

A dogma is a truth revealed by God, contained in the Scriptures or Tradition, and proposed infallibly by the magisterium of the Church as to be believed of divine and Catholic faith.

But it is not only speculative truths (like the Trinity) that fall under dogma; the historical facts necessary to the deposit of faith are also, for without them, the revealed truths would lose their foundation.

Thus, the valid election of a pope is not a simple canonical or contingent historical question: it is a fact constitutive of the divine hierarchy of the Church, without which the infallibility and visibility of the Church would collapse.

 

These facts, connected to the revealed deposit, fall under the object of infallibility, for their negation would alter an article of faith, according to Saint Thomas (II-II, q. 11, a. 2, corpus):

“a thing pertains to faith: sometimes directly and principally, like the articles of faith; sometimes indirectly and secondarily, like things that entail the corruption of an article of faith.

And heresy can extend to this double domain, as also faith.”

 

The fact of determining whether someone is or is not the pope constitutes a dogmatic fact, and therefore infallible. This affirmation is not only exact, but it flows directly from the immutable principles of the Catholic faith.

 

  1. Scriptural and Traditional Proof that the Papacy Is a Dogmatic Fact

 

Christ instituted the Petrine primacy as a divine and irrevocable fact: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).

This promise implies that the Church, indefectible, will always have a visible successor of Peter to govern it.

 

The Vatican Council I (1869-1870), in the constitution Pastor Aeternus of July 18, 1870, chapter 4, defines the infallibility of the legitimate pope:

“We teach and define as a divinely revealed dogma: that the Roman pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra […] possesses, through the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer willed his Church to be provided.”

If one cannot infallibly determine who is this Roman pontiff, then the very infallibility of the Church is jeopardized. One must know if a person is truly pope to believe firmly in his teaching especially as infallible pope.

Now, the Church cannot fail (promise of Christ in Luke 22:32: “I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith may not fail”).

 

Therefore, the fact of who validly occupies the chair of Peter is itself dogmatic and infallible.

 

  1. Universal Peaceful Acceptance (UPA) as Infallible Criterion (see chapter “UPAand Dogmatic Fact”)

 

Catholic theology teaches that the election of a pope is made certain and dogmatic by the peaceful and universal acceptance of the Church (bishops, clergy and faithful).

This is not a simple custom, but a dogmatic fact deduced from the indefectibility of the Church.

 

The theologian Billuart (18th century), in his Cursus Theologiae, explains:

“The election of a pope is made legitimate and irrevocable by the peaceful acceptance of the ecclesiastical body.”

Similarly, Cajetan (Tommaso de Vio, 1469-1534), commenting on Saint Thomas, affirms in his De Comparatione Auctoritatis Papae et Concilii: “The certainty of the legitimacy of the pope resides in the universal and peaceful acceptance by the Church.”

 

This principle is logical according to Saint Thomas: if the visible Church could not infallibly recognize its visible head, it would cease to be a visible and indefectible society, which contradicts divine reality.

 

VIII. Refutation of Counter-Arguments

 

– Some object that “the Church cannot subsist without a pope for decades,” invoking indefectibility.

But this is an error: the Church of Rome has known prolonged vacant sees (for example, under Emperor Henry IV in the 11th century).

Saint Robert Bellarmine (De Romano Pontifice, II, 30), theologian doctor of the Church, teaches:

“A manifestly heretical pope ceases ipso facto to be pope and member of the Church, without need of declaration.”

The post-Vatican II antipopes, by their public heresies (religious liberty, collegiality), have lost all jurisdiction.

And without a pope the Church is capable of doing all that God has commanded and given it to do.

There have been from Saint Peter to Pius XII 260 popes therefore 260 interregna, “times of sede vacante” and the Church has always functioned.

 

– The “non-sedevacantist” traditionalists (who must be called schismatics or heretics for their adherence to antipopes) contradict themselves by criticizing the “pope” while recognizing him: either he is infallible, and their criticisms are sacrilegious; or he is not, and their recognition is illogical.

In short, determining if someone is pope constitutes a dogmatic fact, because it touches the deposit of faith revealed.

This FD is therefore infallible, guaranteed by the assistance of the Holy Spirit to the Church.

 

  1. In Conclusion

 

the infallibility of the Church is the divine rampart against error, ensuring the faithful transmission of the deposit of faith. As Pius XII recalls in Mystici Corporis (DS 3813), the Church, Body of Christ, cannot fail by virtue of the promise of the divine Head. Any contrary objection, whether from modernists or schismatics, is refuted by Thomistic logic: faith requires an infallible criterion, and this criterion is the Catholic Church, faithful to the apostolic Tradition.

 

AMDG

 

Leave a Reply