Table of Contents
- Introduction
1.1. Identity of Mission
1.2. Power to Teach Infallibly
1.3. Assistance of the Spirit of Truth
1.4. Always until the End of the World
1.5. Promise to Saint Peter
1.6. Transmission
- Preliminary Notions on the Magisterium
- Definition of Infallibility
- Distinctions in Infallibility
4.1. Positive and Negative Aspects
4.2. Modes
4.2.1. Extraordinary and Universal Magisterium (EUM)
4.2.2. Ordinary and Universal Magisterium (OUM)
4.2.3. Corollary: The OUM Functions Even without a Pope in Times of Sede Vacante
4.2.4. Counter-Arguments
4.2.5. Complementarity of the Modes
4.2.6. Commonitorium of Saint Vincent of Lérins: Infallibility of the Church as a Whole: “quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus”
- Institution of the Authentic and Infallible Magisterium
- Subject of the Infallible Magisterium
- Object of the Infallible Magisterium
7.1. Primary Object of the Magisterium
7.2. Secondary Object
7.3. Infallibility in Dogmatic Facts
7.3.1. What Is a Dogmatic Fact?
7.3.2. Scriptural and Traditional Proof
7.3.3. Peaceful Universal Acceptance (PUA) as an Infallible Criterion
- Refutation of Counter-Arguments
- Conclusion
List of Sources
- Introduction
We believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ is the expected Messiah, come to proclaim the good news to the poor, to comfort the afflicted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to restore liberty to the oppressed (Lk. IV, 18): he who believes in Him shall know the truth that gives true liberty (Jn. VIII, 31-32), but he who does not believe shall be condemned (Mk. XVI, 16).
Here, in summary, is the mission that Our Lord had received from the Father (Jn. VI, 38), and on several occasions He demands faith in His teaching (Mk. I, 15; Jn. VI, 29). That is why He allowed Himself to be called Master (Jn. XIII, 13), and He even emphasised that He is the only true Master (Mt. XXIII, 8-10) who not only teaches the truth but is the Truth (Jn. XIV, 6).
Other teachers deserve the title of master insofar as they participate in His truth: Our Lord, on the contrary, teaches as one who has authority (Mk. I, 22).
1.1. Identity of Mission
The mission that Our Lord exercised, He communicated entirely to His Apostles. The doctrine and the institution of the College of the Apostles (and by apostolic succession: of the college of bishops) are proof of this: after spending a night in prayer, He chose the Twelve and gave them the name “Apostles” (that is, sent ones) (Lk. VI, 12-13). Throughout His public life, He instructed 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 Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world” (Jn. XVII, 18). “As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you” (Jn. XX, 21). “He that receiveth you, receiveth Me: and he that receiveth Me, receiveth Him that sent Me. He that heareth you, heareth Me: and he that despiseth you, despiseth Me. And he that despiseth Me, despiseth Him that sent Me” (Mt. X, 40; Lk. X, 16).
The Apostles constituted, in a certain sense, the same moral person as Our Lord. The Church is indeed the Mystical Body of Jesus, who is its invisible Head; Peter and the college of the apostles are its visible summit. They had an office and a power almost equal to His in fullness and extent. The idea is massively biblical: Christ possesses all power, then He communicates to the Apostles His mission, His doctrine, His ministerial priesthood, the power to forgive sins, the power to bind and loose, the power to preach, baptise, govern, judge and combat demons.
Nevertheless 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 Holy 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.
1.2. Power to Teach Infallibly
Thus Our Lord gave to the Apostles and to their successors the charge of continuing His mission as infallible Master, that is, the power to teach infallibly.
As we see in the Gospels (Mk. XVI, 16), He demands absolute obedience to this Magisterium, to such an extent that “he that believeth not shall be condemned.”
This threat would be absurd if there were no harmony between His Magisterium and that of the Apostles and their successors.
1.3. Assistance of the Spirit of Truth
These latter will indeed have the assistance of the Spirit of Truth; they will constitute one thing with Our Lord; they will be the witnesses and the authentic interpreters of His doctrine: “I will ask the Father and He will give you another Paraclete who will remain with you always, the Spirit of Truth… When the Spirit of Truth is come, He will teach you all truth” (Jn. XIV, 16-17; XVI, 13).
1.4. Always until the End of the World
The infallible Magisterium will remain always in the Church: “Go therefore, teach all nations… teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” (Mt. XXVIII, 19-20).
1.5. Promise to Saint Peter
He made a particular promise to Saint Peter: “Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven” (Mt. XVI, 18-19).
From this promise one can deduce that Our Lord gave to Saint Peter and to his successors the same mission and the same privileges as those given to the Church (DS 3058, 3074-75).
1.6. 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 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 comes down to 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, was 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, the faith would be delivered over to human arbitrariness, which is contrary to divine wisdom as Saint Thomas Aquinas exposes in his Summa Theologica (II-II, q. 1, a. 9, sed contra), where he affirms that faith rests upon the infallible authority of the Church as upon a certain foundation.
- Preliminary Notions on the Magisterium
When one seeks to know a truth, one must above all refer to the Magisterium of the Church, which is the rule of faith.
If the doctrine set forth by the Magisterium is not clear, one should refer to other documents in which the Magisterium has expressed itself on this question. If one wishes to arrive at greater clarity, one must also seek the texts that prepared the declaration of the Magisterium: for this one refers to certain explanations of the Fathers of the Vatican Council. Finally, one must refer to the theologians, and where they disagree, one should preferably follow the doctrine held to be unanimous by the theologians or the thesis considered most probable.
The Magisterium is an institution destined to instruct persons: at school, at the University, in formation courses, in seminaries, everywhere where 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 doctrine, to which corresponds for the disciple the obligation and the right to receive instruction.
It is subdivided into:
– Broad sense: it does not of itself have the force to demand the assent of the intellect from the disciple (a professor teaching 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 intellect because of the authority of the master who is the representative of God.
The authority of the Magisterium of the Church is founded upon the mission it has received from God.
The infallible Magisterium: it has the supreme degree of authority.
One distinguishes:
– Infallibility of fact: this is pure inerrancy, simply the absence of error (in saying any truth whatever, one does not err even if it is not a matter of faith or morals: 2+2=4).
– Infallibility of right: this is the impossibility of erring in principle: the infallibility of the Church comes from the assistance of the Holy Ghost and therefore cannot err.
The Magisterium is then subdivided into:
- a) Written: even after the death of the author it is exercised by his writings (for example the writings of the popes).
- b) Living: it is exercised by living men and it can be:
– Traditional: it must only guard, declare, explain, defend the deposit.
– Inventive: it adds new truths objectively: in the Church this does not exist and revelation stopped at the death of the last apostle, Saint John (+ ca. A.D. 100).
- Definition of Infallibility
Infallibility is that gift by which the Church enjoys a privilege such that, thanks to the assistance of the Holy Ghost, she cannot err in matters of faith and morals, whether in what she teaches or in what she believes.
– Gift:
the Church is infallible not ex natura sua (by her own nature), but because she participates in the infallibility of Our Lord who is the Head of the Church.
– Assistance of the Holy Ghost:
the Holy Ghost does not dwell in the soul in a special way but there is an operation of God attributed to the Holy Ghost. It is a special and efficacious help of God, who governs the mind of the one who teaches in such a way that when he proposes a doctrine he is always preserved from error.
This does not exclude human research which is even indispensable: assistance supposes cooperation.
– Faith and Morals: the object of infallibility consists of the truths of faith and morals as well as those connected with them.
– Whether in the truths to be taught or in the truths to be believed: one distinguishes a double infallibility, active and passive.
– The active (in docendo) concerns the teaching Church (Ecclesia docens), the body of pastors who cannot err when they transmit a doctrine of faith or morals.
– The passive (in credendo) concerns the whole body of the faithful (Ecclesia discens), insofar as they are subject to the pastors, in the measure that their unanimous consent cannot err in matters of faith or morals. Passive infallibility can exist only in union and submission to the legitimate pastors.
– The Church cannot err:
infallibility not only means immunity from error of fact, rather called inerrancy, but moreover includes the impossibility of erring; as the theologian J. de Groot says, the Church not only does not err, which is a fact, but also cannot err, which belongs to her 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).
Likewise Cardinal Louis Billot S.J. affirms that infallibility is necessary for the act of faith and for salvation: indeed Holy Scripture is insufficient as a criterion.
“De Ecclesia Christi”, vol. I, quaestio X:
“Thesis XVI. The means by which, according to the divine ordinance, the immediate proposition of things to be believed depends is not the private spirit nor the private examination of Scripture, but the authority of the living magisterium. Now this authority Christ instituted in His Church with the charism of infallibility so that it might remain perpetually, so that it might be in her the immovable principle both of the incorruptibility and of the unity of the faith. And yet He did not wish that the benefit of this authority should extend only to the faithful or even to catechumens, but He raised the ecclesiastical chair above the tops of the mountains, so that, even for those who are far away, in many ways the reason of this magisterium might cause its light to shine forth, and also that it might bring to perfection what, from the beginning, had been publicly provided for the diffusion of revealed truth among the human race.”
- Distinctions in Infallibility
4.1. Positive and Negative Aspects
In infallibility we can distinguish two aspects:
– one that we might call positive when the Magisterium positively affirms a truth that until then was only a matter of opinion (e.g. Leo XIII establishes that Anglican ordinations are invalid) or when it gives a solemn definition of a truth (which was not yet or already of faith). These decisions are irreformable.
– The aspect that we call negative consists simply in the non-existence of error or harmfulness with regard to Faith and morals, in everything that the Church teaches as revealed or connected to Revelation: e.g., when Pius XI promulgated the Mass and Office of the Sacred Heart, all Catholics were certain 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 abolish 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 to eternal salvation.
Cardinal Franzelin speaks of it with regard to 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 has declared that in morals one may safely follow 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.
4.2. Modes
One finally distinguishes the species 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).
4.2.1. The EUM is solemn and formal:
it comprises the ex cathedra definitions of the Roman Pontiff and the decisions of the ecumenical Councils in union with the Pope. These acts are solemn judgments that dogmatically define a truth of faith or morals, rendering the proposition irreformable and obliging the assent of divine and Catholic faith (DS 3074).
For example, the definition of papal 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 her solemn definitions – rejected by the affirmation of the contrary by Pius IX in Pastor Aeternus, 1870, DS 3070–3075.
4.2.2. The OUM is continuous and habitual:
it is exercised by the unanimous teaching of the bishops dispersed throughout 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 upon 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 whole deposit of the faith, as Saint Thomas explains (II-II, q. 5, a. 3): the Church teaches infallibly by the living Tradition of the pastors.
4.2.3. 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.
Nevertheless the Church herself – Mystical Body of Christ, assisted by the Holy Ghost – cannot fail, under pain of contradicting the Lord’s promise: “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Mt. 16, 18).
If the OUM were absent or lost its infallibility during the vacancy, this would imply that the whole Church is fallible during this period, which is impossible.
As Cardinal Billot teaches, the Church cannot cease to be what she essentially is: a visible, hierarchical, and indefectible society, endowed with the infallibility that Christ promised her (De Ecclesia Christi, qq. X and XI).
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 throughout the world, on the truths of faith and morals. This moral unanimity suffices to engage infallibility, as the same Vatican I affirms in Pastor Aeternus (18 July 1870), 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.
4.2.4. Counter-Arguments
Those who claim that without a Pope there is no longer any possible communion and therefore no infallibility are refuted by the very logic of the doctrine: the Church is a perfect and indefectible society, and her ordinary Magisterium does not depend upon an individual, but upon the divine assistance promised to the entire teaching body.
– The infallibility of the ordinary and universal Magisterium – including sede vacante – rests firmly upon the divine promise reported in Matthew 16, 18:
“And I say to thee: That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
And “it” is the Church, and that the gates of hell shall not prevail means that error will never reign in the (whole) Church.
– This assistance of the Holy Ghost to the whole Church, as Mystical Body of Christ, is affirmed with dogmatic clarity by the First Vatican Council in its constitution Dei Filius (24 April 1870, chapter 3, De fide):
“Now, all those things are to be believed with divine and Catholic faith which are contained in the word of God, written or handed down, and which the Church, either by solemn judgment or by her ordinary and universal magisterium, proposes to be believed as divinely revealed.”
This immutable truth excludes every possibility of temporary fallibility during the interregnum, under pain 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 exposes that Jesus is 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 her bishops in communion, assisted by the Paraclete, independently of a mortal individual.
In these times of grave crisis, where the See has been vacant since the public heresy of Paul VI in 1964, this infallibility of the OUM guides us precisely: it obliges us to adhere to the immaculate Tradition, without concession to novelties. Thus do 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 (Jn. XVI, 13).
4.2.5. Complementarity of the Modes
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.
4.2.6. 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 her organic unity under the Head Christ.
As Saint Vincent of Lérins teaches 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.”
This criterion of catholicity – that which has been believed and taught by all, everywhere and always – manifests the passive infallibility of the united docens and discens Church: the perennial consensus of Tradition, preserved by the faithful Church against the heresies after 1964, is infallible in itself.
Thus, not only the OUM and the EUM, but the whole Church, in her doctrinal permanence, is preserved from error, as the Vatican Council confirms (DS 3020): revealed doctrine must be faithfully guarded and infallibly declared.
The EUM can define them solemnly (e.g. authenticity of the Nicene Creed), but the consensus of the Church renders them infallible by right, refuting the rationalists who submit them to free examination.
- Our Lord Instituted an Authentic and Infallible, Living and Traditional Magisterium, in Order that It Might Last Perpetually
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 might be known by all as guardian and teacher of Revelation” (DS 3012).
“The Church… besides the apostolic charge of teaching has received the mission of preserving the deposit of the faith” (DS 3018).
2) The Magisterium is authentic and has authority:
– To interpret Holy Scripture: DS 3007;
– To propose to the faithful the truths to be believed by divine and Catholic faith: DS 3011;
– To judge scientific and philosophical truths connected to the revealed deposit: DS 3017-3018.
3) The Magisterium instituted by Our Lord is perpetual:
DS 3050
“The eternal Pastor and Bishop of our souls (1 Pet. 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 together by the bond of one faith and one charity.”
DS 3071
“This charism of truth and of faith forever indefectible has been granted by God to Peter and to his successors in this chair, so that they might fulfil their high office for the salvation of all, so that the universal flock of Christ, removed from the poisoned foods of error, might be fed with heavenly doctrine, so that, all occasion of schism being removed, the Church might be preserved whole in the unity of the faith.”
4) It is infallible:
DS 3020
“On the other hand, the doctrine of faith which God has revealed has not been proposed as a philosophical discovery to be perfected by human reflection, but as a divine deposit entrusted to the Spouse of Christ to be faithfully guarded and infallibly declared. Consequently the sense of the sacred dogmas which must be preserved perpetually is that which our holy Mother the Church has once for all presented, and it is never lawful to depart from it under the pretext or name of a deeper understanding.”
DS 3074
“Therefore these definitions of the Roman Pontiff are irreformable of 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 received deposit:
DS 3070
“For the Holy Ghost was not promised to the successors of Peter that by His revelation they might make known new doctrine, but that with His assistance they might sacredly guard and faithfully expound the revelation handed down by the apostles, that is, the deposit of faith.”
- Subject of the Infallible Magisterium
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 may be gathered in Council or dispersed throughout the world.
In the first case one speaks 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 divine faith defined. It is contained in Revelation (Mt. XVI, 18-19; Lk. XXII, 32), has always been taught, believed, practised 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 office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, he defines, by virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, that a doctrine in matters of faith or morals is to be held by the whole Church, he enjoys, by virtue of the divine assistance promised to him in the person of Saint Peter, that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer willed that His Church should be endowed when she defines doctrine on faith or morals; therefore these definitions of the Roman Pontiff are irreformable of 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 subject to the Pope is a truth of faith implicitly defined at the Vatican Council (DS 3011), and is founded upon the documents of Holy Scripture cited at the beginning of this chapter. The Catholic Church, faithful to the apostolic Tradition, preserves this infallible unity against schisms and heresies.
- Object of the Infallible Magisterium
The object of the Magisterium is called the ensemble of propositions upon which it can pronounce a positive or negative judgment, according as such propositions are true or false.
It concerns truths linked to Revelation (since the infallible Magisterium was given in order to guard, defend and explicate 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: first and principally, as the articles of faith, or indirectly and secondarily as propositions whose denial entails the corruption of some article of faith” (II-II, q. 11, a. 2).
7.1. Primary Object of the Magisterium
The first class consists of propositions formally contained in Revelation, explicitly or implicitly; e.g.: “Jesus is God.” They are called truths revealed in themselves and they constitute the primary or direct object of the Magisterium. We see the teaching of the Church on this subject.
– First Vatican Council (1870):
“All those things are to be believed with divine and Catholic faith which are contained in the word of God, written or handed down, and which the Church, either by solemn judgment or by her ordinary and universal magisterium, proposes to be believed as divinely revealed” (DS 3011).
“The doctrine of faith which God has revealed… handed down to the Spouse of Christ as a divine deposit, is to be faithfully guarded and infallibly declared” (DS 3020).
“The Holy Ghost was not promised to the successors of Peter that they might reveal a new doctrine, but that, with His assistance they might sacredly guard, and faithfully expound the revelation transmitted by the Apostles, that is, the deposit of the 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 remains pure from all error, according to the promise of Our Lord made to the prince of the Apostles: ‘I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not: and thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren’ (Lk. XXII, 32)” (DS 3070).
Leo XIII, Sapientiæ Christianæ: “Among the things which are contained in the divine revelation, some relate to God, and others to man and the means necessary for the eternal salvation of man. It belongs of divine right to the Church, and, in the Church, to the Roman Pontiff, to determine in these two orders what one must believe and what one must do. That is why the Pontiff must be able to judge with authority what the word of God contains, decide which doctrines agree with it and which contradict it. Likewise, in the sphere of morals, it is for him to determine what is good, what is bad, what is necessary to accomplish and to avoid if one wishes to attain eternal salvation; otherwise, he could not be 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 him that Christ Our Lord has entrusted the whole deposit of faith, Holy Scripture and Tradition, to guard, to defend and to interpret… God, indeed, has given to His Church, with these sources which we have mentioned, a living Magisterium to enlighten and to bring forth what was contained in the deposit of the Faith only in an obscure and, as it were, implicit manner. 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 her by divine institution… to guard and to interpret the deposit of the divinely revealed truths” (DS 3884, 3886).
The dogmatic value of these propositions from the cited texts is as follows: it is a defined truth of faith that the object of infallibility consists of formally revealed truths (Vatican Council), DS 3011 ff.:
“Porro fide divina et catholica ea omnia credenda sunt, quae in verbo Dei scripto vel tradito continentur et ab Ecclesia sive solemni judicio 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’.”
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).
7.2. Secondary Object
The second class consists of propositions necessarily connected with Revelation, which are useful for the reception, preservation and communication of the revealed deposit.
Indeed, as Mgr. Gasser teaches, there exist many truths which “although they are not in themselves revealed, are nevertheless required in order to preserve intact the deposit of Revelation itself, to explain it fittingly, and to define it effectively.” Absolutely all Catholic theologians, Mgr. Gasser concludes, agree in recognising that these truths, which are not revealed in themselves but belong to the guarding of the deposit of faith, are infallible.
Thus Monsignor Vincent Gasser (1810–1879), Bishop of Brixen (present-day Bressanone), explained this during the First Vatican Council. This was an official intervention delivered in the name of the Deputation on Faith on 11 July 1870, within the context of the discussions concerning the definition of papal infallibility. This intervention, often called the ‘Gasser Report,’ constitutes an authoritative and official explanation of the meaning of the dogmatic constitution Pastor Aeternus (promulgated on 18 July 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 called indirect object of infallibility, because infallibility does not touch it in itself, but because of the primary object.
It includes propositions formally drawn from those which are revealed by means of a legitimate deduction; it also includes truths necessary to keep the deposit of Revelation intact (which, without them, would be corrupted) in order to explain and define it further. It is customary to divide it into several groups.
7.3. A Particular Secondary Object: Infallibility in Dogmatic Facts
Moreover, the Church is infallible in dogmatic facts (DF), that is, the historical facts necessary for faith and morals, such as the authenticity of the Holy Books or the resurrection of Christ.
7.3.1. What Is a Dogmatic Fact?
A dogma is a truth revealed by God, contained in Scripture or Tradition, and infallibly proposed by the magisterium of the Church as to be believed with divine and Catholic faith.
But there are not only speculative truths (such as the Trinity) that belong to dogma; the historical facts necessary for the deposit of faith belong to it also, for without them the revealed truths would lose their foundation.
Thus the valid election of a pope is not a mere canonical or contingent historical question: it is a constitutive fact 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, belong to the object of infallibility, for their denial would alter an article of faith, according to Saint Thomas (II-II, q. 11, a. 2, corpus):
“A thing pertains to faith in two ways: first and principally, as the articles of faith; secondly and consequently, as those matters the denial of which leads to the corruption of some article of faith. And heresy may extend to either domain, just as faith does.”
The fact of determining whether someone is or is not pope constitutes a dogmatic fact and consequently a sign of infallibility. This assertion is not only correct, but follows directly from the immutable principles of the Catholic faith.
7.3.2. Scriptural and Traditional Proof
Christ instituted the Petrine primacy as a divine and irrevocable fact:
“Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Mt. 16, 18).
This promise implies that the indefectible Church will always have a visible successor of Peter to govern her.
The First Vatican Council (1869–1870), in the constitution Pastor Aeternus of 18 July 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, by the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer willed His Church to be endowed.”
If one cannot infallibly determine who this Roman Pontiff is, then the very infallibility of the Church is placed in peril. One must know whether a person is truly pope in order to believe firmly in his teaching, especially as an infallible pope.
Now the Church cannot fail (promise of Christ in Lk. 22, 32: “I have prayed for thee, Peter, that thy faith fail not”).
Therefore the fact of who validly occupies the chair of Peter is itself dogmatic and infallible.
7.3.3. Peaceful Universal Acceptance (PUA) as an Infallible Criterion
Catholic theology teaches that the election of a pope is rendered certain and dogmatic by the peaceful and universal acceptance of the Church (bishops, clergy and faithful).
This is not a mere 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 rendered legitimate and irrevocable by the peaceful acceptance of the ecclesiastical body.”
Likewise 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 recognise her visible head, she would cease to be a visible and indefectible society, which contradicts the divine reality.
- 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 periods (for example under Emperor Henry IV in the 11th century).
Saint Robert Bellarmine (De Romano Pontifice, II, ch. 30), Doctor of the Church, teaches: “A manifestly heretical pope ceases ipso facto (by the very fact) to be pope and member of the Church, without any declaration being needed.”
The antipopes after the public heresy of Paul VI in 1964, by their public heresies (religious liberty, collegiality), have lost all jurisdiction.
And without a pope the Church is able to do all that God has commanded and given her 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 rightly be called schismatics or heretics for their adherence to the antipopes) contradict themselves by criticising the “pope” while recognising him: either he is infallible, and their criticisms are sacrilegious; or he is not, and their recognition is illogical.
In short, to determine whether someone is pope constitutes a dogmatic fact, because it touches the deposit of revealed faith.
This DF is therefore infallible, guaranteed by the assistance of the Holy Ghost to the Church.
- Conclusion
The infallibility of the Church is the divine rampart against error, assuring the faithful transmission of the deposit of the 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. Every contrary objection, whether from modernists or from schismatics, is refuted by Thomistic logic: faith requires an infallible criterion, and this criterion is the Catholic Church, faithful to the apostolic Tradition.
AMDG
List of Principal Sources:
– Holy Scripture (Vulgate).
– First Vatican Council, constitutions Pastor Aeternus and Dei Filius (DS 3000 ff.).
– Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica.
– Saint Vincent of Lérins, Commonitorium.
– Cardinal Louis Billot S.J., De Ecclesia Christi.
– Saint Robert Bellarmine, De Romano Pontifice.
– Cajetan, De Comparatione Auctoritatis Papae et Concilii.
– Billuart, Cursus Theologiae.
– Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum and Sapientiæ Christianæ.
– Pius XII, Mystici Corporis and Humani Generis.
– J. V. de Groot O.P., Summa apologetica de Ecclesia Catholica.
– Mgr. Vincent Gasser, Report to the First Vatican Council.