Dogmatic Fact

Its Nature and Its Relation to the Infallibility of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church

 

Table of Contents:

Introduction

1. 1. 1. Definition of the Dogmatic Fact
      2. The Dogmatic Fact in Relation to the Infallibility of the Magisterium
      3. The Dogmatic Fact as Fruit of Infallibility, Not as Source
      4. Illustrative Historical Examples
      5. Doctrinal and Pastoral Implications

Conclusion

Principal References

Introduction

 

The dogmatic fact holds an eminent place in Catholic theology, for it connects contingent historical reality to the eternal revealed truth. Defined as a fact connected to the doctrine of faith and morals, it is not revealed in itself, but acquires infallible certainty through the intervention of the ecclesiastical Magisterium. Its relation to infallibility – a divine privilege promised to the Church to keep the deposit of faith intact (cf. Lk 22:32) – is intimate: the dogmatic fact is not a source of infallibility, but its fruit and concrete expression. As Saint Thomas Aquinas teaches, the Church, assisted by the Holy Spirit, cannot err in what touches upon the faith. Saint Thomas expresses the idea in several places (for example, IIa-IIae, q. 2, a. 6, ad 3; q. 5, a. 3; q. 1, a. 10). We will proceed in logical order: definition, link with infallibility, examples, and implications.

 

1.Definition of the Dogmatic Fact

 

The dogmatic fact is a historical event or a contingent judgment which, although it does not form an intrinsic part of the primitive revelation, is affirmed by the Church as certain and necessary for the safeguarding of Christian doctrine.

 

It is a fact connected with revealed doctrine, as the theologian Charles René Billuart explains precisely in his Cursus theologiae (De Fide, diss. 5, art. 3), that the dogmatic fact is a historical fact or a contingent judgment, which is not revealed in itself, but which is affirmed by the Church as certain of divine and Catholic faith, because it is intimately linked to the revelation.

 

This definition, common to the doctors of the Church, distinguishes the dogmatic fact from pure speculative truths. For example, the authenticity of the Acts of the Apostles is not revealed directly, but its affirmation by the Magisterium makes it a dogmatic fact. The certainty deriving from it is theologically certain, or even of divine and Catholic faith if the link is direct with a dogma.

 

Pius IX, apostolic letter Tuas libenter (1863) DH 2879 clearly affirms that not only the things which, by an express judgment of the Church, must be believed, but also those which are necessarily deduced from Catholic doctrine.

 

Thus, the dogmatic fact is not arbitrary, but required by Thomistic logic: the whole (the revelation) cannot subsist without its connected parts (the facts that protect it).

 

2. The Dogmatic Fact in Relation to the Infallibility of the Magisterium

 

Infallibility, a divine gift to the Church to define without error the truths of faith and morals, extends to dogmatic facts by an intrinsic causal link. The Magisterium – papal ex cathedra or ordinary and universal – renders the fact infallible by affirming it, not because the fact is so by nature, but because the assistance of the Holy Spirit guarantees the impeccability of the ecclesiastical judge.

 

If the pope is infallible in pronouncing on a revealed truth or on a dogmatic fact concerning the universal Church, he is not so on purely scientific or political questions.

 

This relation is unidirectional: infallibility is the efficient cause of the dogmatic fact, not the inverse. Suarez, in his Defense of the Catholic Faith (Book IV, chap. 2, n. 10), exposes it with clarity that when the Church defines something of faith, not only on things immediately revealed, but also on dogmatic facts that regard them, she is infallible. The Church, in defining, in fact envelops the connected facts in her divine privilege.

 

In Thomistic logic, this pertains to formal causality: the Magisterium gives to the fact its form of infallible certainty, as the form substantializes matter. The dogmatic fact is therefore not a “source” of infallibility – that would be inverting the divine order – but a mode of its visible exercise.

 

One distinguishes three cases of exercise: the extraordinary Magisterium (ex cathedra), the ordinary universal, and judgments on connected facts, all infallibly assisted.

 

3. The Dogmatic Fact as Fruit of Infallibility, Not as Source

 

To affirm that the dogmatic fact would be a source of infallibility would be a grave error, contrary to the primacy of the divine over the human. On the contrary, it is its fruit: without infallibility, the fact remains contingent; with it, it becomes a cornerstone of the faith. The Dictionnaire de théologie catholique (article “Église” É. Dublanchy, t. IV/2, col. 2128 ss.), admits the infallibility of the Church in what we call today a dogmatic fact, relying on the unity of the faith (Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, q. 1, a. 9). In fact the faithful are bound, by necessity of salvation, to believe such propositions that the Church proposes. Therefore ecclesiastical propositions on dogmatic facts oblige in conscience.

 

This subordination is evident in controversies: the denial of a dogmatic fact equates to heresy if proclaimed ex cathedra, for it attacks infallibility itself. Thus, the dogmatic fact manifests infallibility without causing it; it is the effect, as sacramental confirmation seals baptism without producing it.

 

4. Illustrative Historical Examples

 

Ecclesiastical history abounds with examples where the infallible Magisterium has elevated a contingent fact to dogmatic dignity:

 

1. The five propositions of Jansenius were condemned as heretical by Innocent X in the bull Cum occasione (May 31, 1653), DS 2001–2005. The dogmatic fact according to which these propositions are really found in the Augustinus and in the condemned sense, was defined subsequently and infallibly by Alexander VII in Ad sanctam beati Petri sedem (1656) and Regiminis Apostolici (1665). These decisions put an end to the controversy by imposing adherence both to the doctrinal condemnation and to the fact of the attribution.

 

2. The Condemnation of the Three Chapters: By the Second Council of Constantinople (553) and then by Pope Vigilius, this dogmatic fact – the posterior condemnation of anterior errors – illustrates infallibility despite apparent historical contradictions, protected by divine assistance.

 

5. Doctrinal and Pastoral Implications

 

In our troubled time, where infallible pretensions mask modernist errors, the dogmatic fact invites us to vigilance. True Catholics, guardians of the preconciliar deposit, discern that only the acts of the authentic Magisterium – up to Vatican II – confer this certainty.

 

May this study strengthen souls against illusions, by bringing them back to the holy Church of the Apostles.

 

Conclusion

 

The dogmatic fact, by its subordination to infallibility, reveals the divine wisdom that binds the eternal to the temporal. It is not its source, but the shining testimony, calling the faithful to filial obedience.

 

Let us pray that God, through Mary Immaculate, preserve His Church from false shepherds. If this study edifies, may it bear fruit for the glory of the King of kings.

 

Principal References:

 

– Denzinger-Schönmetzer, Enchiridion Symbolorum (pre-1963 ed.).

 

– Suarez, Defense of the Catholic Faith, Book IV.

 

– Dictionnaire apologétique de la foi catholique, Paris, 1911-1928.

 

– Billuart, Cursus theologiae, 1747.