Paul VI did not use infallibility

during the Council and afterwards

 

Table of contents

 

Introduction

 

1. The declarations relative to the Second Vatican Council

 

1.1 The official Notification of 16 November 1964

 

1.2 The general Audience of 12 January 1966

 

1.3 The homily of 7 December 1965

 

2. The declarations relative to the encyclical Humanae Vitae

 

3. The ordinary and universal magisterium and fidelity to Tradition

 

Conclusion

 

List of sources

 

 

 

Introduction

 

The question of the doctrinal authority of the acts of Paul VI remains a crucial subject of study for historical theology. The official documents and the public declarations of this pontificate show a constant will to avoid the use of solemn pontifical infallibility ex cathedra, both in the acts of the Second Vatican Council and in the major encyclicals, notably Humanae Vitae. This study gathers and analyzes the documentary pieces establishing this magisterial position. Paul VI did not employ infallibility in these contexts, according to the official sources cited hereafter.

 

1. The declarations relative to the Second Vatican Council

 

1.1 The official Notification of 16 November 1964

 

The notification communicated by the Secretary general of the Council, Monsignor Pericle Felici, on 16 November 1964, and published following the Constitution Lumen Gentium promulgated on 21 November 1964, recalls the declaration of the Doctrinal Commission of 6 March 1964. It stipulates in Latin:

 

“Ratione habita moris conciliaris ac praesentis Concilii finis pastoralis, haec S. Synodus ea tantum de rebus fidei vel morum ab Ecclesia tenenda definit, quae ut talia aperte ipsa declaraverit.”

 

The translation gives:

 

“Taking into account the conciliar usage and the pastoral end of the present Council, this holy Synod defines as having to be held by the Church only those points concerning faith or morals which it will have expressly declared as such.”

 

Source: Notification of 16 November 1964, in Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. LVII, Vatican City, Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1965, p. 72; Latin text.

 

Paul VI, in promulgating the Constitution Lumen Gentium with this notification recalling the declaration of the Doctrinal Commission, officially established that no proposition of the Council was to be considered as an infallible definition without an explicit declaration to that effect, a declaration that was never formulated.

 

1.2 The general Audience of 12 January 1966

 

During the general audience of 12 January 1966, Paul VI expressed himself in Italian on the theological qualification of the Council:

 

“Vi è chi si domanda quale sia l’autorità, la qualificazione teologica, che il Concilio ha voluto attribuire ai suoi insegnamenti, sapendo che esso ha evitato di dare definizioni dogmatiche solenni, impegnanti l’infallibilità del magistero ecclesiastico. E la risposta è nota per chi ricorda la dichiarazione conciliare del 6 marzo 1964, ripetuta il 16 novembre 1964: dato il carattere pastorale del Concilio, esso ha evitato di pronunciare in modo straordinario dogmi dotati della nota di infallibilità; […]”

 

The translation gives:

 

“There are those who ask themselves what is the authority, the theological qualification, that the Council wished to attribute to its teachings, knowing that it avoided giving solemn dogmatic definitions engaging the infallibility of the ecclesiastical magisterium. And the answer is known to whoever remembers the conciliar declaration of 6 March 1964, repeated on 16 November 1964: given the pastoral character of the Council, it avoided pronouncing in an extraordinary manner dogmas endowed with the note of infallibility; […]”

 

Source: Paul VI, general audience of 12 January 1966, in Insegnamenti di Paolo VI, vol. IV, year 1966, Vatican City, Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana, p. 699–700; Italian text.

 

This allocution confirms directly and authentically, by the mouth of the pontiff himself, the absence of infallible definitions in the whole of the texts of Vatican II.

 

1.3 The homily of 7 December 1965

 

Paul VI had already formulated this precision in his homily of 7 December 1965, during the last public session of the Council. The Latin text published in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis reads:

 

“Nunc vero animadvertere iuvat, Ecclesiam per suum magisterium, quamvis nullum doctrinae caput sententiis dogmaticis extraordinariis definire voluerit, nihilominus circa plurimas quaestiones cum auctoritate doctrinam proposuisse suam, ad cuius normam homines hodie tenentur conscientiam suam suamque agendi rationem conformare.”

 

The translation gives:

 

“It is now fitting to observe that the Church, by its magisterium, although it did not wish to define any point of doctrine by extraordinary dogmatic sentences, nevertheless proposed with authority its doctrine on a very great number of questions, a doctrine to which men are today bound to conform their conscience and their manner of acting.”

 

Source: Paul VI, homily of 7 December 1965, in Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. LVIII, Vatican City, Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1966, p. 51–59, especially p. 57; Latin text.

 

The repetition of this assertion shows a constant will to set aside any interpretation of the conciliar decrees under the angle of the extraordinary infallible magisterium.

 

2. The declarations relative to the encyclical Humanae Vitae

 

On 29 July 1968, during the official presentation of the encyclical Humanae Vitae, Monsignor Ferdinando Lambruschini, professor of moral theology at the Pontifical Lateran University and spokesman accredited by the Pope, presented the document to the press. The English account of this presentation reports his words:

 

“The decision has been given”, declared Mgr Lambruschini, “and it is not infallible.”

 

The translation gives:

 

“The decision has been rendered”, declared Mgr Lambruschini, “and it is not infallible.”

 

Source: “Press Conference on Encyclical ‘Humanae Vitae’” — “Press conference on the encyclical Humanae Vitae” —, L’Osservatore Romano, weekly edition in English language, 8 August 1968, p. 7; English text.

 

The declaration of Lambruschini is also cited under this form:

 

“attentive reading of the encyclical Humanae Vitae does not suggest the theological note of infallibility.”

 

Translation: “An attentive reading of the encyclical Humanae Vitae does not suggest the theological note of infallibility.”

 

Source: Ferdinando Lambruschini, “Statement Accompanying Encyclical Humanae Vitae” — “Declaration accompanying the encyclical Humanae Vitae” —, Catholic Mind, vol. 66, September 1968, p. 49–57, especially p. 54, cited by Richard R. Gaillardetz, “Humanae Vitae and Its Ecclesial Consequences” — “Humanae Vitae and its ecclesial consequences” —, Theological Studies, vol. 79, nº 4, 2018, p. 849, note 32; English texts.

 

A contemporary commentary of L’Osservatore Romano also situates this text in the ordinary magisterium:

 

“This is not altered by the fact that we are dealing with a pronouncement of the ordinary magisterium.”

 

Translation: “This is not modified by the fact that we are dealing with a teaching of the ordinary magisterium.”

 

Source: “Humanae Vitae: Understanding the Encyclical” — “Humanae Vitae: understanding the encyclical” —, L’Osservatore Romano, weekly edition in English language, 15 August 1968, p. 4; English text.

 

The scope retained in this study is the following: the encyclical does not present an infallible definition and is not irreformable. It is not a pronouncement ex cathedra. It is an authentic declaration, but not infallible, which is inscribed in the continuity of the ordinary magisterium.

 

The official presentation of Humanae Vitae, validated by the authority of Paul VI, explicitly established that the text did not bear the characters of a definition ex cathedra and maintained it strictly within the framework of the ordinary non-infallible magisterium.

 

3. The ordinary and universal magisterium and fidelity to Tradition

 

The ordinary and universal magisterium is the concordant teaching of the ensemble of Catholic bishops dispersed in the world and united to the pope, proposing to the whole Church a doctrine of faith or of morals as having to be held definitively. When it proposes a truth as divinely revealed, this must be believed by divine and Catholic faith, even without a solemn definition (Vatican I, Dei Filius, chap. 3; Billot, De Ecclesia Christi, t. I, thesis XVIII, § 1, p. 421–422).

 

It draws from the revealed deposit transmitted by the Apostles and must conserve it in the same sense. Vatican I teaches that the assistance of the Holy Spirit is given so that the successors of Peter “traditam per Apostolos revelationem seu fidei depositum sancte custodirent et fideliter exponerent”: “may keep holily and expound faithfully the Revelation transmitted by the Apostles, that is to say the deposit of the faith” (Pastor aeternus, chap. 4). Fidelity to the faith already received is therefore necessary to every infallible teaching.

 

Franzelin states precisely the consequence: “quamvis doctrinam novam repugnantem tali consensui hoc ipso repugnare revelationi ac Traditioni divinae”. Translation: “Any new doctrine that opposes such a consensus opposes by that very fact the Revelation and the divine Tradition.” It is a matter of the consensus of the Church in a doctrine held as revealed (De divina traditione et scriptura, thesis VIII, II, p. 76–77).

 

This continuity permits the more complete explanation of a truth previously implicit; it does not require that each truth have been formulated explicitly at all epochs. The development conserves the same dogma and the same sense: it cannot overturn them (Vatican I, Dei Filius, chap. 4; Franzelin, same work, thesis XXIV, p. 294–296).

 

The heresies of Vatican II demonstrated in the previous chapters constitute here the premise of the application. These propositions contradicting the faith already taught cannot therefore belong to the true ordinary and universal infallible magisterium. This conclusion establishes their objective incompatibility with infallibility; it does not demonstrate a personal intention of Paul VI to exclude the ordinary and universal magisterium.

 

Conclusion

 

Paul VI did not use the solemn pontifical infallibility during the Second Vatican Council nor in the encyclical Humanae Vitae. This is inscribed in the context of the crisis that led to the vacancy of the Apostolic See starting from the first public heresy with Lumen Gentium, according to the traditional Catholic doctrine anterior to 1964. The documented facts confirm this absence of use of infallibility in the cases examined.

 

List of sources

 

1. Notification of 16 November 1964, in Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. LVII, Vatican City, Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1965, p. 72; Latin.

 

2. Paul VI, general audience of 12 January 1966, in Insegnamenti di Paolo VI — Teachings of Paul VI —, vol. IV, year 1966, Vatican City, Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana, p. 699–700; Italian.

 

3. Paul VI, homily of 7 December 1965, in Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. LVIII, Vatican City, Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1966, p. 51–59, especially p. 57; Latin.

 

4. “Press Conference on Encyclical ‘Humanae Vitae’” — “Press conference on the encyclical Humanae Vitae” —, L’Osservatore Romano, weekly edition in English language, 8 August 1968, p. 7; English.

 

5. Ferdinando Lambruschini, “Statement Accompanying Encyclical Humanae Vitae” — “Declaration accompanying the encyclical Humanae Vitae” —, Catholic Mind, vol. 66, September 1968, p. 49–57, especially p. 54, cited by Richard R. Gaillardetz, following reference; English.

 

6. Richard R. Gaillardetz, “Humanae Vitae and Its Ecclesial Consequences” — “Humanae Vitae and its ecclesial consequences” —, Theological Studies, vol. 79, nº 4, 2018, p. 841–863, especially p. 849, note 32; English.

 

7. “Humanae Vitae: Understanding the Encyclical” — “Humanae Vitae: understanding the encyclical” —, L’Osservatore Romano, weekly edition in English language, 15 August 1968, p. 4; English.

 

8. Gilfredo Marengo, La nascita di un’enciclica. Humanae vitae alla luce degli Archivi Vaticani — The birth of an encyclical. Humanae vitae in the light of the Vatican Archives —, preface by Pierangelo Sequeri, Vatican City, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2018; Italian.

 

9. Council of Vatican I, dogmatic constitution Dei Filius, 24 April 1870, chap. 3 and 4; original Latin text.

 

10. Council of Vatican I, dogmatic constitution Pastor aeternus, 18 July 1870, chap. 4; original Latin text.

 

11. Louis Billot, Tractatus de Ecclesia Christi sive continuatio theologiae de Verbo incarnato — Treatise on the Church of Christ, or continuation of the theology of the Incarnate Word —, t. I, De credibilitate Ecclesiae, et de intima ejus constitutione — On the credibility of the Church and of its intimate constitution —, 3rd edition, Prato, Ex officina libraria Giachetti, filii et soc., 1909, thesis XVIII, § 1, p. 421–422; Latin.

 

12. Jean-Baptiste Franzelin, Tractatus de divina traditione et scriptura — Treatise on the divine Tradition and on Scripture —, 2nd edition corrected by the author, Rome, Ex Typographia Polyglotta S. C. de Propaganda Fide, 1875, thesis VIII, II, p. 76–77, and thesis XXIV, p. 294–296; Latin.